Electricity + Control 2019

CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION

The future of collaborative robots

Maciej Kuczynski, Omron Industrial Automation, Johannesburg

Factories worldwide are dealing with manufacturing a high mix of low-volume products to meet customer demands, in addition to shorter product life cycles and labour considerations. Manufacturing companies need to stay flexible in quick line changeovers and layout changes.

In applications where flexibility is key, col- laborative robots with user-friendly software tools and integrated sensory functions are expected to make up an increasing share of all industrial robots. Take Note!

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C ollaborative robots that can work safely in the same environment as people have an important role in enabling flexible manu- facturing and creating a competitive advantage. A new generation of ‘cobots’ is emerging as the evolution of classical industrial robots in response to the needs of Industry 4.0. In applications where flexibility is key, as opposed to maximum production speed, collaborative robots are now filling the gap in the robotics market with their user-friendly software tools and integrated sen- sory functions, which include machine vision sys- tems, location capabilities and integration with warehouse systems.

Handling heavy lifting Collaborative robots are gaining strength. Although light in weight, the OmronTechmanTM14M robot, for example, can lift goods of up to 14 kg. While compliant with the ISO 10218 safety standard, which describes the interaction of robots and hu- mans, industrial collaborative robots are becoming actual team members in production and logistics environments thanks to their lifting capabilities. This brings innovation to the factory floor through the harmonisation and collaboration of humans and machines. Collaborative robots can be deployed in a range of applications, such as production, testing, quality

With built-in intelligent vision robots can be used in a wide range of manufacturing and material handling processes.

Collaborative robots are designed to work with humans in a cooperative and comple- mentary way.

4 Electricity + Control

JUNE 2019