From November 1st to 5th, at the 18th China International Industry Fair held in Shanghai, collaborative robots have become the protagonists of the exhibition.
Compared to traditional industrial robotic arms, sensitive robots, also known as cooperative robots, are more flexible in industrial production lines.
First, they freed the robot from the fences of the past, allowing people to work side by side in a safe environment. Secondly, the collaborative robot can work with people and the surrounding environment to complete the work together. For example, in the vehicle manufacturing plant, 7-8 different types and functions of collaborative robots have been able to complete the process of car polishing, grinding and welding at the same station. Finally, compared with traditional high-volume, unified production processes, the flexible and efficient features of collaborative robots allow manufacturers to cope with more personalized, small-volume industrial production orders.
There is no doubt that collaborative robots will become the main force and trend in future industrial production. According to data from Barclays Research, a global financial analyst, 2016 and 2017 are the rapid expansion of collaborative robots in the five core markets of the United States, China, Japan, Germany and South Korea, with growth rates of 153% and 228% respectively. In 2020, the global market value of collaborative robots will reach $2.89 billion.
From November 1st to 5th, at the 18th China International Industry Fair held in Shanghai, such collaborative robots have become the protagonists of the exhibition, whether it is the traditional four major families of robots or other manufacturers. Focus on this area of ​​layout.
Industrial robots, four traditional families, step up the layout of collaborative robots
In view of the increasing importance of human-machine collaboration in the manufacturing field, the traditional four major families occupying the absolute advantage of the global market for industrial robots are stepping up the layout of collaborative robots. Following the launch of the world's first dual-arm robot YuMi, which is truly human-computer collaboration in 2014, ABB, one of the Big Four, is still adding to the collaborative robotics business and acquired German Gomtec last year to expand its collaborative robots. product line.
“Gomtec does have its expertise in the field of collaborative robotics. Human-machine collaboration is an area with potential for development and a major market for the future, so we also hope to fully explore this piece.†ABB Group Executive Committee member, ABB Sami Atiya, president of the Discrete Automation and Motion Control business unit, told reporters at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai on November 2nd.
At the traditional industrial robot application site, the robotic arm is often brushed with conspicuous colors to increase worker attention. The robot and the robot also need to be fenced or otherwise isolated. But human-machine-assisted robots work side-by-side with human workers without any fences.
YuMi means the English "you and me" work together. From the precision parts of mechanical watches to the handling of mobile phones, tablets and desktop parts, YuMi can easily handle it with its accuracy, even with needles, but the weight of each arm of YuMi is only 0.5 kg. The integration of Gomtec technology and products helps ABB launch collaborative robots that can perform higher loads.
An Shiming said that collaborative robots are indeed a focus of ABB's robotics business. “ABB now has YuMi collaborative robots, but there are some restrictions on weight limits. With our acquisition of Gomtec as an effective supplement, ABB can further increase the weight limit conditions of collaborative robots to form a complete set of different weights and conditions. Collaborative robotic products."
Gomtec's one-arm robot, Roberta, can also work side by side with humans. Roberta is a lightweight robot with its own grip and intuitive programming software. What is interesting is that its load weight is more admirable than it is. Roberta has a weight of 19 kg and a load of 8 kg. This feature makes it easy to move around the factory or in the lab and can be used to form large array applications.
澎湃News From the scene of the Industry Fair, YuMi can quickly sense, learn and imitate human motion paths, and does not require complicated and cumbersome traditional programming methods to set commands. “The performance of YuMi products has indeed exceeded our expectations. The demand and interest of customers in this product is also continuously high and very interesting. The main reason is that the installation and use of this product are very convenient, Yumi’s two arms make it There can be more application scenarios," An Shiming said.
At the YuMi Day held on November 2nd at the Industry Fair, ABB delivered the YuMi robot to a number of corporate customers. According to the news observation, the customer representatives attending are mainly automation and electronics industry enterprises.
More than a quarter of the industrial robots installed worldwide are from ABB. As of November 1, ABB has produced 50,000 robots in China, and China has become ABB's largest robot market. In addition to the hardware, ABB's monitoring software solution SafeMove2 allows people to work safely around ABB robots with a load range of 6 kg to 800 kg without compromising productivity.
The German robot giant KUKA, which was just acquired by China Midea Group this year, also launched the human-machine collaboration robot LBRiiwa two years ago. According to KUKA, the second generation of LBRiiwa robots will be announced in 2018.
"Human-computer interaction robots have always been our high-priority products for R&D. We will further strengthen the development of these human-computer interaction robots. At the same time, we will increase the application of these general-purpose industrial robots. Multi-sensor approach to introduce some expansion packs, so that these commonly used industrial robots can also be converted into human-computer interaction robots after installing these sensor expansion packs." Martin Kuhnhen, chief sales officer of KUKA Roboter Co., Ltd. reporter.
In addition to the above two European companies, the Japanese robot company FANUC is also focusing on man-machine cooperation robots. At this year's Industrial Fair, FANUC launched the CR-7iA light human-machine robot. It is worth noting that FANUC hopes that future industrial robots will have more visual and perceptual systems, in addition to the Internet, and can also interconnect with the surrounding environment.
Artificial intelligence enters the field of collaborative robots
In addition to traditional robotics companies, some emerging robotics companies are also stepping up to deploy collaborative robots. RethinkRobotics was founded in 2008 by Rodney Brooks, an American robotics expert and director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The current main products are robots Baxter and Sawyer, which were launched in 2012 and 2015 respectively.
Unlike traditional robots, Baxter and Sawyer don't need to program to create tasks. With built-in vision sensors, mechanical sensors, and artificial intelligence software, they have the visual, tactile, and brain-like learning. During training, as long as the robot's arm is dragged for task setting, the corresponding task path will be displayed on the display. When you complete a training demonstration, Baxter and Sawyer can learn and repeat the task in one minute.
It is worth mentioning that Baxter and Sawyer's unique "Robotface" makes them more like a "worker" - through a display screen, the robot matches the eyebrows and eyes, and has its own expression.
“This makes the workers working around the robot feel close and does not feel afraid of the machine. This is very important for the first time to start using the robot factory, especially these robots will work at the workers' side.†Scott Eckert, President and CEO of Rethink Robotics, told reporters.
In addition to American companies, the hottest concept of artificial intelligence is increasingly being applied to the development of human-machine collaborative robots.
Fan Ye, chairman of FANUC, told reporters that in Japan, FANUC has partnered with Cisco and artificial intelligence company Preferred Networks to add some artificial intelligence algorithms to their collaborative robots.
"Our investment in the field of robotic artificial intelligence accounts for 10% of the total investment. Although it is still a small number, we think this is a beginning and a trend." Inaba said that reporters.
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