A peek at perfection

Introduced 50 years ago, the Porsche 911 has become a cultural touchstone — it is one of the most powerful high-performance cars made and the most recognisable Porsche. As part of the golden 50th anniversary of the iconic model, Porsche has created a special gold-coloured limited edition of the newest 911 model. Robots from ABB are being used to bring the first glimpse of the newest state-of-the-art model to car fans around the world at Porsche’s exclusive launch in Germany.

Online fans from anywhere in the world can view one of the new edition cars through a unique, interactive experience in which they control two camera-equipped ABB IRB 4600s robots. By using a web-based landing page, the online user can direct the robots to move around the car to precisely position the cameras showing the car from nearly any angle.

Porsche and ABB experts collaborated on creating the technically challenging exhibit, which required coordinating the motion control of two robots each moving along six axes with cameras on another two axes. The robots, which stand about two metres high and have a reach of two metres, are normally used for industrial tasks such as arc welding and tending machines.

The project team used ABB’s RobotStudio virtual commissioning software to visualise all possible movements the robots might make and adjusted as needed before installation to ensure smooth operation of the actual physical robots. This enables visitors to take advantage of the IRB 4600’s long reach to view the entire car from all possible angles, while preventing collisions between the two robots or with the vehicle.

Because the robots need to run continuously around the clock, the exhibition is also supported by the ABB Ability Connected Services platform. ABB Ability Connected Services monitors the robots’ health and performance, and proactively alerts operators of circumstances which might lead to an unplanned stoppage before an issue actually occurs.

The month-long exhibition starts 8 June 2017 and will be held in a specially built glass box in front of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany. Guests can register through a dedicated landing page for a slot in their local time zone.