Knocking down the barriers to robotic automation

ROBOTS ARE well known for the great benefits they can bring to industry – tireless, accurate and fast, they can make manufacturing much more efficient and productive. Yet some manufacturers and other potential industrial users continue to believe that robots are too big, too costly, not suited for their type of production or handling tasks or just too complex to program or set up.

While that may have been the case for many companies in the past, the latest developments in control software, architecture, safety, programming and handling capabilities make robots suitable for many more tasks and environments than ever before.

And with costs continuing to fall, they are now being employed by SMEs, who are using robotic automation to benefit their own, often very niche, production methods.

‘We can’t afford a robot’

There is clearly a perception that robots are expensive. Yet a report by McKinsey and Company shows that robot costs have fallen by half over the last 30 years. During the same period, labour costs have risen at a similar rate. At a time when the effects of the global pandemic are making labour availability particularly difficult to predict and manage, robots can help fill this resource gap.

When you factor in the accuracy and repeatability that a robot can achieve, the reduction in waste and  the production of high quality, saleable products, robots begin to look like an increasingly sound investment.

‘They are too complex to program’

Programming complexity may have been a challenge in the past, but the latest robot software makes it far easier to get the result you want without the need to be a coding guru.

ABB’s new Wizard Easy Programming software, for example, uses simple graphical blocks that make it easy for non-specialists to automate their applications. The blocks represent actions such as ‘move to location’, ‘pick up an object’, and ‘repeat movements’, making it easy and intuitive to build a series of simple processes for the robot to perform.

Another option is ABB's RobotStudio simulation and offline programming software, which allows users to perform tasks such as training, programming, and optimisation without disturbing production.

‘We have difficult assembly processes not suitable for robots’ 

Some tasks demand a very high degree of accuracy in assembly. With the latest advanced software, this is not impossible for robots. The high accuracy demanded is achieved using the force control concept, where the robot’s movements are governed by feedback from a force sensor. This means that the robot can search for the correct location and assemble parts without the risk of jamming or damaging the components.

‘We need flexibility’

Flexible production is one of the areas that robots excel at. With the ability to automatically change tooling, materials, and programming, they eliminate much of the work involved in swapping between products. As customers demand more and more customisation, this allows companies to change easily between products, getting closer to the ideal of a batch size of one.

‘We have special processes that can only be done by people’

Collaborative robots can work alongside people in a shared space, making it possible to automate the assembly of many types of products on the same line.

These types of robots have a range of hardware and software features that ensure they cannot injure people by restricting robot motion to exactly what is needed for a specific application. Cobots are also easy to program – tasks can be taught to them by simply leading their arms through the actions needed.

Although many companies, particularly SMEs, may think that their production presents insurmountable barriers to using automation, modern robots and software are showing that there are no real obstacles and that increasingly, robotic production is for everyone.

Nigel Platt is lead business manager, UK and Ireland – robotics and discrete automation for ABB

http://www.abb.com/robotics