Robot Transport Unit

The Robot Transport Unit, or RTU, is an often-overlooked way of reducing the number of robots needed in your facility. Typically, a robot is anchored to a single spot, but an RTU moves the robot through a cell or across a factory, allowing it to serve multiple machines or processes. This way there’s no need to buy multiple robots and conveyors: the RTU takes the robot to each machine.

Sometimes an articulated robot doesn’t have the reach to tend all the machines in a cell, but an RTU will let it shuttle back and forth between two or more — saving the cost and complexity of a second robot.

An RTU adds linear travel and an additional axis that lets the robot move up and down a line of machines. At its simplest, an RTU is a linear track with a platform. The robot sits on the platform and is moved to wherever it’s needed. The track can be just a few feet long or could span the length of a factory.

Typical applications are tasks like moving castings or forgings through a sequence of machine tools or tending a line of injection molding machines. An RTU creates more options for laying out a factory and is often a cost-effective alternative to additional robots. They are especially useful when individual operation times are lengthy, as this allows the robot transfer unit to shuttle between a number of machines without stopping.