Yaskawa Motoman, R/X Automation Solutions and Universal Robotics announce strategic partnership

The Motoman Robotics Division of Yaskawa America, R/X Automation Solutions (RXAS) and Universal Robotics have formed a strategic partnership to deliver robotic pharmacy order fulfillment systems.

The robotic system will provide complete verification of National Drug Code bar codes and validation of robotically placed patient labels for pharmacy unit-of-use items. The system will automatically handle an extensive variety of items from bottles to boxes and odd-shaped products. ROI is projected to be less than one year.

“Offering automated systems to the mail order, central fill and specialty pharmacy industries, as well as drug manufacturers and drug repackagers, is a natural expansion of our automated process tools and software for the pharmaceutical industry,” said Tim Chambers, CEO of RXAS. “We are excited to partner with other industry experts.”

RXAS has built custom pharmaceutical equipment for 11 years. Their product offerings include the world’s fastest and most reliable packaging systems and pill counters, which are complemented by software for process quality control and item validation.

“This solution leverages the breadth of our robots by using versatile six-axis and high-speed delta models to bring automation to pharmaceutical applications,” said Roger Christian, vice president of business development and marketing for Yaskawa Motoman.

Universal’s patented artificial intelligence software complements the system’s 3D vision, enabling robots to recognize a wide range of random unit-of-use items.

David Peters, CEO of Universal Robotics, said, “Neocortex machine learning-based 3D vision provides unprecedented flexibility to allow the robot to handle an unlimited number of unit-of-use containers.”