Major manufacturers have long used dedicated industrial robots to boost efficiency and throughput in their production lines, giving them cost advantages that smaller operations could not match. But industrial robots are no longer exclusive to large-scale production. Smaller, general purpose robots are now available to boost productivity for a wide range of operations, working alongside humans as partners in workspaces as small as two square feet. This article looks at what has held robots back from large-scale deployment in smaller operations as co-worker robots and why that has changed. It then introduces example robots in the form of manipulator arms from KUKA Robotics Corp. and shows how they can be applied in both large and small facilities. Figure 1: Traditional industrial robots tend to be large and fast-moving, requiring protective cages to ensure worker safety. (Image source: KUKA Robotics Corp.)
The rise of robotic co-workers
Several factors have historically limited industrial robotics to large scale operations. A principal factor was the difficulty in generating a return on investment (ROI). Early industrial robots required considerable design effort and were customized—unique to their task. As a result, they could only handle a narrowly defined range of operation. The resulting cost and inflexibility meant that the robot had to offer substantial efficiency and throughput improvements over manual methods and be utilized in a high-volume production line to justify its implementation. Small to mid- sized facilities could seldom meet such conditions. To maximize benefit, most industrial robots for large-scale operation have also tended to be large and fast, working with materials and at speeds beyond human capabilities (Figure 1).
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