At the EMO Hannover 2025 event in September, a commercial research partnership demonstrated a new technology package that combines automation and precision machining and performs reliably across a range of materials, from fiber composites and aluminum to tempered steels. The system was presented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, in Stade, Germany, together with Siemens AG and autonox Robotics GmbH.
Fraunhofer IFAM led the development, along with Siemens, to improve the dynamics and precision of industrial robots. It explained that Machine Tool Robot (MTR) integrates model-based control with new drive technologies, which are combined with a mechanical robot structure optimized by autonox Robotics.
This combination means that dynamic errors can be compensated for and vibrations can be effectively damped – which will improve the accuracy of the tool path significantly, even at high feed rates and complex path movements.
A notable advantage is the new drive concept that optimizes disturbance rejection, ensuring constant precision even with highly dynamic process forces. This means the MRT is capable of machining with higher material removal rates and the ability to operate with higher jerk settings, both contributing to increased productivity.
According to IFAM, these details mean that “Machine Tool Robot closes the gap between classic industrial robots and machine tools,” in particular for demanding processes like machining hard materials.
It also establishes new potential applications in automation technology and “smart manufacturing.”
Industrial robotics are adaptable to alternative machining set-ups, for example if they are used in combination with a workspace extension such as a surface-moving platform or additional axes, or in combination with other robots.
Compared to gantry systems or machine tools, the MRT concept conserves space and is not economically dependent on processing individual large components, according to IFAM. There is no need to install special foundations, so it’s simpler to put the system in place and adapt it to production lines in future.
The combination of serial articulated arm kinematics with a linear axis provides many advantages over large gantry and special processing machines. The smaller mounting space and the modular design of the linear axis make the system highly flexible. The use of two preloaded rack and pinion drives compensates for reversal effects and achieves a sufficiently high drive stiffness of the linear axis carriage for path-accurate robot processes. Due to the high structural rigidity of the linear axis, the influences on the robot accuracy are low despite the large lever arms to the load application point.
A software application for model-based calibration, called CaliRob and developed at Fraunhofer IFAM offers a complementary technology for increasing precision: Due to unavoidable manufacturing tolerances, industrial robots exhibit individual deviations from the ideal system. These deviations can result in errors of up to several millimeters when approaching target positions in robot systems without knowledge of these deviations.
Therefore, in order to achieve maximum accuracy industrial robots must be calibrated according to requirements, for example with “CaliRob”. A key element of this application is an extensive mathematical model that includes over 200 parameters to describe robot kinematics on a linear axis.
In the next stage of development researchers at Fraunhofer IFAM, together with Siemens AG and autonox Robotics GmbH, will test the new robot system in demanding industrial applications in order to advance the potential of the technologies. A Weiss Spindeltechnologie robot spindle designed for high weight requirements is being deployed in this effort.
Applications proposed for the Machine Tool Robot include aerospace machining, such as lighter fiber composite structures and aluminum alloys, to the machining of harder materials; and heavier or harder machining tasks, such as steel or titanium parts destined for railroad and commercial vehicle production, shipbuilding, as well as in the energy sector.
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Robert Brooks
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Robert Brooks has been a business-to-business reporter, writer, editor, and columnist for more than 20 years, specializing in the primary metal and basic manufacturing industries.