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Micropsi Industries announced its software, MIRAI, is now compatible with numerous robots from FANUC, a leading supplier of robotics and factory automation. With MIRAI, FANUC customers can add hand-eye coordination to multiple FANUC industrial and collaborative robots (cobots) to handle functions such as cable plugging and assembly.

The MIRAI controller generates robot movements directly and in real time. Robot skills are trained, not programmed, in a few days through human demonstration, without requiring knowledge of programming. To train a robot, a human repeatedly demonstrates a task by manually guiding the robot by the robot’s wrist. The recorded movements are then transformed into a skill.

Cable plugging applications such as flat ribbon cables for the electronics industry or industrial automotive connectors typically require a high degree of flexibility to accommodate shape instability, making it a difficult task for any robot.

“Grabbing a flexible part, guiding it and placing it accurately into a socket may be a trivial task for humans, but it has been basically impossible to complete for industrial robots,” said Prof. Dominik Bösl, chief technology officer, Micropsi Industries. “That’s because while robots can work tirelessly and precisely with high repeatability, they are limited in their ability to perform complex motorized processes. The required hand-eye coordination is just not present in a robot. If the robot falters due to variances or deviations, employees must intervene, and are sometimes burdened with unergonomic tasks. This inhibits the performance of manufacturing companies who are already struggling with the prevailing shortage of skilled workers.”

Micropsi Industries plans additional automation projects that will expand the range of applications for FANUC’s industrial robots. The medium- and long-term goal: to revolutionize industrial work from the ground up.

“Micropsi Industries working with FANUC’s robots will break new ground by making automation possible where it has never been before,” Bösl added. “In this strategic relationship, our MIRAI intelligent controller meets the world’s largest portfolio of industrial robots. Together, we are tapping into the nearly unlimited possibilities of task-specific machine learning for robotics. In doing so, we are making it accessible to even more industries and users, ensuring greater flexibility under real production conditions.”