Robot

The use of robots in the industrial context makes it possible to increase the profitability of production lines and the reliability and quality of the products. Robots make it possible to replace people in repetitive and riskier jobs, not stealing people's position in companies, but creating more qualified jobs with greater security and less physical wear and tear.

Robots are increasingly being used to take on material handling tasks, pick & place operations, painting, component inspection, assembly, packaging and palatization, among others. Systems consisting of robots can be divided into four distinct systems.

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In a traditional system, humans and robots do not share tasks or work space, in order to guarantee the safety of operators and the efficiency of robots. This system is the most used in the machines we developed.

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In a coexistence system, humans and robots work together to carry out a process. In this case, the workspace is not shared, and the pieces are transferred between the workspaces.

As an example, we have the line developed by SPMAQ for Eberspächer France, which consists of an enclosed space, in which the main robot transfers the parts between the automatic machines (traditional system - Image 1). If it is necessary to rework the parts, they are placed by the robot on a treadmill, which transports them out of its work area, so that an operator can requalify them and place them on a base, which takes the part back to the robot's work area, so that it can be processed again (Coexistence - Image 2).

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In a cooperation system, the work space is shared, but the robot and the human do not perform tasks simultaneously. Finally, there is the collaboration system, where the workspace is shared and the robot and the human perform tasks simultaneously (Collaboration - Image 3). In the latter case, collaborative robots or Cobots are mostly used. These robots are increasingly used, and they have advantages and disadvantages compared to other industrial robots:

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Conventional Industrial Robots

• Higher production volume
• Cheaper (Profitability in a short period of time)
• Higher purchase cost
• Higher energy consumption
• More complex programming
• They work in cages/closed environments

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Collaborative Robots

• Lower production volume
  
• More expensive (Profitability over a long period of time)
  
• Lower purchase cost
• Lower energy consumption
• Easier to adapt to new tasks
• They can work without safety protection, but with reduced power and strength (they can use additional safety features, such as scanners)