Isochronic has overcome the limitations of some current industrial robot types.
The founders of Isochronic AG, a young Swiss industrial company based in Denges, set out to overcome the limiting factors of current industrial robotic solutions. Robot arms today can either carefully pick up a part/object, move it, or set it down, but it cannot do two of these things simultaneously. Since pick & place robot movements are highly repetitive and often span considerable distances, increasing the throughput of these operations while enabling long part transfer lengths would also be useful. Finally, the robot arm is usually needed on the surface of a rectangle, however the available working space often does not correspond to this requirement due to limitations of the existing mechanics, but rather to a sphere or a cylinder.
To overcome these limitations, the founders of Isochronic around CEO Melvin Haas have developed a new system. It no longer moves parts sequentially, but in parallel, i.e., several items at the same time instead of just one. At the heart of the isochronic industrial robots is a robust and compact mechanical system – the engineers have shifted the complexity to the intelligent automatic control system.
The new robot type differs from existing ones in two ways: first, the system no longer has an arm with a single pick head, but a central carrier beam on which several pick heads can be active simultaneously. The carrier thus resembles a train station through which the pick heads move like trains. They can travel simultaneously on different rails side by side in one direction, or in opposite directions, without any risk of collision. Secondly, the entire beam is not only parallel/transverse movable, but also horizontally rotatable thanks to rotating suspensions.
These two innovations – multiple pick heads and the rotating suspension – allow Isochronic’s robot to be active at two points simultaneously. One of the pick heads can even remain in one place while another one moves to several targets in succession.
Given the right application, a single isochronic industrial robot is able to operate much more efficiently than conventional robots, thus delivering immediate and direct customer benefits. On the one hand, a smaller number of robot systems is required for the same activity. On the other, it opens up a great deal of scope for future developments. Finally, since the new robot kinematic requires limited mass to be moved, energy and operating costs may be reduced.
The compact size and footprint of the systems helps save valuable industrial floorspace, so existing factories can be used more efficiently. The market potential of Isochronic’s robots is therefore considerable. And that is why we invested in this startup.
