ABB GoFa Cobot Bags Red Dot ‘Best of the Best’ Design Award

Zurich, Switzerland - ABB Ltd’s new GoFa™ collaborative robot (cobot) wins prestigious Red Dot ‘Best of the Best’ design award in recognition of its unique design concept to make the latest robot appealing and accessible to users. Built on the success of the company’s YuMi® family, GoFa is the fastest cobot in its class and aims to work side-by-side with humans, without the need for fences, on a wide range of tasks. Advanced safety features, including intelligent sensors in each joint which bring the cobot to a stop in milliseconds if it detects any unexpected contact, thus allowing it to safely operate directly and continuously alongside workers.

The design of the latest cobot is a deviation from the look of traditional industrial robots, narrowing the boundaries between industrial and consumer products. It has slim, straight arms that give the cobot a user-friendly yet strong appearance, while the advanced use of color, material, and finish gives it a modern, sleek look. Its simple arm-side interface design with two buttons and light ring echoes the easy-to-use interfaces of consumer products. This makes it accessible even for first-time robot users more accustomed to consumer technology and who are not familiar with industrial machinery. The company’s cobots are intuitively designed so customers need not depend on robot programming specialists. This will benefit industries that have low levels of automation, with customers able to operate their cobot within minutes of installation, straight out of the box, without any specialized training.

The global Red Dot Design Awards recognize achievements in product design, with the jury evaluating thousands of entries annually. Red Dot’s ‘Best of the Best’ award is for groundbreaking design and is the highest award in the competition, reserved for the most aesthetically appealing, functional, smart, or innovative design.

Delighted with the achievement and stressing on the importance of good industrial design to unlock automation for new users and new industries around the world, Sami Atiya, President, Robotics & Discrete Automation Business Area, ABB Ltd said, “Making robots more approachable, easier to use and more intuitive is key to our vision to make robots as familiar in the workplace as a laptop is today.”

Elaborating on the cobots usability features, Andie Zhang, Global Product Manager, Collaborative Robotics, ABB Robotics added, “With their ease-of-use digital tools, integrated safety features and higher payloads, our new cobots represent the future of human and robot collaboration. This next generation will enable even more businesses to automate repetitive, mundane and dangerous processes, to enhance productivity and flexibility while leaving employees free to do more value-add activities.”

Image Source: ABB Ltd