PRODUCTS & SERVICES
How cobots are molding
the factory of the future
In automotive production, collaborative robots are working with humans
to enhance throughput while continuing to harness human ingenuity
Recent history has seen a
trend towards the robotization
of the automotive production line,
with fast-moving autonomous
devices shunting works-in-progress
from place to place and modifying
them in the absence of human
operators. However, even more
recent history is seeing this trend
take on a new form. Caged-o
industrial robots are quickly being
replaced by collaborative robots
– or ‘cobots’ for short – that work
in tandem with humans.
That capacity to interact
means collaborative robots such
as Omron’s TM Series are a great
way for manufacturers to automate
repetitive tasks while harnessing the
human creativity required to stay
flexible. The concept of flexibility is
rapidly gaining traction as more
companies strive to produce
multiple vehicles – including
variations of electric and hybrid
vehicles – on the same line to adapt
seamlessly to market changes.
Collaborative robots are well
suited to today’s demands because
they are designed to be as simple
as possible to program, and many
varieties feature extremely intuitive
hand-guided teaching mechanisms
that even novice operators can
pick up easily.
An operator can move the arm to
the first location for a particular step,
press a button, move it to another
location, press the button again, and
the robot will memorize the exact
trajectory. Various end-e ectors
can be used for pick-and-place,
gluing, soldering and other tasks.
Omron’s TM Series Collaborative
Robot uses integrated vision and
3D positioning to achieve an even
more advanced toolkit that allows
it to respond e ectively to new
requirements as they arise during
manufacturing. If a particular line
is dedicated to more than one
vehicle type, the cobot’s vision
system can scan a barcode on
an incoming part to determine
which vehicle it belongs to and
gauge its size and shape to
adjust its positioning.
142 // January 2020 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
With all the changes occurring
in the automotive industry, of which
the shift from gas-powered cars
to electric ones is a key example,
the variety of vehicle types that
a given automaker must manage
has increased dramatically. This is
causing batch sizes in production to
shrink, which in turn creates a need
for greater production flexibility.
Most robots perform poorly
when flexibility is prioritized, but
collaborative robots are very well
suited to these new requirements.
There is another aspect –
they can also take over tasks that
are cumbersome and sometimes
even dangerous for humans.
Collaborative robots such as the
Omron TM Series can lower the
As manufacturers strive to design production lines that build multiple vehicle
models, ranging from gas-powered to hybrid to fully electric, human creativity is
needed to design the most effi cient layouts and resolve any bottlenecks that arise
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