FANUC Cobot Helps GER4TECH Make its Move

“As a leading manufacturing company, we know the importance of being able to utilise production capacity 24/7,” states Hubert Gerstmayr, Managing Director of GER4TECH. “That is why we set about developing our G4T4, an advanced mobile collaborative robot [cobot] that could also serve to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers.”

To help turn this vision into reality, GER4TECH opted to partner with incubed IT, which has been specialising in software for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) since 2011, and FANUC. The latter recommended its CRX-10𝑖A/L, a high-performance cobot weighing just 40 kg, making it ideal for the G4T4. Notably, users can operate the CRX without any previous knowledge of robot programming, while changing over components is straightforward.

“After the release of the CRX we quickly had the idea to build a vehicle with our flexible software solution and for Ger4Tech to prove the flexibility of this robotic arm in its contract manufacturing applications,” explains Ivica Tomic, Business Development and Sales Manager at incubed IT, which is part of Verizon, a US-based multinational telecommunications conglomerate.

The biggest challenge when using robots on mobile platforms is positioning accuracy in relation to the machine or workplace. Here, GER4TECH deliberately dispensed with mechanical aids and instead relied on the 𝑖RVision fully integrated camera system from FANUC. A 2D camera and standard software determine the real position of the robot in relation to the machine, with the system using the offset to calculate the optimal position. In this way, users of the G4T4 achieve maximum flexibility and repeatability.

“Our sophisticated and hardware-independent software solution provides localisation and navigation, as well as heterogeneous fleet management, so we can manage large numbers of AMRs,” says Tomic. “The G4T4 autonomously finds its way to complete the job, even in environments that are quite chaotic. In addition, we have the possibility to load and unload CNC machine tools with the collaborative CRX from FANUC.”

Thanks to this partnership between GER4TECH, incubed IT and FANUC, the development of the G4T4 took just 12 months, a process that Tomic estimates would normally take at least 2½ years if starting from scratch.