Robotics Manufacturers Crank Up Their Collaborative Efforts

Until recent­ly, indus­tri­al robots have been trapped behind cur­tains, fenc­ing, and oth­er bar­ri­ers away from humans because of the dan­gers that exist­ed dur­ing oper­a­tion. Indus­tri­al robots move with a force that could injure a human work­er if they entered the work space dur­ing the appli­ca­tion process. How­ev­er, many robot­ics man­u­fac­tur­ers, includ­ing Fanuc, KUKA, Motoman, and ABB, are tak­ing advan­tage of new tech­nolo­gies that enable humans and robots to col­lab­o­rate, doing away with the safe­ty bar­ri­ers of old.

Fanuc Robot­ics recent­ly intro­duced the CR-35iA, the first heavy lift­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive robot on the mar­ket. This robot is able to lift up to 35kg, while also being able to work in close prox­im­i­ty with work­ers, per­form­ing a vari­ety of tasks for a mul­ti­tude of indus­tries. The CR-35iA is cov­ered in a soft green shell that cuts down on the force impact when it comes into con­tact with a work­er or oth­er structure.

The Motoman HC10 col­lab­o­ra­tive robots have blue rub­ber skin to fur­ther pro­tect humans from pinch points. They also have spe­cial tech­nol­o­gy, called Pow­er and Force Lim­it that can mon­i­tor the force in each joint, as nec­es­sary. It can also imme­di­ate­ly stop the robot if any con­tact is detect­ed. Fur­ther­more, the HC10 has incred­i­bly sim­ple pro­gram­ming called Easy Teach­ing Smart HUB where the user can posi­tion the robot arm and grip­per on the desired path. 

While robots have been assist­ing humans for years, KUKA Robot­ics took this one step fur­ther and intro­duced the LBR iiwa to the world. The iiwa stands for ​“intel­li­gent indus­tri­al work assis­tant.” This KUKA robot is the first to have safe torque sen­sors on every axis, and it is suit­ed for tac­tile solu­tions and sim­ple grip­per sys­tems, accord­ing to KUKA. This light­weight robot has ele­vat­ed sen­so­ry capa­bil­i­ties, which not only make it safer for human-robot col­lab­o­ra­tion, but also make it user-friend­ly with a sim­ple robot con­trol and fast teaching.

Tout­ing the first tru­ly col­lab­o­ra­tive robot, ABB unveiled YuMi, which is short for ​“you and me work­ing togeth­er,” is a com­plete col­lab­o­ra­tive indus­tri­al expe­ri­ence for the con­sumer elec­tron­ics indus­try. Accord­ing to Robot­ics Today, the ABB YuMi is a human-friend­ly, dual-arm robot that has the abil­i­ty to feel and see. YuMi’s dual arms are also cov­ered in a soft shell to cut down on the force on con­tact with any oth­er struc­ture or work­er. While YuMi was pri­mar­i­ly designed as an assem­bly robot for the elec­tron­ics indus­try, ABB is work­ing to pos­si­bly devel­op its func­tion­al­i­ty for oth­er indus­tries as well.

Over­all, the col­lab­o­ra­tive robot­ics move­ment means that humans and robots are going to be able to work togeth­er with­out all of the safe­ty guards and bar­ri­ers, which will improve appli­ca­tion func­tion­al­i­ty, while also cut­ting down on the amount of space nec­es­sary for a robot­ic unit.

Are you inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about the col­lab­o­ra­tive robots list­ed above, or any of the tra­di­tion­al indus­tri­al robots avail­able from the com­pa­nies in this arti­cle? Then you should con­tact Robots​.com as we inte­grate a vari­ety of robots for Fanuc, Motoman, KUKA and ABB. Our staff will work with you to help you design and build the best robot­ic sys­tem for you and your facility.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Robots​.com today online or at 877−762−6881.