Impact Robotics to demonstrate ‘Sawyer’ cobot at NMW

Attendees at

this year’s National Manufacturing Week (NMW) will be treated to a demonstration of the latest collaborative robot technology, when Impact Robotics showcases the newly-released Sawyer ‘cobot’.

Impact Robotics is the exclusive ANZ distributor of the Sawyer and Baxter robots by Rethink Robotics, and NMW will be the first exhibition in Australia to host Sawyer in a live operating demonstration.

Sawyer and Baxter were developed to work safely next to people in production environments without the caging required when using traditional robots, this freedom allows both cobots to more easily be moved and repurposed to whatever section of the facility they’re needed at any time.

A further benefit is that the cobots can be quickly set-up and trained by staff who don’t have coding knowledge or a computer programming background. Rethink’s ground- breaking Intera platform is by far the most intuitive software platform in the robotics industry and allows non-technical staff to train the robots.

Sawyer is designed to execute machine tending, packaging and other precise tasks that are impractical to automate with conventional robots.

Weighing only 19kg, Sawyer features seven degrees of freedom with a 1260mm reach that can manoeuvre into the tight spaces and varied alignments of work cells designed for humans. Sawyer’s compliant motion control – that is unique in the robotics industry – enables adaptive repeatability and allows Sawyer to work precisely in semi-structured environments.

Impact Robotics General Manager, David Birnbaum, said that collaborative robots such as Sawyer and Baxter were suitable for use by small, medium and large companies.

“These cobots can deliver organisations no matter their size, with a highly attractive solution given their broad capabilities and rapid return on investment (ROI). On a double shift at current interest rates, Sawyer is a $ 4 an hour, possibly less, option for many repetitive tasks found in many manufacturing and materials handling businesses,” Birnbaum said. “The cobots can be financed as you would other for capital equipment, further increasing the attractiveness of the solution. Even at a conservative measure of a single shift per day, payback is extremely attractive. This efficiency has the potential to really help a businesses’ bottom line and increase Australian manufacturing ‘on-shoring’ and productivity,” he said.

To meet Sawyer first hand, visit Impact Robotics’ stand 1010 at National Manufacturing Week.

Aside from Sawyer, Impact Robotics will also display the MiR100 Autonomous robot from Mobile Industrial Robots of Denmark, the perfect way to easily and flexibly automate internal transport requirements.