Robotics

How to Calculate ROI of Automation

As a zero CapEx and pay-as-you-go model, the automation approach known as "Robots-as-a-Service" (RaaS) disrupts the conventional way of justifying automation investment. With RaaS, how do Operations and Engineering Managers then calculate the business value of automation when it is rented instead of purchased? In this case, the best calculation approach uses a different comparison to the current operation financials, and it can be summarized into a single Net Present Value for comparison against capital purchases if desired. Attend this session to learn how!

Alex Koepsel, Sr Product Marketing Manager, Formic

Make a Partnership in Robotic Abrasive Processing

To do Robotic Abrasive Processing correctly and gain the full ROI an End Customer & SI are looking for, it takes an ecosystem of partnerships. Featuring real-world examples from both the technical and business side, this presentation will apply beyond Robotic Abrasive Processing to give insights and learnings that can be applied to your area of automation expertise.

3M Abrasive Robotics Application Engineer Tyler Naatz, and 3M Senior Global Robotics Portfolio Manager Michelle Frumkin, discuss the types of players it takes to be successful, why it's good that everyone has their expertise, the different types of partnerships there are, and the aspects of how to make those partnerships work.

Michelle Frumkin, Senior Global Robotics Portfolio Manager, 3M Company

Tyler Naatz, Senior Application Engineer, 3M

Mistakes to Avoid When Using Robots for Finishing

Finishing and material removal automation is not easy. Applications look easy on videos, but to implement them properly into production systems to get a stable repeatable result requires huge knowledge about robotic finishing.

Investing in robotics for finishing or material removal can be your best decision or your biggest nightmare depending on how you have chosen your partner and setup. Only systems that work reliably provide you with an ROI.

Manual finishing processes such as grinding, polishing, and deburring require a high level of expertise from the operator, but even more from your robotic solutions implementation team. A wrong choice can jeopardize the entire project and carry the risk of losing 100% of your investment.

During the session, you will learn from experience and best practices of what are the most important things to focus on, as well as mistakes being made and how to avoid them.

Michael Haas, Vice President, FerRobotics

Enhanced Robotic Abrasive Methods

Learn the importance of proper abrasive selection and optimal parameter settings for automation, while leveraging AI to autonomously program robots, enabling them to work on almost any part within minutes, delivering superior, faster, and more consistent results.

Nick Orf, 3M Abrasive Systems Division - Application Engineering Manager, 3M

Satyandra K. Gupta, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, GrayMatter Robotics

Multi-Robot Coordinated Motion

Demanding industrial applications from cold spraying to additive manufacturing are increasingly deploying multiple robots in a coordinated fashion. For cold spray coating, leading industry deployment involves a dual-robot system, where one robot holds the part and the second robot holds the spray gun to impinge metal powders onto the part. For wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), the welding robot, the positioner, and the metrology inspection robots all need to be coordinated to ensure high-quality end products. This talk will discuss issues and the latest advances that arise in such coordinated operation of multiple industrial robots, including: 

• Overall control architecture integrating sensors and robots from different vendors.
• Kinematics calibration of multiple robots.
• Redundancy resolution.
• Tracking accuracy through motion adaptation and learning

John Wen, Professor and Head, Electrical, Computer, & Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The Next Wave of Versatile Automation

In this session, Jeff will discuss real-world use cases for humanoid robots both in the near-term and long-term. His talk will span how humanoid robots will initially focus on tasks that involve gross manipulation and later expand and meet an even wider range of use cases in the future that involve dexterous manipulation – all while providing the human workforce with the ability to focus on roles that are most fulfilling and uplevel their impact.

Jeff Cardenas, Co-founder and CEO, Apptronik

The Link Between Automation and Machine Tools

This session will go over all the key factors to consider when evaluating automated machine tending, what it can do for your operations and the various ways to integrate robots and cobots to machine tools. There will also be a discussion on cobots and how their new features are making them more user-friendly to operate and program than ever before.

Greg Buell, Staff Engineer - General Industry and Automotive Segment, FANUC America Corporation

Development of A Low Profile, Power Dense Actuator

This session will discuss Robotics engineers’ need for motion control solutions that offer leading edge performance and reliability while navigating around tight design constraints. Power density continues to be a cornerstone in robot actuator design, but this is often compromised by additional functionality required of actuators and their cabling. We will examine a new solution to these problems through the development of Harmonic Drive’s LPA-20 actuator that optimizes power density while integrating a servo drive with options for CANopen® or EtherCAT® communication protocols.

Brian Coyne, VP of Engineering, Harmonic Drive LLC

Exploring Modularity in Robotics Work Cell Design

The concept will focus on design modularity and reuse concerning the following pieces of technology:

• Safety: Safety is the foremost component of any automation solution but can have a level of subjectivity when proper standards are not documented/followed. Using modularity in safety design allows for continuous improvement, verification, and validation while minimizing customer costs.
• Robotics: Industrial robotics offer a strong, modular technical building block for implementation in modern manufacturing. The use cases for robotics mirror the capabilities of repetitive labor-intensive processes with a focus on quality, repeatability, and uptime. Introducing modular design in the hardware and software design of robotic systems reduces end-customer costs while increasing time-to-production.
• Machine Vision: By introducing machine vision to a robotic system, flexibility, and high-mix, low-volume production capabilities are introduced into a robotic system. Modularity in machine vision processes allows for cross-robot compatibility and commonality between the “eyes” of an automation solution.

Evan Gonnerman - Product Portfolio Manager, Concept Systems, Inc.

Steve Strong - CEO, Concept Systems,Inc.

Expanding Your Reach - Extending the Work Envelope

Industrial robots play a pivotal role in modern manufacturing, but their effectiveness hinges on their defined reach or working envelope based on axis articulation and design geometry. Some applications require you to expand the reach of your robot to perform your process, enhance your system design, increase speed, or increase robot utilization. This seminar explores various strategies for expanding robot reach using Rail Transfer Units (RTUs, also referred to as tracks) and gantries, addressing critical aspects such as mechanisms and area of reach, system design considerations, installation requirements, and controls, and will present advantages and disadvantages of each solution.

Matt Berch, Sr. Account Manager, Gudel Inc.

Automated Manufacturing Scale Up

Many manufacturers launching new products are challenged with how to scale their manufacturing operations, with capital equipment investment being a major consideration. With new products and new processes, come several challenges that are not as prominent in steady-state, mature product manufacturing. There are many more risks and unknowns, but with some planning and thought around some of those risks, they can be mitigated to enable a successful manufacturing ramp-up. In this session, I will share some of the considerations for manufacturing scale-up. We’ll talk about some best practices and pitfalls I have seen from the perspective of an automated equipment builder.

Topics Include:

• Considerations for Implementing a Phased Ramp-Up Plan
• Automation Concept Development 
• Mitigation of New Automated Process Risks
• Considerations for Autonomous Operation
• Use of Digital Twin Technologies
• Early Planning of Data Architectures
• Planning Transition to Operations

Chris Knorr, Vice President, Business Development North America, Eclipse Automation, Part of Accenture

The Road to Mass Adoption of Robotics

The growth potential of robotics is immense. Yet, many businesses – including SMEs – are still waiting for the right opportunity to invest. How can robotics be turned into a compelling business opportunity for these new end-users? By drawing upon insights from several hundred automation projects and 1000+ supplier proposals from HowToRobot’s global marketplace, Søren Peters will show how to fill the gaps between new buyers and sellers and accelerate adoption, including:

• The common communication gaps between buyers and sellers during the procurement process – and how to address them.
• How current business models are discouraging businesses from investing in robotics – and how to turn customer incentives around.
• The key “market switch” that accelerated IT adoption among mainstream users – and what the robotics industry can learn from it.

Søren Peters, CEO, HowToRobot

First Robot Purchase of a 70-Year-Old Company

This session will go through the process of how WWF, Mitsubishi Electric Automation, and SCADAware worked together to identify and evaluate candidate applications, determine which one to start with, and customize the design to meet the goals and ROI requirements that WWF needed to cost justify the project.

Patrick Varley, Product Marketing Manager (Robot), Mitsubishi Electric Automation Inc

Unlock Your Facility’s Potential

Attendees will learn how to design a scalable solution that matches the needs of their business today and into the future, without investing significant capital. Onshoring and nearshoring will drive changes in how facilities operate for years to come. Learn how to adapt and provide your customers secure and timely access to their components.

Critically, attendees will be able to determine how to benchmark their process to find where the greatest value can be driven through intelligent automation.

Drew Cunningham, Business Development Manager, AutoStore

Design For Additive Manufacturing

When I originally started my first company in 2010 it was not in additive, it was a mechanical engineering firm and to this day I still operate that business and we specialize in designing factory automation equipment. For the first 5 years when we were just an engineering firm, I was always keeping an eye on 3D Printing and its capabilities while thinking “Why are we not using this technology to make parts for all the machines we are designing”? The gap I kept finding that separated these two markets was that machine designers/builders did not know what additive technologies were capable of and additive manufacturers did not understand what these machine builders' true needs were (or what they were even trying to do). In 2016 I set out to bridge that gap with the acquisition of our local additive part supplier and the formation of our 3DP business unit. Since that point, my team and I have made it our mission to help educate machine build and automation companies about the potential for additive manufacturing beyond the simple jigs and fixtures.

Paul DeWys, Sales Engineer, Forerunner 3D Printing

Cobots in Machine Tending

Collaborative robots excel at loading and unloading machined products, and their [benefits] have revolutionized manufacturing for high-mix, low-volume machine shops. Nearly twenty years after their “launch,” cobots are increasing productivity for manufacturers of all sizes across the machining and metal fabrication industry. Explore the benefits and wide-ranging practical applications of cobots in machine tending with Justin Crump, Application Engineer at Universal Robots. He will use this session to share real life case studies of cobots tending machines, advise on best practices that streamline manufacturing processes powered by cobots, and present emerging and cutting-edge technologies in the collaborative automation space.

Justin Crump, Application Engineer, Large Accounts, Universal Robots

Industrial Robot and Robot Application Safety

Learn about the recent revisions to ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2 and how they affect your operations.

Roberta Nelson Shea, Global Technical Compliance Officer, Universal Robots

Robotics Standards Update

Get the latest information on robotic standards from the experts. Join members of A3's Robotic Standards team, Carole Franklin and Maren Roush for this important update.

Carole Franklin, Director of Standards Development, Robotics, Association for Advancing Automation

Maren Roush, Manager of Standards Development, Robotics, Association for Advancing Automation

Introduction to Robot Risk Assessment

There are more than 2.7 million industrial robots safely operating in factories worldwide, and the robotics industry can take pride in its impressive safety record. For nearly forty years, A3 Robotics – formerly the Robotic Industries Association – has taken a lead role in assuring that the robotics industry continues to proactively assess the safety environment and provide safety resources as robotic applications continue to expand. At the forefront of A3 Robotics’ leadership role in industrial robot safety is the development of the ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012 safety standard. 

Join A3's lead robot safety trainer to learn to help you keep your team safe and learn the basics of conducting a risk assessment for your facilities.

Jeff Fryman, Principal Consultant, Association for Advancing Automation

Emerging Tactile Sensing Technology

With the advent of new tactile sensing technology, robots can now sense their surroundings and identify approaching humans and objects via proximity sensing without the need for physical contact and without blind spots. This technology not only improves safety but also increases manufacturing productivity by enabling robots to work faster and safer. In this presentation, we will explore the mechanics of this technology and examine how it is being used to upgrade safety and efficiency with real-world examples.

Utku Buyuksahin, President & CTO, Sensobright Industries LLC

From Funding to Impact

In this session, you’ll hear from subject matter experts who have taken their ARM Institute projects from funding to real-impact on U.S. manufacturing. You’ll walk away from this session with an understanding of advancements catalyzed by the ARM Institute, how you can become involved, best practices for projects that bridge the gaps between industry, government, and academia, and more.

David Galati, Chief Scientist, TITAN Robotics Inc

Eric Kumar, Head of Customer Success, Corsha, Inc.

Michael Skocik, Senior Programs Manager, ARM Institute

Rishi Ranjan, CEO, GridRaster

Advanced Robotic Manufacturing Technology

Robotics technology providers can’t operate in a bubble. Ensuring that robotics innovations can be easily adopted and integrated by manufacturers of all sizes is critical. Join this session to better understand the opportunities and challenges (both business and technical) that come with making robotics technology more accessible, learn about best practices, hear from subject matter experts who are working on this issue, and join an interactive discussion on possible solutions.

Jacob Cipriano, Business Development, Manufacturing Automation Systems LLC

Jerry Perez, Executive Director - Global Accounts, FANUC America Corporation

Larry Sweet, Director, Engineering, ARM Institute

Paul Evans, Executive Director R&D, Southwest Research Institute

Roger Christian, Divisional Leader, New Business Development, Yaskawa America Inc., Motoman Robotics Div.

Robotic Bin Picking Solutions in Automotive

We will discuss different types of bin picking, review how we define “does it work”, review examples that we think to work, and highlight what we believe are critical variables and strategies for automated bin picking systems.  Examples will focus on sheet metal parts and assemblies that are common in the automotive industry.

Sreten Zakula, Staff Engineer - Robotics/Automation Applications and Execution, General Motors

Will Keller, Senior Manufacturing Engineer, General Motors