ABB has launched a new robot controller called “OmniCore”, which it describes as introducing a new era of “digital robot control” to increase flexibility, reliability and performance.
The new OmniCore robot controller family offers the broadest motion control options, more tailored solutions for the connected “Factory of the Future”, a current ABB theme.
The OmniCore is one the first offerings in ABB’s new era of “flexible, intelligent and tailored solutions”, and the company says it provides high-performance applications and seamless digitalization on the factory floor.
The OmniCore is designed for the rigorous performance and reliability needed to support 24/7 production of high-mix, low-volume products in shorter product cycles, says ABB.
ABB launched OmniCore at the recent Automatica event, describing it as “a significant step towards a new era in manufacturing”.
The OmniCore controllers are designed for maximum performance and reliability during the robust 24/7 operations of factories making products with increasingly shorter lifecycles.
The controller’s high path accuracy also increases throughput and decreases cycle times, says ABB.
The first new OmniCore variants provide great flexibility for integrating robots into the digital factory ecosystem, whether manufacturers need standardized motion control or more tailored solutions.
Per Vegard Nerseth, managing director of robotics for ABB, says: “Automation needs are becoming increasingly complex in today’s high mix, low volume manufacturing.
“Factories need solutions that support flexibility and high performance during demanding 24/7-hour operations and, at the same time, can be tailored to specific applications.”
ABB is proud to again reinvent best-in-class motion control and path accuracy, in a 50 percent smaller footprint for maximum installation flexibility and floor space utilization.
This allows robotic solutions to be flexibly tailored to a wide variety of existing and new production lines.
In addition to increasing mounting flexibility, the OmniCore also increases flexibility to incorporate the latest digital technologies.
The ABB Ability digital platform, unique in the industry and Connected Services are built in, as is ABB’s SafeMove2 safety software solution.
The new controllers can turn any connected industrial robot into a collaborative robot.
OmniCore also delivers a monumental leap in digitalization and makes it easy to seamlessly connect with a wide variety of fieldbuses, advanced vision systems and force control as part of a greater digital ecosystem.
The controller family comes with a new generation of ABB’s powerful yet intuitive operating system, RobotWare7.
ABB says it incorporates new features and functions making the robots “more capable than ever before”, and is accessed through a newly-designed, ergonomic new FlexPendant.
The first of the new small robot controller family are expected to be available for order in November, 2018.
