ABB Robots and the Case for Modular Robots

From Ford's interchangeable parts to O-ID's hot-swappable humanoid and the Goose home robot, and how ABB's robot families and shared RAPID code fit in.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/26/20261 min read

Ford's 1913 magneto line in Highland Park worked because every part was interchangeable. A worker could take any flywheel from the bin and it would fit, and a worn part could be swapped instead of scrapping the whole machine. Toys like Meccano used the same idea, with one set of strips and bolts that could build almost anything.

Black and white photo of men in caps assembling parts along a long workbench
Black and white photo of men in caps assembling parts along a long workbench

Workers on Ford's flywheel magneto assembly line, Highland Park, 1913. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Robots were slow to pick this up outside the lab. Kits like the Rero reconfigurable robot let students snap servo modules together into a dog, a car or a humanoid, but commercial robots were mostly sealed units, and a broken joint meant a service call.

Red Meccano box with green metal strips and small parts in front
Red Meccano box with green metal strips and small parts in front

A vintage Meccano accessory outfit with its strips and parts. Photo: Wiki.cullin / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

This month the Tokyo startup O-ID raised $1.2 million to build a fully modular humanoid for factories, with joints, limbs and compute units that can be hot-swapped on the factory floor in minutes. For homes, The Robot Works showed Goose, a low wheeled robot with a long neck and a beak-shaped gripper, sold as a platform whose list of skills keeps growing.

Several small white modular robots arranged in a circle with arrows between them
Several small white modular robots arranged in a circle with arrows between them

The Rero reconfigurable robot kit rebuilt into different forms. Photo: Engtong / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB applies a similar idea to its product range. In July 2025 it launched three robot families for China's mid-market at once, covering different payloads and price points, so a factory can choose the size it needs.

Three white ABB robot arms standing on white and red pedestals
Three white ABB robot arms standing on white and red pedestals

ABB robots from the three families launched in China in July 2025. Photo: ABB

At its Shanghai factory, ABB uses its own robots to help build robots. Its GoFa cobot can be moved to a new job and retaught by hand, and ABB robots share the RAPID programming language across models, so engineers keep their skills when they change robots.

White ABB robot arms working in automated production cells
White ABB robot arms working in automated production cells

ABB robots at work in production cells inside ABB's Shanghai robot factory. Photo: ABB

I like where modular hardware is heading. A home robot that can get a new gripper or a new skill, and stay out of the landfill for another five years, is much easier to justify buying. Ford's parts bins made the same case for factory machines more than a century ago.

White ABB GoFa cobot arm holding a black cylinder on a wooden table in an office
White ABB GoFa cobot arm holding a black cylinder on a wooden table in an office

An ABB GoFa cobot on a workbench. Photo: ABB

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