Rethink Robotics' cobot Sawyer augments human efforts by taking on tedious tasks like circuit board testing, quality control

BOSTON, March 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rethink Robotics, a pioneer and leader in the development of collaborative robots for the manufacturing industry, has seen significant cobot adoption by leading electronics manufacturers. Increasingly, companies are choosing Rethink Robotics' Sawyer™ to increase productivity and relieve employees from performing repetitive tasks.

Sawyer is characterized by intelligent force control, which enables the precise and appropriate use of force when handling electronic components, fragile parts and high-quality accessories. For example, Sawyer can be used to assemble highly sensitive circuit boards or in the area of quality control for circuit board testing. Testing circuit boards is a simple, but time-consuming process. Bottlenecks can quickly arise if employees are needed for more complex production steps.

ASM Assembly Systems (ASM), a leading supplier of packaging and electronic manufacturing components, has launched Sawyer in its Munich, Germany factory. ASM has set itself the goal of relieving skilled workers from monotonous tasks to get the most value of their labor. The company uses Rethink Robotics' Sawyer robot in its production facility to insert circuit boards into a test adapter, check for defects and sort the boards according to the test results. In this way, employees can devote themselves to more complex tasks while the robot carries out the monotonous test procedure.

Many electronics companies use collaborative robot solutions in the direct vicinity of their employees. Appropriate safety standards are therefore particularly important. Sawyer's TÜV certification and the integrated responsive force control system enable safe cooperation between human employees and the robot.

"With Sawyer, Rethink Robotics offers companies a smart, secure and easy to implement solution that enables them to drive forward the automation of their manufacturing processes in a result-oriented manner and with the necessary adaptability," says Darius Wilke, director of European Business at Rethink Robotics. "Companies like ASM, where the digital factory has already become a reality, can also use Sawyer to capture and visualize production and performance data and feed it directly into their production IT and data analytics systems."

For more information, please visit rethinkrobotics.com.

About Rethink Robotics:
Rethink Robotics is transforming the way manufacturing gets done, with smart, collaborative robots able to automate the 90 percent of tasks that until now, have been beyond the reach of traditional automation. Its Baxter® and Sawyer robots, powered by the Intera software platform, adapt to real-world variability, can change applications quickly and perform tasks like people do. The result: manufacturers of all shapes, sizes and industries get the fast-to-deploy, easy-to-use and versatile automation solution they need to increase flexibility, lower cost and accelerate innovation.

Based in Boston, the Rethink product suite is available in Asia, Europe and North America. The company is funded by Bezos Expeditions, CRV, Highland Capital Partners, Sigma Partners, DFJ, GE Ventures and Goldman Sachs. For more information about Rethink Robotics, please visit www.rethinkrobotics.com and follows us on Twitter @RethinkRobotics.