"The past few months, which have been dominated by the pandemic, have made it abundantly clear how important it is for companies to be able to produce individually and flexibly. Robotics and automation continue to gain momentum in this regard. Small and medium-sized companies in particular, as well as companies in the healthcare, consumer goods, logistics and food and beverage industries, are increasingly exploiting the potential of robot-supported automation," emphasizes Jörg Reger, Head of ABB's Robotics and Factory Automation business unit in Germany. "With our new generation of collaborative robots, which are easy to install and operate, we are paving the way for them into robotics. At the same time, our digital solutions ensure greater transparency and productivity."

ABB has the most versatile cobot portfolio on the market with its GoFa and Swifti collaborative robots (cobots) and the YuMi family. All cobots offer various payload and reach options for a wide range of tasks: from machine tending and assembly to testing and packaging in production plants, laboratories, logistics centers, workshops and small production facilities. Thanks to state-of-the-art safety systems, they enable the most diverse types of human-robot collaboration, are intuitive to operate and are ready for use within a very short time after installation - without the need for special training. This means that even industries that currently still have a low level of automation can benefit fully from robot-based processes.

To further simplify the use of robots for users, ABB also offers a comprehensive range of digital tools and services, which can also be seen at the virtual automatica sprint. One core element is the offline programming tool RobotStudio. This allows a complete robot system to be created, simulated and tested in a virtual 3D environment without having to interrupt the actual production line. This shortens the project time and helps to optimize the cell design before building the physical counterpart. Most recently, a new function for calculating robot braking distances with millimeter precision was added to RobotStudio in February. This innovation not only increases operating safety even further, but also enables space savings of up to 25 percent when designing robot cells.

Another key element of the ABB RobotStudio software is the AR (augmented reality) viewer, which can be used to test any cell model for the desired application. Users get a visual impression of the size and scale of a robot or robot cell and quickly recognize whether and how they fit into an existing production system. Using a smartphone or tablet, the model can be embedded in the real production environment, scaled and viewed from different angles.

The third generation of ABB's market-leading PickMaster software will also be presented, specifically for camera-supported picking and packaging applications. Based on the principle of the digital twin, which forms the basis of the software, commissioning and changeover times for systems can be reduced to a fraction, thus significantly increasing the overall efficiency of a system.

In addition, ABB's new Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) service offers robot users the ability to create a preventive maintenance plan for individual robots or robot fleets based on real-time operational data to increase productivity and minimize downtime. This allows users to better plan their budgets and ensure that resources are available to carry out any work that may be required.

"Customer needs are becoming increasingly individualized, the shortage of skilled workers continues, digitalization is advancing in leaps and bounds and even after the coronavirus pandemic, there is still a great deal of uncertainty in the market. With a triad of collaborative robots, intelligent and powerful software solutions and an international support network, we offer companies the foundation on which they can optimally implement their individual automation scenarios," summarizes Jörg Reger.