Currently, there are two types – industrial and cooperative models. The former, work in their designated zones away from human workers. The latter, on the other hand, have broken the barriers put up and today we can firmly call them cooperators. And it’s worth getting to know one’s fellow workers, so today we’ll learn about the history of collaborative robots.
The fathers of cobots
When we think of collaborative robots, what we have before our eyes are times closer to the present. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the first cobots were already invented at the end of the 20th century, specifically in 1996 by two professors from Northwestern University – J. Edward Colgate and Michael Peshkin. According to a US patent with the title “Cobots”, it was to be a device designed to interact with people from a specific work environment and in an interactive workspace.
Their invention was the result of a 1994 General Motors initiative led by Prasad Akella of the GM Robotics Center. There was also a not insignificant contribution from funds donated to the 1995 research effort by the General Motors Foundation to help invent a way to create collaborative robots (or similar devices), that is, machines that are safe enough to interact with humans without problems. Has it been successful?
You could say yes, because Cobotics, a company founded in 1997 by the two men mentioned above, has produced a pair of versions of collaborative robots used in the final assembly process of cars. It is known that the versions they invented were of the IFR Responsive Collaboration type, that is, the basis for the current system, better known as “Hand Guided Control,” through which the operator could control the machine’s operation. Curious? So let’s zoom in to more similar times.
First “serious” cooperative robot
Concepts of machines cooperating with humans in one space have certainly been around. Proof of this is the prototype produced by KUKA in 2004. This lightweight and computer-controlled LBR 3 model was the result of a collaboration with the German Aerospace Center. Interestingly, KUKA continues to improve its technology, releasing the KUKA LBR 4 in 2008 and the KUKA LBR iiwa five years later. Although the company released its first cobot in 2004, there were really no real robots on the market before 2008, as the real rash of them was yet to come.
Because the actual invention of functioning and compliant prototypes can be credited to three people who were part of a research team at the University of Southern Denmark. They included Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy and Kristian Kassow, who later became the founder of the Kassow Robots brand. The goal of the three men was to develop a lightweight collaborative robot that would work well in the manufacturing industry and offer a quick profit. This idea spawned Universal Robots in 2005, and three years later the first UR5 model, an arm that was a true, milestone-changing industry.
An industrial revolution
Before we zoom in on what the UR5 robot from Universal Robots was able to do, it’s worth saying first that this collaborative machine was able to work safely alongside humans, thereby removing the need for special fences and safety cages. This is very important in order to get a good understanding of the huge impact this had on the industry. This first model, weighing less than 19 kilograms, had as much as a 5-kilogram lifting capacity, an 850-millimeter reach, and had a graphical user interface. The arm was downright ideal for performing uncomplicated but repetitive tasks – even in small and medium-sized companies for which robotization had previously been inaccessible. The robot could be quickly deployed and programmed by almost anyone, for tasks such as packing, moving objects, or operating simple machines.
The modern worker
However, whether we are talking about new models of collaborative robots or precursors, each of them met a similar problem on their way – quite a lot of skepticism. Many plant managers needed (and need) some time to be convinced of the new solutions, of the need to implement them. With an increasingly narrow market of workers, improving working conditions, financial performance or optimizing the production process – moving in the direction of development is becoming a necessity. In many factories, robots have already become indispensable workers, whose absence (due to the performance of hard work) is already unimaginable from the human part of the workforce.
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>> Learn more about the history of industrial robots!
>> Learn more about the collaborative robots we deal with daily at Beboq Robotics. [link Kassow Robots u nas]