Keynote Speakers

Machine Vision

Software

Industrial Robots

Mobile Robots

Although there were quite a few conventional industrial robots at the show, there were almost no painting robots or simple pneumatic pick and place robots to be found.

One clear trend was the tightly coordinated motion of multiple arms.  One of the Nachi demonstrations reminded me of a graceful pair of swans.

Another trend was the demonstration of very fast cycle time robots.  One example was an ABB robot with very lightweight carbon fiber arms and powerful motors that was able to easily move large numbers of target objects from a conveyor in record time.  

Motoman demonstrated a rather impressive  two-armed robot on a single waist that is designed for complex assembly tasks.  The collection of Kawasaki robots included a somewhat less utilitarian multi-armed humanoid that was solving Rubic's Cube. 

The Barrett Technology WAM arm has recently generated a great deal of interest in the mobile robotics marketplace because they were able to replaced a heavy power supply cabinet with a few tiny circuits that deliver equivalent performance and allow the entire arm to easily be carried by some of the larger mobile robots.

OC Robotics, from the UK,  was at the show to discuss their snake-arm attachment for conventional robots that can allow the end effector to reach into tight confined spaces that might not be reachable from conventional arms.