Cobots: Transforming the factory floor to enhance productivity

This concern is mostly unfounded and is a result of scaremongering.

In more recent years, new ways of thinking have gained traction; rather than making their human counterparts redundant, the manufacturing robots of the future will work collaboratively alongside them. This future can be witnessed with the introduction of collaborative robots, commonly known as “cobots”, robots invented to complement human workers. While we excel at complex thinking and problem solving, robots are proficient at bringing accuracy to repetitive, and sometimes unsafe, time-sensitive tasks. 

What if robots do all the heavy lifting and monotonous error-prone tasks, and employees can focus on more challenging and meaningful work? What if production lines were able to flow unsupervised with minimal error? The workforce of the future sees robots improving efficiency and productivity.

Well, that future already exists!

Small, lightweight, and designed to operate safely for close human operation, cobots are an ideal entry point for many businesses looking to embrace robotics. They can execute tasks with minimal programming and can be adapted to integrate into existing processes. Cobots are a world away from their industrial robot counterparts and well suited to SMEs. Around the world, they are widely integrated and viewed simply as tools that coexist alongside human employees – allowing them to be more efficient.

Cobots are increasingly attractive to manufacturers who require flexible solutions for their production lines but may not have the capital needed to justify large investments in automation systems.

A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that cooperation reduced human idle time by 85 percent, making cobot-human working more productive than purely human or robot teams...

Read the full article in the June issue of DPA