Growth Companies

Clinton Township-based Kuka Robotics Corp. opened its doors in 1999 and since then, along with its German parent company KUKA Roboter GmbH, has become one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial robots. Their annual production volume is approaching 10,000 units, with an installed base of over 75,000 units.

The company’s signature product, PalletTech software, is a suite of application development and run time tools that reduces engineering and development time, enabling out-of-box implementation of complicated robotic palletizing applications. Major clients include Chrysler, BMW and Mercedes Benz.

KUKA’s injection molding cell using one of its robots won the Gold award in its division and was named the "2007 Robot of the Year" at the National Robotics Challenge held March 9-10, 2007 in Marion, Ohio. Designed, built, and programmed by the robotics team at Ohio Northern University, the cell featured the Kuka KR3 robot, which processed poker chips from raw materials and labeled them with "ONU" before passing them out as souvenirs to other competitors and the general public.

The robot is one of seven that Kuka Robotics recently announced it had provided to ONU's Robotics Technology Center of Excellence. KUKA also provides robotics to work in conjunction with a new line of automatic guided vehicles, known as AGVs., for Transbotics Corporation.

You can see one of KUKA's robots on display at the Detroit Science Center, where it has carved pumpkins for Halloween.