Collaborative robots
Present situation worldwide and in Switzerland
Manufacturing at many Swiss SMEs features small lot sizes and high product variance, leading to a dilemma: should production tasks be entrusted to humans, whose skill and dexterity often make them more productive than robots and automats despite their high hourly wage – or should products be redeveloped at considerable expense in order to make them suitable for automation and robotisation? Collaborative robotics at least partially remedies this quandary. Collaborative robots (“cobots”) are defined as robots that share the same workspace as humans and are able to interact with them (as defined in ISO 10218 and 15066). Safety standards set limits on the robots’ speed (1.5 m/s) and kinetic energy (40 joule). Instead of leaving all operations to robots, humans are to retain those activities in which they display superior skill. Simple routine tasks, however, are to be carried out by robots. Dividing tasks into “complicated” and “simple” makes cooperation between robots and humans indispensable, as both types of work are closely interwoven in production.
Collaborative robotics is still in its infancy, but will certainly play an important role in future. Ever shorter innovation cycles and smaller lot sizes call for a flexibility that rigid forms of automation struggle to provide. Robotics enables replicable, fatigue-free processes and hence consistent quality – a key aspect for Swiss industry, which relies on high added value. In order to tap their full economic potential, robots must be affordable and easy to programme and configure, which is more and more the case.
There is much untapped potential when it comes to the deployment of collaborative robots. This is due to numerous technical limitations, but also to the fear of change and job losses. However, as the majority of products are supplied in price-elastic markets, a pricing structure streamlined through the use of robots creates more jobs than it destroys. Investment costs, often perceived as dissuasive in conventional robotics, are less high for collaborative robots, which can do without many of the safety features required by rigid robots. Auxiliary camera systems are also becoming increasingly affordable and easy to use. The growing use of artificial intelligence in automation supports this trend. Typical current applications must take into account collaborative robots’ as yet limited agility and speed. For the moment, collaborative robots are therefore mainly used to handle lightweight components and to perform simple assembly tasks. In the next five years, collaborative robots’ direct learning from humans will remain confined to rather simple processes.
Implications for Switzerland
With its sizeable industrial manufacturing sector and high labour costs, Switzerland is an ideal candidate for the use of collaborative robots. While the country is considered the “Silicon Valley of flying robots”, it lags behind in the development of collaborative robots. The European leaders in this field are currently Denmark, Germany and Sweden. Many startups operate within the orbit of large firms. Both in regulatory and educational terms, Switzerland is very well positioned to take up the trend, which is likely to accelerate as improved robots and simpler programming broaden the scope of applications in production.