​Quality reproducible sanding for more productive factories, and higher-skilled factory jobs with fewer repetitive manual tasks

Lightweight, easy-to-program, and safe robots that can either work independently or assist a human operator: Isybot is reinventing jobs like sanding, polishing, and grinding.

Thanks to the CEA’s force-sensor-free actuation technologies protected by seven patents, Isybot’s cobots (collaborative robots) are simple, precise, lightweight, and safe for the operators they assist. Their initial setup takes only two hours. To program in a new task, all the operator needs to do is carry it out manually; the cobot will memorize the movements and control the direction and intensity of the tasks to be replicated. The operator can also designate a rectangular area for the cobot to sand exclusively within.

In just a few years, Isybot has gained a glowing reputation for large-surface industrial sanding, particularly in aeronautics, rail, and shipbuilding. Its cobots improve productivity, reduce the arduousness of manual tasks, and achieve reproducibly high-quality sanding. They also help make jobs that are hard to fill more attractive.

The startup is working in a joint laboratory with the CEA to develop a new heavy-load cobot (20 kg, compared to the current 10 kg model) and evaluate other use cases, like non-destructive testing.

Key figure: 2 hours

A technician can be trained in two hours to use the Isybot cobot, all without the need for special training or the aid of a robotics expert

Main applications:

• Large-area industrial sanding
• Polishing
• Grinding
• Non-destructive testing

Technology:

• Ball ramp, screw, and cable actuators
• Force measurements via motor currents

Year founded: 2016

Originating institutes: CEA-List