Challenge
The team at DuPont in Maydown, Northern Ireland needed a solution to the age-old problem of having people working with high-speed rotating equipment. To further add to the safety risk involved, they were producing Kevlar – the strongest manmade fibre available.
The surrounding environment of process proved challenging with chemical and other rotating equipment working on older infrastructure. Any automation solution needed to be a technology that could be validated and approved. In addition, the solution would have to be scalable across multiple machines, sites, and geographies.
- Staff Safety
- Staff working with difficult material
- Dangers with high speed equipment
- Dangers with chemical usage
Solution
The solution was the first of its kind, we developed the first collaborative self-driving robot!
The fully collaborative, next generation machine tending robot operates with self-driving capabilities, enhanced with dynamic object avoidance algorithms. It navigates using natural geography and validates against its on-board map. It can also adjust sensitivity to surrounding area and people dynamically.
The robot is also fully integrated to the factory control layer and other business systems over the Wi-Fi network. Additionally, it has a collaborative 6-axis robotic arm and has vision control across all 3 planes – X, Y and Z – for accurate pick and placement.
- Dynamic sensitivity
- Higher payload achieved
- Minimises danger
- Industry recognized safety approval
