Meet the robot that is the future of manufacturing

Huawei and KUKA, a global leader in robot technology, have partnered to develop an industrial robot that will drive the new era of smart manufacturing.

Smart manufacturing is evolving rapidly fuelled by intelligent, interconnected systems.

This is disrupting the way manufacturing businesses use robots throughout their entire production systems.

In this new manufacturing era, robots will play an increasingly important role in helping manufacturing businesses remain agile and drive growth.

“The manufacturing industry is undergoing profound transformation, and robots will be critical to revolutionizing factories and driving new opportunities,” said Ryan Ding, Executive Director and President of Products & Solutions, Huawei.

“KUKA plays a central role in promoting and developing smart manufacturing solutions in Germany and across the world.”

At CeBIT 2016, Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with KUKA, a global leader in robot technology, to develop smart manufacturing solutions for industrial markets in Europe and China.

Under the new agreement, Huawei and KUKA will collaborate in the areas of cloud computing, big data, mobile technology, and industrial robots to help manufacturing customers transform and embrace smart manufacturing.

Research and development will be central to the new partnership, and key areas of R&D include the use of:

• Small cell Internet of Things (IoT)
• Wireless and 5G network
• Big data solutions in manufacturing and factory environments
• The deployment of Huawei’s infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions to develop cloud-hosted smart manufacturing services.

In addition, KUKA and Huawei will set up a joint intuitive robot programming team to explore the use of imitative deep learning in advanced manufacturing environments.

“We’re confident our strategic partnership with KUKA will enable Huawei to lead the way in helping global manufacturing enterprises transform their factories and gain significant competitive advantages from realizing smart manufacturing,” added Ding.