Industry 4.0, smart factory, intelligent manufacturing; these all represent the paradigm shift that manufacturing is facing today. By the same token, it is widely recognised that there is a need for a more flexible and safer production environment and continuing product improvement through process automation. With inherent cost efficiencies, PSI and partners Hanwha present the collaborative robot or ‘cobot’.
The shift to small-batch production and the paramount need always, to protect the human workforce exposed to pollution and dangerous machinery, paves the way for a simple, responsive, easy to control robot. The collaborative robot or ‘cobot’ is so named because of how easily it integrates into a production process while being able to detect proximity to its fellow human beings; stopping short of any potential contact.