Vanderlande invests in Smart Robotics and becomes minority shareholder in collaborative robot employment agency. The companies will jointly set up a research & development (R&D) programme and continue to operate independently.
More and more companies in the manufacturing industry are dealing with smaller production runs and series in which all kinds of variations are possible. This makes automating production lines a challenge. For instance, programming traditional industrial robots is a time-consuming task, making the robots unsuitable for smaller production series. Collaborative robots offer a solution. These robots can be both easier and faster to program than traditional industrial robots, which means that collaborative robots can be used for smaller production runs.
Collaborate safely with humans
An important additional advantage of collaborative robots is their ability to detect the presence of people and obstacles using sensors. This allows robots to operate in a production environment in close proximity to people without the risk of collisions. Collaborative robots can therefore be deployed without a safety cage, simplifying the implementation of such robots.
Collaborative robots can also be equipped with smart software, enabling them to adapt to changing environments. After all, production environments contain all kinds of objects, such as boxes, pallets and products. Sensors enable collaborative robots to detect these obstacles, after which the robots can work around them independently with the help of smart software. This makes the robots deployable in a dynamic environment that is constantly changing.
Posting robots
For many companies, however, purchasing collaborative robots is costly. Also, not all manufacturing companies have a continuous need for collaborative robots and in some cases need them only for specific orders. Smart Robotics is responding to this. The company seconds collaborative robots from Universal Robots, among others, to companies, which can hire them for a specific period of time. The customer decides how long the robots will be used.
Earlier, the Brabant Development Company (BOM) put money into Smart Robotics. Vanderlande is now taking over from the BOM and will become a minority shareholder in Smart Robotics. "We have had many successes with BOM in recent years and we see a bright future with Vanderlande," says Mark Menting, Managing Director at Smart Robotics. "We have grown considerably in two years. We started with four employees and have since grown to twenty-five people. The cooperation with Vanderlande is an important next step for us. On our own, we would never have managed this in this short time."
BOM and Smart Robotics continue to work together
Miriam Dragstra, Director of BOM Capital at the BOM, says the BOM will continue to work with Smart Robotics. Dragstra: "That the company is now moving on to Vanderlande does not mean that this ends our cooperation. Smart Robotics is an important player within the robotics ecosystem in Brabant and we will continue to work together to raise awareness of robotics and further expand the ecosystem. We wish Smart Robotics every success in the logistics market."
Vanderlande and Smart Robotics will jointly set up an R&D programme. Among other things, the companies intend to focus on developing functionalities for item picking.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Smart Robotics
Source: Vanderlande
Source photo: PhotoMeulenhof
