ABB Robotics Introduces Ultra-Fast Cobot Family

ABB announced the launch of its new PoWa cobot family, which merges the flexibility of collaborative robots with higher payloads and industrial performance. This innovation is designed to make automation more accessible for both SMEs and large industrial companies. The new cobots offer payloads ranging from 7 to 30 kg, a top speed of 5.8 m/s as well as great reach and additional arm load in their class. Powered by ABB’s OmniCore control platform and fully integrated with ABB Robotics’ software tools, the PoWa family is set to meet the demands of the rapidly expanding global collaborative robotics market, which ABB Robotics projects to grow by 20 % annually until 2028.

“The cobot market is growing significantly faster than the traditional industrial robot market – driven by demand from both small and medium-sized enterprises starting their automation journey and large industrial companies,” emphasizes Andrea Cassoni, Head of Collaborative Robots at ABB Robotics. “These customers want higher speeds and payloads, as well as easier operation and compact designs. Additionally, established manufacturers want to automate applications with higher loads and fast cycle times – without the complexity of traditional industrial robots. We are now meeting these requirements with the global launch of our ultra-fast PoWa cobot family – a name that stands for powerful, industrial performance in a compact collaborative robot design.”

PoWa is specifically designed for compact environments and is ideal for applications such as high-speed machine tending, palletizing and screwing processes and arc welding. This enables manufacturers to automate faster processes with higher loads, while retaining the characteristic advantages of collaborative robotics – flexibility, ease of use and minimal space requirements. These cobots are easy to operate thanks to programmable buttons on the arm-side interface and no-code programming and are compatible with a wide ecosystem of third-party accessories. They are ready for use within an hour and enable seamless plug-and-play with a variety of tools, combining industrial-level connectivity and performance with the flexibility of collaborative robotics.

Powered by ABB’s OmniCore control platform, the new PoWa cobots deliver first-class motion control, high speed and precision. They can be integrated with ABB Robotics’ growing range of AI-powered software, including RobotStudio and Wizard Easy Programming, enabling intuitive programming, rapid deployment and maximum uptime. A key part of ABB Robotics’ vision for Autonomous Versatile Robotics (AVR) is to enable collaborative robots to take on more tasks in more places. By developing a new generation of intelligent, flexible and adaptable collaborative robots, ABB Robotics is expanding their ability to learn, understand, and plan independently, giving them a new level of autonomy and versatility.

(Source: ABB Robotics)