An industrial robot consists of a manipulator, including actuators, and a controller, including a teach console and a hardware or software communication interface. The robot arm can be programmed in three or more degrees of mobility, depending on the automation task at hand. Simply put, industrial robotics is designed to perform basic and auxiliary operations of the production cycle without human intervention. According to a Sberbank analyst report, there are about two million robots involved in manufacturing today.
The general classification of industrial robots contains from 7 to 12 classification attributes (depending on the information source). Here are some examples of private classifications according to the most important characteristics.
According to the nature of the operations performed, industrial robots are divided into:
- Technological (perform basic operations – machining, assembly, welding, painting);
- auxiliary (they are used for main process equipment servicing: installation – removal of blanks, warehousing and other operations);
- universal (combine features of the first two groups).
According to the nature of program processing industrial robots can be:
- hard-programmable (the action program contains information that does not change during operation);
- Adaptive (contains information about objects and environmental conditions. Sensor equipment allows such robots to adjust the control program);
- Flexible-programmable (capable of forming their action program based on the goal set and information about the objects and environmental conditions).
Fields of application of industrial robots
Industrial robots make it possible to automate all kinds of operations. The sphere of application is quite wide: blank production, machining, welding production, assembly production, heat treatment, electroplating and paint coating, transport and storage systems. In the manufacturing industry, the leaders in robot purchases have not changed for more than five years: it is the automotive industry and electronics.
Robots are used in almost all industries, their appropriateness is dictated primarily by human interest, convenience and safety.
The most important role is assigned to robots that replace humans in carrying out various tasks in extreme conditions: at great depths, in a vacuum, in space, in areas with radiation, explosion and fire hazards, as well as in chemical and pharmaceutical production.
Chemical warehouses are high-risk areas, where the cost of human error is extremely high. In such places, we use robots equipped with infrared scanners capable of finding reagents in the warehouse by barcode, moving and packing reagents for shipment to make the process as safe and secure as possible. Robots used to work with biological cells, taking cell samples with needles provide accuracy and speed not achievable by humans. For example, a robot is capable of pointing a needle at an object with an accuracy of 0.1 mm and doing so instantly. Creating chemical libraries requires storing thousands of samples and retrieving them quickly when needed. With a digital sample library and a mechanical arm, a robot can instantly locate and transmit the desired sample to researchers. Robotic arms are ubiquitous in pharmaceutical filling lines, sterile filter production, and ensure product quality through the absence of bio-contaminants and high precision manipulation.
What is a cobot
A collaborative robot (cobot) is a variant of an industrial robot that also consists of a manipulator and a reprogrammable control device. The cardinal difference between a cobot and a robot is that it can work together with a human to create or produce various products.
According to the international standard ISO 10218, there are four types of collaborative robots:
- With a safety stop mechanism; where when a human approaches, the cobot reads the movement using sensors and stops until the human leaves the workspace;
- with manual control; the robot is augmented with special devices that recognize hand pressure. When the robot is not learning, but performing its direct functions, a human must be outside the boundaries of its working area;
- with a “computer vision” system that monitors the movements of human workers and slows down to a safe speed or stops altogether when a human approaches;
- with force limitation; if the robot senses strong resistance in its path, it stops.
The main application area for cobots is automotive and electronics manufacturing, and the most popular operations are loading/moving and assembly.