VEO Robotics gives traditional industrial robots visibility

Veo Robotics announces FreeMove, a hardware- and software-based solution that lets traditional industrial robots interact safely with humans. This without a safety cage and in close proximity to employees.

Many traditional industrial robots are not equipped with sensors and camera systems to detect human presence. In practice, this means that they cannot safely work in close proximity with employees and in many cases are shielded using a safety cage. These safety measures hinder close cooperation between industrial robots and humans.

Collaborative robots exist alongside industrial robots. These robots are typically smaller in scale and equipped with sensors and camera systems that detect the presence of humans. This makes it possible to work in close proximity to a collaborative robot without posing any safety risks. If the robot threatens to collide with a human, for example, it reduces speed or comes to a complete stop.

With FreeMove, Veo Robotics aims to bring these capabilities to traditional industrial robots by equipping them with vision. FreeMove is a vision system that can be added to existing industrial robots. “The Veo FreeMove system gives production engineers the freedom to combine the power, precision and speed of standard industrial robots with the ingenuity, judgement and flexibility of humans,” write CEO Patrick Sobalvarro, Chief Architect Scott Denenberg and VP of Engineering Clara Vu in a blog post. Sobalvarro, Denenberg and Vu are the founders of Veo Robotics.

"In today's competitive market, manufacturers need to react faster and be more flexible than ever before. Process variations mean that quality issues with products need to be addressed immediately. Product cycles are shorter, requiring faster realisation of the design and faster commissioning of the final product. Bespoke customisation enabled on a large scale means that fully automating steps in the production process has become significantly costly, both in terms of labour time and capital investment. In many cases, the cost of fully automating these steps cannot be recovered before the process has to be modified again."

Veo FreeMove enables standard industrial robots to work safely in close proximity to humans. With this, the startup aims to not only improve employee productivity and ergonomics, but also enable time and cost savings. The solution gives manufacturers more flexibility in production runs, reduces downtime and enables faster deployments.

The solution consists of three components:

This combination enables FreeMove to detect the presence of humans and if they get too close adjust the operation of traditional industrial robots accordingly. Thus, movements of robots can be slowed down as workers approach or robots can be stopped completely. If the workspace is clear again, the solution automatically instructs the robot to resume its work.

The solution is suitable for standard industrial robots from popular manufacturers. The FreeMove system is compliant with ISO 13849 'Safety of machinery-Safety-related parts of control systems'. Veo Robotics expects FreeMove to have all the necessary certificates by the end of 2020. When the product will appear on the market is not known.

Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Veo Robotics