Blue Danube Robotics is specialized as fenceless experts with its tactile safety solution AIRSKIN®. AIRSKIN® is a sturdy, pressure sensitive skin that is mounted simply and directly onto standard industrial robots such as KUKA, Stäubli, Epson, to name a few.
The company focuses on all fenceless industrial applications, for example palletizing, visual inspection and screw driving. They provide their customers with more than just an add-on skin for the robot.
AIRSKIN®’s vision is to enable open and flexible production layouts (fenceless production). As it works with industrial robots it is the fastest solution on the market for collaborative, fenceless applications.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Blue Danube Robotics: At the moment the company targets mainly the automotive industry where the greatest need is obvious. On the other hand, FMCG and electronics are becoming more of an interest.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
Blue Danube Robotics: The company launched the AIRSKIN® for the KUKA Quantec in 2023. With this solution it has become the solution with the highest payload and longest reach in the collaborative industry by far. The output possibilities are at least 10 times higher than existing cobots on the market. The KUKA Quantec with AIRSKIN® offers a payload of up to 300kg and a reach up to 3100mm.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
Blue Danube Robotics: We are offering customized standard solutions for:
- KUKA Agilus, KUKA Cybertech, KUKA Iontec, KUKA Quantec
- Stäubli PowerCobots TX2touch-60 and TX2touch-90
- Epson Scaraflex by Economa
- AIRSKIN® Cellcore
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
Blue Danube Robotics: The market is currently led by the automotive industry which is highly focused to initiate the open and flexible production layouts until 2030. The necessary changes to stay competitive in the car business led to more and more paradigm changes in the car manufacturing process.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
Blue Danube Robotics: The trend is clearly shifting into the open and flexible production. In addition, the learning about cobots is that they are not fast and safe enough to be used widely in the more established industries, such as automotive and FMCG. To develop cobots with higher payloads and longer reach turns out to be much more cost-intense than expected.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
Blue Danube Robotics: The AIRSKIN for KUKA Quantec changes the game of fenceless/collaborative robotics, as all of a sudden, huge and strong robots can be used in open production layouts without over-engineering each application on its own.
E.E: What estimations do you have for the rest of 2023?
Blue Danube Robotics: As the industry in general slumps down, cost efficiency is becoming more important again. We see investments into production layouts quite stable, as the big European manufacturers have to become more competitive to keep the market advantage.