What is the market demand for collaborative robots?

Traditional robots can operate independently in a working environment without human intervention. Thus, safety in the presence of humans is not a crucial aspect in the development of traditional robots. Generally, fences are used to separate robots from humans.

With the rise in labor costs, many industries that previously never or rarely used robots are seeking robotic automation solutions, such as the 3C, pharmaceutical, food, and logistics industries. These emerging industries are characterized by a wide variety of products, generally small in size, and have high requirements for operator flexibility. Under cost - controllable conditions, traditional robots find it difficult to provide satisfactory performance solutions. Therefore, the combination of humans and robots naturally comes to mind.

Humans are responsible for processes that require high flexibility, tactile sense, and dexterity, while robots, with their speed and accuracy, are responsible for repetitive tasks. However, if the two are to cooperate, the fence between them is too inconvenient. At this point, it is necessary to ensure that robots and humans can work safely in the same area, that is, robots are required to have the characteristic of safe cooperation.

The advantages of collaborative robots can be summarized as: safety, low cost, and ease of use. In most cases, they can be used immediately upon connection, which is highly suitable for the needs of small and medium - sized enterprises. However, collaborative robots are not omnipotent. It is just a new sub - category in the existing robot product line. It has many advantages that traditional robots cannot match, but also has many disadvantages. For example, in order to reduce losses caused by collisions, the speed and weight of the robot must be limited within a certain range. Therefore, collaborative robots generally have a slow speed, low load capacity, and the stiffness due to low gravity is far inferior to that of traditional robots. The repeat positioning accuracy is one order of magnitude lower than that of traditional general - purpose robots.

Essentially, collaborative robots are not much different from traditional robots; they are just industrial robot products based on different market positions. Or perhaps they are not the same thing. In a traditional robot production line, robots, as part of the entire production line, are difficult to be taken out separately. If a robot in a certain link malfunctions, it may cause the entire production line to shut down without a backup design. However, collaborative robots are highly independent. They can replace humans, and the two are interchangeable. If a collaborative robot breaks down, it is advisable to move it away and find a person to replace it. The flexibility of the entire production process is very high.

At present, the market demand for collaborative robots is not very high, and they are mainly used by some large high - tech or manufacturing enterprises. Of course, considering the continuous development of technology, in the future, we may see many small and medium - sized enterprises using collaborative robots.