FlexPlace: watchmaker precision for robotic placement of automobile body parts

Abstract

ABB’s commitment to adding value for customers includes a constant quest for innovation and improvement – new ideas, new thinking, new solutions and stronger customer relationships. FlexPlace is an example of that new thinking. Developed at ABB’s body‐in‐white facility in France, it is a software solution that will greatly improve efficiency and cost‐effectiveness in auto body assembly. Robots with FlexPlace use sensors and pattern recognition to automatically assemble the larger parts of a car, like the roof and the doors, with sub‐millimeter accuracy, and do away with the heavy and expensive tooling traditionally used.