Scalable Robotics - The code-free, point and click solution for programming ABB welding robots

Learn about the Scalable Robotics programming platform from founder and CEO Tom Fuhlbrigge. The Scalable Robotics platform allows a human welder to teach a task to the robot in the same way someone would teach another person - just by pointing to where the weld should be applied and letting the robot learn the path on its own. The platform features a simple, low-cost 3D camera in a protective box attached to the robot end-of-arm tooling, and uses a touchscreen interface to guide the welder through some simple steps: Scan, Teach, Validate and Tune.

To start the process, the welder presses the Scan button to instruct the robot to generate a representative model of the part. The robot then moves over the weld area with its 3D camera open and automatically creates the model. No CAD of the part or even knowledge of how to use CAD is required. The welder then teaches the robot the positions of the welds by clicking a handheld teaching stylus at the desired approach, path and departure points of the weld. He or she then makes sure the robot can reach all the points by pushing the Validate button on the interface. The user can then choose whether or not to make any changes to the automatically generated program, and once satisfied with the path and torch angles, the program is sent to the robot controller.