Fanuc robotic arms win “Robot of the Year” award

January 10, 2008

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) proved that robot competitions aren’t all about chasing the sci-fi fantasy of humanoid replicants by naming Fanuc’s three assembly-line mechanical arms this year's winner of the Robot of the Year Award.

The overall system is controlled by the company’s R-J3iC robot controller in combination with Fanuc’s Visual Tracking system, which allows the robots to analyze digital images of items scattered randomly on a conveyor belt and pick up the items using pneumatic suction cups.

The system can work for 24 hours straight and is already in use at food and pharmaceutical plants.

Among the other top prizes, ZMP Inc.’s Miuro took first place in the Small- to Medium-sized Venture category. Short for “Music Innovation based on Utility RObot technology,” the egg-shaped Miuro functions as an iPod dock that follows the owner or dances to the currently playing track.�

The Japan Machinery Federation (JMF) chose Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.’s anthropomorphic Robotic Blood Sample Courier System as the Top Robot. The system is actually a team of robots that can deliver blood samples or perform other simple courier tasks within a hospital or laboratory environment. A group control computer assigns various tasks to individual robots who pick up blood samples, deliver them to automatic analyzers, and collect the samples after testing. An automatic battery charging system enables the system to work continously by preventing all the robots from running out of power at the same time.

The Top Robot Component award went to Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.’s mini AC servo motor. The motor features a high maximum torque of 0.3 Nm while measuring only 17.5 mm in diameter and 47 mm in length.

Hitachi, Ltd., in co-operation with a number of univerities, was recognized for its MR Image-Guided Surgical Robotic System, an endoscopic surgery support unit that uses a robotic 1-cm diameter surgical clamp in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that provides real-time navigation during surgery. The system is still in the research and development phase, but the developers say it has been effective in eight liver cancer treatments performed in 2007.
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