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Material Handing & Robotics
Across industries, automating material handling can save time, improve safety, and reduce human error. In factories and logistics facilities, automation is relatively straightforward because processes and equipment are generally fixed in place. Material handling becomes far more complex when the equipment is mobile, and more still when within constrained or adverse environments such as underground mines.
Robotic materials handling increases safety by keeping operators clear of hazardous zones, boosts productivity through intelligent path planning, and delivers consistent, repeatable performance across varying conditions. Designed and built in-house, MEDATech’s Borterra division designs and builds heavy-duty robotic material handling systems for loads weighing hundreds or thousands of pounds. Fully customizable to your equipment and site needs, our turnkey solutions deliver reliable, hands-free operation.
Customizable, versatile mobile solutions
Our flagship material handling solution is RodBot. It’s a hydraulic robotic rod handling system that eliminates the need for manual materials handling in challenging drilling applications. Materials include drill rods, pilings and other heavy materials requiring repetitive handling. RodBot can be adapted for any repetitive handling task in construction, agriculture, utilities and other industries, in addition to surface and underground mining.
AI Vision Systems
We leverage advanced AI vision systems to take automation even further. AI vision uses real-time visual detection and navigation to identify, prioritize and handle materials accurately and efficiently, enabling fully autonomous material handling for heavy-duty applications. Our 20+ years of experience with mobile equipment, coupled with 5+ years of experience in robotic rod handling, has given us the ability to adapt this technology to specific customer needs.
Robotic control of hydraulic systems
MEDATech’s material handling machines are built with hydraulic, as opposed to electric, actuators. Precisely-controlled hydraulic actuators allow our machines to handle much higher loads in smaller, packages, compared to electric robots. This is a core differentiator made possible by:
- Aligning hydraulic response with control system expectations, enabling repeatable, consistent motion
- Accounting for nonlinear valve spool behaviour and angular versus linear joint movement for fine-motion accuracy
- Compensating for each joint’s unique delay and latency by cross-correlating valve commands with encoder outputs
Hydraulic actuators also make RodBot highly serviceable in mining and other heavy-duty industries, unlike with electrically-actuated robots.
Material handling & robotics, at your service
MEDATech develops and builds automated machines and robotic systems, integrating the right components, controls and software to create complete, purpose-built solutions. We handle the system design, programming, integration, and machine build in-house.
If you have a repetitive or labour-intensive process where safety is a key consideration, we can design and build a complete solution around it. This includes robotic integration, path planning, collision avoidance, controls, and the other system requirements needed for safe, reliable operation.
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