什么是协作机器人？

作者：罗杰·马勒
我第一次接触机器人是在高中；在 80 年代中期，我们的工艺美术老师购买了一个 2 轴气动机器人套件。它由机加工铝板制成，由 Apple IIe 计算机发射的空气螺线管控制。可用的动作是轴 0（基础）水平旋转 0 度硬停止或 180 度旋转硬停止，轴 2 延伸或缩回 90 度垂直旋转。它有一个夹爪，钳口宽约一英寸，深约一英寸。
他们用大约 2 英寸 x 2 英寸见方、½ 英寸厚和 3 英寸长 1 /8” 定位销从中心伸出来操作机器人。机器人移动不是很顺畅，通常气缸会卡住或气压会发生变化，导致机器人旋转缓慢或启动缓慢，并在关节到达行程终点时加速突然停止，有时会导致其有效载荷挣脱抓手并在教室地板上航行。这在当时非常酷，看起来很有趣，但与今天的标准相比技术含量很低。
Sure Controls 不断发展并提供最好的产品线。虽然 Sawyer 已成为我们历史的一部分，但协作机器人的未来属于 Omron 和 Precise 等公司。
什么是协作机器人？如果您在互联网上查找协作机器人，就会发现它有一些变体。协作的字面定义是与某人合作生产或创造某物的行为， 这就是协作机器人的确切目的。大多数人会认为协作机器人是一种可以在没有围栏的情况下使用并且可以在人类周围工作的机器人。好吧，是的，这使它具有协作性，但不，它并不能使其成为协作机器人。
协作机器人有多种类型，只有一种类型的协作机器人可以在没有任何额外安全功能的情况下使用，这是独一无二的.这种类型的特点是电源和 力限制，它可以与人类一起工作，无需任何额外的安全装置。机器人可以感觉到其路径中的异常力。事实上，它被编程为在读取力过载时停止。这些机器人还设计用于在宽表面受到冲击时分散力，这也是机器人更圆的原因之一。这些机器人的主要特征是它们能够读取关节中的力。这使他们能够检测到在他们工作时何时对他们施加了异常的力。在这些情况下，可以对它们进行编程以停止或有时反转位置以减轻初始接触。 This means they can respond immediately if they come into contact with a human and even dissipate some of the energy transferred from the impact.
A cobot’s arm “gives” when it encounters an obstruction it will pause and then proceed to continue its task. If it encounters an obstruction again within a short period of time, it will stop and put up an error notification and wait for an acknowledgment. Another interesting feature, hand guiding, allows you to “train” the robot for a task vs. programming through a complicated language. In fact, since these robots can feel forces, you can literally move them and show them positions or paths that they can repeat afterward. While hand guiding helps with human-robot collaboration and ease of deployment it does not make the robot intrinsically safe. The force limiting features mechanically designed into the system with patented force sensors do this.
Economically a force-limited robot is ideal because of its easy programming and integration. When you think about it, no need for fencing or other safety devices, (however a risk assessment should be performed) the programming time is reduced because of hand guiding. You don’t need to change your production line since it is made to work alongside humans. Manufacturing robots used to be limited to high speed, high cost, and hard-guarded applications separating the machine/industrial robots from the operators. This focused deployment on high-volume applications. Today smaller companies with multiple short-run processes can utilize these easy to deploy robots, and move them from task to task as needed.
We also see a collaborative robot as interacting with its human counterparts on the line – by being simple enough for non-engineers to train it by hand, communicating its understanding of the task, illustrating where it’s going next, and other behaviors that help make it just another coworker/Cobot on the line. These solutions allow for companies to keep and grow existing employees providing them opportunities to grow within the company as the collaborative robots are deployed as a tool that automates many tasks companies are struggling to find people to perform.