ARGUMENT FOR AUTOMATION
Adopting automation must be a priority
Robotics is key for UK productivity, a report has found. UKIVA’s Neil Sandhu and Allan Anderson argue vision brings similar benefits
A
report entitled, Robotics and Automation: A New Perspective, highlights how speeding up adoption
of industrial automation and robotics can lead to dramatic improvements in productivity for the UK manufacturing sector. Published late in 2021 by the
Manufacturing Technology Centre, based in Coventry, UK, and the Industrial Policy Research Centre, Loughborough University, the report notes that the UK is 24th in the world for robot density in manufacturing businesses, as of 2021, and lags behind in productivity as a result. As part of its wide-ranging suggestions for
initiatives to address a variety of issues, it calls for a specific emphasis on SMEs to adopt automation and robotics technology. It could equally be argued that increasing the adoption
of machine vision in the manufacturing sector would also bring significant benefits. Machine vision faces many similar
challenges to those highlighted for robotics in the report. Not only is it an enabling technology that has a clear role to play in complementing the use of robotics, it also has a much wider use in vision-driven automation of manufacturing processes, and ultimately in the realisation of Industry 4.0 and the smart factories of the future. Te scope of machine vision embraces a huge range of markets, from electronics to food and beverage, to transport, sports and entertainment.
Guiding robots Te emergence of collaborative robots, or cobots, and rapid developments in 3D
image processing in recent years have paved the way for greater use of vision and robotics, either using a robot to present a component for inspection, or using vision to guide the robot or locate an object for the robot to handle. Massive strides in vision- robot interfaces have made this process much easier. With continued improvements in camera
resolution and advanced image processing, vision-guided robot systems are becoming more sensitive and powerful, enabling robots to recognise shapes, textures and 3D objects faster and more accurately. Tey bring versatility for pick-and-place, machine tending, assembly and complex bin-picking. Te use of vision enables intelligent, real- time decisions to be made on behalf of an automation system. Tese advances mean fewer human overrides, vastly improved productivity and fewer product recalls. While vision can enhance the role
of robotics in automation, it also has a significant role to play in its own right. Tis might be inspection for quality
Robot solutions at the Manufacturing Technology Centre. 18 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE VISION YEARBOOK 2022/23 @imveurope |
www.imveurope.com
Manufacturing Technology Centre
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