By Karen Hanna
A South Korean company known for developing its home country’s first bipedal humanoid robot is making its move into the U.S. with a line of six-axis collaborative robots.
Rainbow Robotics, which touted its RB-series cobots at Automate 2022 in June in Detroit, is looking for integrators to distribute its products in North America; it also can sell them directly.
The RB line includes the RB5-850, RB3-1200 and RB10-1300. Two other models — the RB3-630 and RB16-900 — will be released later this year, a spokesperson said.
The cobots are the industrial arm of a company that pledges, “Our value lies in building robots that coexist and connect with humanity by enriching people’s lives.” Other robots in Rainbow Robotics’ ranks include iterations of models known as Hubo — two-legged, two-armed droids that have been evolving over the past couple decades.
Designed for precision and speed, the R8s have an appearance that’s much more conventional and much less Star Wars. Made from aluminum and steel, they have a Linux-based operating system and are equipped with collision-detection and gravity-compensation systems. They can be used in a variety of applications, including CNC machine tending and demolding of parts.
They are repeatable to within 0.1mm.
According to Rainbow Robotics, they can be as much as 30 percent cheaper than comparable models from other OEMs.
Contact:
Rainbow Robotics, Daejeon, South Korea, 82 42 719 8070, www.rainbow-robotics.com
Karen Hanna, senior staff reporter
Vital Statistics
| RB5-850 | RB3-1200 | RB10-1300 | |
| Payload | 11 pounds | 6.6 pounds | 22 pounds |
| Reach | 33.5 inches | 47.2 inches | 51.1 inches |
| Weight | 48.5 pounds | 49.4 pounds | 81.8 pounds |
Karen Hanna | Senior Staff Reporter
Senior Staff Reporter Karen Hanna covers injection molding, molds and tooling, processors, workforce and other topics, and writes features including In Other Words and Problem Solved for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, Plastics Recycling and The Journal of Blow Molding. She has more than 15 years of experience in daily and magazine journalism.
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