Beer and sausages. They were very popular at Automatica 2016. But, it wasn't only the attendees who got their hands on these iconic German foods, robots were also getting in on the action. The demo in the SAR Elekronic booth was a perfect example.

Last week we were blogging live from Automatica 2016. If you missed it, you can catch up on our coverage here. It was a great experience and we blogged about many brand new products and trends in the world of automation. However, we were so busy last week that we didn't have time to tell you about a few of the great booths we visited. So, now we're well rested and back at Robotiq HQ, lets have a look at some of the things we missed out. 

There were several interesting food robots were being showcased during the trade fair. The KUKA booth, for example, had a bartending robot who didn't want to let go of the beer glass (you can see the video of it here). One great food demo that we saw had been designed by SAR Elektronic. Here's a look at what we found in their booth.

Oktoberfest Came Early: Sausages, Beer and Pretzels

Automatica 2016 was held in Munich, so we enjoyed a few German beers while we were there. Munich is famous for the Oktoberfest beer festival, where over six million people from around the world fill the streets to drink beer, eat sausages and chew on freshly baked pretzels. Well, we didn't have to wait until October. SAR Elektronic had set up their own Oktoberfest inside their booth at Automatica 2016.

They had three food demos going on, all within one small automated cell. Each demo was performed by the same two Denso robots which were fitted with Robotiq 2-Finger Grippers. We are used to seeing this gripper in more traditional manufacturing environments, so it was great to see it being used for such a fun and diverse demo. It just shows how versatile the 2-Fingered Gripper can be. The grippers were easily able to manipulate beer bottles, beer glasses, sausages and pretzels!

Here's a video of the beer serving demo. As you can imagine, this was a really popular part of the demo so it was quite crowded.

The second demo involved grasping veal sausages and cooking them in hot water. We managed to get a longer video of this one, so you can clearly see the various stages of the robot's action. We love how the robot shook off the water after placing the sausage!

SAR Elektronic were using a 3D vision system to detect the position of the sausages in the tray. You can see the laser line moving across the booth as the robot places the sausage, collecting an image for the next part of the action.

Take a look at SAR Elektronic's official video showcasing their advanced robotic cell and the full demo taken at Automatica.

Who are SAR Elektronic?

The SAR Group have offices across Europe, in the USA and in South Africa. SAR Elektronic GmbH are the German and Austrian branch of this group. They provide both full and partial automation solutions to improve industrial manufacturing processes. Since 1985, they have been engaged as a general and subcontractor, providing trendsetting automation solutions.

As well as automation and robotics, they also provide solutions and logistics in Environmental Technology, Test and Measuring Technology, IT Services, Surface Application Systems, Plastics Systems and Green Energy. As you can see, they are quite a diverse company!

At last week's Automatica, their robot cell was designed to demonstrate the interaction of various different segments of their business - automation, testing, measuring and interface systems.

We thought that the demo was a very effective way of showing how different technologies can interact seamlessly with each other, including control systems, robotics and the Robotiq Gripper technology. The SAR Elektronic booth was very popular among attendees to Automatica. Clearly, others also agreed that this was a great demo.