COVER STORY
Our three simple steps to unlocking your potential with cobots
ABB’s new family of cobots By Julian Ware, Sales Manager, ABB Robotics Business UK & Ireland T
he world of robotic automation is looking more exciting all the time, especially following the addition of our new GoFa™ and SWIFTI™ cobots to our existing YuMi® cobots last month. Together, this expanded family opens new possibilities, with their inherent simplicity and compact designs providing an ideal first step on the automation ladder for companies that have yet to experience the benefits of robots. To help you take your first step, we’ve put together a brief set of guidelines covering important factors to consider:
1. Where could a cobot be beneficial? A good place to start is to observe the most time-consuming tasks where employees are required to do mundane and repetitive tasks. Those involving simple but repetitive movements and low critical thinking are ideal for a cobot.
By mounting a cobot for such tasks, you can redirect your skilled employees towards more rewarding tasks that make better use of their decision-making skills. Once you have identified the existing application needs, it’s important to understand what the future of your company’s automation process might look like. Have you identified more than one task which requires automation? Or will an increase in the workload require more cobots in future? If so, then you should design your application in a way to accommodate more than one cobot.
2. Set the right expectations Once you have decided which tasks need to be automated, you need to define exactly what you want the cobot to do. Questions to ask include which tasks
are suitable for a cobot? What degree of collaboration makes most sense from a cost/benefit perspective? How can I get started with my first cobot application
and then gradually increase complexity? While some upfront time and resources will be needed to implement your first cobot application, the experience gained should ensure that subsequent projects take less time.
3. Assess the potential risks in your application
Even though collaborative robots are built to work alongside people, safety remains a key consideration. Despite their built-in safety features, cobots should still be subjected to a risk assessment, as installing any robot in a human centric environment increases the potential of external risk elements. A risk assessment of your application will highlight the necessary steps required to ensure a safe environment for both human and cobots to work side by side. Coupled with developments in software that are making robots easier than ever to program and use, collaborative robots are already helping companies of all sizes and levels of experience to get more from both their production lines and their people. To find out what cobots can do for you, visit our web page at
cobots.robotics.abb.com.
CONTACT:
ABB
www.abb.com
12 March 2021 | Automation
automationmagazine.co.uk
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