Discussion On 10 Viewpoints Of Cooperative Robot

In today’s processing equipment, automation applications often need powerful robots. In other words, robots with high load and high speed are usually fixed in a certain place and need to operate behind the safety fence. In contrast, the design of cooperative robots (cobots) is easy to be deployed to work with human beings, but this usually makes their payload limited and speed slow, which limits the processing efficiency.

However, cobots are coming. Specifically, they are increasingly used in CNC machining applications. Cobot technology is developing continuously, and the development trend of manufacturing industry is conducive to its wider application. In order to better understand cooperative robots, we sorted out 10 questions about cooperative robot technology:

1. Machine vision and artificial intelligence promote the application of cobots

Machine vision and artificial intelligence will solve the important challenges faced by robots, especially cooperative robots. One of them is that the gripper or end effector in robot applications is a complex component, which usually needs to be customized to adapt to its work tasks. The problem of cooperative robot is more serious, because the end effector may bring potential safety hazards and destroy the cooperative ability of robot. However, the combination of vision and artificial intelligence is expected to enable the robot to analyze the shape of the object, so that it can grasp it with only one general gripper. After all, this is what we humans do: we use vision and intelligence to guide our own hand, which has a wide range of uses.

Strong interests help to promote the development of this technology. In its warehouse application, the storage robot can grasp all kinds of objects quickly and accurately using a single invariant gripper.

2. Cobots cannot guarantee safety

As we all know, the robot end effector is a component, which may cause potential safety hazards and weaken the cooperative nature of cooperative robots. Robert bringer, the leader of P & G robotics, helped develop a Cobot based tray system, which has been replicated and deployed in various locations of the company. “It’s not just a robot, it’s a system,” he pointed out. Ensuring the safety of the operator in the tray system requires not only the designation of a coordinator, but also the filling of clips and possible contact areas, such as the elbow of the coordinator, where the operator bends down to pick up the box and may hit his or her head.

3. Cobot applications do not require collaboration

Dan burseth, vice president of Eckhart Inc., an automation solution provider, offered some insights into cobots’ success today. “Cobots are cheap, easy to set up and program, and small,” he said. This is usually why they use them. Security is not a major factor. Although cobots are designed to work safely with people, this is not the case “Collaboration” usually does not reflect their success.

4. The payback period of automation is declining.

Mr. burseth also pointed out that in addition to providing opportunities for low-cost automation, the decline in the price of cooperative robots makes their applications more economical. At the same time, the wages of manufacturing employees have increased. By shortening the payback period, these initiatives together make Cobot automation more attractive.

5. Manufacturing trends are conducive to cooperation

Patrick sobalvarro of VEO robotics disagreed. He pointed out that in the manufacturing industry, the incidence of design and product changes is higher and higher, which means that some automation applications can never get returns from just one product. Therefore, automation needs to be redeployable, and automation solutions need to collaborate when processes change so frequently that human participation is required. The trend of mass customization and faster product cycle is conducive to cobots, and these trends may be the main reason for the emergence of more cobots.

6. The adoption of Cobot may be hindered due to lack of personnel

Another view of Mr. burseth: Although we generally believe that the lack of talents is not conducive to the promotion of automation, there may be a long way to go for cobots. For many manufacturers, this type of automation is still a new concept, and the current manufacturing facilities lack corresponding talents to effectively explore new concepts. Therefore, it hinders the application of cooperative robot. Facts have proved that to explore and overcome cooperative robot technology, we need to solve the problem of talent shortage.

7. Promote AGV technology to move cobots

Mov. Limor Schweitzer, founder of AI, The influence on AGV is discussed (AGV). He pointed out that more accurate rotary actuators enable these devices to achieve accurate physical positioning. Augmented reality technology related to inferring 3D space has the added benefit of solving AGV navigation challenges, and better wireless data speed can achieve better control. He pointed out that these performance improvements make AGV an assembly platform for Cobot. His company hopes to Wait for the spread of this idea. Mov. AI’s products are third-party software operating systems for mobile cobots, which can be provided more cheaply.

8. Behavior is coming

Eyeware is committed to automated behavior recognition. The visual system using eye tracking can measure a person’s intention by inferring what a person is looking at. Therefore, in the future, automation may be able to answer the ambiguous question, “what’s that?” Because it knows what the speaker is looking at. When applied to manufacturing, attention recognition can help cooperative robots cooperate more, enable them to predict the next action of human workers, and pre locate the parts or tools needed by human workers in the next step.

9. Collaboration can be accomplished in different ways

When I imagine a Cobot, I think of a robot with limited force – and speed – a robot whose moving force is too small to hurt me. If it comes into contact with me, the robot will stop. However, there is another way of cooperation. The VEO robot mentioned earlier is developing technology for speed and separation monitoring. The combination of vision and artificial intelligence (back to the first point) has produced a system that can identify people approaching the robot, calculate the potential of human contact with the robot, and slow down or stop the robot as needed. With this system, robots can be fast and powerful, but still need to cooperate. We will no longer think that cooperative robots are weak.

10. “Cooperation” may be a larger idea

As VEO’s Schweitzer points out, speed and separation monitoring through vision and artificial intelligence is a bigger idea than robots. Any programming machine can collaborate in this way. To a certain extent, the continuous progress of cooperative robots will enable us to surpass robots and realize automation all over the world.