At MODEX 2022, ABB Group said it plans to show some of its most advanced robotics technology for omnichannel commerce, including the EBOT 350 from ASTI Mobile Robotics, which it acquired in July 2021.
The Zurich, Switzerland-based company said its recent acquisition of ASTI Mobile Robotics expanded its industrial automation offerings. ABB added that ASTI's autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) join its innovations for packing, moving, and delivering products for consumer goods producers and distributors.
ABB announced several systems that it plans to exhibit in Atlanta next month.
ASTI EBOT part of portfolio exhibit
ABB said its exhibit at MODEX 2022 will incude ASTI’s portfolio, which includes autonomous towing vehicles, goods-to-person (G2P) systems, unit carriers, and box movers. It will also include the Burgos, Spain-based company's software offerings, ranging from vehicle navigation and control, order and fleet management, and cloud-based traceability systems.
The demonstration at the trade show will feature ASTI's EBOT 350 robots. The AMRs are suitable for G2P processes in e-commerce, logistics, automotive, or manufacturing sectors, said ABB. It can also perform hundreds of applications related to warehouse management, order picking, and kitting.
The EBOT 350 features a 350 kg (771.6 lb.) maximum payload, 120 mm (4.7 in.) stroke lifting height, and a speed range up to 2.2 m/s (4.9 mph).
ABB to demo Covariant Brain
In addition, ABB said it plans to demonstrate the integration of its IRB 1300 robot arm with Covariant's artificial intelligence.
“The growing demand for e-commerce fulfillment services and the complex, labor-intensive nature of the process offers unique potential for intelligent automation,” the company said. “While robots are ideally suited to repetitive tasks, until now, they lacked the intelligence to identify and handle tens of thousands of constantly changing products in a typical dynamic warehouse operation.”
The Covariant Brain is designed to enable robots to perceive their environments and adapt to new tasks on their own through tiral and error, added ABB. It can constantly broaden the range of objects that they can pick, it said.
The combination of the IRB 1300 with AI will provide robust options for e-commerce and logistics customers, said ABB. It noted that the six-axis arm has a footprint that is 83% smaller and cycle times that are 27% shorter, allowing for deployment in confined spaces and increasing productivity.
GoFa cobot gains lifting capacity
ABB said its new six-axis GoFa CRB 15000 supports the growing demand for collaborative robots that can handle heavier payloads to enhance productivity and flexibility. Such cobots have features to enable them to operate alongside human workers with the space and expense associated with safety cages for increased flexibility and efficiency, it said.
The GoFa is designed for easy programming, said ABB. Users can use lead-through programming, an arm-side interface, and ABB’s new Wizard software.
Based on simple graphical blocks, Wizard is intended to make it easy for non-specialists to program their applications. The GoFa won a “Best of the Best” Red Dot award last year for ABB's approach to making robotics more accessible to first-time robotics users.
Omnichannel fulfillment at MODEX 2022
The growth of omnichannel retail means that distribution centers and warehouses need to transform their systems to handle both pallets and packaging destined for store shelves, while also picking and packing varied items for shipping direct to individual consumers, said ABB.
Consumer goods manufacturers need the right infrastructure for maximum flexibility that can pick and handle a wide variety of goods in the widest range of combinations and in the shortest possible time, the company said.
ABB plans to demonstrate a simulation of a high-speed, high-variation robotic sorting and on-demand order-picking system to give manufacturers the ability to quickly tailor package combinations to meet customer preferences. The concept is targeted at consumer products companies that need high-volume sortation, as well as flexible recipe requirements.
MODEX 2022 will be from March 28 to 31 at the Georgia World Congress Center. ABB's booth number is B4004.
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