• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Collaborative Robotics Trends

The essential guide for cobot end users.

  • News
  • Cobot Arms
    • Cobots Comparison Tool
    • Cobots 101
  • Case Studies
    • Assembly
    • Pick & Place
    • Machine Tending
    • Materials Handling
    • Packing & Palletizing
    • Welding & Fabrication
  • Industries
    • Agriculture
    • Food / Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • Manufacturing
    • Supply Chain
  • Resources
    • Cobot Arm Glossary
    • Cobot Classroom
    • Cobots Comparison Tool
    • Digital Issues
    • Newsletter
    • Publications
      • Robotics Business Review
      • The Robot Report
    • Webinars
  • Events
    • RoboBusiness
    • Robotics Summit & Expo
    • Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum
You are here: Home / Cobot Arms / Universal Robots names 4 integrators to deploy ActiNav

Universal Robots names 4 integrators to deploy ActiNav

May 3, 2021 By Cobot Trends Staff Leave a Comment

ActiNav
ActiNav picking parts from a deep bin for Flywheel Supply in Iowa. | Photo Credit: Universal Robots

Universal Robots (UR) selected four U.S.-based systems integrators to deploy its ActiNav next-generation machine loading solution. Launched in April 2020, ActiNav combines real-time autonomous motion control, UR cobots, vision and sensor systems to automate bin picking tasks or machine tending applications.

The systems integrators already selected are:

  • Eckhart (Michigan)
  • Integro Technologies (North Carolina)
  • Southwestern Production Technology Solutions (Texas)
  • Cross Company (North Carolina)

UR said more ActiNav integrators in the U.S. and Canada will be announced before the end of Q2 2021.

“Our selection process focused on integrators with expertise in both vision and robotics, delivering superior value, and on time/on budget projects for customers,” said Bryan Bird, regional sales director for Universal Robots’ North America division.

The selected systems integrators have all been provisioned with in-house demo units, enabling them to develop proofs of concepts for customers in their region.

“Integrating ActiNav into a machining cell is where the expertise of the right systems integrator really shines,” said Bird. “Our integrators will be able to quickly handle all peripheral requirements such as integration with safety sensors, machine interfaces, end-of-arm tooling and other components that all need to work together.”

ActiNav has been deployed with numerous manufacturers across North America, who were seeking a simple solution to a complex problem. One of them is Flywheel Supply in Iowa. A UR5 cobot picks parts from a deep bin and places them in the jaws of a machine that indexes to multiple stations to perform tasks such as drilling, chamfering, and internal and external threading. ActiNav will process as many as 1,500 different part numbers, so it must be quickly programmable to pick parts of different shapes, sizes, and weights.

“The only way that made sense for us to put a robot on a machine tending application was to be able to do randomized bin picking,” explained Zach Northway, co-owner and lead project engineer at Flywheel Supply. “The cycle times on the machine are so short that if an operator has to stand there and line parts up in an organized fashion for a robot to pick them in a traditional sense, it would defeat the entire purpose of using the robot to begin with, because your operator is still standing there.”

“The biggest advantage to ActiNav is that it can take randomization of parts being dumped in a bin, and as the bin gets low, a person can just come by and dump some more into the bin and it will keep picking parts,” said Northway. “It doesn’t have to be reset, recalibrated—anything. It notices the bin amount changed and it keeps on going.”

To learn more about Universal Robots’ ActiNav, watch this on-demand webinar called “Next-Generation Cobot-Enabled Machine Loading.”

Filed Under: Cobot Arms, News, Pick & Place Tagged With: Universal Robots

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

The Robot Report Listing Database

Cobot Trends Newsletter

RBR50 Digital Issue

Tweets by Cobot Trends

Footer

Cobot Trends

Robotics Network

  • The Robot Report
  • Mobile Robot Guide
  • Robotic Business Review
  • Robotics Summit & Expo
  • Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum

Collaborative Robotics Trends

Contact Us
About Us
Advertise
Subscribe
Follow us on TwitterAdd us on Facebook

Copyright © 2022 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy