Open-source modular gantry robot by Festo enables fast test solutions

Modular Gantry Robot platform – Modular three-axis gantry robots can be delivered as ready-to-assemble kits, including cabinet and all necessary supporting components, or as pre-assembled systems.

Festo Canada has expanded its impressive portfolio once again, now with a new open-source modular gantry robot platform for laboratory-based automated liquid-handling systems. Allowing equipment manufacturers to develop test and assay solutions in a minimum amount of time, this open-source gantry is readily customizable and uses world-class components in its design.

This open-source gantry robot is the latest addition to Festo’s LifeTech family of solutions for dispensing liquids, controlling gases, or handling and gripping vials, from Festo Laboratory Automation.

A Lego-like building-block strategy

It takes fewer mechanical and engineering resources to design one of these gantry robots than an equipment manufacturer requires to adapt a generic machine to handle the same application. Each modular gantry has an open-source motion and fluidic application programming interface with Python, Java, and .NET/C# drivers. Using a library of common drivers decreases the learning curve and allows integrators to develop optimized control strategies for their machines easily, strategies that support the end-use customer’s success and satisfaction with the product.

Three-axis modular gantry robots for every platform can be delivered to clients as ready-to-assemble kits, including cabinet and all required supporting components, or as preassembled systems. The Festo team can ship simple modular gantries in eight-to-12 weeks, and users can scaled production up quickly when necessary to suit COVID-19 testing and other urgent tasks.

The modular platform follows a Lego-like building-block strategy of using inter-operable components that users can assemble with simple hand tools. Workers can be guided by Festo Life Science engineers in the selection of the optimum modules for the target application, such as the level of three-axis robot needed to handle the desired load and speed. Dispense head, pipettes, capper and decapper, and bar-code reader are among other examples of possible modules.

Established in 1925, The Festo Group remains the world’s top supplier of automation technologies and technical education. The company deploys its products and services to meet the challenges of smart production and digitization. The family-owned corporation is headquartered in Esslingen, Germany and supports a broad variety of needs for advanced solutions in factory and process automation.

To learn more, contact Festo.

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