Robotics Industry

Medical robotics involves the application of robotic systems in the healthcare field. These robots can assist surgeons during complex procedures, perform precision tasks, or enable access to sensitive, hard-to-reach regions that are not accessible via traditional manual procedures. Safety, reliability, and regulatory compliance are all key challenges in medical robotic systems.

Having a robust, deterministic, and dependable communication protocol like EtherCAT allows systems to be very stable and safe, leading to higher success rates. Another crucial aspect of medical robot development is the regulatory compliance stage. acontis’ EtherCAT and Real-time solutions, such as EC-Master and LxWin, proudly run inside many FDA-approved medical robotics platforms today.

Factory automation robotics focuses on the use of robots in manufacturing and industrial processes. These robots can handle complex repetitive tasks, assembly operations, and material handling. Major challenges within the factory automation robotics sector include flexibility and adaptivity, safety, and maintenance.

acontis technologies addresses these challenges with its advanced EtherCAT Master, EC-Master. Designed to support the needs of factory automation systems, EC-Master offers a range of advanced functionalities, including hot connect and cable redundancy. These features enable flexible network topologies and enhance safety during robot operations.

acontis also provides an assortment of software tools designed to simplify troubleshooting and diagnostics. Tools such as EC-Inspector and EC-Monitor aid in reducing system downtime during maintenance and troubleshooting activities.

Robotics plays a vital role in optimizing logistics and warehouse operations. Automated guided vehicles (AGVs), robotic arms, cobots (also known as collaborative robots), and autonomous picking systems streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and reduce errors. Major challenges in this sub-sector include navigation, obstacle avoidance, and system flexibility.

Warehouse robotics systems typically handle significant amounts of data rapidly and efficiently. For instance, accurate detection and manipulation of items rely on proper reception of data from sensors and cameras. acontis technologies addresses these requirements with EC-Master, our EtherCAT Master solution, enabling extremely low network cycle times and jitter even with extensive process data.

To simplify device and network setup, acontis offers EC-Engineer, an EtherCAT network configuration and diagnostic tool. EC-Engineer facilitates advanced network configurations and provides powerful diagnostic and troubleshooting functions, minimizing system downtime.

Aerospace robotics involves the use of robots in aircraft manufacturing, spacecraft launch, deep space telescopes, and space exploration. Key challenges within this sector include weight restrictions, safety, and reliability.

acontis' suite of Hypervisor software, which includes both type 1 and type 2 hypervisors, enables the simultaneous operation of real-time and non-deterministic operating systems on a single system. This real-time virtualization capability allows for the consolidation of multiple hardware components into a single CPU, resulting in cost savings, increased reliability, and, sometimes more importantly, reduced weight.