Packaging
ABB Delta robots success is greater than the sum of all its parts
Wednesday 30. April 2008 - Raymond Clavel a professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland conceived the Delta robot in the early 1980s. His idea of using parallelograms to build a parallel robot with three translational and one rotational degree of freedom was a stroke of genius from which the fundamental design remains largely unaltered today.
Professor Clavels inspiration was truly original and does not come from a parallel mechanism patented by Willard L. Pollard in 1942, which at that time was not known to the professor. In 1999, Dr. Clavel was presented with the Golden Robot Award, sponsored by ABB Flexible Automation, for his innovative work on the Delta parallel robot.
As simple as it is, the design of the Delta robot was covered by a family of 36 patents of which the most important are the WIPO patent issued on June 18, 1987 (WO 87/03528), the US patent issued on December 11, 1990 (US 4,976,582), and the European patent issued on July 17, 1991 (EP 0 250 470). Overall, these patents protect the invention in USA, Canada, Japan, and most West European countries. The patents do not specify the way in which the Delta structure is actuated in order to incorporate the basic design as well as its variants (such as the Triaglide or the Linapod).
Since that time, ABB has developed the Delta robot, adding various design refinements and patents of its own. The net result is that the ABB FlexPicker has become the most successful implementation of the Delta design with thousands of the machines installed globally in arenas such as foods and pharmaceuticals handling and packaging and to a lesser extent electronics and other industrial applications.
ABB Robotics launched its Delta robot in 1998 under the name IRB 340 FlexPicker. Three industry sectors were aimed the food, pharmaceutical, and electronics industries. The FlexPicker can be equipped with an optional integrated vacuum system capable of rapid pick and release of small objects. The robot is guided using a machine vision system from Cognex. This is integrated using ABBs PickMaster application software. An ABB IRC5 controller steers the robot. The attainable velocities are 10 m/sec and 3.6 deg/sec and the accelerations are up to 100 m/sec² and 1.2 rad/sec². The robot comes in several versions, one of which is sealed, corrosion resistant wash down version, designed especially for clean/intensive environments.
Certain of the original patents have recently expired, leading some pundits to speculate that there could now be a flood of Delta type robots entering the marketplace. This may or may not come to fruition. However, the fact remains that while the ingenious structure of the Delta is relatively straightforward to emulate, the precision mechanics, motion and control of the devices has been subject to continuous development over 20 years by the likes of ABB. For this reason, there are grounds to suggest that “copy” products will not fulfil the potential in end user applications – a cause for concern within the industry.
ABBs latest manifestation is the first true “second generation” design, incorporating as it does significant mechanical, electrical dynamic and control improvements.
The new robot succeeds ABBs well-known FlexPicker IRB340 system and is the result of 10 years experience combined with proven packaging technology. Several important objectives have been met in the new generation design and its outstanding features include 50% higher payload, up to 3 kg. Increased payload capacity provides two clearly defined benefits: the first is the ability to handle heavier objects; the second is to accommodate the mass of the increasingly sophisticated grippers required in handling diverse products.
The average cycle time performance of the new IRB360 has improved by over 20%, resulting in a staggering 110 picks per minutes (ppm) at 3kg. The IRB360 has a competitive edge where there is a particular requirement for movement on a fourth axis. The fourth axis has an extensive work range and, due to excellent motions control and its robust design, does not in any way limit the robot performance
To meet the most stringent demands, the FlexPicker IRB360 family has the only delta robot on the market that includes a stainless steel wash-down version.
ABB has over 2000 delta robots installed globally and is the leader in this state of the art picking and packing technology. Growth is currently at the rate of 40% per annum and the new generation robots will see that increase further. Measured against alternative robot technologies, the FlexPicker IRB360 wins hands down for accuracy, speed, reliability and versatility.