KUKA

KUKA Robotics

Type	public company
Traded as	FWB: KU2
Industry	Automation
Founded	1898
Headquarters	Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany
Key people	Till Reuter (CEO and chairman of the executive board), Bernd Minning (Chairman of the supervisory board), Manfred Gundel (CEO of the Robotics Division)
Products	Industrial robots, automated production lines
Revenue	€1.079 billion (2010)
Operating income	€24.8 million (2010)
Profit	(€8.6 million) (2010)
Total assets	€984.7 million (end 2010)
Total equity	€198.1 million (end 2010)
Employees	5,990 (end 2010)
Divisions	KUKA Systems
Website	www.kuka.com

KUKA is a worldwide German producer of industrial robots and solutions for factory automation. The KUKA Robotics Corporation has 25 subsidiaries worldwide, mostly sales and service subsidiaries, including: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India and most European countries. The company name, KUKA, is an acronym for Keller und Knappich Augsburg, and at the same time is the registered trademark found on the industrial robots and other products they produce.

History

The company was founded in 1898 by Johann Josef Keller and Jacob Knappich

KUKA´s industrial robots

The company was founded in 1898 in Augsburg, Germany, by Johann Josef Keller and Jacob Knappich. At first, the company’s focus were house and street lights, but soon the company concentrated on other products (welding equipment and solutions; big containers), to become the market leader in communal vehicles in Europe in 1966. Keller & Knappich GmbH merged with part of Industrie-Werke Karlsruhe AG to become Industrie-Werke Karlsruhe Augsburg Aktiengesellschaft, eventually KUKA for short.

In 1973 KUKA created the world's first industrial robot FAMULUS. At this time the company belonged to the Quandt group. However, in 1980 the family Quandt withdrew and a publicly owned firm was established. In 1995 was split into KUKA Robotics Corporation and KUKA Schweißanlagen GmbH (now KUKA Systems GmbH). Today, KUKA concentrates on progressive solutions for the automation of industrial manufacturing processes. The company belongs to the publicly traded KUKA AG (earlier IWKA Group).

Corporate Data

The company headquarters are located in Augsburg, Germany. KUKA employees more than 3.150 workers (30.09.2012). The customers of the company are mainly found in the automotive industry, but increasingly in other industries (General Industry) as well.

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  Automotive: spot welding

Notable Milestones

1971 – Europe’s first welding transfer line built for Daimler-Benz.

1973 – The world’s first industrial robot with six electromechanically driven axes, known as FAMULUS.

1976 – IR 6/60 – A completely new robot type with six electromechanically driven axes and an offset wrist.

1989 – A new generation of industrial robots is developed – brushless drive motors for a low maintenance and a higher technical availability.

2007 – KUKA „titan“ – the at this time biggest and strongest industrial robot with six axes, entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.

2010 – As the only robot family, the robot series KR QUANTEC completely covers the load range of 90 up to 300 kg with a reach of up to 3100 mm for the first time.

2012 – The new small robot series KR AGILUS is launched.

System Information and Application Areas

System Information

The KUKA system software is the operating software and herewith the heart of the entire control. In it all basic functions are stored which are needed for the deployment of the robot system. Robots come with a control panel that has a display resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and an integrated 6D mouse, with which the manipulator is moved, positions are saved (TouchUp), or where modules, functions, data lists, etc. are created and modified. To manually control the axes, the enabling switch on the back of the control panel (the KCP, or KUKAControlPanel) must be activated (today only with a panic function). The connection to the controller is a VGA interface and a CAN-bus. A rugged computer located in the control cabinet communicates with the robot system via an MFC card. Control signals between the manipulator and the controls are transferred using the so-called DSE-RDW connection. The DSE card is in the control cabinet, the RDW card in the robot socket. Controls for the old KRC1 types used Windows 95 to run VxWorks-based software. Peripheral equipment includes a CD-ROM and a disk drive;Ethernet, Profibus, Interbus, Devicenet and ASI sockets are also available. Controls for the newer KRC2 type use the Windows XP operating system. Systems contain a CD-ROM drive and USB ports, Ethernet connection and feature optional connections for Profibus, Interbus, DeviceNet and Profinet. Most robots are finished in "KUKA Orange" (the official corporate color) or black.

Application Areas

The application areas of the industrial robots are diversified. They are used in material handling, loading and unloading of machines, palletizing, spot and arc welding are used in a number of industries. KUKA industrial robots are used in production by companies like:GM, Chrysler, Ford, Porsche, BMW, Tesla, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Ferrari, Harley-Davidson, Boeing, Siemens,STIHL, IKEA, Swarovski, Wal-Mart, Budweiser, BSN Medical as well as Coca-Cola and others. Below several specific applications:

Transport

For the transport of heavy loads industrial robots can play an important role. Their load capacity and the free positioning are often used.

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  Loading milling machine

Food Industry

The robots also find their application in the food industry. Here, they reliably reduce the workload of humans and machines in challenging tasks like loading and unloading of packaging machines, cutting meat, stack and palletise as well as quality control.

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  Robots palletizing food (Bakery)

Construction Industry

The construction industry offers variable areas of use. Robots are applied for both ensuring an even flow of material and for further processing and efficient production.

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  Manufacturing of steel bridges, cutting steel

Glass Industry

In the glass industry, the robots find their application in processing stages like the thermal treatment of glass and quartz glass in the laboratory glass production, bending and forming operations or the production of norm- and mass-produced articles.

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  Flat-glass handling, heavy duty robot with 1,000 kg payload

Foundry and Forging Industry

As the industrial robots are heat- and dirt-resistant, they can be applied directly before, in and on the casting machines. The robots can also be used for further processing like deburring, grinding or drilling and for quality control.

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  Foundry automation with a heat resistant robot.

Wood Industry

Grinding, milling, drilling, sawing, palletising or sorting are applications in the wood industry that can be supported by robots.

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  Wood processing: CNC milling and cutting

Metal processing

The main work areas of the robots are processing operations like drilling, milling, sawing or bending and punching. Of course industrial robots are used in welding, assembly, loading and unloading processes.

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  Metal processing: YAG-laser-cutting

Stone processing

The ceramic and stone industries use the industrial robots for the so called bridge sawing of stone slabs through to fully automatic 3D processing.

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  Stone processing: waterjet cutting of quartz kitchen countertops

Business Figures

Consolidated sales (KUKA Roboter GmbH)

• 413 Mio. Euro (2008)
• 330 Mio. Euro (2009)
• 435 Mio. Euro (2010)
• 616 Mio. Euro (2011)

Executive board KUKA Roboter GmbH:

CEO Manfred Gundel

CFO Michael Albert

Consolidated sales (KUKA AG)

• 1.286 Mio. Euro (2007)
• 1.266 Mio. Euro (2008)
• 902 Mio. Euro (2009)
• 1.078 Mio. Euro (2010)
• 1.435 Mio. Euro (2011)

Executive board KUKA AG:

CEO Dr. Till Reuter

CFO Peter Mohnen

Interesting Facts

The Robocoaster is an amusement ride based on industrial robotics technology.

KUKA Robots have also appeared in various Hollywood Films. In the James Bond film Die Another Day, in a scene depicting an ice palace in Iceland, the NSA agent Jinx (Halle Berry) is threatened by laser-wielding robots. In the Ron Howard directed film The Da Vinci Code, a KUKA robot hands Tom Hanks’ character Robert Langdon a container containing a cryptex. In 2001 KUKA developed the Robocoaster, which is the world’s first passenger-carrying industrial robot. The ride uses roller-coaster-style seats attached to robotic arms and provides a roller coaster-like motion sequence to its two passengers through a series of programmable maneuvers. There is also the possibility that riders themselves can program the motions of their ride. In 2007 KUKA introduced a simulator, based on the Robocoaster. Since 2010 Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida utilises KUKA robotic arm technology in its revolutionary indoor attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The ride's seats are mounted on robotic arms which are in turn mounted on a track. This allows the arms to travel through the attraction while performing their movements in synchronization with the ride's show elements (animated props, projection surfaces, etc.)

See also

• Automation
• Robotics

References

• Most of the content of this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article.
• Wiki CAEX page
• Wiki Georgia Institute of Technology page

External links

• Official website
• KUKA Robotics Corp. (USA)