News Article
Robot automated transportation for cleanrooms revealed
Roth & Rau - Ortner, a factory automation specialist, and its partner MetraLabs Automation, a provider of freely navigating autonomous mobile robots, have introduced their jointly-developed mobile robot, SCOUT at SEMICON West.
SCOUT has been specially developed for the flexible and automated transportation of materials in semiconductor fabs and other clean production environments.
SCOUT navigates autonomously, without any kind of guidance system and communicates via WiFi and operator GUI to issue new transport jobs and show important status information like its current position. The robot is cleanroom suitable up to ISO class 3 / US FED class 1 and has more than 5,000 km of autonomous navigation in clean rooms, which proves its reliability.
SCOUT can be used safely in areas where people and machines work closely together
“Thanks to its compact size and reliable sensor technology, SCOUT can be used safely in areas where people and machines work closely together,” explains Matthias Merten, CEO of MetraLabs Automation, Inc. “This makes SCOUT an ideal alternative in cases where a permanently installed transport system such as a rail or a conveyor system cannot be implemented or would be too expensive.
SCOUT is capable of transporting various materials and products between any point in the fab, taking measurements, providing tools and auxiliaries. Various attachments like mechanical manipulators (e.g. robot arms or linear axis) and transportation trays (e.g. for the transportation of four SMIF Pods or HA200 storage boxes) enable SCOUT to be adjusted to different conditions according to the desired use.
“SCOUT is an integral part of our “Missing Link” concept, which covers custom-tailored automation solutions for existing semiconductor fabs. These solutions are primarily directed at semi-automated production lines with high requirements for personnel because they can cut costs dramatically by minimising downtime and freeing up manpower,” adds Karli Hantzschmann, Division Manager Automation of Roth & Rau - Ortner.
Older wafer fabrication businesses often called for cassettes to be handled manually between the production processes. This tied up valuable assets, such as staff; required high investments in time and cost and was prone to error.
Ortner’s solution replaces formerly manual links between two work steps, improving the process for transportation, tool loading, storage and identification.
SCOUT at work in a semiconductor cleanroom
Roth & Rau - Ortner and MetraLabs will demonstrate SCOUT’s reticle transportation application at SEMICON West in booth # 1831, South Hall.
