AURA – Advanced Use Robotic Arm – from Comau is an innovative upcoming product for the robotics industry that, for the first time, creates a true collaboration between high payload robots and man. Extending the features of collaborative robots to machines with high payload means that a lot of industrial sector has the option to implement safe applications throughout their processes.
Integrated Sensors
The robots are equipped with sensors installed under a layer of protective foam to ensure total safety. AURA combines the simultaneous perception of the proximity of a person – or of any other component of the automation – as well as contacts and their intensity. The combined use of these technologies, employing laser scanners to identify the positions of persons dynamically makes it possible to ramp down the motion of the robot to a complete stop only when it is very close to or actually in contact with the worker.
Prediction of Movements
But that's not all. When AURA is touched, it stops moving and can react according to operator needs, using its sensors as if they were buttons. The solution includes sight, too. A vision system, integrated into the robot controls, transmits data regarding the proximity of persons to the robot's area of action, enabling a specific software to predict their movements and modify the robot's trajectory accordingly. The combined, integrated use of sensors and controls ensures that Comau collaborative robots can be installed in any position, even overhead, and without the need to avoid vibration.