Four Case Studies of Collaborative Robotics Use Globally

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odern industrial robotic arms from Universal Robots, known as collaborative robots or cobots, are an excellent automation option for numerous industries and businesses globally since they are simple to deploy, set up, and program.

Here are case studies of four companies that use collaborative robots in their unique operations.

1. Nordic Sugar

The testing division manages 80,000 sugar beet samples throughout the production season. Since 1993, robots have been doing the tedious work of weighing the containers of beet puree. But with industrial robot technology advancing, it was time for the business to switch out its old robot models for newer ones.

The company's management wanted a robot that their staff could program for additional jobs and put into production on their own because their previous robot required the services of costly specialists every time the firm wanted to make a modification, which was too expensive.

The essential requirement when Nordic Sugar searched for contemporary robots was to automate the assessment of raw material samples, and the solution needed to be versatile, user-friendliness, and affordable.

The Solution

Nordic Sugar decided to try the cobot arm in their sugar analytical process after seeing Universal Robots display their robotic technology at a trade exhibition. Three UR5s cobots are currently in use. The UR5 robot reads barcodes, scans them, and picks up sugar containers for examination from weights to filters and back.

The pneumatic grippers and a barcode scanner built inside the robot's end-of-arm tool carry out the task. The best part is that they no longer need to summon pricey specialists when adjusting a robot's mission because the robots don't need any safety guarding.

2. Mjolkursamsalan Akureyri

The company is the largest dairy in Iceland, and they were aiming to automate their cream cheese production process.

The dairy's modified cream cheese production line included the installation of the first UR5 robot in 2011. Four cartons of cream cheese are lifted by the robot arm off a conveyor belt and put into a plastic tray.

A second UR5 was bought in 2012 due to the first robot arm's high level of satisfaction. This additional robot removes the plastic trays from the filling process and places them on a pallet, freeing the dairy workers from yet another repetitive task.

The two UR5 collaborative robots have allowed the company to save about three person-years of tedious work because they are so easy to use and don't require a fence, which is a significant bonus.

3. Aircraft Tooling Inc.

ATI chose the UR10 after searching for an economical and effective solution to fit perfectly in their little spray cells. The firm required a robot that could work on repairs, including plasma spraying and (HVOF) High-Velocity Oxygen Fuel on components. The cobot lived up to their expectations by being portable and user-friendly.

Compared to the typical robot, the cobot's unpacking and programming only took four hours. Additionally, because of the cobot's collaborative feature, there was no need to create a fence around it. Comparing the original cost to the other options, it was almost half.

However, the cobot's most significant selling point was its excellent performance in the hot and dusty spray booths, which won over the hearts of the ATI crew. The factory's thermal spraying supervisor questioned the cobot's toughness and longevity.

They worried that it wouldn't be able to endure some of the powder coatings, particularly the hard metal coating of tungsten carbide. Fortunately, when they opened the UR10's seals, they discovered that its bearings were undamaged and that, even after three years of continuous use, it is still in excellent shape.

Since the collaborative robot is well-sealed against dust and has the stability to endure the recoil of the spray guns the company uses, it requires no preventive maintenance. It performs equally well in both hazardous environments and clean rooms.

The cobot has helped ATI achieve consistent, dependable output, allowing it to expand from a component-only repair facility to one that currently handles overhauling landing gear and engine mounting assemblies and accessories. The organization keeps its high-quality standards while mainly restoring expensive items to higher standard dimensions.

4. Autodesk

The American corporation Autodesk creates software for the building sector. The company hopes to develop fresh ideas to allow customers to collaborate with robots to complete more general construction-related jobs by researching.

The Autodesk Robotics Lab developed four projects to test the cobot's capabilities in machine learning, sketching, and intelligent assembly systems to determine whether it was adaptable enough to move around a challenging building site for deployment in diverse roles.

The HIVE Pavilion-Human Robot interaction was the first project. Its objective was to give users a seamless integration between the robots' designs, wearable intelligence, and RFID tracking used in the construction elements. The collaborative robot made precise movements and accurate measurements possible, which was a difficult task for human workers to complete.

The second project required a solution and a vector art drawing to determine the cobot's capacity for the robotic route, followed. by positioning the robot in an open area that is unfamiliar to it, calibrating it, and programming it to adhere to a vector drawing that is projected onto a canvas. Since the UR10 is smaller, more maneuverable, and safer than the other robots owned by Autodesk, it was ideal for the job.

The third project was finding a solution for flexible robot help on building sites. The company created a prototype that served as robot assistance in building locations because of the cobot's built-in safety features. The UR10 may be rolled onto drywall, where the operator modifies it via voice command and then makes the required modifications.

The UR robots could overcome the difficulties associated with bin selection, re-grasping, and placement. With a visual guidance system, the cobot can select a pre-defined brick from various sizes and colors and set it precisely where it needs to be for assembly.

Final Remarks

Collaborative robots are, without a doubt, the best option for automating plenty of production activities. The businesses mentioned above are benefiting from using the robot arms now that they have cobots since they were able to boost their overall production and profitability.

✔️ Four Case Studies of Collaborative Robotics Use Globally

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