Hirebotics Adds Line Tracking, Linear Rail to Collaborative Robots

Hirebotics LLC has rolled out two new extensions for its collaborative robots aimed at manufacturers who work with moving production lines or oversized parts. The Nashville-based company introduced the additions — line tracking and a modular linear rail — at IMTS 2026 in Chicago this week, as reported by The Robot Report.

Both features address situations where work doesn't fit inside a robot's normal reach, according to CEO Matthew Bush. "The work doesn’t fit inside a fixed work envelope," he told The Robot Report, explaining that the problem shows up either because a part is too large and awkward, or because it won't hold still.

Following parts on the move

Line tracking is built for Hirebotics' Cobot Painter, letting it maintain a programmed painting path while a conveyor keeps running. A sensor detects an incoming part and automatically starts the operation, with an encoder feeding the robot real-time information about conveyor movement so it can adjust as speed changes.

Unlike many traditional line-tracking systems that require specialized programming, Hirebotics says the feature runs entirely within its no-code, cloud-based Beacon platform. Operators calibrate the system by teaching Beacon the conveyor's direction and speed, after which the cobot handles detection and path compensation automatically.

Extending reach for large workpieces

The second addition, a linear rail, tackles the opposite problem: parts too big for a single robot's work envelope. Hirebotics' force- and power-limited cobots have a reach of 68.9 inches (175 cm), but fabrication jobs — a 12-foot (3.6 m) frame or a 20-foot (6 m) structural assembly, for instance — often extend well beyond that.

Customers had already been adapting cobots with magnetic Magswitch mounts, inverted mounting, and headstock-tailstock positioners, Bush said. The new rail, sold in 5-foot (1.5 m) increments or custom lengths, gives them a standardized way to move the cobot along a workpiece instead of repeatedly repositioning the part itself. It works across Hirebotics' welding, plasma cutting, and painting applications, and the company points to shipbuilding, structural fabrication, trailer and truck-body manufacturing, and agricultural equipment as target industries.

Bush noted the rail can also support "A/B" workflows, where an operator loads one side of a part while the cobot works the other, then the robot shifts sides once the first pass is complete — a setup he said manufacturers can already run manually but that becomes easier to automate with rail travel.

A gradual path to automation

For now, the rail ships with manual positioning, letting manufacturers extend reach without adding a fully automated axis. Hirebotics plans to add position verification inside Beacon next, so the platform can confirm the cobot is correctly placed before resuming work. A fully automated version, which would let Beacon control rail movement as an automated seventh axis, is targeted for the end of 2026.

Bush framed both launches as part of a broader strategy to keep expanding Beacon's capabilities without adding complexity for operators. "The larger goal is the same one behind these launches: make automation applicable to more of the work manufacturers already do without requiring them to build a robotics department around it," he said, according to The Robot Report.

Founded in 2015, Hirebotics builds cobot welding, plasma cutting, and painting systems marketed as turnkey solutions that don't require dedicated robotics programmers.