ABB Certifies Regal Rexnord’s Movotrak as First 7th Axis for GoFa Cobots

Moving collaborative robots (cobots) between workstations can be a challenge. To simplify the process, Regal Rexnord and ABB Robotics have partnered to make ABB's GoFa cobot compatible with Thomson's Movotrak CTU, a 7th Axis Cobot Transfer Unit. As one of Regal Rexnord's linear motion brands, Thomson now offers the first 7th axis solution certified by ABB Robotics for use in its partner ecosystem.

The collaboration expands deployment flexibility for GoFa, which already leads the market in precision with its new Ultra Accuracy feature. With path accuracy down to 0.03 mm and absolute position accuracy of 0.1 mm, GoFa delivers greater precision than other cobots, making it ideal for high-precision applications.

Ultra Accuracy is available on new GoFa units and as a retrofit for existing systems. Combined with GoFa's payload capacities up to 12 kg, TCP speeds up to 2.2 m/s, and 1.62 m reach, it offers unmatched performance for high-stakes manufacturing tasks. Safety is also core to GoFa's design, with integrated torque sensors, SafeMove functionality, and intuitive programming via ABB's FlexPendant.

"Until now, anyone wanting to use a single, plug-and-play ABB cobot on multiple workstations faced what could be days of programming and communications challenges," said Kevin Zaba, EVP and president, Automation & Motion Control at Regal Rexnord. "As part of the ABB Robotics partner ecosystem, we've preconfigured our Movotrak CTU to ensure rapid deployment with ABB cobots right out of the box."

The Movotrak moves cobots along a guide rail up to 33 ft (10 m) and includes collision detection to enhance safety. It supports flexible mounting—horizontal, wall-mounted, or inverted—making it adaptable to a range of applications. The system ships as a complete kit, including linear units, gearhead, motor, drives, control box, software, end-of-stroke limit switches, and cable management.

Movotrak also integrates with other major cobot brands, including Universal Robots (UR), enabling programming through the URCap interface on the UR Teach Pendant.

To join the ABB partner ecosystem, Regal Rexnord modified the system's mounting hardware, created a specialized plug-and-play wiring harness, and added programming tools compatible with ABB's software platform. Through the integration, certified ABB application developers can access Thomson's configuration tools directly from the ABB FlexPendant interface, using ABB's Web App, Wizard, and RAPID Module Code programming tools.