In offices, robots have in fact been around for decades. These machines bear little similarity to their counterparts that you see in movies, typically taking the shape of heavyweight arms which perform jobs like painting, welding, or assembly.
However, technological improvements have started to permit for diversity of robots in various areas at work.
Now, along with conventional industrial robots, we have got professional support robots, collaborative robots that operate side by side with employees, along with mobile autonomous robots at a vast selection of businesses and industries. Their interactivity may sometimes complicate the job of ensuring the human co-workers are safe while the robots perform their tasks.
Kinds of robots
Here are a few different kinds of robots likely to be seen in workplace settings:
Collaborative robot: Robots that were designed with the intent to work alongside humans.
Service robot: A robot which performs commercial jobs outside industrial automation software. By way of instance, a robot used in firefighting, delivery, cleaning, or operation.
Mobile robot: Robots that travel under their own will.
Industrial robot: Robots that are programmable and are used in place of a person to perform dangerous or repetitive tasks with a high degree of accuracy.
New functions for robots
Within this capacity systems provide employees, that are human, security benefits. Robots can assist in preventing accidents or adverse health consequences caused by working in hazardous conditions. They are also able to prevent several dangers in crisis response situations like chemical spills.
Robots can minimize dangers coming from mistakes that humans can make because of our natural limitations. For example, humans can get tired and end up making a mistake, whereas a robot can continuously do the same tasks repetitively with great efficiency.
Next-generation robots can execute a wide variety of jobs, but their capacity to operate with people in proximity generates a wide range of applications. Interactions between people and collaborative robots may entail handing off materials and parts, or the employee teaching the robot by directing it through a desirable movement, which the robot subsequently reproduces.
A robot is known as "collaborative" if its layout incorporates built-in defenses that let it interact with people.
Employers are only starting to explore the possibilities for partnerships that are tactical. Collaborative robot techniques permit partially automated jobs in which the human and robot can use their strengths to create the best impact. You have got the power, endurance, precision and repeatability of the robot and you also benefit from the sensitivity and flexibility of individual contact, in addition to human imagination.
On occasion, jobs left vacant by employees are currently being filled by robots. Most of these tasks are repetitive and considered dull, things nobody wishes to do, even if you were to pay them a fair wage.
Evolving safety criteria
The International Organization for Standardization requires collaborative robots to use at least one of four safety measures (TS 15066):
Safety rated monitored stop
Hand Guiding
Speed and separation monitoring
Power and force limiting
Since their debut industrial robots have been built to function at a distance out of the employee’s way, and for good reason. These machines lack the capacities essential to discover people that are neighboring and pose various dangers.
Usually, these robots are restricted from having high payload they could carry and at the quantity of force they can exert if they were to impact someone by accident. Additionally, the power/force-limited robots are normally designed with curved edges and thicker surfaces which decrease the danger of harm if contact were to happen.
What happens when fences and cages are needed because the robots are made to be interactive, or portable? Well now with IOT (Internet Of Things) evolving and technologies increasing there are several companies such as Leuze who provide safety sensors capable of dozens of applications to keep employees safe as they approach a robot workspace. Vanguard Vision provides this type of equipment to its partners to help them with their robotics and safety sensor needs.
Building security
Now more security measures are built into the design since robots are meant to coexist in workspaces alongside people. Despite these protections that are inherent, robots that are collaborative still pose dangers.
The manufacturer has control over the robot's layout but not the way it is configured (a robot arm from one manufacturer may be put together with an end effector from a different company), used or programmed.
It is extremely important to differentiate between the collaborative robot along with the collaborative robot software. The power/force-limited robot arm can be incorporated into a system that is not suitable for collaborative use. However soft or round the robot arm is, even if its end effector or its function piece is eloquent, an individual could nevertheless be hurt.
The surroundings each robot is put in and the tasks it performs can pose danger depending on the application. Which is why companies must evaluate the risks and set up the workplace in a way that both humans and robots can work safely and be as productive as possible.
Risk evaluations are crucial to productive and secure implementations and should also be a requirement for security standards. Risk assessments should be performed prior to, during and after installation. Smaller companies work with an integrator, and other businesses might have their integration groups in-house. Either way risks evaluations should be taken seriously since it is a company’s obligation to make sure any new installations do not pose any initial threats to employees.
Conclusion
It is very important to show employees how a robot may benefit task quality or their security. Companies must involve their employees and make them aware of the benefits that come with introducing robots into the organization. The goal should be to have robots and humans work together so that better opportunities are presented to humans through the results accomplished through the human-robot relationship.
Comments