What are the advantages of collaborative robots?

Safety: When robots interact with humans, ensuring human safety is a must. Collision detection is a crucial cooperative function that robots need to implement, serving as a prerequisite for human - robot collaboration. In 2016, the International Organization for Standardization issued the ISO/TS 15066 standard, which categorizes the safety of collaborative robots into four aspects: safety - level monitoring, manual teaching, power and force limitation, and speed and separation monitoring.

Traditional industrial robots usually operate within protective fences or other safeguarding measures. In contrast, collaborative robots can work directly with operators on the same production line without the need for safety fences to separate people, thus bridging the gap between fully manual and fully automated production modes. Traditional robots also have collision - detection functions, but the purpose of their collision detection is generally to reduce the impact of collision forces on the robot itself and avoid damage to the robot or its surroundings. The role of collision detection in collaborative robots is to address the issue of human - robot cooperation. This is achieved through force - sensitive skins, joint torque sensors, current - estimated force - feedback models, etc. In terms of implementation, the setting of collision forces must be reflected to meet the flexible force settings in different environments.

Easy to learn: The most straightforward way to use it is by dragging. Many enterprises have introduced graphical programming interfaces through the optimization of robot programming languages. The principle of drag - teaching is to utilize the robot's dynamic model. The controller calculates in real - time the torque required when the robot is dragged, and then supplies this torque to the motor, enabling the robot to assist the operator in dragging effectively. The calculation formula includes terms for inertial force, Coriolis force and centrifugal force, gravity, and friction. Depending on the selected friction model, it can be decomposed into viscous friction terms, Coulomb friction terms, and compensation. The calculation of friction is a relatively complex mathematical model. Based on the current technological implementation, there are sensing compensation technologies; optimized model calculations based on external force sensor feedback, and calculations of elastic device expansion and contraction models. Each robot company has unique advantages in this step, enabling the realization of gravity - free drag - teaching functions.

Low cost: Currently, the average price of a collaborative robot body is approximately 130,500 yuan, and it is expected to drop to 88,000 yuan by 2022. Compared with general industrial robots, it has a significant price advantage.

Flexibility: Collaborative robots are lightweight, can adapt to different mobile scenarios, and are easy to install. Their product installation and mobile deployment are relatively flexible.

In order to reduce the kinetic energy during robot movement, collaborative robots are generally lightweight and have a relatively simple structure, which results in a lack of rigidity in the entire robot. Their working range is comparable to that of a human arm, but their positioning accuracy is inferior to that of traditional robots.