Robots and manipulators are key to help increase productivity and relieve humans from heavy, repetitive or dangerous tasks. Locally – within a factory – and connected globally, they are the centerpiece of the 4th industrial revolution or Industry 4.0.
An industrial multi-axis manipulator is a complex mechanical, electric and electronic system becoming over the years more and more sophisticated with as many as 18 different electric motors and a large array of sensors and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication means.
Safety first – for the humans interacting with them – followed by reliability and a very long lifetime are the key challenges in designing an industrial robot and thus large use of redundancy mechanisms – either hardware or software – and predictive maintenance strategies must be implemented to ensure productive and cost-effective solutions.
We have a wide range of motor control solutions including discrete Power MOSFETs and IGBTs and intelligent power modules (IPMs), STM32 32-bit microcontrollers, a wide range of MEMS inertial and environmental sensors, power supply and conversion ICs as well as wired and wireless connectivity solutions to help design efficient and reliable manipulators and robotic devices.
