FANUC Corporation

Well, to hit those numbers, they're going to need customers to actually expand deployments.

But moving from entirely new hardware to legacy giants, our editor's choice today brings us to FANUC and Google.

Oh, this is the AI welding agent, right? Using Google Gemini Enterprise.

Yep, exactly.

It's for existing FANUC CRX robots and compatible equipment.

You basically input an engineering drawing, and the output gives you welding parameters and robot motion programs.

Which is fascinating because FNUC is stating their goal here is zero setup and zero teaching.

There are, for example, software companies like us.

There are robot makers like ABB, Fanuc, KUKA, Universal Robots.

And there are also system integrators that put the solution together for the customer.

And then there's the end customer.

Okay.

And your systems run on different hardware under the hood, right? Universal Robots for welding and cutting, Fanuc for painting, but customers see this one identical interface.

Is that the Beacon platform that you were talking about?

Yeah, that's correct.

But you're right, I mean, we deploy-- the software gets deployed across multiple robot brands, but from a user, you're on a single user interface.

Yeah.

And so whether you're working with one of our painting systems on a Fanuc or you're working with a welder on a UR, y- what you're gonna see in the app looks identical.

The robots are gonna live in the exact same application.

ARM represents the standardization layer.

And then FANUC and Paladine are tackling the deployment layer.

Because physical AI only really becomes an industry when robots can be built repeatedly, described consistently, and deployed economically.

Exactly.

So there's some overlap with what Exotec is already doing, but they collaborated because the idea is basically that Exotec handles high-density storage and the skyplot picking, and Mugen contributes robotics around pallet handling and material movement.

And this can potentially also involve other robots, maybe like a Fanuc arm or something like that, because Mugen kind of works with other robots as well.

They just announced it and together they pretty much want to connect receiving, storage, picking, transport, and shipping.

So again, like they're trying to have one integrated automation architecture and basically want to automate the entire warehouse.

And then they will build themselves.

Actually, I worked on the Total Automated Factory with Fanuc in Japan.

And the robots were building themselves.

But at that time, it was not so intelligent.

But there typically is a mix of mixed vintage equipment, a lot of different manufacturers.

So you may have a robot from FANUC.

You may have a filling machine from some company.

You have like different OEMs.

And the coordination between your eye and your hand, whether or not you're coordinated enough to hit a baseball or whatever, you still, even the most clumsy person, the coordination between your eye and your fingers is a marvel.

And that what you can manipulate and do versus, I mean, I wasn't ever in any kind of like high-tech robotics, but automotive engineering, like seeing the amount of people it took to scratching their head and trying to figure out how to make go from just a car part an instrument panel or dash panel that would come into the relatively same area okay you couldn't be two inches off you had to be like within an inch yeah that that part had to arrive within an inch every time And for this is, you know, FANUC is a big robotic supplier around here.

Their headquarters is Auburn Hills.

So FANUC is a big robot supplier.

They have a vision system, like a 3D vision system.

They sell us all the all the capabilities this can do.

So the parts would come in.

Sometimes they'd be like off kilter or whatever.

You know what I mean? Um, so it's like a l- not quite apples to apples 'cause with a, with a brother, you have to start thinking robot.

I think if you do a, like a, a brother or a, like a Fanuc RoboDrill-

Mm

... you, you could go the other way, which is you buy one of their small machines and an arm, and a robot arm.

Where- whereas brother, you, there's like actual application specialists that can say, "You know, this is what you need to do, change this parameter." Like, it's been done-

Right

... way more automating a robo- a robot on a, uh, brother or a, especially a Fanuc.

Like, if you have a RoboDrill, they, like, probably half those machines have robots in industry.