ABB, Vention bringing GoFa cobots to small & midsize manufacturers

Small and midsize manufacturers (SMMs) have historically struggled to adopt robotics. Some barriers to adoption include not knowing where to start, complicated purchasing and installation processes, and uncertainty about return on investment. Do-it-yourself (DIY) robotics marketplaces have popped up in recent years in an attempt to help SMMs overcome these challenges.

Today, Vention added another global robotics leader to its lineup of solutions. ABB‘s GoFa collaborative robot arms are now officially part of Vention’s Manufacturing Automation Platform (MAP). The MAP is a one-stop shop for customers to design, program, order and deploy robots. The new partnership means Vention customers who purchase ABB’s GoFa cobots via the MAP will benefit from integration between both the company’s technology, from the design stage of robotic cells, up to their operations on a factory floor.

Vention defines DIY automation as the process of “self-designing and implementing industrial automation solutions without the need for multiple third parties or extensive expertise in automation.” This is a market in which ABB is hoping to gain more traction.

“Both ABB and Vention have been independently working on lowering that adoption barrier for robotics. We did it on the robot front, while Vention did it on the application and deployment side,” said Nicolas Durand, VP and GM, ABB Robotics Canada. “This partnership is especially valuable for those new adopters who are stepping into robotics for the first time and looking to lower their initial investment.”

ABB offers three GoFa cobots with 5 kg, 10 kg, and 12 kg payloads. The cobots offer 0.02 mm repeatability and a reach up to 1.62 meters. ABB said the cobots are designed for various applications such as assembly, material handling, inspection, welding, and more. The GoFa cobots have integrated torque sensors in each of their six joints offering superior power and force limiting performance.

The GoFa cobots are now compatible with the entire Vention platform, including MachineBuilder (design), MachineLogic (robot programming), MachineAnalytics (operations monitoring & data) and Remote Support (on-demand support). ABB’s GoFa cobots will be available later in 2025 for Vention’s Rapid Series application line. ABB and Vention have previously collaborated on robotics deployments.

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ABB also offers a SWIFTI line of cobots that, together with the GoFa portfolio, built on the company’s original YuMi cobot. ABB develops a number of high-speed, heavy-duty industrial robots. It also spent $190 million in 2021 to acquire ASTI Mobile Robotics and now offers a line of autonomous mobile robots.

However, the partnership will initially only be for the GoFa cobots. The robots available on Vention’s MAP are mainly cobot arms, including models from ABB competitors Doosan Robotics, FANUC, Kinova, and Universal Robots. The platform does have industrial robots from FANUC, and SCARA robots from Epson and FANUC. Vention doesn’t sell autonomous mobile robots on its MAP.

“We had clients specifically demanding the ABB brand, and we were not able to serve them,” said Etienne Lacroix, founder and chief executive officer, Vention. “We choose the partners we do business with very carefully, simply because our mission is to provide simplicity. We are in the business of democratizing industrial automation. Do we want to work with all the robot manufacturers out there? Quite the contrary. We want the select few that move the market.”

ABB moves the market on many fronts. Earlier in 2024, it won an RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for its new modular industrial robot arms. The four new models offer 22 variants all based on the same modular design. All of the components are standardized across all model platforms, including the base, lower arm, upper arm, and wrist. All of the building blocks share the same linkages or interfaces, allowing ABB to offer a greater range of robot models more efficiently.

ABB also recently launched its next-generation OmniCore platform that can now control most of its automation line.

Vention partnered with NVIDIA in June 2024 to increase its AI capabilities. At the time, Vention said the collaboration will help create digital twins more efficiently and could bring generative designs for robot cells, co-pilot programming, physics-based simulation, and autonomous robots.

John Bubnikovich, president of ABB Robotics US, is participating on a keynote panel about robotics innovation at RoboBusiness, which takes place Oct. 16-17 in Santa Clara, Calif. The panel will talk about the challenges and opportunities the industry faces, and the potential impact new technologies such generative AI and humanoid robots could have on multiple industries. RoboBusiness will have nearly 100 exhibitors, 70+ experts on stage, a robotics startup competition, 10+ hours of dedicated networking, and thousands of robotics stakeholders from around the world.