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Cobots spread their influence The role of collaborative robots is expanding with new applications, smarter cobots and dual-role machinery
The ABB SWIFTI collaborative robot has been designed to be easily configured and used by operators with programming being performed on a tablet or smartphone
technology into more applications beyond the conventional light assembly tasks. The development of the cobot (collabora-
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tive robot) in recent years has helped to set the frantic pace. Robots of old have always needed to be distanced from human operators to prevent them getting in the way of each other with potentially catastrophic conse- quences. Sensor technology has helped to enable
robots and humans to work in the same space and perform joint tasks in a collaborative way. This has led to some groundbreaking applica- tions but the consequence is that operations have slowed down since the robot has to op- erate at a human pace. Now, ABB has expanded its range of cobots
from its original YuMi (You Me) product to the new GoFa and SWIFTI devices. According to ABB, the new pair in its portfo-
lio are designed to be used intuitively so users don’t need in-house programming specialists.
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he robotics market has been heating up with some pace as competition grows amongst key suppliers to place their
This will unlock industries that have low levels of automation, with customers able to oper- ate their cobot within minutes of installation, straight out of the box. Plug and play robotics! Users only need tablet or smartphone skills
to be able to program and re-program the cobots, which ABB sees as being entry level robotics for smaller companies involved in healthcare, light manufacturing and assembly amongst others. Italian robot company, Comau, has also ex- panded its range of cobots with the Racer-5. Here, the company is trying to bridge the gap between traditional robotic operations and collaborative tasks. The six-axis articulated robot automatically adjusts the way it oper- ates if a human is present. In this way, it can complete industrial tasks
swiftly and adjust its speed when it needs to perform tasks with a human operator in the cell. This provides opportunities to perform complex hybrid tasks in one cell where occa- sional operator intervention can be configured into the process within a standard robot oper- ating zone. C&VT
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