Collaborative robots are machines that interface with people to complete a process. Whether automated guided vehicles in a warehouse or robotic arms on a bottling conveyer, collaborative robots, also known as cobots, can transform workplace conditions and culture across industries.
Designed to interact directly with people, cobots augment the capabilities of your labor force. Collaborative robots are built with advanced sensors that can detect human presence, and robust safety features to control interactions and warn about potential hazards.
The versatility required in a cobot is much like the versatility required for human labor, and the cobot’s ability to adapt and adjust is what makes it applicable to a variety of industries. Below, we discuss use cases for cobots, benefits to businesses, and challenges that must be addressed in implementation of collaborative robots at an industrial facility.
Use Cases for Collaborative Robots
Cobots are already a crucial part of operations in several industries. More than waiting on understanding how to integrate collaborative robots to control system upgrades, we’re waiting on the technology to become more accessible to smaller companies and more specialized operations. Presently, common applications of cobots in the industrial sector include:
- Warehouse automation: palletizing, packing, sorting, fetch-retrieve
- Manufacturing automation: welding, painting, assembly, quality control
- Pharmaceutical automation: surgical procedures, medication dispensing, laboratory processes, clean-room procedures
- Agriculture automation: picking, packing, health monitoring, harvesting
Benefits of Cobot Integration
Collaborative robots span the gap between a facility’s workforce and its automation equipment. As such, there’s two sides to each benefit they offer:
- Enhanced productivity: Cobots can work continuously, increasing production capacity while also reducing errors common in manual repetitive tasks. This frees up human labor for more complex and meaningful tasks, improving workplace satisfaction.
- Improved Safety: Collaborative robots are designed with a sixth sense in mind, making them better able to detect things like small gas leaks or potential equipment failures. They also take strain off human labor for physically demanding and/or dangerous tasks, all of which improve workplace safety.
- Reduced Costs: By reducing errors, downtime, and accidents while improving productivity, operational costs are reduced and income increased. And since cobots facilitate scaling without hiring new talent, payroll doesn’t inflate with increased productivity.
- Increased Flexibility: Collaborative robots are versatile, so they can be tweaked, adjusted, and reprogrammed for a variety of tasks in diverse settings. When a facility adapts to new processes, products, or productivity, cobots can adapt along with them, preventing high-cost control system retrofits.
Obstacles to Implementation
As with any advancement in automation technology, it takes time before the transition reaches the point where it cascades throughout companies and sectors. Naturally, there are obstacles to overcome. This can be especially true with things that are so new; robots have been around for quite a while, but interactive robots are a whole different game.
Challenges companies face when deciding whether to augment their automation systems with cobots include:
- Resistance to adoption: Humans tend not to like change, and we like the unknown even less. Workforce acceptance of new technologies can be a real challenge, and so can training, without the right automation partner.
- Limitations of cobots: Traditional robots are process-based; they are purposefully built with a limited scope so as to function as efficiently as possible. Cobots are required to interact, be versatile, and adjust in real time, and tend to have lower payload than traditional industrial robots, so they don’t work as quickly.
- Ease of integration: Will collaborative robots be able to be integrated into existing automation and control systems? Companies have to invest in research and system integrator services to evaluate whether the cost is worth it; if you’re unable to implement cobots without a complete system teardown and rebuild, that’s a big deterrent.
- High initial costs: Advanced automation equipment is expensive, so as one would expect, the initial investment in collaborative robots is significant. Paired with the extent of control system upgrade needed, smaller and/or struggling companies may not have the resources to handle that upfront cost.
E Tech Group: A Collaborative Robotics Automation Company
Each time the automation industry goes through an evolution phase, there is a wall to climb before new technology and/or standards become mainstream: fear of the unknown. Uncertainty will stop many companies from risking the time and money to implement collaborative robots. And what comes after? Why risk so much on new technology is the next development will render it obsolete and become another expensive project? The solution is to partner with an industrial automation company versed in robotics automation.
E Tech Group leads the industry in advanced control system services. Serving a diverse array of industrial clients, including alternative meats, medical research, OEM, machine builders, data centers, and many more, we work closely with companies to design, build, and implement integrated automation systems that address their unique needs and goals.