One Gripper, One Week, and a Robot Path That Has to Run Clean

One KUKA robot programmer is wanted in Lewisburg, Tennessee from Monday, November 2 through Friday, November 6, 2026, or until the work is completed. A material handling system is getting a new gripper, and the job is to bring it in: support the gripper, configure the new I/O and touch up the handling path until every pick runs clean. It pays $64 an hour base, $96 an hour overtime and $32 an hour travel time, plus a $178 per diem for every working day and $51 on travel days, with no receipts required. Day shift, an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 5 days a week.

What a gripper change really involves

Swapping the tool on the end of a robot sounds like a bolt-on job, and the mechanical part often is. The programming is where the week goes. A new gripper has a different tool center point, a different mass and different fingers, so every taught position that touched a part has to be checked against it. It has new sensors and new actuators, so its I/O has to be configured and proven, signal by signal, before the robot can trust a part-present or a grip-closed. And the handling path that worked with the old tool has to be touched up until the new one picks, carries and places without hesitating.

The I/O and the PLC

Most of the trouble in a gripper change shows up as I/O: a sensor wired to a different input, a valve that needs a different output, a grip confirmation that arrives later than the program expects. This contract asks for someone who can debug that I/O, confirm what the PLC sends and expects back, and leave the cell talking to the line the way it did before the change.

KUKA and the KRC4

The robots are KUKA, marked mandatory on the posting, on the KRC4 controller. If you have changed tools on KUKA robots, re-taught the positions that touch the part and worked a new gripper's I/O through to a clean cycle, this week will feel familiar.

Travel time and per diem, in full

Two things on this posting are worth reading closely. Travel time is paid at $32 an hour, so the hours you spend getting to Lewisburg and back are paid hours. And there is a per diem, a daily allowance for the cost of working away from home: $178 for every working day, and $51 on travel days, with no receipts required for either. On a contract measured in days, those two lines are a real part of what the week pays.

The schedule and the rate

Monday, November 2 through Friday, November 6, or until the work is completed, on a day shift of an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day. The base rate is $64 an hour and overtime is $96 an hour, in US dollars. This is a White Glove contract, so Automate America pays you, on Net 15 terms. Bring standard PPE (safety shoes, glasses and ear protection) and a safety vest, expect lockout/tagout on site, and have a current certificate of insurance with $1,000,000 in general liability and US work authorization before you start.

Lewisburg, Tennessee

Lewisburg is the seat of Marshall County in Middle Tennessee, south of Nashville, in a part of the state where manufacturing is a big share of the work. Columbia State Community College has a campus in Lewisburg and is a good place to look for technical courses, and the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development covers workplace safety and training programs across the state.

If you run a service company

A one-week KUKA job is an easy yes for a service company. Apply your own programmer to it exactly as an independent professional would; they stay on your payroll and on your terms, the per diem and paid travel time come with the work, and a quiet week becomes a billable one.

For companies with a short job of their own

Nobody hires a full-time robot programmer for one gripper change. This customer did not try to: they posted one week of work at the rate they chose. Any plant, integrator or machine builder can do the same. On Automate America it is free to post, free to apply and free to hire, and the rate you post is the rate, so nobody bids it down and the choice is about who fits the work.

Professionals apply with their profiles, ratings and reviews from finished work, and service companies can put their available people forward beside independent professionals. Once the work is posted, getting it to the right people is our part: we write it up and send it out by email, video, articles like this one and every social channel we run. Choose White Glove and Automate America is the one approved supplier you set up, paying the professionals and sending you one invoice. If you have a robot job coming up, post it free on the marketplace.

What a strong application shows

Name the KUKA robots and controllers you have worked on, the tool changes you have brought in, and how you proved the new I/O before you trusted it. If a new gripper once refused to confirm a grip, say what it turned out to be. Keep your profile current: ratings, reviews and completed contracts are the first things a customer reads.

The contract, in one place

KUKA Robot Programmer, one needed, White Glove hourly contract. Lewisburg, Tennessee. Support a new gripper on a material handling system, configure the new I/O and touch up the handling path. KUKA (mandatory) on KRC4, with I/O debugging, point touch-up and PLC work. November 2 to 6, 2026, or until completed. Day shift, an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. $64/hr base, $96/hr overtime, $32/hr travel time, plus a $178 per diem every working day and $51 on travel days, no receipts, in US dollars, Net 15.

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Tony Wallace, Co-Founder · Automate America · Text first 586-770-8083 · TonyW@AutomateAmerica.com