MACHINES

The High Price of Misusing Low-Cost Collaborative Robots

Potential dangers can arise when manufacturers use cobots for tasks that would be better performed by industrial robots.

By Josh Tuttle

Recently, a young boy at a chess tournament in Moscow was injured by a chess-playing robot – a dramatic warning of the potential dangers of collaborative robots. What should have been a fun, engaging experience with the machine instead became a very painful one for the child. Though this wasn’t an industrial robot, manufacturers who use robots should be taking note.

Industrial robots vs. cobots

Collaborative robots, also known as a cobots, are intended for direct human interaction within a shared space, but ironically, they often have different safety features than industrial robots, which work independently from humans. In actuality, the chess-playing robot, despite being used to interact and play games with humans, isn’t collaborative, in the traditional sense of the word, at all. Instead, if the machine had been safer, with features like additional sensors (i.e., power and force limiting devices) and an automatic brake release mechanism, this event could have been avoided.

Cobots don’t have the power and speed of industrial robots, but they are well-suited to slower, specialized work and can be safe — if they’re a quality unit that’s used correctly, and within the parameters of a proper risk assessment. But potential dangers can arise when manufacturers, intent on using cheaper units, instead use cobots for tasks that would be better performed by industrial robots, or when a proper risk assessment isn’t performed before using a cobot to attempt tasks for which it is not suited.

Unfortunately, as cobots have grown in popularity and availability — and some robot sellers have looked to make quick sales — proper integration has many times been abandoned so that cobots can be put to work more quickly.

Often, it’s less of a matter of negligence by companies buying and operating them and more an issue of proper education in how to comply with safety systems. In many

cases, machines that robotics and engineering students at U.S. colleges and universities have worked with previously are often cobots rather than industrial robots — and this can heavily influence their robot purchasing decisions after graduation. While these units are familiar to those just entering the workforce, when they are put into operation on the shop floor, they often cannot succeed in the tasks that they are designated to complete.

Safe robots pay for themselves

While it’s true that industrial robots can have larger upfront costs than cobots, they still deliver cost efficiencies and can pay for themselves over time. Moreover, it’s false economy to buy a cheaper cobot and, for example, recklessly strap a sander or welding gun to it.

To begin with, that could impact a company’s insurance eligibility. Insurance companies will often refuse to issue policies to businesses and organizations whose robotic systems fail to comply with regulations and industry best practice. Cobot-related safety incidents can also potentially result in worker injury or death, insurance claims being rejected, civil or criminal prosecution, and/or a manufacturer having to cease operations.

That’s why every robotic system should have a risk analysis performed.

The benefits of working with an integrator

A robotics integrator affiliated with the Robotic Industry Association (RIA) can help a manufacturer choose the right robot for a task and perform a risk assessment to ensure the robot will meet RIA standards for collaborative and non-collaborative systems.

Among the best practices eLearning educator LabMidwest recommends for workplace standards include: » Fencing off robots — with a fence height of at least six feet » Extra sensors » Walk-through safety beams » Emergency stop buttons » Safety mats that stop a robot when someone is standing, or not standing, on the mat as designed » Sensing scanners that know where humans are in certain areas

These measures can be a sizable investment, perhaps as high as $15,000 for a robot that sells in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, but the insurance costs, legal liability, potential for shutdown of operations, and most importantly, the risk of injury or death to humans is not worth the associated risk.

Final thoughts

Fortunately, the Russian child referenced earlier in this article was able to return later in the chess tournament and finish play but every incident involving unsafe robots and humans will not have as lucky an ending.

Companies that skirt safety are engaging in a perilous venture that often ends in bigger costs than if they had just purchased the right robot, worked with the right collaborator, and integrated both their machine and practices the right way early in the operational process.

It’s the right — and safer — thing to do. And, in the end, it will cost you far less time, energy and money.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Josh Tuttle is a business development manager at Aerobotix, an innovative leader in robotic solutions for the aerospace and defense industries. Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, the company specializes in the creation of cutting-edge automated robotic solutions for high-value, high-precision components, aircraft and vehicles.

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