The FPT Industrial Driveline plant in Turin is dedicated to the production of transmissions and axles for heavy equipment. The department uses AURA (Advanced Use Robotic Arm) which is a robot designed and built by Comau and used in the HuManS (Human-centered Manufacturing System) project, launched in the Piedmont Region tender dedicated to the Intelligent Factory Platform. FPT Industrial, Comau and another 17 companies specialized in the sector participated in the project. It places humans at the center of the production system, surrounded by machinery that helps and shares the space with them in complete safety. 

AURA is a collaborative industrial robot capable of working alongside humans, without barriers in the same workstation, to help and perform the most tiring and repetitive tasks. It can be manually guided by human operator also. Specifically, this robot retrieves a part from the supply cart in complete autonomy and delicately hands it to the operator it shares the station with and is precisely the human operator who takes control of the operations, guiding the robot using a specific handle so that the mechanical arm takes the part to the work bench, where it is coupled with a lever.

“We are happy to have moved this project forward with an excellent partner like Comau. The configuration created at the Turin Driveline plant represents significant innovation, as it improves the ergonomics in manual assembly operations of heavy elements thanks to the support of robots capable of safely sharing the spaces with the human operator. It also represents an important vehicle to spread new technologies developed thanks to their application in a real production setting,” explained Giuseppe Daresta, Manufacturing Manager, FTP Industrial.

The synergy between two leading companies in the technological field such as FPT Industrial and Comau has led to an innovative solution focused on the collaborative AURA robot. Comau has always been involved in developing products and systems aimed at improving customer production processes in terms of flexibility, quality and efficiency. ‘Cobots’ and digital instruments are just some of the main technologies that Comau has developed following its own approach to Industry 4.0, called HUMANufacturing, to create complete and safe collaboration in production operations between humans and machines, called on to support humans in operations that require greater speed, strength and repeatability, as well as dangerous operations,” commented Pietro Ottavis, Chief Technology Officer, Comau.

For more information: www.fptindustrial.com