While there are many ways in which production processes can be automated, the best way to introduce automation into your SME is by starting small and simple, and build up your expertise as you go.
Tasks that are highly repetitive, predictable and structured are the easiest to automate with a collaborative robot.
Here's an overview to get you thinking:
Easy to automate
- Repetitive tasks not requiring the robot to apply force
- Pick and place
- Dispensing
- Part presentation
- Little part changeover or changeover among similar parts
- Always picked in the same place
- Ordered parts and workpieces
- If many parts, structured in a matrix or tray
- Part drop-off
- Always dropped in the same place
Harder to automate
- Complex logic or decision making
- Sensors
- Vision
- Force torque sensor
- Parts
- High changeover rates of parts with divergent properties (size, shape)
- Deformable parts
- Part presentation
- Moving conveyors
- Unstructured presentation (bins)
- Integrating communication with other machines
- Force controlled processes
- Grinding
- Polishing
- Drilling
- Fine assembly
- Processes requiring specialized tools or human know-how
Want to know more? Subscribe to our 5-part email series on Getting Started with Collaborative Robots. You'll learn how to go from the idea of automation, to having a real plan, to integrating your first robotic project.