The Korea Robot Industry Association announced on the 8th that the Korean Pavilion at the Detroit Automation Technology Fair ‘Automate 2023’, in which the Korea Robot Industry Association participated, was successfully completed with great interest.
Automate is the largest robot automation exhibition in North America. This year’s exhibition was held in Detroit, USA for four days from the 22nd of last month. It is reported that around 25,000 visitors from all over the world visited.
The Korean Pavilion association organized 12 booths in this exhibition. The Korea Pavilion held 181 export consultations. The export amount is 4.97 million dollars. The association analyzed that this exhibition helped Korean robot companies to understand the North American market and raise awareness of individual companies.
In the Korea Pavilion, nine major domestic robot and automation companies, Neuromeka, Dougonggan, Rainbow Robotics, RS Automation, HCNC, UND, Cobosys, Taeha, and Tweeny showed their representative products.
At this exhibition, Neuromeka presented the ‘Indy’ series, a representative collaborative robot model, and a welding automation solution using collaborative robots. The solution is characterized by welding line tracking using an arc sensor and automatic welding singularity extraction using a 3D camera. The intuitive interface and easy non-CAD programming increase the accessibility of welding solutions.
Neuromeka consulted Onyx Engineering, an SI company headquartered in Windsor, Canada, to supply a laser cutting solution using a 3D vision camera. In addition, they discussed detailed future cooperation plans, such as franchise leasing contracts, with Chicago-based distributor AP COM for fried and bubble tea solutions.
Tool Space, a company specializing in self-driving security patrol, had an on-site meeting with MGM, a resort and casino company. MGM inquired about qualified robot solutions from various regional chains, including ‘MGM Grand Detroit’. They showed interest in the outdoor patrol robot ‘Pat Rover’, presented in the exhibition hall, and the product ‘Iroi’, which can also be used for information and publicity purposes. The two companies decided to continue to discuss detailed business in the future.
Rainbow Robotics, a company specializing in robot platforms, develops and delivers various robot platforms, including collaborative robots, mobile manipulators, and bipedal and quadrupedal robots. In particular, in this exhibition, 5 types of collaborative robots, the ‘RB series’, were introduced, and every effort was made to recruit local sales agents in North America.
During the exhibition period, Rainbow Robotics held consultations with about 30 companies, especially SI companies in the field of robot automation, for collaborative robot products. On the 23rd of last month, Rainbow Robotics held an on-site meeting with American SI company P to discuss agency matters, and plans to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and sign an agency contract later.
RS Automation, a company specializing in industrial automation solutions, offers precision-controllable single-axis and multi-axis servo drives ‘CSD7 & D8 series’, multi-axis multi-axis motion controller high general purpose PC ‘MMC Series’, and connection between systems based on industrial fieldbus networks of machine I/O DS60, EC60 series, and XIO series, which are recognized for performance and stability in large industries such as semi- conductors, LCDs, and robot systems, by optimizing maintenance and reducing installation time.
RS Automation conducted export consultations with 14 companies. It was decided to provide samples to major SI companies and US distribution networks. Since a validation period is required due to the nature of B2B products, we intend to conduct aggressive marketing to settle Korean robot motion controllers in the North American market with sufficient time, quick sample delivery, and technical support and operational training.
HcNC, a company specializing in IT manufacturing and facility automation, presented Hyundai Robotics’ small handling robot and soft gripper. The dual soft gripper has received a lot of attention. HcNC Soft Gripper is optimized for gripping sensitive products such as fruit and vegetables, or products with unusual shapes or surfaces. It has been evaluated to overcome the limitations of existing grippers by providing flexible gripping functions in various situations using deep learning based object recognition technology.
HcNC decided to review the agreement on soft gripper technology with the leading German automation company ‘Shmalz’ and the leading Italian end effector company ‘Effecto’. In addition, global companies in the field of robots, end effectors, and solutions, such as GM, Amazon, Ford, and Universal Robots, showed a lot of interest in soft grippers and industrial robots.
An official from HcNC said, “We developed and applied an algorithm that recognizes irregular objects, and released the product by adding to the shortcomings of existing grippers that are difficult to apply to the multi-product small lot production industry.” We intend to increase diversity.”
UND is a robot enterprise company that has received UR+ certification from Universal Robots by commercializing the world’s first completely wireless robot automatic tool changer ‘MacBot’ in 2020. In this exhibition, it presented a magnetic robot automatic tool changer based on switching technology and a very power-saving robot magnetic gripper, which are supplied to large domestic automobile companies.
UND consulted with American automakers such as Ford and GM, as well as 20 American auto automation manufacturers, including Utech, ThyssenKrupp, Yushin America, and Kawasaki USA. They hoped to introduce and expand the use of UND automatic tool changers and magnetic grippers to improve production efficiency and produce multi-variety small quantities. In the second half of this year, 15 proofs of concept (PoCs) will be carried out. If exports are made, Undi predicted that it would be possible to achieve sales of more than 1 million dollars next year and more than 5 million dollars in 2025.
In addition, UND is discussing cooperation with Gimatic and Effecto robots from Europe, Mindman and Techman from Taiwan which they met in the exhibition hall. Cheol-soo Lee, CEO of UND, is scheduled to visit Taiwan in mid-June at the invitation of Mindman, an international robot solutions company.
Taeha is a manufacturer specializing in liquid fixed rate distribution systems (distributors). We supply distribution equipment to the general industries such as electronics, automobiles, bio, machinery, and semiconductors at home and abroad. At this exhibition, Taeha introduced various pneumatic dispensing valves boasting accuracy and precision and ‘Pro Can Pump Facility’, a high-precision material delivery device, and displayed essential consumables for dispensing facilities such as various accessories, cartridges, barrels and needles. .
Taeha plans to form a partnership with Applied Advanced, an international adhesive manufacturer. An official from Taeha predicted that annual sales would reach about 700,000 dollars. Taeha has also achieved considerable penetration into the Mexican market, which is the main purpose of participating in this exhibition. In the exhibition hall, they met with ‘erat’, a Mexican automation equipment manufacturer, to discuss, and lay the foundation for entering the Mexican market through the exchange of distribution technology between the two companies.
TWINNY is a company that develops robots that can drive autonomously anywhere inside and outside to collect orders in logistics centers and factory automation. In this exhibition, ‘Carrying and Order Picking’ was featured. Nargo Order Picking can be used without changing the warehouse structure or additional infrastructure, and is designed to be connected to other warehouse management systems.
It is known that 10 companies, including a North American logistics service company and a Taiwanese computer manufacturing company, visited the exhibition booth, showed interest in the performance of the Twiny robot, and conducted product purchase consultations worth $700,000.
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KOTRA Detroit Trade Center, which was responsible for organizing buyer consultations at this exhibition, said, “Amidst the shortage of skilled workers in the US manufacturing industry, automation is emerging as an alternative, and there was interest in Korean companies are high in the logistics. field.” Given the need to enter the market, it appears that consumables such as tool changers are mainly in demand.”
An official from the Korea Robot Industry Association said, “There were many buyers from North America who were very interested in domestic robot companies and were actively consulting with them.” We intend to support the development of domestic robot companies in the United States through various activities such as sending business trips abroad.”
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