ABB FlexPicker Robot’s Legs Move So Fast it’s Scary

The ABB IRB 340 FlexPicker ’s legs instantly put me in mind of a sort of merciless Matrixesque robot , nobble up human trunk and doing terrible things to them . But ostensibly , it ’s the world ’s fastest industrial golem , and is used to beak and sort items on a output line — innocent thing like sausage balloon and crescent roll . By fastest , it mean 10 thousand of speedup : that ’s zero to 280 mph in a single sec . Which makes for one heck of a rapid sausage balloon , as the fascinating ( and eerily Matrix - similar ) video reveals .

That branch / pincer thingy can do over 150 picks per hour , deal with payloads as big as two kilos , and carries a camera so it can check products that do n’t meet the grade . see like it ’s using it to assort those crescent roll … the funny - form ones go where , we enquire ?

Amazing material , even if I ca n’t get those shuddery images out of my head . It ’ll be nightmares of robotic universe mastery tonight . [ ABBviaBotJunkie ]