The world of robotics is as wide as an ocean.
There are robots to build cars, robots to assemble mobile phones, robots to transport things around warehouses, robotic limbs for amputees, not to mention the often spooky looking humanoid style robots. Robots are everywhere.
Robots have been around for decades, in many different forms.
Our focus here is on a segment generally called “Industrial Robots”
As the name suggests, these robots are used in industries. And the applications are incredibly varied, you would have seen those big robots assembling the cars we drive. That’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to robots in car plants. They’re being used for practically every repetitive task found in those factories.
So, when we talk about industrial robots, they are usually ones that are fixed to the floor (not always) and have 6 or 7 “joints”, which allows them to practically move their “hand” anywhere within reach.
Recently a new ‘breed’ of industrial robots has emerged. These are called collaborative robots, or Cobots. The huge advantage with this ‘breed’ is their ability to work in the same space (collaboratively) with people, whereas the standard industrial robots can injure or even kill you, so must be surrounded by safety fencing. Advantages- saving expensive floor space and much easier to integrate.
Cobots employ one or more systems to make them safe, either a sensing skin, or power and force monitoring software, so they will stop if they encounter an object (e.g. you) unexpectantly. These cobots tend to be smaller, and some can handle loads up to 70Kg. They are ideal for SME businesses especially as they can be integrated in a matter of hours in many cases. If you want to know more, give us a call.
P.S. there’s another exciting type of robot in the industrial arena as well, called an Automated Mobile Robot, or AMR. That one needs to be discussed in another article.