Unison multi-robot production cell — built in the UK, commissioned in Ohio

Overview

A FANUC multi-robot production cell for Unison Ltd, integrating several robots into a single automated line. The cell was built and proven in the UK, then shipped to Ohio, USA, and commissioned on site — so the integration had to be reliable enough to come back to life cleanly thousands of miles from the workshop.

The work covered robot integration, the PLC handshake design that coordinates the robots with the surrounding equipment, safety architecture, and the structured commissioning needed to hand a working line over to a customer overseas.

The brief

Integrate multiple FANUC robots into a coordinated production cell for Unison, build and prove it in the UK, then ship and commission it in Ohio. The cell had to run predictably, recover cleanly from faults, and be supportable by the customer's own team after handover.

Key engineering

With several robots working together, the important engineering is in the coordination: clear handshakes between each robot and the PLC, well-defined ownership of shared zones, and recovery logic so a stop on one station doesn't leave the whole cell in an undefined state.

Because the cell was commissioned overseas, the build was proven thoroughly before it left — the goal was a power-up in Ohio that matched the behaviour signed off in the UK, not a second round of debugging on another continent.

What was delivered

• ✓Integration of multiple FANUC robots into one coordinated cell
• ✓PLC handshake and sequence design across stations
• ✓Safety architecture and zone management
• ✓Build and proving in the UK before shipment
• ✓On-site commissioning and handover in Ohio, USA

The cell running