In recent years, awareness of the role of robotics in industry and services has significantly increased. Robotics has become a necessity and has secured a stable position in the industrial market. For many businesses, the most significant barrier hindering the decision to invest in robotics is the complex implementation process coupled with a lack of qualified personnel to operate the robots. Fortunately, the development of cobots—collaborative robots—has brought about a revolution, effectively lowering the entry level into robotics.
The keyword in the definition of a cobot is “collaboration”—behind this, strong pillars are paving the way for the development of robotics in an entirely different direction. Traditional—heavy, complicated, and strongly enclosed in safety cages—industrial robots are starting to be replaced by smaller, user-friendly, and barrier-free collaborative robots. We are not talking about heavy processes typical of industrial robots, where traditional robots undoubtedly have no competition, but rather simple, light tasks such as palletizing, assembly, or CNC machine operation.
Cobots are robots designed for safe collaboration with humans, meaning they can operate alongside employees without separating safety barriers. This effectively reduces the need to isolate the workspace within the hall – that was the first two and most crucial pillars: safety and flexibility. The next two are directly connected to the operation, an aspect that concerns the customer, as they will be responsible for managing the implemented cobot, ease of programming, and modular construction.
Let’s focus on programming. I’ll use the example of the Universal Robots cobot. The programming interface, known as PolyScope, is a user-friendly, intuitive software for robot operation. Complex programming, often associated with lines of code, transforms into parameterization, filling in ready-made blocks that will be executed one after another. A perfect example I always mention is setting the robot’s position—you might think you have to enter coordinates, but in which coordinate system, and from which point am I moving? No, just press the button – release the robot’s brakes, grab it, and move it to the position you’re interested in, then click the “save point” button. Suddenly, it turns out that the only thing needed to operate a cobot is to undergo a few hours of training, and you can already start writing your first programs.
Alongside the ease of parameterizing cobots is their flexibility—they are user-friendly, significantly lighter than industrial robots, and do not require safety barriers, so they can be easily and quickly rearranged to perform different tasks. The modular design I mentioned makes it easy to service the robot. Beginning with the fact that the construction is a closed mechanism and therefore does not need cyclic lubrication, grease replacement, or maintenance, in the case of critical damage, the entire module is replaced, available off-the-shelf.
Many business owners forget this and hear “collaborative robot, often associating it solely with safety. Boldly, I believe this is a mistake, and I have made it my goal to raise awareness among as many companies as possible about how low the entry barrier into robotics is today. Acquiring and implementing the first cobot in your facility can be more achievable than commonly perceived.
