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How many engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb? At Wyoming Rapid Control Service Inc., the answer is zero. They have a “cobot” that can do it for them.
Meet Stretch, a seven-joint collaborative robot, also known as a cobot, that can make coffee, flip a burger, take an item off the shelf and pack it, shake a martini, weld a rivet, flip a switch or fill an order. . It is designed to replicate human motion and anyone can perform repetitive tasks – even tasks that involve multiple steps – as long as one knows how to demonstrate it.
“There is no such thing as programming. You should teach the cobot, says Vince Bonchik, sales engineer and assembly specialist for Quick Control. With Todd Stewart, Robotics Specialist, and Mitch Dennison, Operations Manager, Bonchik and his team demonstrated some of Stretch’s functionality in the company’s back office. The excitement was incredible.
The cobot was instructed to pick up a cup of coffee. Because the movement is fluid, it is tuned to be smooth, slow and steady. The same movement could have been done much faster, but that’s the beauty of the Cocobot. It is extremely versatile. Then they are instructed to pick up the pot and place it on the nearby table.
One way to teach a cobot is to make it grasp and release objects by moving it around and pressing buttons and other commands, like tapping on its head. If grip and release isn’t part of the job, from pneumatics to welding equipment and everything in between – Quick Control can fit any type of accessories customers need. Instructing a cobot to perform a task can be done by an ordinary person in minutes and in very simple ways: hand-based instructions.
The cobot speaks in a “Siri-esque” tone and has different spots on it that light up to indicate which mode it’s in. ), also, if it is equipped with a protective barrier, it can be dangerous for passengers for jobs that require fast movement. It has plenty of real-world applications, but don’t worry, sci-fi horror movie fans, one thing it doesn’t do is learn things on its own, become an observer, or control the world.
“It’s not AI[artificial intelligence]. He learns what they teach. Nothing more, nothing less. “This robot can’t do anything without human intervention,” said Stewart, who joined the Rapid Control team specifically because of the cobots after working in information technology and robotics for 35 years in New York City, Chicago and now in West Michigan. I come from a Tier One Epson Robot Industrial Distributor. Those are meant to work on their own, and you have to write code and program it. You have a security risk with this.
Stewart, who is new to the Rapid Control Group, sees huge potential for cobots in West Michigan, where the average robotics industry has seen 10 to 15% annual growth. In the year By 2021, 630,000 units have been shipped worldwide.
“We’re definitely targeting industrial producers. We see a huge potential with the MA and PA businesses, though; agricultural processing plants, areas that this company hasn’t looked at before. I think there’s a lot of potential in other markets as well.” Dennison said.
“Traditionally, we’ve been a supplier to the machine building business,” adds Dennison, listing a number of West Michigan clients that include companies in the metalworking, automotive and furniture manufacturing industries. The company’s clients range in size from “Fortune 1000 to the smallest tool and die, mom and pop,” Dennison said. “We see this[OB7 Stretch]as a tool for small businesses, not just factories.”
The company is ready to start filling orders and the lead time for the cobot is one to two weeks.
Quick Control is selling the OB7 Stretch at a price it estimates is equivalent to the annual salary of a minimum wage worker ($31,500) so that it can pay for itself in a short amount of time.
“The return on investment in a robotics solution varies from implementation to implementation, and ranges from six months to a year,” Dennison said. “Because it requires a relatively low investment in knowledge, it lowers that barrier to entry. People can do most of it at home, they’re up and running.”
A product line of productive robots is a natural solution to a market currently plagued by labor shortages and supply chain problems, he said. Companies faced with large orders due to supply chain gaps caused by the Covid-19 pandemic may soon be able to fill them without overtime pay or worker comp issues because the cobot doesn’t mind working 24-7.
Quick Control Group was quick to note that cobots are intended to perform repetitive tasks — jobs that West Michigan employers are finding hard to fill.
“The way it affects your work situation is to do menial jobs, menial jobs, mundane jobs that lead to job turnover,” Bonchik said.
“Most importantly, it’s not designed to replace workers, but to increase productivity,” Dennison added.
The OB7 Stretch is manufactured in Santa Barbara, California, by Manufacturing Robots – one of four 7-joint robots in the same product line, ranging from the 58-pound Stretch to the OB7-Max, 128 pounds and reach. More than 5 feet.
Rapid Control OB7 deployment will be shown at the Advanced Manufacturing Expo in Davos, August 11-12.