MAY 202319There are multiple barriers that need to be overcome for attaining an effective collaboration between man and robots. A major challenge is to efficiently break down a manufacturing process to allow for collaborative execution. How collaborative robotics should be implemented in the factories The 4Ds should be kept in mind when evaluating tasks to see if they can be automated, i.e. whether the task is Dull, Dirty, Dangerous, or Difficult. These types of activities are not suitable for humans, and over time, can cause immense mental and physical stress to people. Some examples of collaborative robotic arm applications include packaging and palletizing, machine tending, and general assembly processes. Also, since collaborative robots are lightweight, flexible, and can safely work with humans (following an application risk assessment), manufacturers can even consider smaller areas where traditional robots would be too bulky and dangerous to install. For example, Bajaj Auto evaluated their assembly lines and found that their employees were at ergonomic risk due to tasks such as manual bolt tightening. Traditional robots were too huge, inflexible, and unsafe to deploy on their shopfloor, so they did their research and found that collaborative robotic arms could work alongside their employees on the same assembly line. Today, they have multiple cobot arms, each handling dull, dirty, dangerous, or difficult tasks, while their employees have been upskilled to handle more creative, interesting work. Similarly, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are a type of collaborative robot that can understand, analyze, and independently navigate environments, so these are useful in various intralogistics tasks, such as moving pallets across the shop floor. You can even mount cobot arms on AMRs for even more flexibility. Since cobot arms must be in a fixed location, mounting one on an AMR allows for the entire system to autonomously move across multiple locations, enabling dynamic applications such as moving to multiple locations to sort, pick, and pack products.Many collaborative robot companies also offer line visits to understand and suggest suitable automation solutions. For example, Anscer Robotics, a Bangalore-based AMR company, sends technical experts to visit factory floors and help identify optimal applications for collaborative robot automation. They also host workshops and hands-on training sessions to make sure employees understand how to use and interact with collaborative robots. There are already a healthy number of Indian companies large and small deploying collaborative robots, and the pace has been slowly but steadily rising over the years.Today it is critical to develop production processes that are aligned with constantly changing demands, and help the manufacturers be ­ flexible, adaptive and data-driven. How will the collaborative robotics help industrial players maintain agility?One of the very purposes of cobots is to help manufacturers maintain agility, and there are so many ways they do this.
< Page 9 | Page 11 >