Before we define collaborative robots, let's first look at a term: Collaborative workspace, which refers to an area where robots and humans can work together. By collaborative robots, we mean robots designed to directly interact with humans within such a collaborative area. Collaborative robots that are easy to use, flexible, and safe are more suitable for the diverse production needs of small and medium - sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as global enterprises. This has become the main trend in the development of industrial robots.
Essentially, collaborative robots are still industrial robots at their core, not entirely new products, but rather have a different positioning. In simple terms, traditional industrial robots place more emphasis on precision and speed, while collaborative robots focus on safe co - existence with humans and ease of operation.
The deployment cost of traditional robots is high. Current industrial robots are mainly responsible for repetitive tasks in factories and have extremely high requirements for repeatable positioning accuracy, relying on a fixed external environment. To ensure this, apart from the design requirements of the robot itself, the products to be processed need to be clamped in a fixed position, enabling the robot to reach the same place each time and accurately pick up or perform a certain operation. This requires a large amount of resources, a great deal of valuable workshop space, and months of implementation time. At the same time, traditional robots are difficult to use. Only trained professionals can proficiently configure, program, and maintain the robots, and ordinary users rarely possess such capabilities.
Industry statistics show that the overall cost of robot deployment is approximately three to four times the price of the robot. In recent years, with the increase in domestic integrators and the increasingly fierce competition, the overall price has decreased, but it is still basically two to three times. In short, a single robot cannot be directly used on the factory production line; it also requires the support of many peripheral devices. Although the robot itself is a highly flexible device, the entire production line is not. Once changes to the production line are involved, the cost is extremely high.
A new car generally has a lifespan from market launch to withdrawal of three to six years. During this period, if there are any changes, they are usually only for appearance and interior refinements, and these changes generally do not affect the work of the robot (such as body welding, painting, and handling of the main parts). Therefore, during the entire life cycle of the robot, there is basically no need to move or redeploy the robot on the completed production line, and only normal maintenance is required. This takes advantage of the strengths of traditional robots while avoiding their weaknesses.
However, SMEs are different. Their products generally feature small - batch production, customization, and short production cycles. They do not have a large amount of capital for large - scale production line renovations and are more sensitive to the return on investment (ROI) of their products. This requires robots to meet conditions such as low overall cost, fast deployment and redeployment capabilities, and simple operation methods, which are difficult for traditional robots to satisfy. In addition, the 3C industry, a typical emerging industry, even large enterprises in this industry face the same problems as SMEs.
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