Robotics Academy makes use of Satakunta University of Applied Sciences various equipment, expertise and technology. During their time in the Robotics Academy, students will become familiar with the use and programming of specific equipment at our disposal. Here are a few:

ABB Yumi

The YuMi® robot is the result of years of research and development that makes it easy to collaborate between people and robots.

ABB has developed a genuine two-handed robotic assembly for small parts. The robot has flexible positioning hands, camera-based positioning function and precise control system. It’s easy to program YuMi with a variety of trajectories using ABB’s own Robot Studio.

 

Universal Robots 5

The UR 5 is a lightweight six-axle cooperative robot. It’s easy to program for different tasks by teaching a traffic pattern through moving the arm to the desired waypoints and saving them.

It is possible to attach several different attachments such as grippers, vacuum suction cups and cameras to the robot. With these attachments, it is easy to select different objects and therefore it can be used for various assembly jobs.

Among many other features, these make UR 5 a very versatile robot.

 

Omron LD-90

The school is using Omron’s LD-90 robot, which is a smart autonomous mobile robot. It is well suited for warehouse work, for example routine material transfers.

The mobile robot maps its environment using 2 lasers and is able to navigate independently through predetermined routes. The desired route or environment is taught to the robot only once through OMRON Mobile Planner. The robot can also be programmed to communicate in different ways with its waypoints. For example, at a specified point, the robot can repeat, for example, a restaurant menu or the opening hours. The robot can also be equipped with various accessories such as lockable storage or a robotic arm.

The Omron mobile robot has various built-in safety fefatures. It identifies obstacles in its path with lasers and sensors and can navigate around them or wait for the route to be cleared.

 

Pepper

Pepper is a humanoid robot that can communicate with people, talking and gesturing with them. It detects people in various ways, including through facial recognition sensors and automatically makes contact with them. It can recognize human facial features, different emotions such as joy and sorrow as well as hearing speech and responding. The integrated tablet can show additional information or can be used for different purposes, like collecting customer feedback. Pepper has been taught to speak Finnish in addition to the default language, English.

Other examples of the Pepper robot:

• Customer service
• Appointment check-in
• Various reception functions
• Collecting customer feedback – can also collect spoken feedback
• Guest entertainment

 

3D printers

The school has two ((four)) Ultimaker 3D printers available, which are actively used. They are reliable and fast as well as being able to use several different materials for printing. Materials include, for example, nylon, PLA (biodegradable polylactide) and ABS. PLA is the printing material most often used at SAMK.

Printers are used to print numerous different parts – complex,simple or prototypes for new parts. If the part contains complex structures, for example, the Ultimaker 3’s double nozzle is perfect for extruding water-soluble material as support structures while using PLA for the actual part.The support structures can later be dissolved away to leave only the actual part, opening the door for almost unlimited design options.