Engineer – Comment: Cobots can unlock next-level productivity

For today’s manufacturing companies, cobots offer many benefits that add value at every stage of the production process. Their ability to work safely alongside people, without the need for physical shields, significantly reduces their overall footprint. This makes them ideal for applications where users want to maximize productivity without compromising safety. Applications can range from continuous to intermittent collaboration, such as final finishing and assembly in automotive manufacturing where human interaction is required.

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Cobots also provide flexibility in managing the transition to low-volume or high-variety manufacturing because they can switch between products and be trained to work with new products quickly and easily. With humans and robots working together, users can benefit from the problem-solving capabilities, insights and adaptability of human operators, as well as the tireless precision and tolerance of repetitive tasks provided by robots.

Big potential, small size

According to Grand View Research*, the global cobot market was valued at $1.23 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.0% from 2023 to 2030. The analyst suggests that a combination of two factors is responsible for this growth.

The first is the penetration of cobots into SMEs as they become more accessible in terms of price and ease of use. While robotic automation technology has evolved to meet the growing demands of high-volume industrial production, it has also led to the creation of smaller collaborative robots, designed to easily fit into existing production lines with flexible assembly options. Thanks to their smaller size and less reliance on peripherals, collaborative robots can also reduce the investment needed for a robotic workstation to less than $50,000 in many applications.

Second, technological advances enable robots to cope with more diverse applications. An example is ABB’s cobot welding suite, which uses a GoFa cobot equipped with a simplified, automatically generated program selection tool that allows users to create welding sequences in less than 30 seconds. By eliminating the need for a remote control for programming, the package reduces programming time by 70 percent and eliminates the need for operators to have prior experience operating the robot.

Close the talent gap

Many manufacturers have difficulty recruiting experienced employees. Many young people who grew up in a digital world perceive production as dirty, boring, dangerous and repetitive. Moreover, with shorter product life cycles, small manufacturers operating in high labor cost countries cannot simply outsource production to low labor cost countries as large corporations do. In such conditions, collaborative robots not only reduce the need for manual labor, but can work tirelessly to deliver higher quality, enabling companies to send workers to perform higher-level tasks that make better use of their skills.

Hit the ground hard

Thanks to the plug-and-play capabilities of modern cobots, they can be installed much faster, minimizing disruptions to production processes. Their small size and portability make cobots suitable not only for automating existing production lines, but also for more diverse applications.

Technological advances have made collaborative robots much more intuitive than their conventional counterparts. Features such as pre-programming and a user-friendly touchscreen interface enable operators without programming experience to quickly program the robot. Offline simulation tools such as ABB’s RobotStudio also enable operators to simulate applications on a PC, enabling them to develop and refine a robotic installation in a virtual environment without impacting real production processes. This helps reduce the time it takes to get the robot up and running, which is ideal for organizations that have short production cycles.

Innovations for the future today

More and more companies are looking to the opportunities offered by robotics in general, and collaborative robots in particular, as a way to empower their workforce. These capabilities are likely to increase as robot manufacturers and their partners work to develop enhanced software features such as cloud connectivity, artificial intelligence and machine learning that enhance their functionality and make them safer, more adaptable, flexible and easier to use. use.

Julian Ware is UK and Ireland Sales Manager at ABB Robotics

*Collaborative Robots Market Share and Growth Report, 2030 (grandviewresearch.com)