Collaborative machines featuring next-generation automation can work closely alongside humans, delivering safety alongside added value when compared to traditional robots.
By Jocelyn Golding, OEM, Industrial SI & IAD Channel Marketing Manager, Schneider Electric
End users rightly consider the safety of their employees as a paramount concern. Machine Builders that can offer safe, reliable and supported collaborative robotic solutions (cobots) can set themselves apart in a crowded marketplace.
Collaborate to innovate
Collaborative machines are designed to work seamlessly alongside human operators, therefore require different safety considerations to traditional robotics. Overcoming the challenge of incorporating cobots into their offering presents an opportunity for OEMs to provide innovative solutions that remove the need for much of the additional safety equipment associated with traditional robotics. Further, extensive safety measures such as cages and barriers take up valuable plant space that could repurposed to improve processes or scale throughput in any sector. By including collaborative robots with sophisticated sensors and built-in safety features, OEMs can deliver a machine that prioritises both productivity and worker safety while streamlining the safety compliance for the end user.
Ecosystem approach
Collaborative robots then, represent a huge opportunity for Machine Builders to meet the need for next-generation industrial automation that is efficient but inherently safe. Schneider Electric aims to be the chosen partner for OEMs to fully leverage this opportunity and provide comprehensive options that not only include the cobot hardware but the supporting software that eases integration. By bringing these capabilities into the OEM offering, the machine builder’s relationship with the end user also becomes part of this ecosystem. All parties are working towards a shared goal of optimised operations that takes human safety into account at every stage. Schneider Electric’s insight into cobots and their role in the future of manufacturing is based on extensive research and development incorporating cutting-edge technologies into collaborative solutions.
Thinking safely
Removing safety barriers while bringing operators and machines together makes for an improved environment for workers and lays the foundation for more flexible and productive operations. While robotics in traditional production lines are rigidly set, requiring halts for modifications and extensive coding, a more dynamic approach is emerging. With recent advances in robotics operators can now take a hands-on role, directly guiding or ‘teaching’ collaborative robots how to perform repetitive tasks in real-time and without extensive coding. This method isn’t universally applicable to cobots, but the underlying principle of enhancing processes through immediate interaction and adaptability is.
Across various industries, this approach allows for on-the-fly adjustments. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are now capable of providing solutions tailored to the evolving needs of manufacturers. This includes processing different materials, modifying processes, or swiftly navigating unforeseen challenges. Critically, these advancements in flexibility are achieved without compromising safety, without needing to regularly update safety systems and without needing to apply for new safety certification. Through supported collaborative robotics systems OEMs can offer systems that not only adapt to change but also maintain the highest safety standards, helping end users to gain the associated benefits of improved operational flexibility, reduced compliance burden, and better use of space.
Importantly, collaborative robots complement human skills, resulting in a powerful combination of precision, knowledge, strength, and repeatability, all contributing to enhanced overall system reliability. By enabling the operator and robotic assets to work together, the downtime associated with safety procedures is also reduced. Human intervention with traditional robot solutions requires an important but sometimes slow safety process, cobot intervention is a much simpler task and one that can be undertaken safety without slowing production.
Scaling safely
When combining adaptability with the additional floor space offered through cobot solutions, end users have all the tools they need to scale their business with safety already built in. Cobot solutions from Schneider Electric seamlessly work alongside humans as well as existing and future assets on the plant floor, enabling rapid and simple scaling for end users as they grow. Bringing the operator and asset closer together enables OEMs to look beyond the norm to provide innovative solutions with safety at the forefront, taking advantage of Schneider Electric’s partner programme offers instant access to additional services that can extend the value of any deployment, proactively solving safety challenges as businesses scale.
Schneider Electric is committed to ensuring the safety of industrial operators while supporting OEMs with next generation cobot technology. OEMs can leverage our expertise to create a solution that delivers flexibility, efficiency, and repeatability with packaged worker safety. The collaboration between operator and machine, OEM, end user, and Schneider Electric creates safer and more reliable manufacturing processes.
OEMs looking to explore the potential of cobot solutions with Schneider Electric should download The Future of Automation IDC report from the website.
