No robotics expertise is required to operate the intuitive software developed at Fraunhofer IPA. This allows production to be adapted very flexibly. Created programs can simply be loaded from the cloud so that the robot can take on different tasks in the morning than in the afternoon. This allows industrial companies to react quickly to fluctuating incoming orders.

The software is now compatible with robots from eight manufacturers, including recently with robots from Yaskawa and Stäubli. In addition to automotive and plant engineering, industries such as metalworking, electronics manufacturing and chemicals have also been increasingly relying on drag&bot since 2019. For 2020, the startup is planning to further expand its compatible hardware in order to support an even wider range of hardware, as well as further integrations.

Pick&Place, loading and unloading and palletizing
Most customers of drag&bot GmbH rely on the handling of robots with the software of the same name. This includes typical tasks such as pick & place, loading and unloading machines and palletizing. Companies in the automotive sector and, since 2019, increasingly in electronics production are already making intensive use of drag&bot for these tasks. However, flexible robot programming is also being used more and more in metal processing.

Due to the high number of variants with small quantities, production with robots was previously too cost-intensive. Companies can use drag&bot with coordinated hardware and thus optimize the robot programs for small quantities with little effort. An equally growing customer sector is the chemical industry, which was previously only able to use robots as special systems due to their complex operation.

Strategic cooperations
drag&bot GmbH is increasingly working with partners such as plant engineers and machine manufacturers. The network has grown continuously in recent years. For example, drag&bot's software for the fast and intuitive retooling of automated folding benches has been optimized with Placke, a manufacturer of folding benches and bending machines. drag&bot is now available to end customers as part of the manufacturer's automation solution.

The company has also recently started cooperating with Basler AG, one of the leading manufacturers of industrial cameras. Together they want to link imaging sensor technology more closely with robotics. With the help of the interfaces in drag&bot, it is possible to configure any Basler camera directly from drag&bot and use it in the robot application. Calibration between the robot and camera is just as easy as the function blocks for common 2D image processing applications, such as pattern matching or the search for geometric shapes in a region of interest. This provides the customer with an industrial, low-cost 2D camera that can also be used very easily with robots.

In the field of 3D image processing with robots, Roboception's cameras have recently become available to users. The Smartcam rc_visard already offers prepared apps for many standard applications, such as picking boxes from a pallet or gripping parts from a crate, which can be run directly on the rc_visard and configured intuitively. The camera's functions can be controlled directly from drag&bot. dsc