KUKA

KUKA Robotics Corp.(USA) is the North American subsidiary of KUKA Roboter GmbH.

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KUKA Roboter (Ger. for KUKA Robots), based in Augsburg, Germany, is the largest robotics company in Europe and one of the world?s largest industrial robots manufacturers.

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Mr. Keller and Mr. Knappich found the company 1898. The initial letters of the company name "Keller und Knappich Augsburg" turned to KUKA. In 1973 KUKA built its first industrial robot, known as FAMULUS, this is the first robot to have six electromechanically driven axes.

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It is unique that industrial robots from KUKA can not only be found in plants for welding, handling, palletizing or in other factory automation systems. They are also used in entertainment parks. KUKA presented in 2001 the Robocoaster, which is the world?s first passenger-carrying industrial robot. For the first time industrial robots are used for "handling" people, e.g. in the Legoland California (USA). Due to the fulfilled very high safety standards for carrying passengers , KUKA robots are also used for robotic brain radiosurgery in hospitals.

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In the James Bondmovie ?Die Another Day?, KUKA robots were armed with laser beams and star alongside Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry.

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Beside these exotic applications KUKA is global market leader in the car manufacturing industry (welding) and offers many special robots, e.g. for the plastic manufacturing industry, for foundry applications, for arc-welding, for clean-room, for rapid prototyping or for palletizing.

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Approx. 70,000 KUKA robots (year 2004) installed in the field use a PC-based controller, making KUKA the number one PC-controlled robot manufacturer in the world.

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Ger.: REDIRECT German language...

Augsburg: Augsburg is a city in south-central Germany. It is the capital of the Swabia administrative region of Bavaria, and is located at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers. The population was 276,193 in 2004....

Robotics: Robotics is the engineering science and technology of robots, and their design, manufacture, application, and structural disposition. Robotics is related to electronics, mechanics, and software. The word robot was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel ?apek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Univ...