Force sensing and 3D vision have now been integrated into Fanuc robots. The company demonstrated the effectiveness of its new integrated robot sensing systems at Mach earlier this year, inviting visitors to load components at random into a gear assembly cell. The Fanuc Robotics M16iB intelligent robot was equipped with a V-500iA/3DL laser vision sensor and an FS-30 force sensor was fitted to its wrist. The rig assembled the parts to H7 tolerances and - being capable of both 'seeing' and 'feeling' the components - demonstrated the savings that can be made by reducing tooling requirements for machine loading, de-palletising and assembly.