In its element – a robot and its workspace

When humans oper­ate in fac­to­ry set­ting, they usu­al­ly have a set work­space, a place where all the tools they need to do their job are locat­ed. The same can be said for a robot work­space in an indus­tri­al setting.

There are many dif­fer­ent ways to think about a robot’s work­space, but it is basi­cal­ly defined as the space in which the robot oper­ates. This could be on a pro­duc­tion line or in a work­cell. It does not mat­ter where they are oper­at­ing, every indus­tri­al artic­u­lat­ed robot has a defined work­space – the amount of room it is able to move around an area.

Of course, the robot­ic work­space is going to be vast­ly big­ger than a human work­space. These met­al mas­ters of accu­ra­cy can sit over 8 feet high, when in a crouched posi­tion, and have an exten­sive reach when need be. A robot­ic work­space may have the diam­e­ter of 20 – 30+ feet, or even much longer. There are also small­er robots that may have small­er work­spaces, like spi­der robots, which are pro­grammed to locate small­er objects on a line or in a bin.

It is impor­tant for man­u­fac­tur­ers to work with robot­ic com­pa­nies or inte­gra­tors to deter­mine how much robot­ic work­space is need­ed when design­ing the sys­tem. If a facil­i­ty is too small, it may not be suit­ed for a large robot, or the robot’s oper­a­tion may be destructive.

One thing that is nec­es­sary is that human work­ers stay out of a robot’s work­space dur­ing oper­a­tion. While humans may be able to enter each other’s work­space, enter­ing a robot’s work­space could result in injury or death, due to the amount of speed and force with which a robot works.

Most robot­ic work­spaces are not­ed by floor mark­ings, fenc­ing or oth­er safe­ty mea­sures to keep humans from cross­ing into a dan­ger­ous area. As men­tioned above, the speed and accu­ra­cy that makes robots so attrac­tive to man­u­fac­tur­ers can also be dead­ly if a work­er decides to dis­re­gard safe­ty procedures.

The best rule of thumb is to let it work – it will have its work­space, and you can have yours.

Our high­ly-skilled group of engi­neers will work with you to design a sys­tem or work­cell that will fit in the space you have avail­able in your facility.

For more infor­ma­tion on automat­ing your facil­i­ty with Robots​.com, con­tact us today online or at 877−762−6881.