• • • COVER STORY • • • T
he growing shortage of skilled workers is increasing the pressure on industrial companies to automate their processes. Flexible, cost-effective and easy-to-implement robotics solutions such as autonomous mobile robots and collaborative robots are therefore in demand. Mobile manipulators connect both robot systems, but often cannot be used economically due to insufficient battery power. The solution: Wiferion's Wireless Power Kit, which enables inductive charging for both systems simultaneously.
Mobile manipulators can do more than their battery power allows
Collaborative robots (cobots) are one of the most dynamically growing segments of robotics. In contrast to conventional industrial robots, which have to be shielded from the human workplace by a protective device, they are designed for safe collaboration with humans. Mobile manipulators (MoMas) combine the advantages of cobots with those of autonomous mobile robots (AMR). A robot arm is mounted on an AMR. With MoMas, even more complex handling and transportation tasks can be automated with one system without having to install a stationary robot and a transport system with several AMRs. This makes this type of robot a flexible solution for a wide range of applications in industry, logistics and other areas. For the company, this means that investment requirements are reduced, as a separate robot is no longer needed for each process.
Mobile manipulators are ideal for: • Pick-and-place applications
• Equipping and testing production machines and machine tools
• Material transportation
• Order picking of containers with assembled parts to the test station
• Vehicle inspection (e.g. cracks or paint on moving products)
• Laboratory automation • Wafer production (semiconductor industry) • Applications in the healthcare sector
The market for mobile manipulators has grown continuously in recent years. Experts assume that this trend will continue in the coming years. This is because, in most cases, complex automation solutions do not pay off for the automation of small parts handling for small and medium-sized series. In practice, however, economical operation of the systems often fails due to the energy supply. As a MoMa combines two systems that were originally developed separately, the two technologies are
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • JULY/AUGUST 2024 9
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