FHS-AUG23-PG14+15_Layout 1 27/07/2023 10:30 Page 15
AUTOMATION & ROBOTICS
so potentially, on a single pick walk an operator supported by two AMRs could be assembling the orders for four different stores or customers. Through this kind of collaboration with the worker, which iFollow calls ‘Duo Picking’, the robot not only frees up a role but it will also reduce time required to carry out a pick. This can bring up to 50 per cent improvement in pick rates by comparison with purely manual methods. Far from replacing people completely, actively
working with technology in ways like this will also increase the appeal of warehouse jobs to tech-savvy young people – a demographic that has the sector has found hard to attract and retain. Unfortunately, warehouse work has acquired a reputation for being hard on employees, low paid and has never ranked among the most desired of occupations. However, unlike many other sectors competing for the same limited labour resource, the work is full time and offers great career path opportunities. Indeed, many of today’s Logistics Managers started out on the warehouse floor. Working with mobile robots adds an attractive and interesting element into the job. So mobile robots not only offer a collaborative solution that means fewer staff are required, particularly during peaks, but they also add a high tech element to warehouse work that makes the sector more attractive to the kind of recruits an increasingly technology-driven industry desperately needs. Becoming less reliant on labour certainly offers a practical proposition and joins other long-term gains from investing in reliable mobile robots. Their predictable costs, productivity boosting capabilities and flexibility in deployment to handle changes in business are a great way for warehouse operations to reduce their reliance on the availability of people.
iFollow
www.ifollow.fr/en/
CAN AI IN ROBOT SYSTEMS MANAGE THE FUNCTIONAL SAFETY PARTS?
By Josep Plassa, safety product marketing Manager at OMRON Europe and Atsushi Oshiro, manager at the OMRON Development Center
necessary. This assessment is carried out from the perspective of Functional Safety, which examines the five main elements employed by robots to determine autonomous control actions: Environment recognition, Action planning, Trajectory generation, Motion control, and Measurement. Functional Safety evaluation of robots with embedded AI systems has revealed two significant issues: the difficulty of judging the states of AI systems and differences in performance evaluation metrics between Functional Safety and AI systems. Determining the state of AI systems can be
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challenging, particularly for neuronal networks with a complex architecture of nodes or layers. The difficulty lies in diagnosing judgement results, making it impossible to judge the normality of the system. For example, stochastic decisions are made when AI systems fail, which means that such a system cannot be treated as a deterministic system, thus making it challenging to evaluate it as part of the Safety-Related Parts of the Control System of Functional Safety.
obots and AI systems have become an integral part of industrial manufacturing sites. To ensure the safety of workers while using robots, a detailed risk assessment is
Performance evaluation metrics for AI include accuracy, precision, recall, and specificity. However, AI depends on learning data that does not take time series variations into account. Consequently, the error probability of AI systems changes from time to time, making it challenging to evaluate their performance from the perspective of Functional Safety, which evaluates the failure probability during on-site operation as constant. The examination of the above issues highlights the fact that evaluating the safety of AI systems is not an easy task. Thus, improving the advantages of production systems that use collaborative robots and AI should be restricted to limited areas. In conclusion, while robots and AI systems
offer many benefits to industrial manufacturing sites, the safety of workers is of paramount importance. Therefore, a detailed risk assessment from the perspective of Functional Safety is necessary. However, the evaluation of AI systems' safety performance is challenging, making it necessary to restrict the use of robots with embedded AI in specific areas. The examination of these issues calls for innovative solutions to improve the safety of robots with embedded AI systems.
Omron
industrial.omron.eu FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS | JULY/AUGUST 2023 15
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