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KUKA at automatica 2023: „Keep on Moving“ for a changing world

Whether in the skilled trades, SMEs or battery pack production: KUKA makes automation easily available to more and more industries. Under the motto "Keep on Moving" the Augsburg-based automation group will be demonstrating in Munich from June 27 to 30 how robots and system concepts are evolving to leave a lasting mark on a changing world.

23 June, 2023

"Sustainable business is one of the most pressing tasks of our time. Energy-efficient robots and systems operated with economical DC technology are an important lever. With the latest robots of our KR QUANTEC family, our customers can save up to 60% energy compared to our 2000 series generation produced until 2010," says Wilfried Eberhardt, Chief Marketing Officer at KUKA. "In this context, we now have a portfolio that goes far beyond automotive. With our cobots and digital services, robotics is becoming intuitive and easy to use for everyone. For us, automatica is the perfect showcase to present our latest approaches to an attractive target group." 

The latest robot of the KR QUANTEC product-family saves up to 60% energy. © KUKA Group 

With an end-to-end digitized customer journey from the robot configurator to online purchasing, a battery pack production line, the complete LBR iisy cobot series and three research teams that are finalists for the KUKA Innovation Award 2023, KUKA is paying tribute to the trend topics of the fair: Digitalization & Artificial Intelligence, Sustainable Production and Future of Work. Also included for the first time: the know-how from system engineering that has been built up over decades. In a somewhat different form of presentation, KUKA shows virtually which new areas fully automated large-scale systems are entering.

 

Big screen at the trade fair: KUKA brings production systems to the trade fair booth

It has an outer diameter of 10 meters and will be an eyecatcher at the booth: the KUKA Dome. In this dome large production systems can be visually experienced in around 90 seconds. For the first time, KUKA is thus bringing all of its systems engineering expertise to the trade fair floor. With the KUKA Dome, the company is demonstrating in a very small space what is currently possible in global large-scale system engineering. Visitors travel virtually to Toledo, Ohio, to the KUKA Toledo Production Operations (KTPO), experience state-of-the-art battery production or a brand new system in England for automated, modular house construction. In this new field, KUKA already has orders or is involved in projects from the UK and the Arab region, among others.

Future of Work: "Robots for the People" with LBR iisy and iiQKA.OS

Presented for the first time 12 months ago in Munich: the combination of the KUKA Cobot LBR iisy and the new operating system iiQKA.OS. Since then, the product family has grown. The complete cobot product family will be on display at the KUKA booth this year, with payloads from 3 to 15 kg - and for the first time also as the mobile cobot KMR iisy. In keeping with the iiQKA campaign motto "Robots for the People", visitors will be able to handguide and program the cobots themselves. Other LBR iisy show realistic use cases for various industries - for example, the electronics industry. 

Checking freshly laser-marked Data Matrix codes for completeness: a case for the LBR iisy at FMO Surface. © KUKA Group

Right next to it, the final teams of the KUKA Innovation Award present their creative robotics ideas with the LBR iisy. The goal: to automate tasks quickly and safely without being experts in the field themselves. At the fair, they will showcase their creative solutions for the oil and gas industry, the fashion and textile industry, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. On the penultimate day of the trade show, the winning team of the innovation competition, which is endowed with 20,000 euros, will be chosen.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are also a target group that KUKA is focusing on with regard to cobots. They need easy access to robotics, need to gain experience and learn about the benefits. Cobots are best suited for this, as they can be easily programmed and put into operation. Whether they then work alone or share a workstation with humans is up to the individual - depending on which process is to be automated. According to KUKA, it is precisely these hybrid application options that are becoming increasingly important for cobots.  

"Keep on Moving": KUKA celebrates 125th anniversary this year

 

The KUKA anniversary motto "Keep on Moving" carries the tradition-rich company from Augsburg throughout the year. Just one month after the trade fair, the company is celebrating at its headquarters in Augsburg: for 125 years, KUKA's goal has been to make people's lives and work easier. The success story began in 1898, when Johann Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich founded an acetylene plant for lighting. The telegram abbreviation from the first letters of the company name "Keller und Knappich Augsburg" became the brand name over time: KUKA. In all these years, the company has reinvented itself time and again. Then as now: tradition meets technology and innovation. 

The KUKA booth is located in Hall A4, booth 230.

 

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Press release and related pictures
Press Kit_automatica 2023

KUKA events and highlights at automatica 2023

  • Monday, June 26, 6:30 p.m., KUKA Press Dinner at Restaurant "Fitz-roy", WERK4, 14th floor, Atelierstraße 22, 81671 Munich, with:
    • Peter Mohnen, CEO of KUKA AG
    • Dr. Kristina Wagner, responsible for the KUKA Automation Software Factory and the currently largest development project of KUKA, the operating and ecosystem iiQKA
    • Gerald Mies, CEO KUKA Systems EMEA and driver of the new business field, automated modular housebuilding
  • Tuesday, June 27, 10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., Hall A5, booth 330: Keynote at automatica Forum with Michael Fraede from robotextile and Robert Korte from KUKA. Topic: "Cobots in the textile industry - how automation can secure jobs in Germany for textile manufacturers like Vaude".
  • Tuesday, June 27, 11:30 a.m., Hall A4, booth 230: Tour of the KUKA booth for journalists with the global head of sales for the robotic division, Erich Schober (CSO KUKA Robotics)
  • Thursday, June 29, 11 a.m., Hall A4, booth 230: Award ceremony of the KUKA Innovation Award 2023 at the KUKA booth.
  • Friday, June 30, 11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Hall A5, booth 330: Keynote at the automatica Forum by Dr. Joachim Döhner, Chairman of the VDMA Battery Production Department and Senior Director Global Sales Business Unit Battery KUKA Systems, Topic: "Automation in Battery Recycling"

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