Are collaborative robots designed to eliminate humans from the industrial workspace?
Robots are built to reduce the requirement of human manpower from the workplace and get the same work done in much less time and effective manner.
Moreover, robots do not need any human support and can get the work done independently, which further reduces the dependency on humans and saves quality time for manufacturing firms.
This article will discuss the new trends in the robotic industry, collaborative industrial robots, and how the present market is growing and becoming better.
Collaborative Robot — The New Innovation in the Robotics Industry
Collaborative robots, also known as cobots, are the new developing technology in the robotics sector that effectively alters the automation world.
These robots are called collaborative due to their capabilities of performing work safely together with the support of humans. It is possible because these robots are well equipped with various technologies such as sensitive sensors that allow robots to understand things better.
Conventional robots do not have the understanding features. Therefore, due to its absence, these robots continued working even after different interruptions, further hurting people and things coming their way.
However, collaborative industrial robots are built differently, and if interrupted in their work, their safety mode activates automatically. Due to such features, the chances of collaborative robots resulting in any loss to humans are much low.
Generally, cobots are not used constantly or full-time in any sector. They are only used at the time of emergency when manufacturers are left with no other options than to choose cobots.
Example:
A pressure situation is created inside the organization where the workload is immense and cannot be completed within the given time by the present number of employees. However, hiring a person immediately would not be possible in such scenarios.
Therefore, in these cases, a cobot can quickly get the work done in the place where humans are required.
The accuracy level of cobots is much higher than humans. These robots have an accuracy level of 0.11 mm, which is much more reliable than humans. So, they can get each work done with high accuracy and repeatability compared to humans.
How is the market for collaborative robots evolving?
Collaborative robots are used in several industries for various applications primarily due to their multiple benefits over conventional industrial robots.
Some benefits of allowing collaborative robots to develop as better and advanced industrial robots are lower cost, easy installation process, and working with humans.
The primary factor driving the growth of collaborative robots is the increasing demand for good automation options in medium and small enterprises and manufacturers to provide better accuracy in performing different industrial operations such as manufacturing goods.
According to the BIS Research report, the global collaborative robots (cobot) market is expected to grow at a notable CAGR of 30.37% during the forecasted period 2020–2025.
Benefits of Collaborative Robots
Business in the current century is much more competitive, and not meeting the competition level can result in irrecoverable issues for a company.
However, using the collaborative robots can help offer better efficiency to different sectors and several other benefits such as:
- Better Robot-Human Efficiency and Interaction
In an assembly line, the work of humans is to get the mechanical robots to load up with the necessary parts, and the rest of the work is done by the robots.
Stopping the workflow of the conventional industrial robots due to any reason or stopping the entire production procedure was much more challenging, as these robots could not stop in the middle until the production gets finished.
However, the advanced collaborative robots are different. They work together with the humans in the same workplace, leading to an increase in the efficiency level and better control over multiple things.
Also, during the process, if collaborative robots are required to stop or any human interruption is needed, it can be easily provided by these robots compared to conventional robots.
- Better Use of Available Space
Collaborative robots are much smaller in comparison to most conventional industrial robots. They provide a compact solution to different challenges and can also be used in all areas with minimum space.
Collaborative robots need less space because they require no safety fencing, unlike conventional ones. Also, they can be moved from one location to another whenever required.
- Improved Return on Investment (ROI)
Once collaborative robots get installed, the industries witness higher flexibility, production capacity, and efficiency levels. Thus, the ROI of the company gets increased at a high level.
Collaborative robots can be relocated and placed in multiple locations wherever needed, which reduces non-productive activity during production hours.
It reduces the maintainable and labor costs and increases the company’s profit margin and overall ROI.
- Safer Work Environment
Since collaborative robots are created with features such as human collaboration, each robot is well checked to provide better safety in the production line.
Cobots provide a safe work environment in applications where the chances of human errors hindering the overall progress are high such as medical procedure scenarios.
Conclusion
In the future, collaborative robots will play a significant role in altering and bringing revolution to industrial robots. Also, many have a question about losing jobs after the introduction of collaborative robots, but the chance of high losses due to collaborative robots is much lower.
These robust systems are being developed to help and work with humans, not eliminate and take complete control over humans.
