Humans and robots work in harmony

Increasing awareness among businesses about the challenges of operating factories has led to the introduction of the collaborative robot (cobot), designed to automate manual, repetitive tasks. Omron’s collaborative robots are helping to create an intelligent manufacturing environment where humans and machines can work side by side.

A cobot (pictured below) is designed to physically interact with humans in a shared workspace, and detect abnormal activity in their environment through force limitation or vision monitoring.

Omron's TM Series collaborative robot.

Omron demonstrated its TM Series collaborative robots at a seminar in Sydney, highlighting how they can boost productivity and improve workplace safety. The seminar underscored the cobot’s simplified programming, as it requires no coding or pendant, allowing for faster start-up times.

Guests learned that cobots can be safe and transportable, with a built-in vision system for pattern recognition, object positioning and barcode identification. The cobots are designed to adapt to a range of industries and applications, such as loading and unloading, assembling and gluing.

This line of collaborative robots is simple to program and easy to integrate with other equipment. With less programming and faster changeover, compounded by their integration with mobile robots and controller hardware, the cobots can help companies produce a high mix and low volume of products.