Inbolt and FANUC unveil robots that think and act on the fly
A manufacturing breakthrough: Robots performing production tasks on continuously moving parts at assembly line speeds.
In the race to bring automotive manufacturing back home, the General Assembly Shop, the most manual and unpredictable stage of vehicle production, remains the biggest obstacle. Until now, automating moving lines was considered nearly impossible, requiring massive infrastructure upgrades, expensive fixtures, cycle time compromises, and constant maintenance.
The new Inbolt and FANUC integration changes that, allowing the CRX cobot and other FANUC robot models to operate with real-time 3D vision and adaptive trajectory correction, even with part variation or imperfect environments.
The landmark integration with FANUC robots is the first solution of its kind on the market using FANUC's robots and Inbolt's intelligence layer and real-time vision. General Motors is the first to adopt this new integration, while other leading brands, including Stellantis, Ford, Whirlpool, ThyssenKrupp Automotive, and Toyota, use Inbolt's technology across various applications.
"This new collaboration between Inbolt and FANUC gives car manufacturers a new level of automation: precision tasks, performed by robots, on lines that never stop," says Rudy Cohen, CEO of Inbolt. "No more expensive indexing. No more undue complexity and maintenance challenges. Just robots operating in a continuous motion environment and a huge leap forward for automakers' General Assembly Shop."
The system operates up to 100 times faster than conventional solutions and is designed to scale across diverse production needs, whether for manufacturers worried about maintenance or line throughput or system integrators requirements for easy and quick installation.
How it works
This solution combines FANUC's streaming motion capabilities, which enable real-time trajectory input via Ethernet, with Inbolt's lightweight, robot-mounted vision system and ultra-fast AI model. Key features include:
- Real-Time 3D Guidance: Inbolt's proprietary localization AI refreshes at a high rate continuously identifying object orientation and adapting robot paths on the fly, enabling high-speed screwdriving and part insertion without indexing.
- Flexible Deployment: Operates in low-space environments, with no need for fencing. Ideal for General Assembly stations.
VIDEO: Inbolt and FANUC Pioneer Robots that Think and Act on the Fly at Moving Assembly Line Speeds
Built for the realities of the line
This integration supports bolt rundown, screw insertion, filter installation, and other tasks which are challenging applications for traditional robotics. The system handles real-world constraints: crowded stations, variable parts, minimal floor space, and most importantly moving lines and variable part position.
"Our primary goal is to reduce the complexity of automation," says Albane Dersy, COO of Inbolt. "With Inbolt's guidance system and FANUC's native motion control, robots can now think and act on the fly."
Significantly lowering the barriers to high-performance automation, this integration eliminates the need for specialized lighting or custom jigs, making it easier to deploy robots in complex, real-world environments.
A single robot can now handle over 100 part models with real-time accuracy, even on continuously moving lines. Deployment is streamlined through Inbolt Studio, an intuitive platform that allows users to import CAD files, train the AI model, validate tracking in real time, and launch the program directly on the line.
The solution is available immediately for FANUC CRX models and industrial robots with Stream Motion.
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