Today's smart industry has mostly low-volume, high-mix, high-complexity production that requires flexible and intelligent automation. This requires a robot that can safely collaborate with people, is quick to set up and is completely integrated into the control of the production process. That is the connected collaborative robot, or cobot for short. Innovatiecluster Drachten (ICD) set up a CCR project for it in 2017.
Several companies explored the applications of cobots and AIVs (autonomous intelligent vehicles that navigate between employees on the shop floor, which are actually a type of cobot as well). Early this year, the follow-up project, CCR 2.0, began. In it, six ICD members (BD, Neopost, Photonis, Resato, Variass and Ventura) are working together with two northern colleges (Hanze and NHL Stenden).
Safety first
The goal is twofold, explains Joost Krebbekx, program manager of ICD. ‘We want to ‘cobotize’ a variety of processes, where safe cooperation with people is paramount. You already see cobots widely used for pick-and-place tasks, but we are extending it to processes such as soldering, screwing, kitting and assembly. I think that we as the Northern Netherlands are leading the way with this. In addition, one of the companies is also looking at using cobots in its end products. Secondly, we want to connect the cobots with factory controls.’
changeover
One enthusiastic CCR participant is Variass, a system supplier and EMS (electronic manufacturing services) specialist that develops and produces electronic and mechatronic solutions in Veendam and Drachten. The company already uses cobots, among other things, for soldering in the assembly of electronics, says Jan Betten, head of Variass Development Support (VDE). ‘In CCR 1.0, we learned how to make the cobot function as part of the factory and how to keep it safe. And we learned to understand the business case. We are slowly moving toward the production of unique products, single-piece flow, and that means frequent changeovers. With traditional industrial robots, that takes a lot of time. We want to reduce that changeover time, be able to have the changeover done by lower-skilled personnel and - the ultimate goal - have a robot changeover itself. For the assembly of electronics, this means, for example, that the robot can teach itself about different printed circuit boards and the solder joints it must make on them.’ For Variass, the approach of CCR 2.0 is therefore that the robot must be connected to the factory. It must be able to read CAD/CAM drawings and be connected to the ERP and MES systems. ‘From ERP the robot receives its work instructions and in MES we can read the status of orders the robot executes and the robot's occupancy.’
Valuation
In the CCR project, Jan Betten appreciates the cooperation with the ICD partners mainly because they are working with completely different processes and sometimes already have a lot of experience with robots. Moreover, they look at certain issues in a different way. ‘As participating companies, we organize meetings where we exchange knowledge about complex topics, such as grippers, vision, deep learning, et cetera. Together we also get easier access to knowledge institutions and suppliers, who are happy to give presentations to several companies at the same time. The colleges are good at robot and sensor technology and vision.’
The colleges contribute their expertise, but in CCR it is still mainly the companies that learn from each other, Krebbekx agrees. ‘Early next year we are going to exchange experiences with companies at Brainport Industries Campus in Eindhoven.’
This article was published in LINK Magazine of October 2019