ABB launches OmniCore, a new era of digital robot control to increase flexibility, reliability and performance

New ABB OmniCore™ robot controller family offers broadest motion control options, more tailored solutions for the connected “Factory of the Future”   

• The first offering from ABB’s new era of flexible, intelligent and tailored solutions
• For high performance applications and seamless digitalization on the factory floor
• Designed for the rigorous performance and reliability needed to support 24/7 production of high-mix, low-volume products in shorter product cycles
• Intuitive yet powerful configuration and operating tools through newly designed interface, software

ABB launched at automatica 2018 in Munich its OmniCore, a significant step towards a new era in manufacturing. The OmniCore controllers are designed for maximum performance and reliability during the robust 24/7 operations of factories making products with increasingly shorter lifecycles. The controller’s high path accuracy also increases throughput and decreases cycle times.

The first new OmniCore variants provide great flexibility for integrating robots into the digital factory ecosystem, whether manufacturers need standardized motion control or more tailored solutions. “Automation needs are becoming increasingly complex in today’s high mix, low volume manufacturing,” said Per Vegard Nerseth, Managing Director of Robotics for ABB. “Factories need solutions that support flexibility and high performance during demanding 24/7-hour operations and, at the same time, can be tailored to specific applications.”

ABB is proud to again reinvent best-in-class motion control and path accuracy, in a 50 percent smaller footprint for maximum installation flexibility and floor space utilization. This allows robotic solutions to be flexibly tailored to a wide variety of existing and new production lines. In addition to increasing mounting flexibility, the OmniCore also increases flexibility to incorporate the latest digital technologies.

The ABB Ability™ digital offering, unique in the industry, and Connected Services are built in, as is ABB’s SafeMove2 safety software solution. Thus the new controllers can turn any connected industrial robot into a collaborative robot. OmniCore also delivers a monumental leap in digitalization and makes it easy to seamlessly connect with a wide variety of fieldbuses, advanced vision systems and force control as part of a greater digital ecosystem.      

The controller family comes with a new generation of ABB’s powerful yet intuitive operating system, RobotWare7. It incorporates new features and functions making the robots more capable than ever before and is accessed through a newly-designed, ergonomic new FlexPendant. 

Availability
The first of the new small robot controller family are expected to be available for order in November, 2018.