search.noResults

search.searching

note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
ROBOTIC AUTOMATION


experience at a workshop put on by the Robotic Industries Association (RIA; Ann Arbor, MI). “They’re deploying collabor- ative robots, they’re deploying them in areas that have heavy human traffi c, but they’re taking a conservative approach. I see a tremendous amount of potential.”


Keeping It Safe


Most of the time, industrial robots function very safely, given the advanced array of safeguards available to install in factory automation workcells. Many safety features and technologies have existed for quite some time, with robotic developers and integrators using safe zones, fencing, and other technologies to ensure safe robot operation. When accidents do happen, it is a fairly rare occurrence and the cause is often due either to operator error or to mistakes made during setup such as when a worker has entered a robot’s operating zone, as was determined to be the case in a fatality that occurred last year at a Volkswagen plant in Baunatal, Germany.


“This is one of the least well-sorted out of the four different collaborative applications, but it’s one of the most attractive because in general, these collaborative applications really represent a real change in the way that people and machin- ery interact,” Schuster added. “It’s a very, very exciting space to be working in, because it really allows us to leverage—in ways that we never could before—the strength, the tireless- ness, and repeatability and the accuracy of the machine, with the intelligence, adaptability and understanding of the human, and really have those two sides complement each other. And it’s really enabled by safety technology gener- ally and so, but it’s a real new way, it really changes the way people and machinery interact.”


That 15066 spec is among the four collaborative robot modes, he added. “The specifi cation that is most relevant is the ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2, so this is a fully har- monized safety standard with the ANSI/RIA 15.06-2012.” Schuster, who spent 15 years at GM before joining Rockwell in 1997, was one of the early propo- nents of collaborative-type robots and has worked with them since about 2005. He recently did some proto- type work with cobots that has now been deployed into a pilot application at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA; Auburn Hills, MI).


Ford Motor Co. recently announced it was testing collaborative robots from KUKA Roboter GmbH on the assembly line in Cologne, Germany, where Ford Europe builds its Fiesta models. The KUKA cobots assist line workers with an overhead shock absorber assembly operation.


In the most recent ISO/TS 15066 specifi cation, several


factors related to collaborative robots were studied. “That’s one small piece. That’s the bio study of pain thresholds and points of impact on the human body,” said George Schuster, business development manager, Rockwell Automation Inc. (Milwaukee) and a TÜV-certifi ed functional safety expert, speaking about the ISO/TS 15066. “That’s really intended for one of the four collaborative applications that we call power and force limiting, where people and the robot are designed to interact or are anticipated to come into contact.


64 AdvancedManufacturing.org | September 2016


“A lot of times, people get a little bit confused about this collaborative robot topic, and they think of it as a robot technology, you buy a collab- orative robot and put it in, now you have a collaborative robot,” Schuster said. “I will tell you it’s not. … It’s an application. It’s the way that robots are processed to be utilized and in the way that they are designed to


interact with people, and so it’s not really specifi c to a robot technology. It’s more of an application. Long before people were selling ‘collaborative’ robots in the market, we were do- ing collaborative robot applications, and carefully [program- ming] the position and interaction of the machine.”


Defi ning Collaborative Among the four different collaborative modes of operation


defi ned in ISO 10218, the fi rst one, a safety-rated monitored stop, has been around for some time. “This is the most


Photo courtesy Ford Motor Co.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242  |  Page 243  |  Page 244  |  Page 245  |  Page 246  |  Page 247  |  Page 248  |  Page 249  |  Page 250  |  Page 251  |  Page 252  |  Page 253  |  Page 254  |  Page 255  |  Page 256