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UR cobots on the Peugeot meeting plant in France. | Supply: Teradyne
My LinkedIn inbox has been busier than ordinary during the last couple of weeks, since I shared an opinion piece in Forbes titled “The Reinvention of the Manufacturing Trade,” exploring how a brand new era of superior robotics helps to democratize manufacturing, making robots inexpensive for corporations of all sizes.
A number of of my skilled contacts have reached out to ask: Are collaborative robots actually only for small and medium-sized corporations then? We all know this isn’t true, and so I want to supply some additional rationalization.
Because the inception of mechanization and mass-production processes at first of the final century, the instruments giant producers have used to drive competitiveness and effectivity have been geared in the direction of utilizing measurement as a bonus — economies of scale, giant industrial robots for high-volume low-mix duties, giant budgets to fund effectivity applications like lean and 6 sigma, and the flexibility to outsource labor at scale to anyplace with ease.
Nevertheless, these levers designed for giant corporations didn’t work for smaller companies. That’s why “new age” robotics, led by collaborative robots and autonomous cellular robots (AMRs), has been a recreation changer for a lot of small to midsize enterprises. But it surely’s not the place the cobot story ends. Or mockingly, even started.
For the massive producers, aggressive strain drove want for differentiation, which elevated product variations. You’ll be able to really feel that on each one in all their meeting traces at present.
However a number of giant producers are nonetheless caught with the outdated instruments designed for low-mix, high-volume manufacturing on this new actuality, the place every of their factories and warehouses have more and more high-mix and smaller batch sizes. Producers are more and more utilizing superior applied sciences like cobots and AMRs to make their operations nimbler and extra versatile whereas rushing up time to market.
The origin of the cobot
Few individuals at present understand that collaborative robots have been first designed with giant corporations in thoughts.
The founders of Common Robots (UR) examined companies already utilizing industrial robots and set themselves the problem of making one thing that was extra simply reprogrammable for various features throughout manufacturing facility flooring. With the competitors that producers face at present, the necessity for product variations for differentiation issues vastly That feeling is palpable after I stroll their meeting line.
The answer that UR got here up with? The world’s first commercially viable cobot – a toddler of two separate college analysis initiatives.
The primary venture sought to create a toy robotic really easy to program {that a} youngster may do it in half an hour.
The second venture targeted on the wants of the meals trade in Denmark, which on the time was in search of a extra versatile method to automation that may permit manufacturing facility staff to reconfigure manufacturing traces to accommodate new merchandise. Engineers that attempted to construct that flexibility into conventional industrial robots received nowhere – it was merely unimaginable for employees on the manufacturing facility flooring to discover ways to reprogram the expertise that existed.
The above initiatives got here collectively, and the remaining, as they are saying, is historical past. The outcome was an simply programable, extremely versatile robotic.
The usage of cobots in giant organizations at present
The worldwide marketplace for collaborative robots was anticipated to hit $1.6 billion on the finish of 2023, with a compound annual progress charge of 26% to 2026, as predicted by Analysis and Markets. It attributed this improve to an increase in good factories and rising demand within the Asia-Pacific area.
Whereas it’s true that cobots are democratizing robotics, they’ve all the time been of nice use to giant corporations. However I consider that giant producers are but to completely embrace the capabilities they provide.
Strong financial drivers for elevated uptake are current, together with labor and abilities shortages, as latest analysis suggests giant corporations have the tallest hill to climb in relation to worker retention.
It’s no surprise that many giant corporations – together with main international firms like Siemens, Toyota, and Novo Nordisk – have totally built-in cobot expertise to make their operations extra nimble.
The time has now come for the trade to do that throughout the board. In a aggressive world, giant corporations haven’t any selection however to extend agility at each flip. Decelerate, they usually threat falling foul to extra nimble competitors.
New-age robotics affords larger effectivity and velocity to market, and enterprises have to board this practice at present or threat getting left behind on the platform.
The mixing of cobots and industrial automation
Right here too, it’s actually thrilling to witness how collaborative robots are actually working with conventional industrial robots.
Retrofitting a manufacturing line with cobots tends to be pretty simple, partly due to the system’s small footprint. Deeper integration between cobots and conventional industrial robots can also be now usually doable by way of the programmable logic controller (PLC).
However a lot extra may be carried out. The potential alternatives awaiting giant gamers in 2024 are colossal, and I can’t wait to see extra embracing an all-encompassing automation course of in manufacturing, positioning cobots to extend productiveness, product high quality, and security.
Seeking to the longer term: AI-enabled cobots and extra subtle purposes
As machine studying and AI-enabled cobot purposes turn into extra extensively out there, bigger companies are completely positioned to leverage this cutting-edge tech to assist their advanced and complex enterprise wants. From high quality inspection utilizing pc imaginative and prescient to dealing with high-mix purposes on the manufacturing flooring, I see corporations utilizing cobots to enhance prices and improve buyer satisfaction.
Cobots have turn into user-friendly sufficient for even the smallest companies, serving to to democratize manufacturing. However they’re additionally being paired with a number of the world’s most subtle applied sciences, supporting global-scale corporations in changing into extra productive than ever.
Concerning the writer
Ujjwal Kumar is group president of Teradyne Robotics. Over his 25-plus-year profession, Kumar has efficiently scaled companies at main multinationals together with Basic Motors, Basic Electrical, and Honeywell.
Kumar might be giving a keynote presentation on the Robotics Summit & Expo subsequent week. In it, he’ll share some classes he has realized and the way they are often utilized to speed up the transformation of trade with robotics. Registration is now open for the occasion, which might be on Might 1 and a pair of on the Boston Conference and Exhibition Middle.
Study from Agility Robotics, Amazon, Disney, Teradyne and plenty of extra.