Kuka enlists top sports star to put its robot to the test

Kuka has enlisted the help of one of Germany’s most successful table tennis players to put the speed and accuracy of its robots.

Timo Boll will face the Kuka technology in a dual on March 11 to mark the opening of the company’s new plant in Shanghai, China.

The plant, which opened in December 2013, will produce more than 3,000 KR Quantec series robots per year, as well as the KRC4 universal control unit, to satisfy the growing trend for automation in the Asian market.

Kuka launched the KR Quantec shelf-mounted robots for the plastics industry at K 2013 in Dusseldorf, where they demonstrated high speed enabling short cycle times.