Robots were a dream just like the driverless cars in the present day. In 1956, engineers, Joseph Engelberger and George Devol brought the first commercial robot into the world.
As per Technical writer Megan R Nichols, in 1956 only, Kuka by Keller and Knappich in Augsburg in Germany built the first automatic welding system for appliances. After the success, the service got expanded into Volkswagen vehicles.
In 1973, the first KUKA robot with electronic-mechanically driven axes was also presented. The robot was called FAMULUS. It was designed with six axes to mimic the motion and mechanics of the human arm. Today, KUKA is one of the key players when it comes to the robotic industry.
Robotic arms got demanded in manufacturing, automotive, and other major large-scale welding production units. With advanced evolution and new design technologies, the machines got transformed into cobots, collaborative robots.
The cobots are the manufacturing bots to assist the human workforce in repetitive, and cumbersome work. They are safe for humans to work along your side. As they take a heavy load from you and let you focus on other necessary work projects.
Another major advancement in cobots is their ability to learn by examples rather than rely on programming codes.
The four types of cobot operations are:-
- Power and Force Limiting cobots
The cobots are designed to sense contact with people and terminate the operation. The need to eliminate safety barriers. The cobots are designed for smaller applications.
- Safety rated and monitored stop cobots
The cobots are designed to stop operating once a person enters their shared working person and automatically resume after he/she leaves the space without the need of a restart push button. They are mostly used with less needed interaction between humans and a cobot.
- Speed and Separation cobots
The cobots are called fenceless and are best with less interaction with humans. The cobot’s workplace is set up with safety laser area scanners to slow down the movement once someone approached the cobot. And it completely stops once it reached the work area but automatically resumes its normal speed once the person moves out of the workspace.
- Hand Guiding cobots
The cobots are designed with a safety-rated device at the end of the robot’s arm for a person to manually guide or move the robot around. The new robot paths and positions by hand are used quickly for an easy program. It is good for mobile applications to re-training cobots to achieve the accomplishment of different tasks.
Source:- TechBriefs