In the race to bring automotive manufacturing back home, the general assembly shop, the most manual and unpredictable stage of vehicle production, remains the biggest obstacle. Until now, automating moving lines was considered nearly impossible, requiring massive infrastructure upgrades, expensive fixtures, cycle time compromises, and constant maintenance. The new Inbolt and FANUC integration changes that, allowing the CRX cobot and other FANUC robot models to operate with real-time 3D vision and adaptive trajectory correction, even with part variation or imperfect environments.
The landmark integration with FANUC robots is a solution using FANUC’s robots and Inbolt’s intelligence layer and real-time vision. General Motors is the first to adopt this new integration, while other leading brands, including Stellantis, Ford, Whirlpool, ThyssenKrupp Automotive, and Toyota, use Inbolt’s technology across various applications. The solution debuted in live demos at Automate this week.
“This new collaboration between Inbolt and FANUC gives car manufacturers a new level of automation: precision tasks, performed by robots, on lines that never stop,” said Rudy Cohen, CEO of Inbolt. “No more expensive indexing. No more undue complexity and maintenance challenges. Just robots operating in a continuous motion environment and a huge leap forward for automakers’ general assembly shop.”
The system operates up to 100 times faster than conventional solutions, and is designed to scale across diverse production needs, whether for manufacturers worried about maintenance or line throughput or system integrators requirements for easy and quick installation.
This solution combines FANUC’s streaming motion capabilities, which enable real-time trajectory input via Ethernet, with Inbolt’s lightweight, robot-mounted vision system and ultra-fast AI model. It’s key features include:
Real-Time 3D Guidance: Inbolt’s proprietary localization AI refreshes at a high rate, continuously identifying object orientation and adapting robot paths on the fly, enabling high-speed screwdriving and part insertion without indexing.
Flexible Deployment: Operates in low-space environments, with no need for fencing. Ideal for general assembly stations.
This integration supports bolt rundown, screw insertion, filter installation, and other tasks which are challenging applications for traditional robotics. The system handles real-world constraints: crowded stations, variable parts, minimal floor space, and most importantly moving lines and variable part position.
“Our primary goal is to reduce the complexity of automation,” said Albane Dersy, COO of Inbolt. “With Inbolt’s guidance system and FANUC’s native motion control, robots can now think and act on the fly.”
“As industries navigate rising demands for efficiency and cost-effectiveness, automation has become an essential solution — and the timing has never been better,” said Lou Finazzo, Vice President, Sales, at FANUC America. “At our new Innovation Lab, FANUC is collaborating with forward-thinking startups like Inbolt to harness cutting-edge solutions, from cobots to AI and streaming motion applications, tackling challenges in the automotive sector and beyond.”
Automate Booth #8632
For more information, visit www.inbolt.com.
