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As part of the Advanced Composites Project, which has a goal to improve “methods, tools, and protocols to reduce the development and certification timeline for composite materials and structures,” NASA is testing collaborative robots to perform quality inspections on aircraft fuselages.Each fuselage is inspected with infrared thermography, which requires moving heavy equipment around all surfaces to complete the inspection process. The Universal Robots UR10 was selected to replace the manua …

At the BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a collaborative robot was installed to apply insulation to doors. The first of 60, its human coworkers named it, or her, Charlotte. A similar story happened at the Johnson & Johnson plant where employees named their Universal Robots helper Clio. “The fact that the employees have named the robot says it all,” said a supplier to Johnson & Johnson. But what do these naming conventions really say about our relationship with collaborative robot …

SensoPart VISOR starter kits for Universal Robots are integrated with the “URCaps,” which is similar to an app that would be added to a smartphone to make peripheral devices seamlessly compatible. Short for “Universal Robots Capabilities,” this technology offers a plug and play option for vision and cameras now offered by SensoPart, available in several versions to meet needs from the most basic to those of high-tech labs. SensoPart offers the following explanation of its newest robotic vis …

Robots in the manufacturing environment are not new, so what is preventing some companies from adopting the latest collaborative robots? Some believe that this is primarily due to a basic lack of familiarity with the technology.Safety is a major issue that is cited by those who object to robotic assistance in manufacturing. This perception of robots may stem from the fact that historically robots have been secluded behind safety guarding and operated separately from workers. The idea that these …

Universal Robots are quick and flexible cobots - collaborative robots - able to operate without safety fencing after risk assessment is conducted. They save a lot of time and money at Etalex in Montreal, Canada, where a UR10 robot now handles pick and place tasks at a brake press. Installing a UR robot has freed up 7 man hours per day and has cut the price of production. All in all, Etalex has invested in 25 robots, resulting in a 40% increase in sales with no layoffs in staff. Challenge: Et …