Industrial automation and robot suppliers ABB and Kawasaki are making cobots their focus in a new collaboration.
The two companies will also focus on creating common industry approaches to safety, programming, and communications as they discuss the future of collaborative robots (cobots), in particular those with dual-arm designs.
Under the new co-operation, which is believed to be the first globally to focus on ‘cobots,’ both robot makers will continue independently manufacturing and marketing their own offerings while working together on joint technical and awareness opportunities.
This includes educating policy makers, NGOs and the general public about the benefits of collaborative automation, and creating common industry approaches to safety, programming and communications.
Production in many industries has shifted from larger lots with little variation to low volumes with a high mix.
This means more variability and more human intervention.
Collaborative automation allows people and robots to each contribute their unique strengths – people offer process knowledge, insight and improvisation for change, while robots offer tireless endurance for repetitive tasks.
ABB has claims to "the world's first collaborative robot", called the YuMi dual-arm robot.
Kawasaki has also developed a Dual-Arm SCARA Robot called “duAro”.
