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2020 – A KUKA review of the year

A challenging, but also exciting year is coming to an end. And we look back on some KUKA highlights and milestones of 2020.


Teresa Fischer
29 December 2020
Society
Reading Time: 4 min.

February

Probably the world’s first automatic fast food robot: it is small, agile, precise – and soon it will be delighting fast food lovers all over the world: KUKA’s KR 3 AGILUS serves snacks, drinks and desserts to guests in the fully automated fast food machine from the Brazilian company Bionicook.

March

KUKA receives the “Global Company of the Year Award 2020″ for the Medical Robotics division: The consulting company Frost & Sullivan analyzed the medical robotics market, and in doing so recognises KUKA’s LBR Med as one of the most advanced robots in the industry. For the robot and its innovative achievements in the field of medical robotics as a whole, KUKA has received the “Company of the Year” award from Frost & Sullivan.

April

KUKA receives major order from German automaker for 5,000 robots: KUKA and BMW are proven partners – and in April signed a framework agreement for the supply of around 5,000 robots for new production lines and plants.

Pipetting throat swabs from potential corona patients – that is a job for robots. More precisely for an LBR iiwa from KUKA, which supports laboratory personnel at Bulovka Hospital in Prague. Without a mask, but tirelessly.

August

With the new KR 4 AGILUS, KUKA is delivering a hot candidate for first place in the small robotics charts. The compact robot is optimally designed for robot-based automation in electronics manufacturing and for handling tasks in other industries.

September

Starting signal for the training of the future: KUKA officially opens its new education center at its Augsburg headquarters. In a modern concept, the Augsburg-based company is bringing together the areas of education, training, human resources and development in a space of around 8,000 m².

KUKA was also presenting several new products in September:

  • With the KR CYBERTECH nano, KUKA is presenting a highly flexible multi-functional tool that is convincing even in harsh environments. The low operating costs make the KUKA robot in the low payload class particularly interesting for economically demanding production chains.
  • With the new KR SCARA, KUKA is supplying reliable helpers for industrial manufacturing, which demonstrate their strengths above all in small parts assembly, material handling and testing tasks. In the payload class up to 6 kg, no one can hold a candle to the KUKA SCARA robots so quickly.

October

Digital hospitality in the Roboter-Café: KUKA robots can not only weld, mill and palletize, they also prepare coffee and serve snacks. In the unique Robot Café in Dubai, the digital service robots have been in operation for just a few weeks.

KUKA is researching psychosocial aspects of human-robot collaboration: together with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Sport University, KUKA is evaluating a robot-based system for neuromuscular training.

November

At KUKA, November is all about medical robotics: at European Robotics Week, KUKA experts talked about the possibilities of robotics in healthcare, and at the virtual medical trade fair MEDICA, KUKA was present with numerous activities and events. One highlight: the presentation of the KUKA Innovation Award. A team from Italy impressed the international jury with its concept for the “Medical Robotics Challenge”:

December

Experts from KUKA, Device Insight and Sentian discussed how the Smart Factory can become reality through the combination of Artificial Intelligence and IoT in the KUKA Press Talk series. In focus: a look into the future of manufacturing and the discussion of how industrial companies can increase efficiency, product quality and sales by linking artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

An exciting year is coming to an end – and we look forward to 2021 with many more highlights from the KUKA world. Until then, we wish all readers a happy new year. Stay healthy!

About the author
Teresa Fischer
Spokesperson Business KUKA 
More about Teresa Fischer
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