Speed record smashed by “world’s fastest robot”

Travis Armstrong, systems engineer, with its manufacturer Adept Technology, told FoodProductionDaily.com:

“This demonstrates the unmatched speed of the Adept Quattro robot and technical achievements in robot system performance. This is more than simply motor speeds; to manage the robot doing this much in so little time takes a high performance motion controller, software, and electronics​.”

The Adept Quattro(TM) s650H is a parallel robot specifically designed for high-speed manufacturing, packaging, material handling, and assembly with food industry applications.

Bottom line​

For users, the Quattro’s speed means significantly increased precision throughput, said Armstrong.

“Adept’s SmartController CX and V+ programming language allow the management of the specific motions: speeds, accelerations and accel profiles, end-of-motion tolerances and behavior. When manufacturers look at automation in a “cost-per-pick” analysis, being able to pick products faster and more reliably means an improvement to the bottom line​,” he added.

The Adept Quattro is equipped with four-arm parallel kinematic (known as PAR-4) robots in contrast to the conventional three-arm delta-style robots commonly seen in the industry.

The four motors share the load and contribute to the motion. This is said to reduce the load on the individual joints and allow greater speeds, higher payloads, and improved performance throughout the entire robot’s work range.

Suitable for raw food handling applications, the Quattro is the only parallel kinematic robot that’s been approved by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for meat and poultry processing.

The robot was designed to deliver high hygiene standards including e IP66 and IP67 ratings on the base casting and platform.

“Adept Quattro s650HS is designed to provide food packagers the highest possible speeds in raw-food handling, without compromising cleanliness and hygienic standards​,” according to the company.

Conventional robots​

Rush LaSelle, the company’s director of global sales and marketing confirmed:

"The Quattro robot is the fastest robot in the world and its advantages over conventional robots not only include faster cycles and settling times but increased payload and more consistent performance throughout the workspace​."

LaSelle continued: “We are pleased to increasingly offer manufacturers and processors means of achieving high levels of productivity and quality while enabling them to address the pressures of reduced product and packaging life cycles​."

The record performance of 300 cycles per minute was set using the 25mm x 300mm x 25mm standard cycle. The industry has long benchmarked speeds using this quantifier, said the company.