The rise of the cobots The cobots have well and truly arrived – and they’re here to stay. Industry Europe looks at how how they are helping to shape the future of industrial automation.
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e’re all familiar with the sight of industrial robots on the shop floor: whether for pick-and-place purposes, assembly or product transfer, they are playing an increasingly important role in the modern workplace. But what of the collaborative robot, or cobot? Unlike the traditional robot, which works apart from humans to carry out a specific pre-determined task autonomously, cobots are designed to work with human workers to provide support and help them complete a task (perhaps, for example, by holding something securely in place or passing a tool). The International Federation of Robotics’ ‘World Robotics Report 2017’ forecast a growth in robot installations of about 15 per cent for 2018–2020, owing to factors
such as stronger-than-expected growth in the global economy, more varied customer demand and the emergence of Industry 4.0. And it says ‘human-robot collaboration’ will have a large role to play in this. According to IFR President Junji Tsuda, “Key trends such as digitalisation, simplification and human-robot collaboration will certainly shape the future and drive forward rapid development.” As an example, in the future cobots may help to support the growing trend towards flexible production of small quantities with high complexity. A recent report by Interact Analysis, ‘Collaborative Robots – 2018’, found that while the cobot market is still relatively small compared to traditional robotics – it was worth less than $400m last year – the industry is set to grow rapidly in the next five years. Fur-
thermore, the current European leaders in the field can expect to see increased competition from Chinese and Taiwanese suppliers. Here we take a brief look at some of the biggest players in the European cobot industry today.
Smart partnership At the end of 2017, Switzerland’s ABB, manufacturer of the ‘world’s first truly collaborative robot’, YuMI, announced it would be working with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries to share knowledge and promote the benefits of cobots, particularly those with dual arm technologies. Also in 2017, ABB teamed up with IBM to leverage its Watson data analytic software to improve cobot technology. The two companies will be jointly developing and selling new products to enable manufacturers to analyse data and optimise their processes to speed up operations. Accoring to ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer: “This powerful combination marks truly the next level of industrial technology, moving beyond current connected systems that simply gather data, to industrial operations and machines that use data to sense, analyse, optimise and take actions that drive greater uptime, speed and yield for industrial customers.”
Europe’s cobot pioneers Elsewhere, Germany-based Festo is pioneering in the field of ‘bionic’ cobots. Its Bionic Learning Network (BLN) is an R&D effort to develop industrial robots drawing inspiration from nature. Through this, it has developed three cobot-related products. One of these, the ‘BionicCobot’, is inspired by the human 6 Industry Europe
