What are autonomous industrial robots?

Autonomous indus­tri­al robots have the abil­i­ty to gain infor­ma­tion about their envi­ron­ments and work for an extend­ed peri­od of time with­out human inter­ven­tion. These self-reliant robots can move them­selves through­out the oper­a­tion with­out human assis­tance and can avoid sit­u­a­tions that are harm­ful to them­selves or peo­ple and prop­er­ty. Autonomous robots are also like­ly to adapt to chang­ing surroundings.

Exam­ples of autonomous robots

Exam­ples of these robots range from autonomous indus­tri­al heli­copters to robot vac­u­um cleaners.

How do autonomous robots work?

Sim­pler autonomous indus­tri­al robots use infrared or ultra­sound sen­sors to see obsta­cles, allow­ing them to nav­i­gate around the obsta­cles with­out human con­trol. More advanced robots use stereo vision to see their envi­ron­ments; cam­eras give them depth per­cep­tion, and soft­ware allows them to locate and clas­si­fy objects in real-time.

What are autonomous robots used for?

Autonomous robots are help­ful in busy envi­ron­ments, like hos­pi­tals. Instead of employ­ees leav­ing their posts, an autonomous indus­tri­al robot can deliv­er lab results and patient sam­ples expe­di­tious­ly. With­out tra­di­tion­al guid­ance, these robots can nav­i­gate the hos­pi­tal hall­ways, and can even find alter­nate routes when anoth­er is blocked. They will stop at pick-up points, and col­lect sam­ples to bring to the lab.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is a divi­sion of the US Defense Depart­ment with the mis­sion to cre­ate tech­no­log­i­cal sur­prise for our ene­mies. This orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sents the cut­ting edge of mil­i­tary and dis­as­ter relief tech­nol­o­gy, and after devel­op­ing autonomous indus­tri­al vehi­cles, they are focused on cre­at­ing autonomous indus­tri­al robots that are capa­ble of per­form­ing com­plex tasks in dan­ger­ous environments.

Anoth­er place autonomous indus­tri­al robots are use­ful is in our nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. In 2013, researchers at Vir­ginia Tech devel­oped an autonomous indus­tri­al robot­ic jel­ly­fish with the intent of one day con­duct­ing under­sea mil­i­tary sur­veil­lance or mon­i­tor­ing the envi­ron­ment. The 5‑foot 7‑inch jel­ly­fish has a long dura­tion and range of operation.

Major robot­ics com­pa­nies like Fanuc, ABB, KUKA, and Motoman all offer autonomous indus­tri­al robots for man­u­fac­tur­ing, assem­bly, and oth­er appli­ca­tions.

Autonomous robots and humans

As emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies become more promi­nent, the rela­tion­ship between humans and robots is evolv­ing. Autonomous robots can replace humans, such as a cog­ni­tive vir­tu­al assis­tant act­ing as an auto­mat­ed cus­tomer rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Autonomous robots even have the abil­i­ty to under­stand the emo­tion in a human’s voice. These trends towards robot­ic involve­ment in indus­try process­es will allow com­pa­nies to improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and cus­tomer expe­ri­ence, and gain a com­pet­i­tive advantage.

Find the right indus­tri­al robot with Robots​.com

If you are inter­est­ed in incor­po­rat­ing one of the Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, or Motoman autonomous indus­tri­al robots, con­tact Robots​.com today for a free price quote and assis­tance on which robot is right for you. You can call us at 877−762−6881 or con­tact us online and we will get back to you quickly.