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The CARE has over $3 million in robotics and automation equipment and software. In the main lab (CAS125), the Center consists of three active industrial robotic lines and other equipment and software estimated to be worth about $2 million dollars total. In all there are 14 industrial robots (3 types of robots equipped with multiple end-of-arm tooling options), 2 conveyor lines with pallets, 4 rotary index tables, 1 linear conveyor system, 4 Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s), 7 vision systems, 15 computer stations, as well as numerous sensors and pneumatic devices. Essentially, there are four types of flow lines with robot systems: 1) a big rotary index table with two FANUC industrial robots with an Allen Bradley PLC and HMI, 2) an oval line that uses a Bosch Rexroth Varioflow conveyor, housing 4 KUKA KR1100 robots integrated with an Allen Bradley PLC, 3) an oval line that uses a Bosch pallet transfer conveyor with 4 FANUC M-10iA robots integrated with an Allen Bradley PLC and HMI, and 4) a work cell that contains 3 KUKA robots and uses a liner conveyor and a rotary table integrated with an Allen Bradley PLC, HMI, and Cognex Vision systems with 3 tool change stations and 3 end-of-arm tooling at each of the robots. The oval line with the FANUC robots and the work cell with the KUKA robots have vision systems integrated in all of the robots and also different tool change stations and end-of-arm tooling for the robots. The CARE will soon be acquiring 4 FANUC CRX-10iA collaborative robots and will be integrated with a large rotary index table and an Allen Bradley PLC.
In the robotics annex (CAS124), is equipped with a range of advanced robotic systems, including two collaborative robot work cells, four UR5e universal robots, four MiR autonomous mobile robots, a Bekum pick-and-place robotic system, and several End-Of-Arm (EOA) tooling systems. One collaborative robot is integrated to perform an interactive demonstration that serves a cup of Keurig coffee to the user, while the other collaborative robot is built to perform a shoeshine demonstration. There are also other demonstrations that are implemented by using 3 combos of an UR5e collaborative robot mounted on a MiR autonomous mobile robot. These demonstrations include autonomously shooting foam hockey pucks around the ice arena towards the audience, autonomously shooting foam basketball balls in the basketball court, and delivering candy from different locations autonomously using the fleet mode.
