“The Automata Drive is central to
our robot.” Says ElSayed. “Its patent
protected technology is very similar
to a harmonic drive and gives about
80% of the performance for around
20% of the cost. But, it’s purpose built,
it doesn’t need to perform all kinds of
use cases. It’s all about manufacturing
tolerances, that’s what helps bring
the price down, not the price of the
components.”
Programming Eva’s movements
is simply done by pressing one of
the two buttons which releases the
brakes and allows operators to lead it
to a ‘waypoint’ where a command is
to be carried out. Clicking the second
button sets the waypoint, a process
called ‘back driving’. This movement
is transmitted to the operator’s device,
running Choreograph on a browser,
and saves those points.
“If I want to locate an object on
this table I can simply drag the
robot there,” Chandra explains.
“This is something that would have
taken much longer, much more
measurement and much more CAD
skills previously.”
Editing the movements on
Choreograph is also simple.
Waypoints can be edited graphically
on the screen of the device and those
waypoints can be dragged and
dropped into a timeline, similar to
video editing software, in the order
the robot needs to move.
Chandra says: “This is a UI
paradigm that people already
understand, we don’t invent a new
flow chart or a system that people
have to learn, it maps to paradigms
that people already understand.”
Eva has already been trialled
in a small number of pilot projects.
One is at Qualitech Components, a
Cambridgeshire-based manufacturer
of etched metal components. The
robot was installed and started
working within an hour of being on
site. According to Qualitech’s CEO,
Alexander Craig: “Initially, we wanted
to trial it in different locations within
the factory, but I haven’t been able to
get it away from this location because
the staff have effectively fallen in love
with it.”
He adds that since the arm was
installed last November he’s had “no
problems” with it and it has allowed
Qualitech to upskill staff.
Northumberland-based robotics
manufacturer, Tharsus, will build the
Eva robot in its newly constructed
£5m factory for the manufacture of
high-tech products. Its CEO, Brian
Palmer, comments: “We’ve been
really impressed with the Automata
team’s attitude, but also, they’re very
open to listening, they’re very open
to the journey that we’re on. It’s a
really productive relationship.”
Automata and Tharsus expect
to sell hundreds of units by the end
of 2019.
“Mostafa and I started
Automata to democratise
robotics and to ultimately allow
anyone to seamlessly use
a robot. We are extremely
proud to offer Eva at the
price point we do. People
can visit the Automata
website and buy a
piece of industrial
quality equipment
on their credit card
– it doesn’t get much
more accessible
than that,” says
Chandra. !
“The Automata
Drive is central to our
robot. Its patent
protected technology
is very similar to a
harmonic drive and
gives about 80% of the
performance for
around 20% of
the cost”
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