AI chatbot helps users to specify low-cost robotic systems
26 February 2025 
The German engineering plastics and automation specialist igus has added an AI chatbot to its RBTX.com online robotics market. The digital assistant helps users with little experience to put together low-cost automation (LCA) systems quickly and reliably from the site’s portfolio of 500 robot components, 95% of which cost less than €12,000.
The text-based AI draws on data from hundreds of projects already automated using RBTX. The answers are targeted. For example, a workshop manager can ask the chatbot: “Which robot is suitable for loading my CNC machine?” Within seconds, the bot provides an answer, suggesting a suitable arm, and detailing its dimensions, speed, and ancillaries such as a vision system. It also quotes a price.
The user can then dig deeper to explore which grippers may be most suitable for the application.
“We want to eliminate all the barriers that stand in the way of companies entering the world of automation,” says igus vice-president, Alexander Mühlens, who is also head of its LCA business. “The decisive factor here, for example, is to ensure guaranteed interoperability of all the components we offer, which makes it virtually impossible to make the wrong purchase.”
The AI advisor is “a further step in this direction… It interacts with interested parties to reduce the time they spend searching for components in a range that keeps on growing.”
Mühlens reports that pilot users of the bot have been enthusiastic. “It has given them a better feel for the possibilities of LCA and significantly accelerated the search for suitable components,” he says.
“We are therefore planning to expand the AI advisor with additional functions,” he adds. For example, it should be possible in future to embed images and video material from references in the chatbot’s answers, and to offer LCA systems that meet a target price.
