ABB unveils next-generation cobots to unlock automation for new industries and new users

ABB is expanding its collaborative robot (cobot) portfolio with the new GoFa™ and SWIFTI™ cobot families, offering higher payloads and speeds to complement the YuMi® and Single Arm YuMi® in ABB's cobot portfolio. These more powerful, faster, and more capable cobots will accelerate the company's expansion into high-growth segments, including electronics, healthcare, consumer goods, logistics, and food and beverage, meeting the increasing demand for automation across multiple occupations.

GoFa™ and SWIFTI™ are intuitive to plan, so customers don't need to rely on in-house programming experts. This will open up careers with low levels of automation, where customers can operate their cobots directly within minutes of installation, right out of the box, without the need for specialized training.

Sami Atya, President of ABB's Robotics & Discrete Automation business area, said: "Our new cobot portfolio is the most diverse in the marketplace and has the potential to transform the workplace and help our customers achieve new levels of operational performance and growth. "They are easy to use and equip, and are supported by our global network of on-call online service experts to ensure that all planned businesses and segments of the new economy (far beyond manufacturing) can choose robots for the first time. ”

ABB's cobot portfolio expansion is designed to help existing and new robot users accelerate automation across four key megatrends: personalized customers, lack of labor, digitalization and uncertainty that are transforming businesses and driving automation into new economic segments. The expansion follows a focus on high-growth segments through portfolio innovation in the business area, which contributed to the increase in earnings.

ABB unveils next-generation cobots to unlock automation for new industries and new users

Sami Atiya, President of Robotics & Discrete Automation at ABB, with ABB's next-generation cobots

Automation drives the future of manufacturing

In a global survey1 of 1,650 large and small businesses in Europe, United States and China, 84% indicated they would introduce or add the use of robotics and automation over the next decade, while 85% indicated that the prevalence had "changed the game" in business and industry, with COVID-19 being a catalyst for accelerating automation funding. Nearly half (43%) of businesses say they are looking to robotics to help them improve health and safety in the workplace, 51% say robotics can enhance social distancing, and more than a third (36%) are considering robotic automation to improve quality for their jobs. More directly, 78% of CEOs and managing directors say recruiting and retaining workers for repetitive and ergonomic jobs is a challenge.

Cobots are designed to operate in the presence of workers, without the need for physical security measures such as fencing, and are easy to use and install. In 2019, more than 22,000 new cobots were deployed worldwide, a 19% increase over the previous year2. The demand for cobots is estimated to increase at a CAGR of 17% between 2020 and 20253, while global cobot sales are estimated to increase from approximately $700 million in 2019 to approximately $1.4 billion in 20254. The global market for all industrial robots is estimated to increase from approximately $45 billion in 2020 to approximately $58 billion by 2023 (CAGR of 9%)5.

GoFa™ and SWIFTI™ are designed to help companies automate processes to help workers with data processing, machine management, component assembly and packaging in manufacturing, medical laboratories, logistics centres and warehouses, workshops and small production facilities.

(1/3) ABB's new cobot portfolio is the most diverse on the market: SWIFTI™ cobots

"With this expansion, we're making cobots easier to deploy and deploy, and providing real-time support to help accelerate their adoption in businesses that may not have previously considered using them," says Atia. "Our experience is that the best performing operations harness people's technology and the potential of new technologies."

Users who are familiar with operating a tablet or smartphone will be able to easily program and de-engineer new cobots with ABB's Quick Setup Stuff. Customers will also benefit from ABB's global career and application expertise, developed by installing more than 500,000 robotic solutions since 1974 and supported by ABB's global network of more than 1,000 partners.

The new GoFa™ and SWIFTI™ cobot series builds on the success of ABB's YuMi series, which has been helping businesses safely automate mission-critical tasks since the launch of the world's first true cobot, YuMi, in 2015. Now, ABB's YuMi cobots are working with them in factories, workshops and labs around the world, on missions ranging from tightening and assembling electrical and electronic components to making valves and USB sticks and testing COVID-19 samples in the lab.

Each ABB cobot unit includes a start-up package for ABB Ability™ condition monitoring and diagnostics, as well as a free support hotline for the first six months to access ABB's expert technical support for all career sectors.

ABB unveils next-generation cobots to unlock automation for new industries and new users

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