Industry 4.0 or the current automation trend is evolving at a colossal rate. This wave intends to solve the problems of industry 3.0 and raise the existing manufacturing standards.
Robots are highly sought in manufacturing and other industries to perform the task that is generally identified as four "D's". They are, "Dirty, Demeaning, Dear(expensive), and Dull." It is, therefore, important that the manufacturing process should be at its best, and this requires a state-of-the-art technology that is both flexible and responds well to constant upgradation.
Today's growing industry standards need updated machinery, and it is clear that the industry 3.0 robots are just not enough. It is clear that industries need an intelligent and human-friendly machinery to solve the problems that industry 3.0 cannot solve. Cobots or Collaborative Robots are just what the current industry needs to optimize its output process while increasing the safety of the manufacturing environment.
To help you understand more about cobots, below is a thorough article about them, what problems they solve, how they can optimize your workplace, and how they are the best robotics have to offer.
About us
Founded in 2005, Universal Robots is a cobot manufacturing company that aims to manufacture small, strong, and flexible cobots to help businesses worldwide optimize their manufacturing process. Being a company that sold the first cobot, it is our responsibility to deliver the best product, which has both excellent quality and longevity.
To understand what Cobots are, first, let us look at what problems they solve.
The problems with conventional robotics
Most traditional robots cannot change their behavioral pattern in accordance with their surroundings and user’s needs; they work on a fixed algorithm and are not smart enough to work according to their work environment, output requirements, or any other factor. This shows that the machine is not flexible enough to work with humans, and a malfunction could hinder the manufacturing process.
Non Intelligent robots cannot make decisions, and hence could be a security lapse. Imagine a human walking through a working area of a robot; it might hit the person and might keep on hitting him/her until manually shut off. On the other hand, Cobots are both intelligent and safe and hence, a proven breakthrough in the interaction between humans and robots.
Most of the robots are programmed to do a specific task; either they are pre-programmed or need to be taught. But these previous-gen robots, unlike cobots, take a relatively long time to get themselves reprogrammed. This takes both substantial capital and efforts and hence not worth the frequent changes. In some cases, if the industry wants to change the robotic operation, they buy new machinery altogether as the reprogramming cost and buying a new robot will cost almost the same.
The solution
Cobots or "Collaborative Robots" solve many problems that the previous generation robots hold and open a world of new and exciting technological advances that could be very useful in both safe manufacturing and multitasking. But what exactly are they?
What are Cobots?
Also known as Collaborative robots, cobots are an evolution from the previous generation of robots. They are designed to work alongside humans making their job less tedious and easier. Typically, cobots are assigned a task that is both monotonous and physically demanding.
According to its patent (US5952796A), "an apparatus and method for direct physical interaction between a person and a general-purpose manipulator controlled by a computer."
Unlike the common understanding, the objective of cobots is not to take over human's jobs and replace them with machines; instead, they are designed to enhance human-robot collaboration. Hence, collaborative robots significantly increase the output and efficiency across the board.
The primary objective behind the development of cobots is to enhance human-robot collaboration in the workplace. Instead of replacing a person, cobots will work together with humans, resulting in increased output and improved efficiency across the board. Cobots are intelligent enough to operate intuitively and safely around humans.
Today's robots are not just stationary arms that are used only in manufacturing; the use cases of collaborative robots do not stick to manufacturing. Cobots could be many things, including mobile robots that could multitask and work alongside humans safely and efficiently. With the autonomous mobile robot technology or AMR technology, a stationary cobot arm can become an intelligent, safe, and highly efficient mobile cobot. This is because AMR technology is packed with powerful sensors and computers that offer ultimate flexibility and utility. The merger of such strong yet easy-to-use technologies will allow a comprehensive adoption of cobots with a broader spectrum of use cases and adoption.
From robots to cobots - a brief history of cobots
Like all the other disruptive technology, initially, cobots encountered a lot of skepticism since they were the first automated robots that were not caged. But all the security concerns disappeared when the world realized how revolutionary cobots are.
The idea of cobots comes from a 1999 US patent that used the idea of direct physical integration between humans and computerized robots referred to as IAD (International Ancestor Device). This patent led General Motors to implement robotics in the automotive sector. This new device did not have any internal motion for safety reasons since it was not caged. This unique design opened the world of robotics to an era of collaborative robotics.
German robotics developer KUKA in association with the German Aerospace Center Institute, developed a lightweight cobot LBR3 which had motion power of its own. The technology was later refined by the 2008 and 2013 updates.
In 2008, Universal Robots released UR5, a robot that could safely operate along with humans, eliminating the need for caging or fencing. This new robot was user-friendly, reusable, and flexible, giving small to mid-sized businesses a chance to automate their operations without investing in pieces of machinery that might be expensive.
The term "cobot"
We all know that Czech writer Karel Capek first neologized the word "robot" in his play RUR, which was about a future with human-like creatures known as "Robot." They first serve the humans but later rise to form a rebellion to take over the human race. Interestingly, in cobots, "co" stands for collaboration, suggesting the idea behind cobots, i.e., "work smarter, together for getting better results."
What are the key differences between robots and cobots?
The simplest way a cobot and robot differ from each other is they are designed to work with humans; they are typically supervised alongside human operators. Traditional robots are programmed to work without human interaction. Thus unlike robots, cobots create an efficient ecosystem for workers where workers can leave the dangerous and repetitive tasks to cobots.
Since they generally work with humans, cobots are equipped with sensors and other features that boost safety. They can immobilize even when a human and cobots are in the same envelope, thus preventing injuries and making a worker-friendly environment where safety is the priority. In robots, on the other hand, workers are protected by fences or cages, which cannot promise 100% protection from any hazard.
A collaborative robot is very easy to program machinery that is capable of learning and adjusting quickly. As mentioned above, the same is not the case with conventional robots that are both hard to install and costly to reprogram. Cobots do not generally require coding to assign different tasks and hence could be used to cover for an absent worker and different tasks just through mobile applications.
What are the advantages of cobots?
As mentioned above, conventional robots are not reusable, unlike cobots, meaning they are easy to program and hence reusable. Cobots do not usually require capital or time to reprogram; a simple, user-friendly mobile application is enough for the cobot to perform or learn new actions. Users can also manually code and change the position of the cobots since they are usually not heavy, nor do they require a highly skilled technician. This generally creates a healthy self-sustainable environment that saves both time and money.
Installing and assigning a task to a robot was always a problem that would take more than a week and hence becomes a tedious task and less flexible during an emergency or an urgent situation. But this is not the case with cobots, meaning setup could be done in as less as 30 minutes. This user-friendly setup makes it available in emergency situations as a flexible or temporary employee.
As mentioned above, cobots are fairly flexible, and adding a new task to a robot is extremely simple. It can do the same task for hours and could be reprogrammed easily and perform a different task every day. Because of their flexibility, cobots can come in handy during emergencies like peak hours.
Robots and other machinery were introduced to optimize the machinery process. Cobots, a better version of robots, are accurate and consistent, unlike humans, since they apply the same tensile, density, and pressure.
Collaborative robots are designed to work with human employees, not to replace them; these are human-focused robots that are capable of doing most of the grunt work for humans, thus improving the workforce quality. Doing the same thoughtless and tedious task, again and again, can also run down the employee morale, but with cobots doing the job, employees can focus on other critical tasks at hand.
Robotization of the manufacturing process was encouraged because it can achieve maximum output costing minimal costs. With cobots, human errors could be at their lowest, and so will the capital incurred in the long run.
Generally, the larger industries prefer a robotics-centered solution that requires hefty capital, but small and mid-sized industries stick to a manual workforce. But with cobots, the price for machinery setup is not as gruesome as previous generation robots, and since they are designed to be flexible and optimize the operation process, they practically pay for themselves.
Where will cobots be of the most value?
Cobots are extensively used for cutting, shaping, sanding, polishing, sorting, and packaging, precisely what businesses need, but apart from that, cobots have many other applications that are currently put to work or are still in the testing phase.
One of the most popular applications is mobile cobots. Combining the stationary cobots with AMR technology can yield great results and increase the use of cobots exponentially. Drones are one of the many examples.
A cobot in a facility without humans does not need as much attention as conventional robots; hence they require a high amount of signaling and fast decision-making skills. Thus, 5G technology will boost the field of cobotics.
Many R&D programs are concentrating on how robots can mimic human movements and decisions, but algorithms derived by artificial intelligence algorithms have been aiding the research and helping humans collaborate with robots at different levels.
But at what levels can industrial robots collaborate with human workers?
According to the Industrial Federation of Robots or IFR, there are four levels of collaboration between industrial robots and humans.
In coexistence, humans and robots work alongside each other following a pre-decided workflow process that could either be a human to robot or robot to a human process supervised by both humans and robots. These types of collaborative robots are gaining traction and hence are advancing on a technological road map.
Humans and cobots share the same workspace in sequential collaboration, but they do not work on a section simultaneously. Both humans and robots can supervise sequential cobots.
A cooperative collaboration of cobots and humans lets them work in the same space simultaneously. Therefore, they are equipped to use top-notch safety equipment to ensure the safety of humans.
In responsive collaboration, a cobot responds to the movement of human workers in real-time. This means they work according to human movements and needs; hence, they have to be both safe and flexible.
Industries usually prefer the first two methods of human-robot collaboration, i.e., co-existence and sequential collaboration. The latter are relatively less common.
Six Trends Impacting Industrial Collaborative Robots
The cobots of today are equipped with force limiting devices like torque sensors to ensure the safety and consistency of workers around them. This protective foam, flexibility, and ease of use is the driving force for the mass adoption of cobots. They keep on evolving into a better piece of equipment, and so does the number of applications of cobots. Cobots optimizes the manufacturing process making sure that a plant makes the best of itself. Below are six innovative and emerging cobot application trends that are taking the manufacturing industry by storm.
One of the most interesting and recent applications of collaborative robotics is automated picking. Automated picking enhances the work of human picking. The cobots pick up the product from the inventory and pack it for shipment, saving both time and money.
Traditionally, picking is a particularly time-consuming, labor-intensive, and repetitive task, hence wasting workers' time. With the thriving e-commerce industry, automated picking has become the backbone of many companies. With automated picking, workers can focus on more skilled and important jobs which are not repetitive. Most of the companies whose picking system is still worker-oriented cannot keep up with the rising demand, affecting their credibility. Hence automated picking is gaining more and more traction every day.
Assembly line is another repetitive job that collaborative robotics can perform in less time and more accurately. In the assembly line, cobots manufacture the products, including carrying out tasks like screwing and connecting.
Generally, cobot arms are sufficient for assembly line equipment. These cobots work at a faster pace and more accurately hence optimizing the workflow. What's more, the flexibility of cobots means different aspects of the assembly line can be automated depending on the user's needs.
The term machine tending refers to the automated operation of industrial machinery tools. Loading and unloading are the primary functions that come under machine tending, but tasks like blow off, wash, deburring, sorting, gauging are also considered a part of the process.
Machine tending completed by human workers is tedious and time-consuming work that would cost capital to the company without any insurance of accuracy of the task. Cobots do the hard work for the workers and let them focus on other skillful and important responsibilities.
Picking, packing, and palletizing includes picking the product, packing it, and transporting it to its respective location. This is one of the major tasks in the manufacturing industry and hence, it is also one of the most robust trends in collaborative robotics.
But when it comes to packing and palletizing, it is a highly exhaustive and repetitive job that leaves the workers bored in the workplace. Therefore, cobots are used to do their job effectively, increasing the output and the efficiency of the plant. AMRs equipped with cobots are also used for palletizing.
As the name suggests, material handling is the process of picking and transporting heavy materials that could take lots of manpower and increase safety. In cobotics, material handling requires fitting the cobot with an appropriate end of the arm tool that will allow the machine to move materials easily. Collaborative robotics ensures safety since a robot is doing all the heavy work for humans.
Automated replenishment system analyses inventory levels, lead time and reorders stock to meet forecast sales needs. It is a repetitive system suitable for cobots such as mobile manipulators.
Cobot's automated replenishment use case is helpful to almost every manufacturing warehouse since automatic replenishment leaves no downtime and does the job correctly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Since it is a general purpose open sourced language focused on productivity and simplicity, cobots are generally coded in Ruby. But from a user point of view, the programming language does not matter since they can give it different tasks and commands with the help of mobile applications.
Collaborative robots are set to be the backbone of every industry that uses them, impacting the ability of scaling up the production or scaling it down, cobots can smooth out the process with the exact accuracy in any product. They are capable of doing most of the labor work while the employees can concentrate on more critical tasks.
The priority of every cobot manufacturer is to maximise the cobot’s safety features. They are pegged with many powerful sensors and unlike the robots from the yesteryears, they have the ability to stop when something or someone comes in between them and their operating zone. Since companies can’t decrease the payload or weight of the cobot, in case of an accident acceleration can reduce the impact and hence safety limitations are outlined in the ISO 10218 standard and have provided a speed limit of the Tool Centerpoint (TCP) as 250 mm/sec during operations when the operator can interface with the robot.
Cobots are designed to work alongside and collaborate with humans improving the efficiency of the plant while keeping the worker's spirit high. It is a great and safe technology that can help turn hazardous tasks into something user-friendly. These AI-powered machineries are used in products that are used in almost every walk of life, and the usage and use cases of cobots are only going to keep increasing.
