Robotic Efficiency Continues to Rise

Robots make indus­tries, com­pa­nies, and man­u­fac­tur­ers more effi­cient. By increas­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and decreas­ing down­time, robot­ic automa­tion is an excel­lent way to improve effi­cien­cy for any indus­try imaginable.

Robots have improved the effi­cien­cy of Iowa dairies. Robots milk dairy herds every day: the cows actu­al­ly get in line at entry gates for their turn with the robot. The robot iden­ti­fies the cow by read­ing a transpon­der around its neck, stor­ing and uti­liz­ing infor­ma­tion about the cow. A robot arm then cleans each teat, using lasers and sen­sors to find them before attach­ing teat cups for when the milk begins flow­ing. The robots use a cell phone if there is a prob­lem to report, and they com­pile dai­ly dairy records about herd health, feed use, ani­mal weight, milk pro­duc­tion, and breed­ing. Many dairy farm­ers in Iowa believe that hands-free milk­ing is the future of dairy.

Hos­pi­tals are also turn­ing to robot­ics to become more effi­cient and improve patient safe­ty. Automat­ing some hos­pi­tal jobs per­formed by humans can help avoid poten­tial­ly fatal mis­takes. Robots help in elim­i­nat­ing errors: as many as 98,000 peo­ple die each year in the US due to mis­takes such as giv­ing patients the wrong med­i­cine. Robots can sort pills and dosages into indi­vid­ual plas­tic bags before affix­ing them with bar­codes to go into stor­age. The robot can sift through the rows of med­i­cines to pick out the one it needs when a cus­tomer arrives. Soon, robot­ics will be heav­i­ly involved in surgery as well.

The aero­space indus­try is anoth­er that ben­e­fits great­ly from robot­ics effi­cien­cy. Aero­space com­pa­nies are increas­ing­ly invest­ing in robots to per­form drilling, paint­ing, and oth­er tasks on air frames. Robots are reli­able and pre­cise when work­ing on very large aero­space com­po­nents. Drilling holes into com­po­nents is the largest use of robots in aero­space. Thou­sands of holes need to be drilled into a fuse­lage, and humans sim­ply can­not com­plete this task effi­cient­ly or accurately.

The auto­mo­tive indus­try is automat­ing their man­u­fac­tur­ing plants. For exam­ple, Ford refur­bished robots to improve assem­bly on their 2013 Escape mod­el. The robots use lasers and cam­eras to fit wind­shields, door pan­els, and fend­ers togeth­er more close­ly than before. Gaps between pieces are now small­er, mak­ing a more aero­dy­nam­ic and qui­eter ride. Laser-vision robots can inspect their own work. Robots can apply paint and seal­er to vehi­cles, which decreas­es human expo­sure to a haz­ardous cli­mate. Two ABB robots, the IRB 6640 and IRB 7600, are used to per­form high-pre­ci­sion weld­ing oper­a­tions in an advanced Chi­nese auto­mo­tive plant. The robots are so fast that they can com­plete the weld­ing of an entire SUV in just 86 seconds.

The ben­e­fits of increased effi­cien­cy are clear to almost every indus­try, and robot­ics is the solu­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Robots​.com online or at 877−762−6881.