Robotics can be a difficult area to play in, Colin Wells admits.

Australian companies face many challenges in this highly competitive market.

“There’s a lot of technology involved and a familiarisation with all the different aspects of the rapidly developing Robotics field including languages, controllers & manipulators,” says Wells, an industry pioneer who has spent nearly four decades working with robots.

During that time, this gifted engineer and automation entrepreneur has seen it all.

Alarmingly, he’s seen a large number of companies in Australia specialising in robotics and automation fall by the wayside.

But Wells, the founder and Managing Director of Robotic Automation Pty Ltd, has not only survived, he’s thrived.

“One of the keys to our company’s success is we don’t specialise in just one industry or one application,” he says. “We try to cover as many base’s as possible.

“I’ve seen the demise of quite a few of our competitors because they were too narrow-based.

“A prime example is those companies that focussed entirely on Australia’s (now defunct) automotive industry. They just disappeared.”

His message is simple – don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

And Wells certainly practices what he preaches.

Providing a total solution

Established in 1988, Australian-owned Robotic Automation provides a broad range of automation solutions for a host of leading companies across Australia.

“There is probably no-one else out there that provides such a total solution – sourcing equipment, i.e. packaging, palletising, wrapping, labelling then picking up the pallets by AGV and taking them to a warehouse, putting them into a rack or loading dock. We can provide a complete production line.”

The RA Grouphas installed and supports more than 3,500 systems across Australia and New Zealand.

The company has successfully completed projects for the ANZ’s industry’s who’s who, including Phillip Morris, Arnott’s, BHP, Colgate, Amcor, Linfox, Boeing, Visy, Toyota, Dulux, SunRice, Goodman Fielder, Parmalat as well as many SMEs.

Casting his eyes around the RA boardroom in Sydney, Wells points proudly at posters on the walls that demonstrate the various applications and sectors his company services.

“There’s meat, plastics, automotive, welding, air-conditioning, packaging, healthcare, pharmaceutical, beverage, food … the list goes on.

“We don’t have enough wall space to include everything we do.”

With offices and work facilities in Sydney and Melbourne, RA has five business units:

• Robotic Automation P/L - Australia's leading supplier of robotic systems, as well as standalone Robotics & Packaging equipment.
• RA Health P/L - Specialising in hospital and laboratory applications using Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV's) and Robotic systems.
• RA Service - Including maintenance, training programs, 24-hour service and full parts and service support.
• RA Consulting - Providing advise & development of automated solutions across the broad spectrum of manufacturing and logistics.
• RA Finance - Offering project financing options including commercial hire purchase, rental and tax advantages

The company boasts exclusive partnerships with world-leading brands in Robotics, AGVs and packaging technologies. This includes the Robotics giant Yaskawa Motoman.

RA has been getting its Robots from Motoman Sweden for the past few years which has the advantage of tapping into the huge R&D centres they have enabling RA to keep up to date with the technology.

RA is widely recognised as the “go to” company in Australia when it comes to AGVs, especially for difficult applications.

“We are AGV specialists,” says Wells. “We’ve been involved in them for a long time.

“We started using them in the packaging environment to move empty and full pallets.

“Businesses soon discovered by using AGVs they could replace fixed inflexible conveyors systems that were taking up valuable factory floorspace, providing other opportunities.

“That market is a big one for us now – especially systems combining imbedded AGVs with robotics that’s right up our street.”

New AGV technology is a game changer

Last year, RA Health installed a 25-strong fleet of purpose built AGVs (manufactured to RA’s own design) for the New Royal Adelaide Hospital – a project that was several years in the making from initial consultancy to completion.

At 25 vehicles, it is the largest hospital AGV fleet in Australia and New Zealand.

The AGV fleet transports hundreds of tonnes several hundred kilometres, 24 hours/365 days a year.

The AGVs transport food, beverage, linen, pharmaceuticals, waste, case carts for the 40 operating theatres and other stores that are required in the hospital wards. The AGVs system controls the 14 lifts used exclusively to enable delivery to all nine floors of the hospital.

This AGV installation would arguably be the most complex AGV installation in this part of the world.

But it’s new Swedish AGV technology that has Wells most excited.

Unveiled by RA at AUSPACK 2019 in Melbourne at the end of March, the new technology takes AGVs to the next level. The Manufacture “MAX AGVs” have been installing AGV systems for nearly 10 years now and have numerous installations all over the world.

“This equipment is quite a game changer because of its programming methodology,” says Wells.

“Its control system is completely different to anything else on the market.”

Until now, AGV users have had to rely on trained experts to do even the simplest edit on an AGV system.

The new AGVs uses a Windows-based system that is easy to program, edit and manage.

“With a few days of training, customers can now edit their AGV system themselves.”

RA has begun rolling out the new equipment to facilities across ANZ.

This package also has a very powerful built-in Warehouse Management System (WMS) that can make life easy for clients to integrate and far less expensive for clients who need to employ an ASRS or other storage system.

Rapid company growth

Last year, Robotic Automation celebrated its 30-year anniversary – and it’s certainly come a long way since opening its doors as a two-man automation startup.

The RA Group now has a team approaching 50 staff and is always on the lookout for people that can add something to the group. Wells is very proud of his staff’s high proven abilities in this difficult field.

Wells, who was born in the UK, came to Australia as a 23 year-old with qualifications in both mechanical and electrical engineering and furthered this with marketing in Sydney.

“There’s no point in having ‘whiz bang’ technology if you don’t know how to market it or sell it,” he maintains.

Before establishing the RA Group, he worked for General Electric Company (GEC) in its robotics division after some experience in a similar position in the UK.

“I was probably the only candidate that had seen a robot, let alone worked on one,” he says with a grin. “So, I got the job.”

Major industry transformation

At that time, robots were evolving rapidly from hydraulics to electrical.

Wells gained valuable experience working with Motoman equipment – a global leader in industrial robotics.

So, with a business partner Wells negotiated an exclusivity deal with Yaskawa Motoman in Japan and Robotic Automation was born.

Since then, Wells has seen a major transformation in Australian industry and a steady rise in the number of smart factories.

“But the depth of knowledge regarding integrated flexable automation in many companies is still very shallow,” says Wells. "Part of that issue is high staff turnover – this hurts clients and makes it hard for them to evaluate what they really need."

And that’s where RA comes in.

“We tend to take a consultative role with clients and build trust. We look at the problems and suggest ways to overcome those problems economically.”

Strong focus on R&D

Robotic Automation has always had a strong focus on research and development.

“We put a lot of time and money into R&D,” says Wells.

“We try to develop new products whenever we see a niche or hole in the market.

“We evaluate it and decide whether or not to spend the money on developing new bespoke technology.”

In recent years his company’s ground-breaking technology has gained global recognition.

Robotic Automation has won over 30 Awards in Excellence in multiple categories including technology, safety systems, manufacturing, WHS systems, materials handling and supply chain.

Wells is now looking to export his unique, patented systems into facilities across the globe.

RA robotics and automation systems can already be found in Asia and the Pacific.

Two main goals

“We have more than enough work in Australia, so exporting has never really been a focus,” says Wells. But we are looking to grow that side of the business now.” We have just successfully completed a large install in the Pacific region.

This is one of two main goals he would like to achieve before he retires in coming years.

“The other is to fully implement our new AGV systems fully integrated with our Motoman Robotic Systems. We want to show people what they can really do.”

At present, the adoption rate of AGVs in Australia is “absolutely woeful,” he says, “At least 10 years behind Europe – but we would like to change that.”

High tech robots integrated with AGVs is a perfect formula for the ANZ markets to help drive productivity, as they are flexible he says.

“In Australia, this has been a badly missed opportunity.

“It’s my company’s mission to fix that.”