frida

Frida factory robot won't crush your fingers

Swiss automation firm ABB is showing off a concept factory robot called Frida that's more humanoid than the typical one-armed drones on the assembly line.

The two-armed Frida is being billed as a "harmless robotic co-worker for industrial assembly." Of course, any robot described as being "harmless" should be treated with extreme caution.

It has seven-axis arms, flexible grippers, and camera-based parts location and runs via ABB's IRC5 controller. It's designed as a lightweight, portable complement to human parts assembly.

Frida stands for "Friendly Robot for Industrial Dual-arm Assembly," but I reckon the first word in that name won't sit well with some people. Still, it has padded arms and can sense when a human hand gets too close, as seen in the video below. … Read more