🤖 Flexibility and Accuracy in Industrial Workplaces: Cobots and AMRs 🚀

[Hasan S. Cemkan]

The Rise of Industrial Automation​

Today's industrial workplaces are embracing automation more than ever, aiming for operational excellence to meet high consumer and market demands. In this transformation, collaborative robots (cobots) mounted on autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) play a significant role.

Compact and Powerful Solutions​

These small yet powerful cobots are some of the most compact solutions, with their controllers integrated into their bases. This design reduces the need for an external controller, enhancing precision and productivity. The cobots' flexible, precise arm movements can handle high payloads with maximum repeatability. Powered by direct current (DC) from AMRs, these compact cobot designs are ideal for mobile solutions.

Extended Reach and Reduced Footprint​

Some advanced cobots are equipped with seven degrees of freedom. This provides the cobot arm with an extended range of motion, enhancing the capabilities of traditional AMRs when loading and unloading materials. The more flexible 7-axis arm offers greater accuracy thanks to the added orientation, allowing the cobot to access and navigate hard-to-reach areas.

Some cobots can operate on 48 volts DC from the AMR battery pack, making them very compact and tidy for pairing with mobile solutions like AMRs and AGVs. This resolves many space constraints companies often face with AMRs and cobots by eliminating the need for a control cabinet and reducing the overall footprint of the automated solution.

Having a controller built into a cobot arm is a significant differentiator for operations and will have a major impact on the type of work cobots on AMRs will do in the future. Thanks to DC power, LiDAR, sensors, and the onboard controller, these cobot-integrated AMRs can move more freely within a facility while providing greater control, accuracy, and faster response times.

Where Are Cobot-AMR Systems Used?​

7-axis cobots mounted on AMRs expand their use cases in manufacturing, offering operational improvements previously not possible with fixed systems. For example, these systems move between stations on the factory floor, facilitating pick-and-place, packaging, or palletizing operations with repeatable accuracy and greater flexibility than a standard cobot.

Overall, machine tending is a very suitable application where cobots on AMRs can improve manufacturing. When transporting metal parts or raw materials, the AMR allows the arm to be used within a facility to load parts onto a production line or even CNC machines. In CNC tending, once a cobot on an AMR is positioned, the flexible arm can use grippers or other attachments to accurately place materials into an enclosed machine or remove finished material.

Cobots on AMRs can come in many forms thanks to modular designs that can quickly switch between customizable end effectors, such as three-jaw, vacuum, magnetic, and quick-change grippers. Additionally, vision systems can be integrated to provide depth perception to a cobot application inspecting objects, and soft grippers can pick up more delicate or irregularly shaped items. When implemented on AMRs, these cobot gripping technologies can move within the warehouse to automate specific tasks with the right tool for the job.

Solving Workforce Challenges​

As labor shortages persist in manufacturing, cobots mounted on AMRs can address the staffing challenges companies face. Many employees report that working alongside robotics helps them be more productive and maintain job satisfaction by working on more creative or meaningful tasks instead of repetitive jobs that cobots can now handle. This increases worker safety by eliminating repetitive lifting of heavy objects and machine tending that can cause injuries. Cobots on AMRs can also operate autonomously unsupervised when programmed, which can increase a facility's overall productivity with increased output.

As automation technologies are adopted at higher rates, worker and robot collaboration will continue to be a critical point and consideration moving forward. Companies can prepare their workforces for robotic adoption by prioritizing incremental change management, providing resources, and training workers on how to properly interact with robotics in the workplace.

Additionally, the ability to monitor automated systems can improve data management and operational efficiency. Cobots are no different, as operations managers can set up and monitor these applications through integrated software. When cobot-integrated AMRs are programmed and can be monitored via connected dashboards, functions can be customized, which is critical for cobots to provide each facility with a personalized experience tailored to its operational needs.

When addressing low-volume or high-mix production, integrating automated cobot technology provides a unique set of advantages to help companies address workforce challenges, increase productivity, and reduce errors. Over time, combining these two robotic technologies will allow facilities to continue to enhance their automation and technical capabilities for higher output, precision, and maximum benefit.