International Robot Exhibition 2015
and System Control Fair 2015

December 24^th, 2015

The International Robot Exhibition 2015, the world's largest robot trade fair, as well as the factory automation exhibition "System Control Fair 2015" were held at Tokyo Big Sight starting Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015.

It was reported that 121,422 people attended the Robot Exhibition and 49,261 people attended the System Control Fair, which are record numbers for these events. The event was overflowing with enthusiasm from participants excited to see the latest advances in technology.

Japan is facing an "aging society" issue. Due to a lack of workers in the near the future, there will be a need for many manufacturing operations to rely more heavily on automation. Additionally, since much of current automation equipment was installed during the "Japanese Economic Miracle" of 1970-1990, many manufacturing plants and their equipment are in need of renewal. We therefore believe that robots and automation technology would experience huge demand among within the manufacturing industry.

International Robot Exhibition—A New Era of Automation!
Coexistence with Existing Facilities through the Collaboration Between People & Robots

After visiting the Yaskawa, Kawasaki, and Fanuc booths, we noticed that all three had an emphasis on "cooperative robots" that enable humans and robots to work together safely and effectively. It is true that the widespread use of robots does not sound realistic for a lot of industries, however, there will be more potential in the near future for robots to work together with humans in manufacturing plants.

We viewed the MOTOMAN-HC10 at the Yaskawa booth. It is a human-collaborative robot that can safely work next to (and together with) human workers without the need of a safety fence. This helps to increase flexibility, as well as saving costs and space. In addition, the programming of the robot is made simpler with the HC10's "Easy Teaching Smart HUB. Direct teaching makes it possible to grab the robot directly by hand and have it remember the motions.

　

The Kawasaki booth presented a Dual-Armed SCARA Robot known as "duAro." The Kawasaki booth had 9 duAros, which made an impressive performance by putting small soy sauce portions into Bento boxes, as well as by drawing portraits in a very small space. duAro is designed to be a human-friendly robot—its body is made of a soft fabric that detects when it touches a person and instantly stops moving. This was an impressive safety feature.

System Control Fair 2015
Experience the Future of Factory Automation!

The Yaskawa Electric booth exhibited the future of FA from products under development to those scheduled for release next spring. Among them, the amplifier-integrated AC servomotor with a GaN power semiconductor was receiving the most attention. This motor is an integrated product of the servo pack function of the servo drive system and the AC servomotor. As well as miniaturizing the amplifier itself, the wiring between the motor and the amplifier disappears. Further miniaturization was achieved by standardizing the converter section. It will be possible to save space and increase the productivity of production facilities and equipment through the miniaturization, speed increases, and the improvement of accuracy in manufacturing operations. You can look forward to the commercialization of the above products in 2017.

In addition, the next-generation inverter GA700 has versatile applications, such as additional energy savings through an automated power consumption optimization functionality, as well as the ability to drive any motor without tuning. It is one of the design concepts of the GA700 to not only improve performance & function, but to also feature "ease of use." In the "trial" corner, we were able to set and monitor the parameters of the inverter from a smartphone, and we were able to complete the initial settings by simply answering a few questions displayed on the screen. This next-generation inverter is scheduled to be released on April 1st, 2016.

　

We will use the knowledge gained at this event to deliver useful information to our customers. If you would also like to know more information, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.