NEXTAGE Humanoid Robots
Developed to address Japan's declining birth rate and labor shortage, NEXTAGE is a humanoid robot for manufacturing; an upper-body "cobot" that enhances safety and productivity in factories. NEXTAGE combines cutting-edge technology, dexterity, and safety features to revolutionize the way machines work alongside people.
Vision System and ROS Programmable Robot: System Diagram
Components: Hardware and Software
Robot Main Unit
Robot Main Unit
Robot Main Unit
Vision System Robot:
NEXTAGE is an all-in-one package of diverse features for handling a wide range of tasks. With its stereo vision camera, NEXTAGE is able to identify the position and orientation of surrounding equipment, tools and workpieces in three dimensions using "maker recognition".
With its hand camera, it can recognize the two-dimensional position data of a workpiece at a closer distance. All 15 axes consist of low-power actuators with less than 80W. If appropriate risk assessment is carried out, people can work with robots without a safety guard.
NxProduction
Robot Main Unit
Robot Main Unit
ROS Programmable Robot:
"NxProduction", the software installed as a standard component, can be used to teach the robot what to do as well as to manage the actual operation. Its GUI displays a "workflow" format that visualizes the production process. Teaching points can be designated by a jog-based "inching" operation on the GUI. The basic vision function "Marker recognition" enables NEXTAGE to adjust to the change of position and surrounding environment.
The highly workable NEXTAGE hardware is compatible with ROS, an open middleware environment widely used in research and development. Since it is based on OpenRTM-aist, it has excellent real-time performance.