Drives & Controls March 2022

n TECHNOLOGY March 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com 16 A German robot control specialist has raised $30m of funding for its AI systems that, it claims, can automate manufacturing processes that could not be automated previously. Berlin-based Micropsi Industries, founded in 2014, says that its Mirai technology is already doing what others can only promise. The technology allows human operators to train robots to perform hand-eye-coordinated action using cameras and sensors that react in real-time to dynamic conditions in industrial environments. Once configured, a robot arm can perceive its workspace and adjust its movements accordingly as it performs a task. Currently, the technology can be used with robots from ABB and Universal Robots. Part of the new funding will be used to extend its use to robots from other manufacturers. The technology is already being used in assembly, material-handling and quality control applications in a range of industries. Customers include Siemens Energy, and Europe’s largest manufacturer of domestic appliance, BSH. For most existing industrial robot applications, specialists have to develop software code line-by-line to trigger the individual movements of the arms. This is complex, expensive and makes robots inflexible, because variations in positions or materials can throw the robots off. Micropsi says that Mirai changes this. Workers train robots through demonstration, using AI (artificial intelligence). They guide the robot arm through a task, which it learns and then carries out the movements autonomously. The robot can adapt to changes in the environment, keeping it flexible, even if conditions change. The training process takes a few hours and can be done by operators with no robot programming skills. “Our technology makes it easy to transfer dynamic motion know-how from humans to robots,” explains Micropsi’s CEO and co-founder, Ronnie Vuine. “We have not optimised the textbook approach for specific applications, but took a radically different approach inspired by how humans coordinate motions. Mirai is a proven and independent technology that’s working 24/7 in the factories of our customers. That is what convinced our investors: here is a company that can already verifiably do what many current start-ups only promise to develop.” As well as expanding Mirai to more robot platforms, the new funding will be used to expand Micropsi’s operations in the US, and to ramp up sales. The company is also looking to expand into new application areas such as laboratory automation and logistics. In one existing application, the gear manufacturer ZF is using Mirai to automate machine-tending for a high- volume milling station. A Universal Robots cobot picks up metal rings from a crate and places them on a conveyor belt ready for subsequent manufacturing steps that turn the rings into gears. Initially, ZF performed the ring-picking task using a conventionally programmed robots but encountered problems because the rings are packed in layers and their positions can vary by up to 30mm in any direction. In addition, their surfaces can be covered by oil and dust, while bubble wrap in the crates can obscure parts of the rings. Adopting the Mirai technology has speeded up the operation and made it more reliable. The robot’s own controller moves the arm above the crate, where the Mirai system takes over, moving the robot to the closest ring and using a Schunk gripper to grab the ring. The robot’s controller then resumes control, picking up the ring and moving it to the conveyor belt. Training the Mirai system to perform the ZF application took just four days. www.micropsi-industries.com Robot control firm raises $30m to automate ‘impossible’ tasks ZF is using Micropsi’s Mirai technology to pick up randomly arranged gear blanks from a crate A NOVEL SENSOR, announced by ifm, uses air flowing through a nozzle to measure the distance between the nozzle and a workpiece to a resolution of 5μm – about one-tenth the thickness of a human hair. The SDP110 air-gap sensor’s maximum measuring range is 400μm. The sensor is aimed at applications such as positioning workpieces to within fractions of a millimetre, or measuring surface roughness. The sensor is said to be easy to set up using either built-in teach buttons, or IO- Link. It compensates automatically for changes in air supply pressure over its operating range of 1-3 bar. The self- cleaning nozzle prevents the build-up of contaminants that might affect the sensor’s long-term stability and accuracy. A built-in display shows key parameters, including the gap size (in μm), air pressure and flow rate. The same information is available via IO-Link. The sensor also has an analogue output and a digital output that can be programmed to switch on or off at user-defined sensing distances. The sensor can handle pressures up to 6 bar. Purge air – used, for example, to clean dust and swarf from a workpiece before a measurement is carried out – can be delivered via the sensor, avoiding the need for a separate delivery system. www.ifm.com/gb/en n Novel 5μm-resolution distance sensor is based on air flow