Cobots are essential to the Industry 4.0 – By Universal Robots

Cobots or Collaborative robots were created 10 years ago, in Odense, Denmark, the birthplace of Universal Robots. Universal Robots is the market leader in Cobotics with 60% market share and more than 22.000 cobots sold to date around the world.

When creating our first robot arm model, our project was to propose an alternative and not a competitor to industrial robots: the alternative of a robot working alongside man.

As our societies evolve, thanks to technological progress as well as to globalization, it has become vital to do “more”. Create more products, faster, more efficiently, in a more flexible way, and above all, in a safer process. The intensification of the production rhythms and the increasing demands from consumers have forced man to use machines to support him in his task.

The robots have therefore invested factories and production sites. At the risk of removing the human from the process of creation and manufacture and of creating a climate of insecurity about these robotized behemoths. Our cobots are designed to place the human being at the center of the process and to relieve the workers of the “3 Ds” tasks: Difficult, Dangerous, and Dull. Human beings don’t disappear from the factory, Cobots collaborate with operators, they don’t replace them.

Versatility and adaptability

As in our three flagship models (UR3, UR4 and UR10), cobots are generally in the form of robotic arms. They may, however, take other shapes such as a wheeled pallet so to transport materials within the factory. The cobot differentiates from the “classic” robot through its “human” qualities of versatility, adaptability and awareness of its environment. Cobots are not developed and programmed to perform one single task brilliantly, without being able to do anything else. Cobots are programmable to accomplish absolutely everything, from airplane piloting to the handling of toxic substances, from placing screws on a car body to preparing a meal. As cobots can easily be remotely controlled by human operators, they carry out the most tiring or dangerous work tasks. Safety sensors and scanners allow cobots to be aware of their environment and therefore to work alongside humans safely, without physical barriers. For 80% of cobots, there is no need for additional security system.

As needed, cobots can be reprogrammed by anyone. They are not “obsolete” in the event of a change of course of the company or of their user.

Building the Industry of the future, connected

85% of manufacturers foresee that the industrial process of cobots and humans working side by side will become common in the very near future, ie by 2020. The market growth is accelerating. Universal Robots recorded a 72% growth. It marks not solely the company’s welfare but the performance of the whole sector. More than 250 companies from 132 countries are part of our UR+ program to foster innovative cobotic applications within the ecosystem.

All the companies that decide to use cobots get the same benefits: increased productivity, improved site efficiency, improved operator health, all for higher value-added production.

Moreover, cobotics isn’t limited to the manufacturing industry alone. A cobot can be a driver, a cook, a painter, a fellow player, a guide,…There are thousands of applications, both for the professional and the daily life, at the service of major groups and the humblest of consumers alike.

And that’s how we hope to change the world.