Katana – Robot stars at the Hanover Fair

Citation

(2007), "Katana – Robot stars at the Hanover Fair", Industrial Robot, Vol. 34 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2007.04934fad.003

Katana – Robot stars at the Hanover Fair

Katana – Robot stars at the Hanover Fair

Neuronics has unveiled its small-scale robot. Katana opens up new dimensions in automation as it adapts to human ways of working and can be directly integrated into processes without complication and without the need for any precautionary measures.

Zurich-based company, Neuronics AG, impressed an international audience with Katana at the Hanover Fair. Several hundred visitors sought out information about this flexible robotic arm at the Neuronics stand. The intense interest confirms the potential of this intelligent, small-scale robot that closely replicates human physical behaviour. “Visitors to the trade fair were fascinated by just how much intelligence is integrated into this versatile robotic arm and how simple and safe it is to operate,” says managing director, Dr Hansruedi Früh, who developed the Katana with his team.

A new philosophy in robotics technology

Katana dazzled visitors to the trade fair as part of the Robotics Academy, at which Volkswagen Coaching presented selected state-of-the-art robots: a hand- like robotic arm on a normal table, no guarding, no heavy platform. In this way, Katana embodies a new philosophy in robotics technology: it adapts to human behaviour and works as a partner capable of learning “on the job”. In direct interaction with visitors, the uncomplicated learning capacity of this compact robotic arm was demonstrated thanks to its on-board intelligence, variable power and highly developed sensors. The difference between this and traditional industrial robots is striking: Katana's robotic peers were cordoned off from the visitors behind safety barriers.

Automation made easy

From small businesses to international large-scale corporations, hundreds of customers worldwide are already enjoying the benefits of Katana technology in their everyday operations. Katana opens up new dimensions in industrial automation. Historically, the potential for automation has been limited for reasons of safety or batch size consideration. Traditional robotic and automation solutions are in many cases inappropriate because they are too big, too expensive, too dangerous or because they are not sufficiently flexible to be used for different types of product. Katana now makes contemporary and cost-effective part- or full automation a real possibility. Thanks to its user- friendliness, safety and flexibility, the intelligent robot has been quickly integrated into the production cycle. In no time at all it is contributing to improving the quality of products, speeding up production and significantly reducing costs.

Katana: the intelligent gripper arm

The Katana robotic arm is the leading product of Neuronics AG: weighing just 4kg, the arm is fitted with sensors and independently recognises objects. Katana works and learns like a person – with the benefit of being faster and more reliable. The robot learns and corrects itself autonomously thanks to its neural network and achieves a high degree of precision without requiring for extensive programming. All that is required to train a new action is to guide the arm through the required sequence of movements. Katana can then memorise the sequence and is able to execute it independently, thus serving as a flexible assistant for industrial production, assembly and quality control, which has already been implemented in a variety of locations and tasks worldwide.

Two examples of the wide range of possible applications: with Katana, laser engraving of plastic housings has been successfully automated. As the print image had to be varied, manual processes were no longer practical. Katana was integrated with the existing laser engraving system and now provides a relatively low-cost solution.

In addition, Katana has made it possible to set up a fully automated station to set nominal pressures and test safety valves. Four different types of valve pass through the station in batch sizes from a few hundred to a few thousand items. Also in this example, Katana's flexibility allowed seamless integration with the existing, proven adjustment procedures and augmentation of the testing operation to accommodate increasing product throughput as well as part- and full automation.