ABB and PAL Robotics demonstrate a versatile mobile robot
When ABB opened its medical research center on the campus of the Texas Medical Center (TMC) in Houston, the company showcased a number of concept technologies, including a mobile robot YuMi that helps with laboratory and logistics tasks in hospitals.
ABB decided to take this concept of mobile manipulation further by partnering with PAL Robotics in a new laboratory located near Barcelona (Spain).
TIAGo Base from PAL Robotics is an autonomous mobile robot designed for indoor mobile applications that require navigation without infrastructure. This collaborative mobile robot, combined with the ABB YuMi robot, is designed to deliver blood samples in medical facilities instead of other robotic platforms that are unsuitable in size and other characteristics for this role.
The device for medical laboratories was named "Mobot for Healthcare in Hospital Laboratories". It is being developed in collaboration with PAL Robotics to provide mobility for medical center laboratories. The mobile manipulator performs dosing and test tube handling tasks, and is able to move and transport items thanks to a mobile platform that gives YuMi the ability to navigate autonomously and avoid obstacles.
ABB introduced YuMi in 2015. Since then, the YuMi product line has evolved and now includes both single-arm and dual-arm cobots.
"An innovative, human-friendly two-armed robot with revolutionary functionality, designed to unlock the huge global additional potential of automation in industry, YuMi is built for a new era of automation, for example for assembling small parts, where people and robots work side by side on the same tasks. Safety is built into the robot's functionality itself. YuMi removes barriers to collaboration by leaving fences and cages in the past," ABB said.
The entire YuMi robot family is designed to be easy to set up and use thanks to intuitive programming. This means that even people without special training or prior experience can successfully use the robots. By combining people's unique ability to adapt to change with the tireless endurance of robots for precise, repetitive tasks, it is possible to automate the assembly of many types of products on a single line.
The TIAGo Base robot can be configured for any applications in healthcare, industry or offices. TIAGo Base can carry payloads of up to 100 kg for delivering objects and move at speeds of up to 1.5 m/s.
“We often receive requests from customers asking whether our cobots can be mounted on mobile bases to perform tasks that require a collaborative robot to serve multiple locations or move through the work environment, for example to transport components. That is how the idea of a feasibility study was born: to place one of our cobots on a mobile base and see what it will look like and what application demonstrations we can create with it”
TIAGo Base operates autonomously to improve logistics, reduce costs, and increase the efficiency and productivity of any business. The robot operates safely and adapts to change, avoiding obstacles and people. The TIAGo Base can be configured to meet your requirements. The company can even design and build a TIAGo Base robot specifically for a given customer.
In addition to the standard two-wheel differential drive mobile base, TIAGo Base is available with omnidirectional mecanum wheels and two LIDAR sensors for unobstructed, safe movement with a 360-degree field of view, including autonomous navigation, obstacle detection and path planning. You can easily move and maneuver the omnidirectional base thanks to its precise positioning in tight spaces.
"Get started without problems with TIAGo Base! Our compact AMR is quick and easy to set up. We give you the ability to manage your robot fleet. Change your robots' tasks on the fly either through our web interface or through your ERP system — we can provide you or your integrator with a RESTful API for this," the company said.
TIAGo Base can be used in a wide range of sectors and industries. The mobile robot is highly versatile, making it suitable for industrial plants and warehouses, hospitals and laboratories, hotels and offices.
“As for the user experience of TIAGo Base, the features we tested were simple to use. For example, it was very easy to control the robot with a joystick and use the laser scanner to view the environment and create a map. The web user interface is easy to connect to and easy to work with. We were also impressed by the power of this relatively small mobile robot, the TIAGo Base, which can carry about 100 kg of payload, including the frame, the manipulator robot and the controller”
