Introducing YuMi, the world’s first truly collaborative robot

The explosive growth in demand for mobile electronics requires a new manufacturing paradigm. YuMi provides the solution.

This week at the Hannover Messe in Germany ABB Robotics is introducing YuMi® to the world. YuMi is the first industrial robot that can be considered truly collaborative and completely safe to work hand-in-hand with humans on assembly lines.

YuMi is one of ABB’s most innovative robots since we started selling the world’s first all-electric, microprocessor-controlled industrial robot more than 40 years ago. There are many groundbreaking features of YuMi that set this robot apart, but three of these features specifically highlight how YuMi will change the way the world thinks about small parts assembly.

Firstly – this is true Human Robot Collaboration. YuMi can work closely with humans on the same assembly tasks. At ABB’s Hannover Fair booth YuMi is working in several real-world examples of collaborative assembly—with a tracker screen that allows you to follow along and count the number of parts YuMi and its human co-workers have assembled during the week (already on the first day this was more than 7,000 parts).

At the booth you can even work with YuMi yourself and learn how to program it. YuMi is compact with human dimensions and human movements, which makes co-workers feel safe and comfortable. YuMi’s unique design enables this close collaboration between humans and robots.

Secondly – Safety.  The robot is completely safe for people to interact with. In fact, YuMi is the first industrial robot to be independently certified as safe. The soft padded dual arms combined with force-sensing technologies guarantee the complete safety of YuMi’s colleagues.

And finally – YuMi is a complete solution that is the result of years of research and development. It is much more than just the robot. While YuMi was specifically designed to meet the production needs of the consumer electronics industry, it can be used in any small parts assembly application thanks to its dual arms with flexible hands, a feeding system, and that we have given it the ability to see and feel.  YuMi weighs only 38 kg, has the controlling hardware and software integrated in its body, and you can plug it into standard household electrical power.

If you are in Hannover, please come and try yourself how easy it is to program YuMi in one of our two “Ease of use” Lead-Through Programming stations. You will be surprised how fast this can be done and how intuitively this works. In addition, the two collaborative assembly stations show you how the entire YuMi system works together in the real-world.

We believe that YuMi will change the way we think about assembly automation. YuMi is “you” and “me” working safely together to create endless in opportunities.

Please join me, and all of ABB, in welcoming YuMi to our robotics family. You can follow the introduction activity on our official YuMi portal, the ABB Hannover Fair portal and the ABB Robotics YouTube channel.

If you are in Hannover, I invite you to stop by Hall 11, Stand A35 and see YuMi in person.