Bench Talk

An Industry 5.0 Manufacturing Solution

(Source: metamorworks / stock.adobe.com)

Collaborative robots, known as cobots, are bringing Industry 5.0 to life. These interactive robotic arms are meeting the growing demand for manufacturing technologies that go beyond optimizing automation to prioritizing human-robot relationships. While Industry 4.0 relied heavily on intricate solutions like big data and the Internet of Things, Industry 5.0 places sophisticated technologies directly in the hands of operators. Embracing this trend, cobots are designed to operate alongside humans, unlike traditional industrial robots that were isolated from their coworkers. Cobots excel at working in shared spaces to automate repetitive tasks like “pick and place,” palletization, delicate assembly operations, and applications that require path planning.

Cobot popularity surged during the COVID-19 pandemic when manufacturers experienced a sudden shortage of skilled workers. Factories that were curious about automation but had yet to implement solutions turned to cobots as an easily programmable and quickly deployable first point of automation. In the face of unprecedented circumstances, cobots offered a cost-effective solution to labor shortages, delivering fast results and flexible automation while ensuring the safety of human workers. Integration has since gained momentum due to the valuable benefits of cobots, which include upskilling workers, improving production, ensuring employee safety, and simplifying complex applications and programming.

Upskilling Workers and Improving Production

Cobots embody the Industry 5.0 approach of human-robot collaboration, and their integration provides manufacturers with advanced operational capabilities. With a smaller workforce, factories can produce higher-quality goods and increase production capacity, allowing managers to redirect additional human resources to more strategic roles. This is particularly beneficial in facilities handling high-variable, low-throughput tasks, where cobot flexibility and maneuverability significantly enhance operational efficiency.

For example, a facility for assembling plumbing pipe fittings employed a large human workforce to paint sealant onto the threads of each tube before connecting it to another component. This essential process ensured watertight connections between parts. The factory handled thousands of pipes of various sizes, thicknesses, and combinations.

Introducing cobots to handle a significant portion of this task enabled the plant to reposition its workers for a more efficient and value-driven process. The employer assigned some operators to oversee the cobots, ensuring accurate application of adhesive thickness onto the threads. Other operators collaborated directly with the cobots, sharing the task and manually coating pipes unsuitable to be held by the piping fixture. Managers upskilled additional workers to more strategic roles such as cobot programming for redeployment or enhanced quality inspection.

Throughout this process, success depended on expert operators with a deep knowledge of the coating process to build the cobot program and supervise the cobots’ operation. Ultimately, what was formerly a routine task performed by a large workforce evolved into a collaborative effort between a smaller force of operators and cobots, resulting in enhanced personnel value and improved product quality and capacity.

Ensuring Employee Safety

Traditional industrial robots are a different type of coworker. They outmatch their human counterparts in force and power capabilities. In the past, manufacturers isolated industrial robots from humans for safety, thus removing the potential for collaboration. Today, in compliance with industry standards, cobots are equipped with advanced technologies to ensure safe interactions with human workers in shared environments.

For example, joint torque sensors are integrated strategically into each axis joint of the cobot to provide feedback signals in human-robot interactions. These sensors play a pivotal role in allowing operators to work safely with and around a cobot. For instance, if a human unexpectedly comes into contact with a cobot, the torque sensors will detect contact and immediately reduce the cobot’s level of force and speed. A cobot’s position and compliance control enable it to handle delicate components without creating crushing and shearing hazards.

However, the integration of future technologies might introduce new safety considerations while enhancing cobot interactivity. Integrating artificial intelligence, which can offer valuable suggestions to operators, opens the door to cybersecurity threats such as unauthorized access to personal or confidential business data.

Overall, while cobots offer significant advantages in terms of capabilities and efficiency, their safe integration into human work environments requires continuous technological advancements.

Simplifying Complex Applications and Programming

Compared to previous industrial robot solutions, cobots offer manufacturers a more user-friendly and easily programmable automation solution. Cobots’ advanced hardware and software make even the most complex applications and programming accessible to a wide range of facilities, from small production lines to large manufacturing plants.

A notoriously challenging task for robots is bin picking, in which a specific item at a random position is removed from a bin. While this task appears straightforward to humans, it presents a significant “intellectual” challenge for robots. Engineers fit bin-picking cobots with an overhead camera that captures images of the bin’s contents. The camera system employs advanced machine learning techniques and algorithms to identify the precise location of the desired part within the bin and transmits this positional data to the cobot. The cobot then uses a gripper or other end effector to extract the part from the bin and transfer it to its next location.

Cobot development also takes a step toward simplifying sophisticated programming, making industrial automation solutions more accessible to operators. Traditionally, the complexity of robots and their applications has required specialized coding by expert technicians. In contrast, engineers design cobots to be programmable by any operator, which enables rapid deployment. Cobots use a tree-based programming language with a drag-and-drop system on an intuitive user interface, which allows for easy program building and short deployment times. The operator can program and repair the cobot through a human-machine interface called a teach pendant (Figure 1).

Figure 1: An operator can use a teach pendant to program or repair a cobot by controlling it through a process step-by-step. (Source: Ridvan /stock.adobe.com)

One example of a teach pendant that operators can use to create a program is the “Commander,” developed by KUKA, which is a hand-sized pressure-sensitive box located on the cobot. This process involves the operator gripping the teaching “Commander,” positioning the robot arm, and selecting the points that define a path for the desired application. This feature is convenient when a robot is required to follow a path for an application such as welding or gluing. In the future, programming a cobot might not require coding at all. Instead, operators could leverage a system of icons and templates to execute preprogrammed functions, making the deployment process even more efficient and intuitive.

Conclusion

A cobot is a transformative Industry 5.0 technology that enhances workforce skills, elevates product quality and capacity, prioritizes employee safety, and simplifies hardware and software challenges. By integrating cobots into factory settings, manufacturers can reallocate workers to more strategic roles and further optimize production. To ensure secure collaboration, cobots are equipped with advanced safety technologies.

Furthermore, cobots showcase user-friendliness by leveraging new hardware and software technologies to address complex application challenges and enable programming by any operator. As the evolution of Industry 5.0 technologies drives manufacturers to seek more intelligent automation solutions that enhance the relationship between human and machine, cobots will continue to attract users with safety, adaptability, and ease of use.