KELO Drives

Your path to omnidirectional robot mobility

Our KELO drives are highly compact, self-contained units that can be mounted to a vehicle frame at arbitrary positions using just four screws and two cables. The KELO Drive family forms the core of our highly modular, configurable, customizable, maintainable, and cost-effective platform concept for professional mobile service robots.

KELO drives

KD 100x

Variants: 24 V | 48 V

Payload: 125 Kg

Rated torque: 5 Nm | 8 Nm

Peak torque: 10 Nm | 20 Nm

Hub motor: Ø 107 mm | 111 mm

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KD 165x

Variants: Only one

Payload: 500 Kg

Rated torque: 30 Nm

Peak torque: 60 Nm

Hub motor: Ø 165 mm

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KELO drives enable ...

transportation of heavy loads

  • Payload of KD 165X: 500 kg

  • Drives can be positioned arbitrarily under the frame that carries the heavy, bulky load.

  • For a cost-efficient solution, KELO drives can be combined with passive wheels.

omnidirectional mobility

  • Limited floor space is a key design consideration for mobile logistics robots.
  • KELO drives give designers greater freedom to develop solutions for confined spaces.
  • Their robust suspension enables reliable operation on uneven ground.
  • KELO drives help designers overcome the limitations of conventional omnidirectional drive concepts.

design for application

  • In future manufacturing concepts, self-organizing work cells are a key element.
  • KELO drives can transform application-specific work cells into mobile work cells: simply attach the KELO drives to the work cell to make it mobile.
  • This frees designers from designing around robot mobility, allowing them to focus on the application and work-cell requirements.

KELO drive exploded view

Hover over the image to see different parts of the KELO drive (marked by orange circles).  Click on the circle markers to learn more.

Rotation axis KELO drive side connector Housing Electronics Suspension mechanism Hub motor Motor encoder Rotation axis encoder Platform side connector

Rotation axis

Continuous 360° rotation without mechanical limit

KELO drive side connector

KELO EasyConnect
EtherCAT & power supply

Housing

Electronics housing with IP65 protection class

Electronics

Integrated logic, safety, and power stage
EtherCAT communication

Suspension mechanism

Integrated suspension

Hub motor

High performance EC motor

Motor encoder

Integrated motor encoder

Rotation axis encoder

19-bit absolute position encoder

Platform side connector

KELO EasyConnect

KELO drives: easy to use

KELO EasyConnect

Easy integration & maintenance:

Place platform-side connector on the robot

Attach or detach KELO drive with only four screws (handling mechanical, power, and data connections simultaneously)

KELO Tulip

Easy integration of KELO drives software:

Enter the position of the wheels into a configuration file.

The confi file is then used to translate the intended velocity of the robot platform into the velocities of the drives.

Contact us: info (at) kelo-robotics (dot) com

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Our products

We have implemented the platform concept in a number of off-the-shelve robots. We use similar or identical component across different models of mobile robots each serving a specific task. The robots themselves can be easily scaled and adapted to the needs of customers in terms of payload,
vehicle geometry, or design.

Our robots can operate in two modes: They can either operate fully autonomously or interactively support human workers in accomplishing their tasks.

  • They operate autonomously and transport loads as long as there is no interaction with a human worker.
  • When they approach a human or an obstacle they reduce their speed AND their kinetic energy and then keep moving at a kinetic energy level, which cannot cause any harm or damage.
  • When a contact is established by a human worker for example by grasping a haptic interface the robots go in an interactive operation mode. In this mode they can be arbitrarily pushed back or moved around with a minimal amount of force.
  • On the press of a button they go back into autonomous mode and continue executing their task.
KELO products

...safer,

Our robots are inherently safe. Inherent safety means that our robots can be pushed back or aside if they get into a human's way or approach the human in an undesired way. Humans and robot can safely move side-by-side even in narrow space. This property will be indispensable for future generations of mobile service robots, which shall operate in close proximity to humans. The robots inherit this property from our KELO drives. Our drives do not have gearboxes and can be stopped and pushed back, even when they are actuated. The drives have a Caster-wheel suspension like the wheels of a shopping cart. These two properties together make our robots inherently safe. Their use will increase the safety in your facility and decrease the number of accidents.

...greener,

Our robots have a payload to weight ratio of 5:1, while comparable robots have typically a ratio of around 2:1 or even less. This means that our robots consume significantly less power since they have to move much less total weight at the same payload. Furthermore, our robots are omni-directional. They can move almost instantly in any direction and in any orientation. They can navigate more efficiently, which increase throughput and reduces time and energy consumption.

...customizable,

Our robots can be customized to a customer’s need very quickly. We have adopted a design concept, which was initially developed in the automotive industry: the platform concept. Our robots are built of a construction kit of modular, quasi standardized components. The modularity of our components together with the high configurability of our KELO drives enables us to (re-)design our robots according to a customer’s needs with limited effort and in a short period of time. Furthermore, using the same components in different robot models facilitates economy of scale and reduces cost both in development and in series production.

...more efficient!

Our robots are collaborative. They can interact with human workers and support them in the execution of their task. It is a meanwhile widely adopted insight that full automation in many industrial contexts is a dead end and that teams consisting of humans and robots can reduce idle times and increase efficiency to a significant extent. (see white paper World Economic Forum 2020). A prerequisite is that humans and robots can interact smoothly and intuitively. Our robots have this ability. As a matter of fact our robots can improve the efficiency of your operations by 40% or more.

...safer,

Our robots are inherently safe. They can be pushed back or aside if they get into a human's way or approach the human in an undesired way. Humans and robot can safely move side-by-side even in narrow space. This property will be indispensable for future generations of mobile service robots, which shall operate in close proximity to humans. The robots inherit this property from our KELO drives. Our drives do not have gearboxes and can be stopped and pushed back, even when they are actuated. The drives have a Caster-wheel suspension like the wheels of a shopping cart. These two properties together make our robots inherently safe. Their use will increase the safety in your facility and decrease the number of accidents.

...greener,

Our robots have a payload to weight ratio of 5:1, while comparable robots have typically a ratio of around 2:1 or even less. This means that our robots consume significantly less power since they have to move much less total weight at the same payload. Furthermore, our robots are omni-directional. They can move almost instantly in any direction and in any orientation. They can navigate more efficiently, which increase throughput and reduces time and energy consumption.

...customizable,

Our robots can be customized to a customer’s need very quickly. We have adopted a design concept, which was initially developed in the automotive industry: the platform concept. Our robots are built of a construction kit of modular, quasi standardized components. The modularity of our components together with the high configurability of our KELO drives enables us to (re-)design our robots according to a customer’s needs with limited effort and in a short period of time. Furthermore, using the same components in different robot models facilitates economy of scale and reduces cost both in development and in series production.

...more efficient!

Our robots are collaborative. They can interact with human workers and support them in the execution of their task. It is a meanwhile widely adopted insight that full automation in many industrial contexts is a dead end and that teams consisting of humans and robots can reduce idle times and increase efficiency to a significant extent. (see white paper World Economic Forum 2020). A prerequisite is that humans and robots can interact smoothly and intuitively. Our robots have this ability. As a matter of fact our robots can improve the efficiency of your operations by 40% or more.

...safer,

Our robots are inherently safe. They can be pushed back or aside if they get into a human's way or approach the human in an undesired way. Humans and robot can safely move side-by-side even in narrow space. This property will be indispensable for future generations of mobile service robots, which shall operate in close proximity to humans. The robots inherit this property from our KELO drives. Our drives do not have gearboxes and can be stopped and pushed back, even when they are actuated. The drives have a Caster-wheel suspension like the wheels of a shopping cart. These two properties together make our robots inherently safe. Their use will increase the safety in your facility and decrease the number of accidents.

...greener,

Our robots have a payload to weight ratio of 5:1, while comparable robots have typically a ratio of around 2:1 or even less. This means that our robots consume significantly less power since they have to move much less total weight at the same payload. Furthermore, our robots are omni-directional. They can move almost instantly in any direction and in any orientation. They can navigate more efficiently, which increase throughput and reduces time and energy consumption.

...customizable,

Our robots can be customized to a customer’s need very quickly. We have adopted a design concept, which was initially developed in the automotive industry: the platform concept. Our robots are built of a construction kit of modular, quasi standardized components. The modularity of our components together with the high configurability of our KELO drives enables us to (re-)design our robots according to a customer’s needs with limited effort and in a short period of time. Furthermore, using the same components in different robot models facilitates economy of scale and reduces cost both in development and in series production.

...more efficient!

Our robots are collaborative. They can interact with workers and support them in the execution of their task. It is a meanwhile widely adopted insight that full automation in many industrial contexts is a dead end and that teams consisting of humans and robots can reduce idle times and increase efficiency to a significant extent. (see white paper World Economic Forum 2020). A prerequisite is that humans and robots can interact smoothly and intuitively. Our robots have this ability. As a matter of fact our robots can improve the efficiency of your operations by 40% or more.

...safer,

Our robots are inherently safe. They can be pushed back or aside if they get into a human's way or approach the human in an undesired way. Humans and robot can safely move side-by-side even in narrow space. This property will be indispensable for future generations of mobile service robots, which shall operate in close proximity to humans. The robots inherit this property from our KELO drives. Our drives do not have gearboxes and can be stopped and pushed back, even when they are actuated. The drives have a Caster-wheel suspension like the wheels of a shopping cart. These two properties together make our robots inherently safe. Their use will increase the safety in your facility and decrease the number of accidents.

...greener,

Our robots have a payload to weight ratio of 5:1, while comparable robots have typically a ratio of around 2:1 or even less. This means that our robots consume significantly less power since they have to move much less total weight at the same payload. Furthermore, our robots are omni-directional. They can move almost instantly in any direction and in any orientation. They can navigate more efficiently, which increase throughput and reduces time and energy consumption.

...customizable,

Our robots can be customized to a customer’s need very quickly. We have adopted a design concept, which was initially developed in the automotive industry: the platform concept. Our robots are built of a construction kit of modular, quasi standardized components. The modularity of our components together with the high configurability of our KELO drives enables us to (re-)design our robots according to a customer’s needs with limited effort and in a short period of time. Furthermore, using the same components in different robot models facilitates economy of scale and reduces cost both in development and in series production.

...more efficient!

Our robots are collaborative. They can interact with workers and support them in the execution of their task. It is a meanwhile widely adopted insight that full automation in many industrial contexts is a dead end and that teams consisting of humans and robots can reduce idle times and increase efficiency to a significant extent. (see white paper World Economic Forum 2020). A prerequisite is that humans and robots can interact smoothly and intuitively. Our robots have this ability. As a matter of fact our robots can improve the efficiency of your operations by 40% or more.

...cheaper,

Our robots come at a fraction of the price of comparable robots. To achieve this cost reduction, we have transferred the platform concept, which was developed in automotive industry and has led to significant cost savings there, into the design of mobile service robots. Our robots are built off a set of re-usable functional modules. Using the same components in different robot models facilitates economy of scale and reduces cost both in development and in series production …

greener,

Our robots have a payload to weight ratio of 9:1, while comparable robots have typically a ratio of around 3:1 or even less. This means that our robots consume significantly less power since they have to move much less total weight at the same payload. Furthermore, our robots are omni-directional. They can move almost instantly in any direction and in any orientation. They can navigate more efficiently, which increase throughput and reduces time and energy consumption…

safer!

Our robots are inherently safe. Inherent safety means that our robots can be pushed back or aside if they get into a human's way or approach the human in an undesired way. Humans and robot can safely move side-by-side even in narrow space. This property will be indispensable for future generations of mobile service robots, which shall operate in close proximity to humans. The robots inherit this property from our KELO drives. Our drives do not have gearboxes and can be pushed back, even when they are actuated. The drives have a Caster-wheel suspension like the wheels of a shopping cart. These two properties together make our robots inherently safe

...cheaper,

Our robots come at a fraction of the price of comparable robots. To achieve this cost reduction, we have transferred the platform concept, which was developed in automotive industry and has led to significant cost savings there, into the design of mobile service robots. Our robots are built off a set of re-usable functional modules. Using the same components in different robot models facilitates economy of scale and reduces cost both in development and in series production …

greener,

Our robots have a payload to weight ratio of 9:1, while comparable robots have typically a ratio of around 3:1 or even less. This means that our robots consume significantly less power since they have to move much less total weight at the same payload. Furthermore, our robots are omni-directional. They can move almost instantly in any direction and in any orientation. They can navigate more efficiently, which increase throughput and reduces time and energy consumption…

safer!

Our robots are inherently safe. Inherent safety means that our robots can be pushed back or aside if they get into a human's way or approach the human in an undesired way. Humans and robot can safely move side-by-side even in narrow space. This property will be indispensable for future generations of mobile service robots, which shall operate in close proximity to humans. The robots inherit this property from our KELO drives. Our drives do not have gearboxes and can be pushed back, even when they are actuated. The drives have a Caster-wheel suspension like the wheels of a shopping cart. These two properties together make our robots inherently safe

...cheaper,

Our robots come at a fraction of the price of comparable robots. To achieve this cost reduction, we have transferred the platform concept, which was developed in automotive industry and has led to significant cost savings there, into the design of mobile service robots. Our robots are built off a set of re-usable functional modules. Using the same components in different robot models facilitates economy of scale and reduces cost both in development and in series production.

greener,

Our robots have a payload to weight ratio of 9:1, while comparable robots have typically a ratio of around 3:1 or even less. This means that our robots consume significantly less power since they have to move much less total weight at the same payload. Furthermore, our robots are omni-directional. They can move almost instantly in any direction and in any orientation. They can navigate more efficiently, which increases throughput and reduces time and energy consumption.

safer!

Our robots are inherently safe. Inherent safety means that our robots can be pushed back or aside if they get into a human's way or approach the human in an undesired way. Humans and robot can safely move side-by-side even in narrow space. This property will be indispensable for future generations of mobile service robots, which shall operate in close proximity to humans. The robots inherit this property from our KELO drives. Our drives do not have gearboxes and can be pushed back, even when they are actuated. The drives have a Caster-wheel suspension like the wheels of a shopping cart. These two properties together make our robots inherently safe.