collaborative robots

Due to the higher customization of products to customer groups and needs, body-in-white manufacturing industries are facing higher variant assembly at the later stages of the production line, thus increasing production costs per unit. Flexible production processes that involve flexible material flows, non-rigid manufacturing sequences, and the automatic reconfiguration of tools are regarded as the pillars of a resilient production system. This article presents a conceptual solution for flexible Body-in-White sheet metal production with autonomous collaborative robotic systems to make product costs affordable for a higher competitive advantage.

Warehousing is a very labor- and cost-intensive task in many companies. Digitization and automation of manual warehouse processes can increase efficiency, reduce costs and relieve employees. Collaborative robots that share work tasks with employees are increasingly used in warehouses. However, the pure techno-centric use of such robots can negatively influence the acceptance of human-robot collaboration. Various influences such as fear of job loss, higher cognitive stress, expected extra effort, or concerns about injuries can hinder human-robot collaboration and negatively impact economic benefits. This paper presents possible barriers to the acceptance of collaborative robotics in warehouses and discusses recommended actions for human-centered, sustainable human-robot collaboration.

Collaborative robots (so-called cobots) enable human-robot collaboration without security fences and are regarded as a promising future technology for manufacturing companies. However, actual market penetration has fallen behind estimations in recent years. A lack of market transparency makes it difficult to identify current barriers, development trends and the potential of cobots in practice. Will this technology become a game-changer or turn out to be a mere hype topic without significant impact on production practice? In this article, we present findings from an empirical market analysis based on secondary data and qualitative interviews with German market experts from business and academia.