Don't count out cobots

Friedrichshafen, Germany — Collaborative robots have a presence at Fakuma 2018, as Sepro Robotique, debuted its Seprobot, Fanuc Corp., showed its CR Series, and a new player, Hahn RobShare, rents them out like temporary workers. Company officials say cobots have a bright future.

A strict definition of collaborative robots is a robot that can work side by side with human workers and needs no special safety guarding. The six-axis robots offered by Sepro and Fanuc don't fall into that exact terminology: The Seprobot has a separate vision sensor that can slow the robot down as a worker gets close by or shut it down as he or she gets even closer; the CR robot will stop if you touch it.

Both articulating-arm robots are full-sized industrial robots that can work with speed and precision, and they can handle much heavier payloads than other types of cobots — namely, Baxter and Sawyer cobots from the now-defunct Rethink Robotics Inc.

Boston-based Rethink Robotics ​ abruptly closed on Oct. 3, ending production of robots with arms and an expressive face that changed expressions and turned toward human workers as they approached. Baxter and Sawyer were easy to program but moved slowly by traditional robot standards and handled limited payloads.

Robot experts at Sepro and Fanuc — both major makers of heavy-duty industrial robots — said there are plenty of better cobot alternatives, and the market is changing. While both companies' collaborative robots need some limited guarding, the cobots can be easily moved around to other molding cells in a factory.

Traditional fixed-type of automation is harder to move.

Speed, accuracy and heavy-duty robustness are important advantages of both cobots. They both have cameras to see molded parts, adapt to changes or do quality checks.

The Seprobot is two or three times faster than a typical cobot, the French company said. The Seprobot is made by Yaskawa Electric Corp., known as Yaskawa Motoman in North America. At Fakuma, a Seprobot is quickly moving parts from one storage pallet to another and back.

The Seprobot has see-through guarding panels on each side. One end of the workspace is open, marked with two lines to demonstrate how the robot adapts to a person getting nearby.

"The principle is you have normal industrial robots working at full speed," said Xavier Lucas, Sepro's global service and automation director.

Sepro said its type of injection molding cobot will grow quickly in the market. By 2025, Sepro officials predict, faster industrial cobots will account for 40 percent of all industrial robots, compared with just 10 percent for the slower, 100 percent collaborative robots like Baxter.

"So we think the majority of the needs from the market will be the solution where robots will work closely to the operators but will not interact directly with the operator. You will not have a direct connection between both," Lucas said.

Traditional robots performing with full guarding, doing defined, isolated tasks, will account for 50 percent of robots by 2025, Sepro predicted.

German automation supplier Hahn Group still believes the Baxter-style robots have a place in plastics factories.

About six months ago, the company started Hahn RobShare, which rents cobots to factories in plastics processing, metal fabrication, logistics and even, according to RobShare CEO Silvester Keijzer, for service positions like receptionists to buzz people into the plant.

Keijzer has a background in temporary staffing agencies, working at Kelly Services Inc. and Addeco Group. Hahn RobShare has specialists in robot engineering, software and temporary help firms.

For plastics, the company rents four types of robots: Rethink Robotics, Universal Robots, Doosan and Kuka.

Keijzer said staffing firms are renting cobots. Plastics processors need cobot help, too, for basic jobs like pick-and-place that are difficult to fill and can be boring. In Germany, he said, 10 percent of the pick-and-place jobs go unfilled — about 4,000 open positions. And even when companies do get temporary help for those jobs, 60 percent of them quit after just three days, he said.

"Let's be honest, they're not always the highest-paid jobs. And then they are quite boring. And unemployment rates are so low, and there are a lot of other opportunities. So why would you consider a job in pick-and-place?" Keijzer said. Another need is companies that mold for seasonal industries.

Demand is picking up for renting collaborative robots. "Mainly all the questions we get at the booth are, 'How quickly can you deliver these robots? How quick is it to set up?' Because they have nobody [for] this job," he said.

Fanuc's collaborative robots are green, instead of the company's traditional yellow. That sets the CR series apart, said Eugen Rohn, regional sales manager for Germany. Fanuc is based in Japan.

CR cobots are equipped with Fanuc's fully integrated iRVision.

"Only Fanuc has the heavy industrial robot as collaborative robots," Rohn said.

Fanuc's stand at Fakuma shows an interesting setup. A Fanuc injection molding machine molds parts, and a fixed robot removes them from the mold and places them in a tray. Then, a small wheeled cart moves over to take the tray of parts and bring them to a Fanuc CR cobot.

When people get in the way of the cart, made by Swiss firm Robotec Solutions AG, a voice warns them to be alert and move aside.

Fakuma-goers could use that sensing device while walking the crowed aisles in Friedrichshafen. Or at the beer stand.