AUTOMATION Force-sensing technology and sensors that help map surroundings improve safety of what many call cobots.
Collaborative robots: New kids on automation block
Kristen Golembiewski Assistant Editor
I
n 2010, the Robotics Industries Association (RIA) estimated that only about 10% of companies that could benefit from robotics equipment were using it. Costs were prohibitive, programming
was difficult, and many tasks weren’t automatable—so why bother? But several major robot makers are changing all of that. ABB, Comau, FANUC and KUKA Industrial Robotics debuted their
contributions to this new generation of au- tomation in late 2014 and 2015. These new robots are relatively inex-
pensive, easy to program, and capable of automating dangerous, dull or dirty tasks humans don’t want to do. They can be operated without caging or other safety barriers, saving the trouble of rerouting the factory floor. Some even look human, with expressive faces and humanoid body types, right down to human-like finger grippers.
ABB sees its YuMi robot, introduced in 2015, as a solution to the shortage of quali- fied workers in smart manufacturing. With its compact design, the cobot can easily take over a worksta- tion designed for a human with little modification.
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Courtesy of ABB
Spring 2016
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