KUKA Robotics is a leading
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
producer of industrial robots for a variety of industries - from automotive and fabricated metals to
foodFood is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal, including humans, for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol...
and plastics. The KUKA Robotics Corporation has over 20 subsidiaries worldwide, including: the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
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MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
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TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and almost all
European countriesEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
The company name, KUKA, is an acronym for Keller und Knappich Augsburg, and at the same time is the registered trademark found on the industrial robots and other products they produce.
KUKA Robotics is a leading
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
producer of industrial robots for a variety of industries - from automotive and fabricated metals to
foodFood is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal, including humans, for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol...
and plastics. The KUKA Robotics Corporation has over 20 subsidiaries worldwide, including: the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
,
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and almost all
European countriesEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
The company name, KUKA, is an acronym for Keller und Knappich Augsburg, and at the same time is the registered trademark found on the industrial robots and other products they produce. The company was founded in 1898 and in 1995 was split into KUKA Robotics Corporation and KUKA Schweißanlagen GmbH (now KUKA Systems GmbH). The company headquarters are located in
AugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria in Germany. It is a College town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. The company belongs to the publicly traded KUKA AG (earlier IWKA Group).
In 1973 KUKA created the world's first industrial robot with six electromechanically driven
axesIn mechanics, degrees of freedom are the set of independent displacements and/or rotations that specify completely the displaced or deformed position and orientation of the body or system...
, known as FAMULUS. Today the company’s 4 and 6 axis robots range from 3 kg to 1300 kg payloads, and 350 mm to 3700 mm reach,
SCARAThe SCARA acronym stands for Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm or Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm.In 1981, Sankyo Seiki, Pentel and NEC presented a completely new concept for assembly robots. The robot was developed under the guidance of Hiroshi Makino, a professor at the University...
s, palletizers, gantry and articulated robots, all controlled from a common PC based controller platform.
By 2006, the KUKA Robotics Corporation and its subsidiaries have installed close to 80,000 robots and the company has become one of the worldwide market leaders in industrial robots. KUKA industrial robots are used in a number of industries – from automotive and metal working to foodstuffs and plastics.
KUKA industrial robots are used in production by companies like: GM,
ChryslerChrysler Group, LLC is an American automobile manufacturer headquartered in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. From 1998 to 2007, Chrysler and its subsidiaries were part of the German based DaimlerChrysler AG...
,
FordThe Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
,
PorschePorsche SE is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury high performance automobiles, which is majority-owned by the Piëch and Porsche families. Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG , often shortened to Porsche AG, is responsible and manufacturer of the Porsche automobile line...
,
BMW, is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company. Founded in 1916, it is known for its performance and luxury vehicles. It owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.-Company history:...
,
AudiAUDI AG, is a German company which produces luxury cars under the Audi brand, . It is part of the Volkswagen Group. The name Audi is based on a Latin translation of the surname of the founder August Horch, itself the German word for “listen!"Audi is headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany.It...
,
Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of luxury automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. It is currently a division of the parent company, Daimler AG , after previously being owned by Daimler-Benz...
,
VolkswagenThe Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft , also known as Volkswagen Group or as VW, is an automobile manufacturer and mobility organisation based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany and is the pioneer brand within the Volkswagen Group, which contains the car brands Audi AG, Bentley Motors Ltd.,...
,
FerrariFerrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1928 as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles in 1947 as Ferrari S.p.A....
,
Harley-DavidsonHarley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
,
BoeingThe Boeing Company is a major aerospace and defense corporation, founded by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Its international headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois, since 2001...
,
SiemensSiemens AG is Europe's largest engineering conglomerate. Siemens' international headquarters are located in Berlin and Munich, Germany. The company is a conglomerate of three main business sectors: Industry, Energy and Healthcare with a total of 15 Divisions.Worldwide, Siemens and its subsidiaries...
,
IKEAIKEA is a privately-held, international home products retailer that sells flat pack furniture, accessories, and bathroom and kitchen items in their retail stores around the world...
,
SwarovskiSwarovski is the luxury brand name for the range of precision-cut lead crystal glass and related products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria.- History :...
,
Wal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and...
,
BudweiserBudweiser is an American-style lager and is one of the most popular beers in the United States. Budweiser is made with a large proportion of rice in addition to hops and barley malt. Budweiser is produced in various breweries located around the United States and the rest of the world. It is a...
, BSN Medical as well as
Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines internationally. The Coca-Cola Company claims that the beverage is sold in more than 200 countries...
and others.
The KUKA Chair of Robotics (Prof. Henrik Christensen) at the Georgia Institute of Technology is one source of KUKA's future robotics developments.
System information
Robots come with a control panel that has a display resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and an integrated mouse, with which the manipulator is moved, positions are saved (TouchUp), or where modules, functions, data lists, etc. are created and modified. To manually control the axles the enabling switch on the back of the control panel (the KCP, or KUKAControlPanel) must be activated (today only with a panic function). The connection to the controller is a VGA interface and a CAN-bus.
A
rugged computerA rugged computer is a computer specifically designed to reliably operate in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions...
located in the control cabinet communicates with the robot system via an MFC card. Control signals between the manipulator and the controls are transferred using the so-called DSE-RDW connection. The DSE card is in the control cabinet, the RDW card in the robot socket.
Controls for the old KRC1 types used Windows 95 to run VxWorks-based software. Peripheral equipment includes a CD-ROM and a disk drive; Ethernet,
ProfibusPROFIBUS is a standard for field bus communication in automation technology and was first promoted by BMBF...
,
InterbusINTERBUS is a serial bus system, which transmits data between control systems and spatially distributed I/O modules that are connected to sensors and actuators .The INTERBUS system was developed by "Phoenix Contact" and has been available since 1987...
,
DevicenetDeviceNet is a communication protocol used in the automation industry to interconnect control devices for data exchange. It uses Controller Area Network as the backbone technology and defines an application layer to cover a range of device profiles...
and ASI sockets are also available.
Controls for the newer KRC2 type use the Windows XP operating system. Systems contain a CD-ROM drive and USB ports, Ethernet connection and feature optional connections for Profibus, Interbus, DeviceNet and Profinet.
Most robots come in the orange or black, the former featuring prominently as a corporate color.
KUKA's industrial robots product range:
| Kinematic Type |
Number of Axis |
Significance |
Payload Range |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
handling robots |
5 to 1000 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
arc welding robots |
5 to 16 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
spot welding robots |
100 to 240 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
shelf-mounted robots, top loader robots for machine loading and unloading |
6 to 210 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
stainless steel robot for food processing, IP67 |
15 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
cleanroom robots |
16 to 500 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
heat resistant robots for foundry industry |
16 to 500 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
painting robots, ATEX-compliant robots for operating in explosive atmospheres |
16 kg |
| articulated robot |
6 axis |
heat resistant robots for foundry industry |
16 to 500 kg |
| articulated robot |
4 axis |
palletizers for bag and box palletizing and depalletizing |
40 to 1300 kg |
| SCARA The SCARA acronym stands for Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm or Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm.In 1981, Sankyo Seiki, Pentel and NEC presented a completely new concept for assembly robots. The robot was developed under the guidance of Hiroshi Makino, a professor at the University...
robot |
4 axis |
handling robots for pick and place, handling and packaging operations |
5 to 10 kg |
| gantry robot |
6 axis |
portal robot for machine tending and material handling tasks for distances of up to 20 m |
30 to 60 kg |
KUKA Robot application examples
KUKA industrial robots are used in material handling, loading and unloading of machines, palletizing, spot and arc welding. KUKA Robots have also appeared in various Hollywood Films. In the James Bond film
Die Another DayDie Another Day is the twentieth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. In the pre-title sequence, Bond leads a mission to North Korea, during which he is found out and, after killing a rogue North Korean colonel, he...
, in a scene depicting an ice palace in
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
, the NSA agent Jinx (
Halle BerryHalle Berry is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was also nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in...
) is threatened by laser-wielding robots. In the
Ron HowardRonald William "Ron" Howard is an American film director and producer, as well as an actor. Howard came to prominence in the 1960s while playing Andy Griffith's TV son, Opie Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show , and later in the 1970s as Howard Cunningham's son and Arthur Fonzarelli's best friend,...
directed film
The Da Vinci CodeThe Da Vinci Code is a 2006 film directed by Ron Howard, which is based on the bestselling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It was one of the most anticipated films of 2006, and was previewed at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2006...
, a KUKA robot hands
Tom HanksThomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title role in Forrest Gump, Commander James...
’ character Robert Langdon a container containing a cryptex.
In 2001 KUKA developed the Robocoaster, which is the world’s first passenger-carrying industrial robot. The ride uses roller-coaster-style seats attached to robotic arms and provides a
roller coasterThe roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...
-like motion sequence to its two passengers through a series of programmable maneuvers. There is also the possibility that riders themselves can program the motions of their ride.
In 2007 KUKA introduced a simulator, based on the Robocoaster.
External links