Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-09T00:51:02.482Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WHEN IS A ROBOT A COBOT? MOVING BEYOND MANUFACTURING AND ARM-BASED COBOT MANIPULATORS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Matthias Guertler ,
Laura Tomidei ,
Nathalie Sick ,
Marc Carmichael ,
Gavin Paul ,
Annika Wambsganss ,
Victor Hernandez Moreno  and
Sazzad Hussain
Matthias Guertler*
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney: Centre for Advanced Manufacturing
Laura Tomidei
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney: Centre for Advanced Manufacturing
Nathalie Sick
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney: Centre for Advanced Manufacturing
Marc Carmichael
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney: Robotics Institute
Gavin Paul
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney: Robotics Institute
Annika Wambsganss
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney: Centre for Advanced Manufacturing
Victor Hernandez Moreno
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney: Centre for Advanced Manufacturing
Sazzad Hussain
Affiliation:
Centre for Work Health and Safety, NSW Department of Customer Service
*
Guertler, Matthias, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, matthias.guertler@uts.edu.au

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Collaborative robots (“cobots”) have attracted growing attention in academia and industry over the last years. Due to in-built safety features and easy programming, they allow for close human-cobot collaboration and support e.g. flexible manufacturing. However, the lack of a common understanding what a cobot is along with its traditional focus on arm-based cobots complicates further research and industry adoption. Thus, this paper analyses the variety of definitions in literature incl. standards and practice examples to derive a consistent and holistic definition and taxonomy of what a collaborative robot is. Aside from contributing a structured overview of various forms of human-robot collaboration, this builds an important foundation for future research as it systematically differentiates different cobot types. Companies and other organisations will benefit by a better understanding of what type of cobot they need and how to ensure safe collaboration.

Keywords

TechnologyDesign engineeringIndustry 4.0Collaborative Robotic
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 3889 - 3898
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

Adriaensen, A., Costantino, F., Di Gravio, G. and Patriarca, R. (2022) ‘Teaming with industrial cobots: A socio-technical perspective on safety analysis’, Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 173–198. http://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20939CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BS 8611:2016: Robots and robotic devices. Guide to the ethical design and application of robots and robotic systems: British Standards Institutions.Google Scholar
Buchert, J.-M. (2021) What are the different applications of collaborative robots? [Online], Man+Machines. Available at https://manplusmachines.com/cobot-applications/ (Accessed 7 November 2022)Google Scholar
Cambridge Dictionary (2022) Robot [Online]. Available at https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/robot (Accessed 19 October 2022)Google Scholar
Carmichael, M. G., Aldini, S., Khonasty, R., Tran, A., Reeks, C., Liu, D., Waldron, K. J. and Dissanayake, G. (2019) ‘The ANBOT: An Intelligent Robotic Co-worker for Industrial Abrasive Blasting’, 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). Macau, China, 03/11/2019 - 08/11/2019, IEEE, pp. 8026–8033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colgate, E. J., Wannasuphoprasit, W. and Peshkin, M. A. (1996) ‘Cobots: Robots for collaboration with human operators’, Proceedings of the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exhibition, Atlanta, DSC-Vol. 58, pp. 433–439.Google Scholar
Dachs, B., Kinkel, S. and Jäger, A. (2019) ‘Bringing it all back home? Backshoring of manufacturing activities and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies’, Journal of World Business, vol. 54, no. 6, p. 101017. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2019.101017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djuric, A. M., Urbanic, R. J. and Rickli, J. L. (2016) ‘A Framework for Collaborative Robot (CoBot) Integration in Advanced Manufacturing Systems’, SAE International Journal of Materials and Manufacturing, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 457–464. http://doi.org/10.4271/2016-01-0337CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EN ISO 10218-1:2011 10218-1: Robots and robotic devices - Safety requirements for industrial robots - Part 1: Robots (ISO 10218-1:2011)Google Scholar
European Commission (2018) Cobots (collaborative robots). ISBN: 978-92-79-90928-3Google Scholar
Guizzo, E. (2018) IEEE Robots: What Is a Robot?: Top roboticists explain their definition of robot [Online], IEEE Robots. Available at https://robots.ieee.org/learn/what-is-a-robot (Accessed 19 October 2022)Google Scholar
Haddadin, S. and Croft, E. (2016) ‘Physical Human–Robot Interaction’, in Siciliano, B. and Khatib, O. (eds) Springer Handbook of Robotics, Cham, Springer International Publishing, pp. 1835–1874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hohenstein, N.-O. (2022) ‘Supply chain risk management in the COVID-19 pandemic: strategies and empirical lessons for improving global logistics service providers’ performance’, The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 1336–1365. http://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-02-2021-0109CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ISO 10218-2:2011: Robots and robotic devices - Safety requirements for industrial robots - Part 2: Robot systems and integrationGoogle Scholar
ISO/TS 15066:2016 (2016): Robots and robotic devices - Collaborative robotsGoogle Scholar
Kopp, T., Baumgartner, M. and Kinkel, S. (2021) ‘Success factors for introducing industrial human-robot interaction in practice: an empirically driven framework’, The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 112, 3-4, pp. 685–704. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-06398-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasi, H., Fettke, P., Kemper, H.-G., Feld, T. and Hoffmann, M. (2014) ‘Industry 4.0’, Business & Information Systems Engineering, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 239–242. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-014-0334-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marr, B. (2022) The Best Examples Of Human And Robot Collaboration [Online], Forbes. Available at www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/08/10/the-best-examples-of-human-and-robot-collaboration/?sh=4e85fa171fc4 (Accessed 7 November 2022)Google Scholar
Merriam-Webster (2022) Definition of a robot [Online], Merriam-Webster. Available at www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/robot (Accessed 19 October 2022)Google Scholar
Mueller, R., Vette, M. and Mailahn, O. (2016) ‘Process-oriented task assignment for assembly processes with human-robot interaction’, Procedia CIRP, 6th CIRP Conference on Assembly Technologies and Systems (CATS), no. 44, pp. 210–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peshkin, M. A. and Colgate, E. J. (1999) ‘Cobots’, Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 335–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schunkert, A. and Ryll, C. (2022) Kollaborative Roboterapplikationen: Von der Idee bis zur Integration [Online], München, Hanser. Available at www.hanser-elibrary.com/doi/book/10.3139/9783446465404Google Scholar
Siciliano, B. and Khatib, O. (eds) (2016) Springer Handbook of Robotics, Cham, Springer International PublishingCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vicentini, F. (2020) ‘Terminology in safety of collaborative robotics’, Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, vol. 63, p. 101921. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcim.2019.101921CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vysocky, A. and Novak, P. (2016) ‘Human-robot collaboration in industry’, MM Science Journal, vol. 2016, no. 02, pp. 903–906. http://doi.org/10.17973/MMSJ.2016_06_201611CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wirtz, J., Patterson, P. G., Kunz, W. H., Gruber, T., Lu, V. N., Paluch, S. and Martins, A. (2018) ‘Brave new world: service robots in the frontline’, Journal of Service Management, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 907–931. http://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-04-2018-0119CrossRefGoogle Scholar