Frida Robot (credit: ABB)

The Frida project was started back in 2007 with a core team of Swiss researchers from ABB team that was then complemented by other teams from Sweden, Norway, Germany, the United States and China. The prototypes were manufactured and assembled in Sweden but many students from different universities around the world were also involved in different stages of the development.

 

FRIDA was created in order to meet changing scenarios frequently encountered in the consumer electronics industry and other sectors. The concept includes a flexible gripper, camera-based part plus an advanced robot controller (known as the IRC5). In addition, the robot is compact and intended to fit into spaces ergonomically designed for human workers. FRIDA  can easily switch places with a human worker due to its compact size when the production order is changed or a new layout is required.

FRIDA come as dual-arms which are integrated into the torso of the unit. They can be carried around easily and mounted into work stations with minimum installation requirements.

 

Key technology features:

 

Currently several prototypes have left the lab and are being tested in pilot applications, with more work required to reach a fully agile assembly scenario. At this point no price or expected delivery scheduale was given and it is still hard to tell how the new robotic worker will influence the cost of manufacturing new electronic devices.

 

TFOT has also covered a Robotic Ranger, developed at Cornell University, and a kitchen cleaning robot, which can perform up to 40% of the common household chores.

You can read more on the FRIDA robot on the ABB website.