In this video, KUKA Canada President Steve Green takes us through a show-floor demo of the capabilities of the KUKA iiwa, the company's flagship collaborative robot (cobot).
Tech journalism, like all shop talk, is packed with jargon and buzzwords: turnkey, industry 4.0, solutions. In the world of search engine optimization (SEO), it might seem more important to stuff these terms into your product description or press release than to actually know what they mean. An infamous example of this strategy comes from the company On-Line PLC, which changed its name to On-Line Blockchain PLC for a 394 percent bump in its stock price. Buzzwords are powerful, but that doesn’t mean they’re meaningful.
Is "collaborative" just the latest buzzword in the robotics industry, or is there more to it?
The Potential of Collaborative Robots
Collaborative robots are armed to the teeth with sensors and functionalities to make them as user-friendly as possible, and manufacturers have barely scratched the surface of their potential for new applications.
We typically tend to think of collaborative robots by their defining characteristic: the capability to work safely alongside humans, thanks to force feedback sensing, computer vision systems, force/torque sensors and enclosed, pinch-point-free designs. These safety features allow cobots to work side-by-side with their human counterparts in assembly, machine tending and other manufacturing operations.
Cobots are also known for being flexible and re-deployable. Countless case studies tell how cobots like Baxter, UR-5 or iiwa were originally specified for one task, until operators on the shop floor learned to apply the simple lead-to-teach programming to a new task.
The video above demonstrates the versatility of the iiwa, in particular, as an example of what a cobot can do. It shows innovation in the use of the force sensors built into the joints of the robot: accepting a simple 'push' input to trigger a step forward in the program or touching a cup to the workbench to confirm its location.
In industrial robotics, 'collaborative' is not just a buzzword. More importantly, it's not a set of added features to make robots friendlier. It's more like a toolkit, or a new programming language. In the years to come, we'll see that language explored more deeply, unlocking the full potential of collaborative industrial robots.
To find out how collaborative robots could fit into your production process, check out our eBook: Collaborative Robot Buyer’s Guide.