Elite Robot: Fast-growing Asian cobot manufacturer

"The performance of affordable cobots will not go up, and those with excellent performance will not go down in price."

Hanover Fair

A highlight of the Hannover Messe was the live presentation of Elite Robot. Instead of a video, the quite young executives presented themselves in a hall (photo: screenshot). In the hall, many of their own cobots are obviously being tested. There were also short videos of interesting case studies from practice and of what is feasible but not necessarily wanted. (In one video, a cobot steered an excavator.) Both the presence at the Hannover Messe and the recent opening of a US branch show Elite Robot's global ambitions. Financing should not be a problem: at the end of April, another 31 million US dollars were raised.

140 employees, 60 of them in R&D

As can be seen from the company presentation and other sources, the company founded in 2017 is a spin-off of a university. With the aim of buying as little as possible and instead developing as many Cobot components as possible itself, 99 patents have been registered so far. Of the 140 employees, 60 work in development. 90% of the R&D employees have master's degrees.

EC series as a solid start

After entering the market with three six-axle models of the "EC" series and payloads of 3/6/12 kg, the "CS" series is currently being introduced. About 1,000 units of the "EC" series are expected to have been sold in 2020, mainly in China. Thanks to the appropriate accessories from companies such as Robotiq, OnRobot, Sick and others, customers such as Continental, Nissan, KFC or Foxconn have already been won with these cobots, primarily in China. There seems to be a certain focus on the automotive sector. The video shows a case study from the area of screws: A nut is taken out of an Anyfeeder and turned onto a screw:

For the popular topic of machine loading, there is a video with a more complex solution that shows how easily the reach of cobots can be increased. The related vacuum gripper should be a helpful special solution:

CS series - numerous possibilities with good equipment

While the "C" stands for Cobot, the "S" stands for Safe, Simple, Superior, Sustainable and Scalable. The "CS" series focuses on the safety of the employees. This is guaranteed by 18 safety functions. In addition to the hardware improvements, the software for the CS series cobots has also been comprehensively updated. ELITE uses a new type of lightweight teach panel with a wide screen that supports touch screen control for more direct operation.

The "CS" series starts at a payload of 3 kg with a reach of 624 mm at a repeatability of 0.02 mm. There is also a medium model with a load capacity of 6 kg (914 mm reach). The top model carries 12 kg with a reach of 1304 mm and a repeatability of 0.05 mm. The type designation is made up of the number of the line of freedom (i.e. 6) and the load capacity. Thus, there are CS 63, CS 66 and CS 612. All cobots have IP 54 and tolerate between 5 and 50 degrees.

Elite Robot already has a production capacity of 5,000 units per year. This indicates that the company wants to serve global markets.