2020 – A KUKA review of the year

KUKA is market-launching a new product series. As the successor to the KR 60-3, the KR IONTEC sets standards in terms of flexibility in the medium payload category. It additionally stands out for the largest work envelope in its class and is designed for operation in conventional and digital production worlds.

Probably the world’s first automatic fast food robot: it is small, agile, precise – and soon it will be delighting fast food lovers all over the world: KUKA’s KR 3 AGILUS serves snacks, drinks and desserts to guests in the fully automated fast food machine from the Brazilian company Bionicook.

KUKA receives the “Global Company of the Year Award 2020″ for the Medical Robotics division: The consulting company Frost & Sullivan analyzed the medical robotics market, and in doing so recognises KUKA’s LBR Med as one of the most advanced robots in the industry. For the robot and its innovative achievements in the field of medical robotics as a whole, KUKA has received the “Company of the Year” award from Frost & Sullivan.

KUKA receives major order from German automaker for 5,000 robots: KUKA and BMW are proven partners – and in April signed a framework agreement for the supply of around 5,000 robots for new production lines and plants.

The corona pandemic is keeping the world in suspense. KUKA is also supporting the fight against the virus with products and technologies. For example, KUKA robots are printing protective equipment in northern Italy, and in Bavaria they are helping to manufacture plastic medical laboratory products.

Film documentary about KUKA’s brand ambassador Timo Boll: The technology freak at the top of the world Table tennis star Timo Boll has been involved for years as a brand ambassador for KUKA. An online documentation series impressively illustrates Boll’s career path.

With the new KR 4 AGILUS, KUKA is delivering a hot candidate for first place in the small robotics charts. The compact robot is optimally designed for robot-based automation in electronics manufacturing and for handling tasks in other industries.

Starting signal for the training of the future: KUKA officially opens its new education center at its Augsburg headquarters. In a modern concept, the Augsburg-based company is bringing together the areas of education, training, human resources and development in a space of around 8,000 m².

KUKA was also presenting several new products in September:

• With the KR CYBERTECH nano, KUKA is presenting a highly flexible multi-functional tool that is convincing even in harsh environments. The low operating costs make the KUKA robot in the low payload class particularly interesting for economically demanding production chains.
• With the new KR SCARA, KUKA is supplying reliable helpers for industrial manufacturing, which demonstrate their strengths above all in small parts assembly, material handling and testing tasks. In the payload class up to 6 kg, no one can hold a candle to the KUKA SCARA robots so quickly.

Digital hospitality in the Roboter-Café: KUKA robots can not only weld, mill and palletize, they also prepare coffee and serve snacks. In the unique Robot Café in Dubai, the digital service robots have been in operation for just a few weeks.

At KUKA, November is all about medical robotics: at European Robotics Week, KUKA experts talked about the possibilities of robotics in healthcare, and at the virtual medical trade fair MEDICA, KUKA was present with numerous activities and events. One highlight: the presentation of the KUKA Innovation Award. A team from Italy impressed the international jury with its concept for the “Medical Robotics Challenge”:

Experts from KUKA, Device Insight and Sentian discussed how the Smart Factory can become reality through the combination of Artificial Intelligence and IoT in the KUKA Press Talk series. In focus: a look into the future of manufacturing and the discussion of how industrial companies can increase efficiency, product quality and sales by linking artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.