Coordinated adept SCARA and six-axis intelligent robots automate Insulet’s OmniPod assembly line

Citation

(2006), "Coordinated adept SCARA and six-axis intelligent robots automate Insulet’s OmniPod assembly line", Industrial Robot, Vol. 33 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2006.04933eab.008

Coordinated adept SCARA and six-axis intelligent robots automate Insulet’s OmniPod assembly line

Coordinated adept SCARA and six-axis intelligent robots automate Insulet’s OmniPod assembly line

Keywords: Robotics, Pharmaceuticals industry

Adept Technology, Inc. a leading provider of intelligent vision-guided robotics and global robotics services, has announced a major medical device automation program with Insulet Corporation for the OmniPode Insulet Management System, a disruptive technology for insulin delivery in diabetes management.

The OmniPod System integrates insulin infusion and blood glucose monitoring in a safe, easy to use, two part system. Insulet’s medical device production will use Adept Cobrae SCARA robots and Adept Vipere six- axis articulated robots under coordinated Smart SERVO control. According to Kevin Schmid, VP of Manufacturing, “We continuously expand our OmniPod production capability in order to satisfy the tremendous demand for this product. We need Adept’s advanced robotics based on their flexibility, speed and dependability for our assembly operations.”

Insulet’s groundbreaking OmniPod is being assembled in the USA. “Insulet is ramping up large-scale manufacturing and requires rapid deployment of Adept’s robotics in our clean room environment,” says Schmid. “Adept has a proven track record in clean room robotics and the ability to scale to meet our demand.”

“It is exciting to see our robots being used in the high growth medical device industry,” says Janine Roth, Vice President Marketing, Adept Technology. “Insulet is an excellent example of a company gaining competitive edge via its progressive manufacturing approach. Adept robots are capable of performing precise, high- quality, and high-throughput applications, all within a controlled environment, making them well-suited for the medical device industry.”

Sal Spada, Research Director for ARC Advisory Group, commented, “With the convergence of embedded intelligence and mechanics in medical products the manufacturing requirements in this industry sector will mirror those experienced in automotive sensors and the semiconductor backend 20 years ago. As medical devices become smaller, more complex, and individually customized it is economically unfeasible to consider an assembly operation without robotics. Based on these drivers, ARC Advisory Group’s most recent assessment of the robotics market projected that the medical device sector would outpace the overall market growth for robotic solutions. As such, over the next five years the robotic shipments into the medical device sector will surpass an 11 percent annual growth.”