Industrial
Hirebotics LLC has introduced line tracking and modular rail capabilities for its collaborative robots, allowing manufacturers to paint moving parts and handle large, awkward assemblies without reworking existing production workflows. The company presented the technologies at IMTS 2026 in Chicago.
According to Hirebotics, both additions stem from the same constraint: work that does not fit inside a fixed work envelope. CEO Matthew Bush told The Robot Report that the two capabilities approach this problem from different angles — one concerns the size or awkwardness of the part, while the other concerns a part that will not hold still. Founded in Nashville in 2015, Hirebotics offers cobot welding, plasma cutting, and painting systems built on its Beacon platform, which the company says packages robotics, process equipment, and software into turnkey systems that fabricators can run without dedicated robotics programmers or engineering teams.
According to Hirebotics, both additions stem from the same constraint: work that does not fit inside a fixed work envelope.
Line tracking enables the Hirebotics Cobot Painter to follow a part’s movement and maintain its programmed painting path while the conveyor keeps running. A sensor detects the arriving part and starts the operation automatically. While traditional robotic line-tracking systems can demand specialized programming and integration, Hirebotics says its version operates within the no-code, cloud-based Beacon platform. Bush described line tracking as addressing moving production, and it is available on the Cobot Painter for conveyor-based painting and coating operations.
The modular rail capability extends the cobots’ working range beyond a 68.9-in. reach, which Hirebotics says gives manufacturers more flexibility for large parts and conveyor-based finishing work. The company has not disclosed pricing, payload, repeatability, cycle-time figures, or specific availability dates for these extensions.
Source: The Robot Report