A successful KUKA KR 1000 Titan replacement at one of Australia’s most recognisable manufacturing facilities showcases Industrial Robotics’ ability to deliver complex, bespoke automation projects – on time and on budget.
Industrial Robotics has completed a major robotics project at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra mid year, replacing its heavy-duty KUKA titan robot and delivering a newly engineered bespoke end-effector solution for one of the Mint’s most distinctive production systems.
Delivered through a Federal Government tender process, the project brought together heavy-payload robotics, mechanical design, custom fabrication, controls, programming, integration and commissioning in an environment where reliability, safety and engineering quality were paramount.
Taking on a Heavyweight
At the centre of the system is a KUKA KR 1000 Titan, one of KUKA’s heavy-payload six-axis industrial robots.
The KR 1000 titan is designed for applications at a scale well beyond conventional industrial robot handling. The number of this version indicates payload. It is rated for 1,000 kg lifts and has a reach of approximately 3.2 metres, making it suited to demanding applications involving exceptionally large and heavy loads.
At the Royal Australian Mint, the titan performs an important materials-handling role within the coin production process. The Mint has previously described Titan as handling drums of coin blanks and finished coins, while also putting on a very different performance when production allows: dancing for visitors watching from the public viewing area.
Replacing a robot of this scale was therefore much more than a straightforward equipment swap. Industrial Robotics’ project scope encompassed removal and replacement of the existing titan system, commissioning of the new KR 1000 titan and development of the associated end-effector system. The tender requirements also called for the replacement system to reproduce the established operational functions, including its production and dance routines.
Meet Midas: The newest member of a much-loved robotic family
Every great robot deserves a great name.
The Royal Australian Mint has officially introduced its new KUKA KR 1000 titan as Midas – an appropriately golden name for the next generation of heavy-duty robotics working inside Australia’s coin factory. This robot with a golden touch isn’t joining an empty factory floor.
The Mint’s robotic family has long included Robbie, a six-axis robot responsible for packing bags of finished coins, together with automated guided vehicles Penny, Pence, and Florin. This team help move materials around the circulating coin hall. For years, these machines have turned serious industrial automation into something visitors can understand, watch and enjoy.
Midas now takes over the heavyweight role made famous by his predecessor, Titan.
Titan became far more than a piece of production equipment during his years at the Mint. Visitors could watch the enormous robot handle drums of coins and coin blanks from the public viewing area — and, when he wasn’t busy working, see him stretch, move and perform his famous dance routine for the crowd. The Mint’s own educational material celebrated this playful side of Titan alongside his considerable industrial strength.
That’s a wonderful legacy for Midas to inherit.
Industrial Robotics hasn’t simply helped put a new machine into production. We’ve helped continue a visitor experience that makes advanced manufacturing accessible and entertaining to families, school groups and tourists from around Australia and the world.
An award-winning Canberra attraction
The Royal Australian Mint isn’t simply Australia’s coin factory. It’s a working factory, museum, Commonwealth Heritage Site and major Canberra tourism attraction. In recent years it has accumulated an impressive collection of tourism awards.
Most recently, the Mint was named Winner of the Cultural Tourism Award at the 2025 Canberra Region Tourism Awards. In 2023 it won both the Cultural Tourism Award and People’s Choice Favourite Attraction Award at the Canberra Region Tourism Awards, before going on to win Gold for Cultural Tourism at the 2023 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards. The Mint also won Canberra Region Cultural Tourism and People’s Choice honours in 2022.
That national Gold award is particularly significant: it reinforces that the production floor, museum, history, people (and its memorable robots) form part of a world-class visitor experience.
Come and meet Midas yourself
So, the best part is that Midas isn’t hidden away in a private industrial facility. Visitors to Royal Australian Mint can look directly into the working factory from the public viewing platform and watch the Mint’s machinery and robots in action as Australia’s coins are produced. See Midas and its live factory viewing experience as part of a visit.
You’ll find the Royal Australian Mint at 62-114 Denison Street, Deakin, ACT 2600, just a short trip from central Canberra. Entry is free, free visitor parking is available from Denison Street, and the site also includes the museum, Mint Shop, café and the opportunity to mint your own coin. Tours and special programs are also offered, with some free tours requiring advance bookings. So if you’re visiting Canberra, add the Mint to the itinerary.
Come for Australia’s coin-making history. Stay to watch a remarkable working factory in action.
Where off-the-shelf isn’t enough
A key element of the project was the design and manufacture of an all-new bespoke gripper. Rather than treating the end effector as an accessory to the robot, Industrial Robotics approached it as a complete engineered system in its own right.
The application required a solution capable of securely handling the Mint’s heavy drums while supporting the movements required by the production process. The project requirements placed particular emphasis on secure handling without permanently damaging the drums, providing the Industrial Robotics engineering team with an interesting combination of payload, geometry, control and handling challenges.
The result demonstrates one of Industrial Robotics’ key capabilities: we don’t simply supply robots. We engineer the application around them. From mechanical design and custom tooling through to robot programming, system integration, testing and commissioning, the project drew on multiple engineering disciplines within the Industrial Robotics team.
That capability is particularly valuable where an automation problem cannot be solved by selecting components from a catalogue. Sometimes the right answer needs to be designed, built, tested and refined specifically for the job.
Engineering Confidence
For a project of this complexity, successful commissioning starts well before installation.
Industrial Robotics used engineering analysis and robotic simulation during development to validate important aspects of the proposed solution before deployment. The project also incorporated structured design reviews, factory acceptance testing and site acceptance testing as part of its delivery framework.
This disciplined approach helps reduce integration risk and allows mechanical design, robot motion, software and interfaces to be considered as a complete system rather than as separate pieces of equipment.
For Industrial Robotics, that is an important part of delivering automation in high-consequence environments: do the engineering, prove the concept, test the system and arrive on site prepared.
Industrial Robotics is proud that the Royal Australian Mint project was completed on time and on budget, while meeting the technical demands of a highly specialised application. The scope extended beyond supplying a robot. Project requirements encompassed system design, documentation, factory and site acceptance testing, training, commissioning and ongoing lifecycle support. It is exactly the type of project that demonstrates the value of having an Australian robotics integrator capable of taking ownership across the automation lifecycle.
A Showcase for Australian Robotics Capability
For the team at Industrial Robotics, the Royal Australian Mint project represents more than another successful installation. It demonstrates what can be achieved when robotics integration, mechanical engineering, bespoke end-effector design, manufacturing, programming and project delivery are brought together under one team.
Whether an application requires a standard industrial robot, a complex integration or a completely custom piece of automation, the principle is the same: understand the process first, engineer the right solution and take responsibility for making it work.
The new titan is now doing exactly that at an Australian institution recognised around the world.
Moving serious payloads and showing off some funky fresh moves.
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