22 2:40 pm
MHD MATERIALS HANDLING
COLLABORATION WITH COBOTS Rhett Talley, Marketing & Business Development Manager – Automation for Diverseco introduces the brand-new Doosan H-Series, the most powerful collaborative robot in the market.
D
iverseco is, as its name implies, a diverse company – built over the years through amalgamating businesses and product offerings that are both unique and mutually complementary. Rhett Talley, Marketing & Business Development Manager – Automation, notes that Diverseco has been a longterm agent for Kawasaki Robotics’ range of industrial robots. The partnership has served both companies well. But Diverseco has more recently been in search of collaborative robots to complement Kawasaki industrial robots, delivering more value to customers and building on the success of its Kawasaki offerings. As a result, Diverseco is now the exclusive Australian distributor for Korean manufacturer Doosan Robotics. This includes the full range, comprising the A- Series, M-Series, and the brand-new H-Series collaborative robot (‘Cobot’).
WHAT IS A COBOT? Doosan Cobots are not to be confused with Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), Rhett is careful to point out. He notes that these terms are often used interchangeably in the industry – with the result that when people think of Cobots they may not grasp their unique potential to help operations in innovative ways. “Oftentimes people use the terms Cobots and AMRs interchangeably, but they can refer to completely distinct machine concepts, so it’s important to understand what Cobots are and what their unique value is,” Rhett says. “I think AMRs are called ‘robots’ partly because it sounds sexy. AMRs serve a range of critical intralogistics functions – moving things from point
A to point B; or picking for warehouse fulfilment and other tasks. AMRs move around autonomously and through a combination of sophisticated onboard sensors and fleet management software make decisions in real time – so, yes they are robotic in that sense– as such they are a real break from, say, AGVs [automated guided vehicles] which move along a pre-set pathway, and are rather inflexible. AMRs are collaborative of course, meaning they are designed to work safely alongside humans. But up to now when most people think of ‘robots’ or ‘cobots’ they might be thinking about a robotic arm with an end of arm tool.” But a Cobot, more specifically a Cobot arm, is more akin to a traditional industrial robot in that it is set in a fixed position and performs repetitive tasks. The difference though – and part of what makes them collaborative – is that a Cobot’s end of arm tool (EoAT) can be changed and quickly redeployed to perform a wide variety of collaborative tasks besides its common palletising and depalletising function. “In most cases traditional industrial robots are configured to perform one set task with a fixed, permanent end of arm tool,” Rhett notes. “Cobots, however, are often fitted with what are called Quick Change end effectors (grippers) like those from our agency OnRobot. These quick change grippers can allow an operator to move quickly from one application to another enabling quick Cobot redeployment and truly collaborative applications. They can be reconfigured to switch tasks in just a few minutes – so they can adapt to collaborate with workers in different ways depending on the immediate requirement – and unlike traditional industrial robots, which must operate within safety cages, Cobots are designed
The Doosan H-Series Cobot with the Lift100 from OnRobot takes collaboration between man and machine to new heights. with human collaboration in mind with built in sensors and design features to ensure the highest levels of safety. So, you can work side by side with your Cobot, and a quick adjustment to its end of arm tool means it can collaborate with you on very wide range of tasks.”
COBOTIC APPLICATIONS “A key advantage to Cobots is that non-robotics people – standard workers and operators – can easily change arm tool grippers and applications,” Rhett points out. This streamlines the workplace and allows for greater flexibility and adaptability. “They’re also easier to deploy because there is a reduced engineering time – you don’t need robotics experts to reconfigure them – and reduced systems integration time,” he adds. “Traditional industrial robots have MHD JUNE 2022 | 23
