In this month’s Five Questions feature, get to know ARM Member Michael Haas, VP at FerRobotics! In his role, Michael gets to work with innovative robotics technologies and automation to make our world “a better place for us to learn, work and live in”. As a member of the ARM Institute’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), Michael also provides valuable input in our strategic direction, project call topics, and other technology-focused areas.

Michael was also a featured expert presenter during our recent Robotic Sanding & Grinding Workshop held at our Pittsburgh facility. This workshop was the first facilitated through the ARM Institute’s Robotics Manufacturing Hub, which works to de-risk robotics technologies for small and medium sized manufacturers in the Pittsburgh region. Hosted in partnership with ARM Member Catalyst Connection, the workshop convened around 90 individuals from regional manufacturers and robotics providers to provide actionable steps for manufacturers looking to automate these tasks and others.

Get to know Michael in the interview below!

1. We always like to start our features by exploring how our experts got their start in the robotics industry. Can you start by telling us about your role at FerRobotics and how you got started in the robotics industry?

How everything began: Once upon a time there was a typical boy fulfilling all the gender typical prejudices, I was always interested in things and how they work. So, I landed up in a Higher Technical college for automation and mechatronics where I graduated at the age of 20, followed by visiting the technical university of Vienna for Mechanical Engineering – specializing in the Master courses in thermal turbomachines and renewable energy systems. Beside my educational journey, I worked for a company which was planning and building powerplants. In my career there, I worked with gas, steam, coal and nuclear powerplants. So even I started with automation in my career, I took a wrong turn towards the dark side and I got away from automation. But the forces brought me back on track with a stop in the plastic machinery world, with a higher automation level until my path finally crossed with FerRobotics. The light side of the real constant force!

I always enjoyed the idea of machines and robots making our world a better place for us to learn, work and live in.

Where lots of projects are realized by return of investment only, we here at FerRobotics realize a significant amount of projects where people find themselves in a much better work environment afterwards. I would even say, sometimes it enlightens their world and possibilities. Think about you working in a carbon fiber sanding job, and you can end up as operator for a robot or “cobot” doing the dirty part for you while at the same time you can use your know-how and knowledge to optimize the system.

I love stories like that, and they make it a joy to go to work every day.

But before we could create stories like that within the US, the journey started in 2015 and me joining the FerRobotics team. We were opening our US subsidiary in Jan. 2016 which was also the time I relocated and moved from Austria to the wonderful city of Chicago.

From then on, we worked on finding our first customers and educate the people and our customers what’s possible in sensitive compliant robotics. At first, a common reaction of automation experts these days was, we tried something similar before, used all kind of technology 5, 10, 20 years ago, many promises, little output.

But being who we are and as innovative as we are, we were able to show the industry and some brave leaders in the industry, what is possible when you use the right technology with real constant force.

Since then, the success story started growing and growing. And the rest is history. Here we are.

I am very grateful for the way things have moved in the right direction.

With offices in Phoenix and Chicago we have a strong commitment to the US, Canadian and Mexican markets. I currently serve as TAC member (Technical Advisory Committee) for the ARM institute and regular speaker at North American events from Key Notes to educational lectures.

During my time, FerRobotics Inc. got rewarded “The 20 most promising Robotic solution providers” by the CIO review and in The 10 Most Innovative Automation solution providers 2017 and again 2021 by Insight success.

2. You recently participated in our Robotics Sanding & Grinding event that we held in Pittsburgh, PA for regional manufacturers. Can you tell us what takeaways you had from that event?

People visited this event because, for future growth, automation has become a key priority for every production manager or company owner. There are several factors that are involved.

We have the baby boomer retiring and leaving the marketplace. The younger generation is more cautious about what jobs and what environments they are getting into, so more avoid those dirty dangerous and meaningful jobs. In the recent years, while jobs continue to outnumber available workers, FerRobotics started to say: Here are the robotic solutions to your labor shortages. That’s the direction a lot of manufactures are heading to. There is a shortage of labor that should be available on the market, especially in the areas of welding or grinding and some other technically demanding applications. They can’t get people. There’s a major labor shortage, so they’re all looking for ways to automate. Most of the participants I spoke with during the event agreed to this statement.

During the event, we tried together with the participants to figure out how to automate these 3D jobs – the dirty, dangerous, demanding tasks. And the good news was: There was not one material removal or finishing process where FerRobotics end-effectors could not help with.

3. During our workshop, you also gave a presentation on Mistakes to Avoid When using Robots for Material Removal, which is key for any manufacturer looking to automate tasks, but particularly important for SMMs. Can you briefly highlight some of the main points you discussed during your session?

Automating your finishing or material removal processes is not easy. Applications look easy on videos or in the lab, but to implement them proper into production systems to get a stable repeatable result requires huge knowledge in robotic finishing.

Investing in robotics for finishing can be your best decision or your biggest nightmare depending on how you have chosen your partner and setup. Only systems that work reliably provide you with a ROI.

Manual finishing processes such as grinding, polishing, and deburring require a high level of expertise from the operator, but even more from your robotic solutions implementation team. One wrong choice can jeopardize the entire project and carries the risk of losing 100% of your investment.

During the session I showed some of our experiences and best practices of what are the most important things to focus, as well as mistakes being made and how to avoid them.

4. You’re also a member of the ARM Institute’s Technology Advisory Committee (TAC), which provides guidance to the ARM Institute on out technology focus areas and initiatives. Can you tell us about your work on the TAC and how you got involved?

With the ARM Institute’s mission to accelerate the development of robotics technology, the institute leverages a unique, robust, and diverse ecosystem of partners across industry, academia, and government to make robotics more accessible. Within the TAC, we are similar diverse in our work fields and expertise as our membership base.

My personal focus is on robotic surface finishing, EOAT and systems where those are involved. This goes from multi robot systems, to scan and sand systems with low to no code solutions. With my background in mechanical engineering and the experience from my daily work, I support the different initiatives and programs to grow the community knowledge and consortium developed intellectual property (CDIP), from what we all can benefit. ​The TAC is an important steering committee for the community and I’m glad I can serve as part of this great team, representing an industrial member and helping to forge the future .

5. Can you tell us what’s new with FerRobotics?

As innovative company and as industrial leader in force sensitive robotics, there is always something new around us. We only try to keep the force on our customers parts constant, but the rest is constantly on the move.

In the last year we have deployed a significant amount of finishing tools. And I say finishing tools, since we don’t only want to do material removal, we want a finished part for our customer. Having a tool which creates sparks and takes off some material is easy, having a solution which is good enough to finish the part to the needed quality in the same step, that’s FerRobotics.

Our portfolio of different applications, from wood, metal, composite, even gold jewelry finishing with robots is constantly growing and opens competitiveness to our worldwide customer base.

Taping is a new endeavor we started back during the pandemic with one of our partners and a DoD background project. Another good example how the industry can benefit from initiatives connecting government and industry and giving the US industry a leap.

Our main goal is to transfer our products into production scenarios and use them there as a real game changer. Tools that provide constant contact force or, as we like to say, “real force control” definitely give our customers a competitive edge. This brings success and turns customers into FerRobotics fans.

Join me and come to the light side of the force and may the “real constant force” be with you!