Automation & Robotics

At Sparx Engineering, we collaborate closely with our clients to take on projects of any scale. As a leading robotics product engineering firm, we provide a plug‑and‑play team that integrates seamlessly with yours to deliver results quickly and efficiently. Our robotics and process automation services help reduce costs, maximize throughput, and enhance quality - giving your business a decisive edge in operations.

Understanding Robotics and Process Automation

Automation combines manufacturing expertise with hardware, software, and industrial process technology to execute repetitive tasks that were previously being performed manually.  Robotics is an engineering discipline that designs machines to perform physical tasks that may have previously required a human to perform.  Robots may operate with or without automation.  Most robots look nothing like their depiction in movies and television – most perform simple repetitive tasks such as pressing dough into a flat tortilla, counting and dispensing medication into a bottle, or even more complex tasks like programming a newly fabricated circuit board and testing all of its functionality.

Successful development of automation systems involves understanding various and diverse engineering problems, including sensing, actuation, and feedback control.  More complex automation systems may incorporate additional features such as machine learning, computer vision, and large-scale Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity.  Likewise, robotics engineering inherently requires solutions for sensing and actuation and may also require additional functionality capabilities such as kinematic state estimation, trajectory planning, and motion control. 

Benefits of Hiring an experienced Robotics and Process Automation Engineering Firm

Adding automation and robotics to your processes can unlock a variety of benefits for your business:

  1. More productivity: Automation and robotics can takeover repetitive steps of the production flow, freeing workers to focus on more important tasks for your business.
  2. Higher throughput: The inherent speed and efficiency that robots provide can increase the overall production rate of items in a manufacturing setting.
  3. Improved product quality: Automated processes can substantially reduce both per-component and overall process error rates and improve product consistency and repeatability.
  4. Greater workplace safety: Automation reduces worker exposure to hazardous tasks, repetitive strain, and high-risk environments, helping prevent injuries and improve workplace conditions.
  5. Reduced material waste: Robotics and automation ensure that a controlled amount of materials or consumables are used at each step of production reducing material costs.

Robotics and automation systems frequently require substantial design customization to fit each client’s unique situation.  Furthermore, these systems usually integrate many diverse sensing and actuation functions.  Sparx Engineering is uniquely suited to tackle these types of complex engineering problems. Our team has the diversity and interdisciplinary skill sets required to provide a single full-service source for your automation and robotics design needs. 

Multi-Industry Robotics and Automation Systems

Sparx Engineering has many years of experience as an engineering firm across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, military, consumer, aerospace, medical, and oil and gas.  We have electrical, mechanical, software, chemical, biomedical, and industrial engineers with the knowledge and experience to complete your project precisely and efficiently. 

robotics and automation Projects Types

Our team can help with a wide variety of projects including:

  • Control Systems & PLCs: End to end development of control systems to manage any industrial process no matter how complex. Incorporation of a variety of control schemes including feedback control, frequency domain compensation, optimal control and constrained optimization, model predictive control, and more.
  • AI and Image Processing: Custom computer vision algorithms utilizing 2D and 3D data to power classification, pose estimation, kinematics, inspection, automated part quality control, and more.
  • Motion Controls: Multi-axis controller design, integration with nearly any sensor type, complex sequence and control design, and more.
  • Automation Systems: Customized high reliability and high throughput electric, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems.
  • Control Panel Design: Many industrial automation products utilize off the shelf electronics that are integrated together within a control panel. We create schematics, arrangement drawings, and parts lists and support them with clear build instructions resulting in a clean, serviceable control panel.
  • Custom Sensors, Actuators, and Interfaces: Many firms operating in robotics and automation only integrate off the shelf sensors and actuators into systems for their clients. With the Sparx team, we have the skills to build anything from the ground up. This means we can develop exactly the component needed for your application and combine it with commodity off the shelf parts where appropriate.

spark engineering: your robotics and automation team

We bring over 500 years of combined engineering experience to product design problems in automation and robotics.  As part of your engineering team, we will help you shepherd your product through a complete engineering life cycle, from requirements gathering, to design, system development, prototyping, and product testing.

Sparx has 3D printers and CNC machining capabilities to build prototypes to precise engineering specifications, enabling rapid design iterations on live equipment with the product design teams.  When you are ready to scale your production, Sparx Engineering can provide a deep network of manufacturing contacts, and as a full-service firm we can help you foster a positive relationship with a manufacturing partner to jump-start full-volume production with no compromise to product quality. 

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