In the beginning, there were industrial robots. Enormous, fenced, doing repetitive tasks in large manufacturing companies.
The rise of the collaborative robot, a Danish invention, has ushered in a new era for automation and manufacturing, with new opportunities and new challenges.
Collaborative robots, or cobots, has made it profitable to automate even small product series, due to the low initial investment and the high flexibility of the cobots. On the other hand, cobots are challenging safety guidelines and instructions in many manufacturing companies: how do we avoid accidents when employees and robots interact physically and work side by side?
The opportunities and the challenges with cobots were in focus at MADE Open Lab at Danish Technological Institute in Odense. Leading companies and researchers within robotics were among the speakers and exhibitors at the event.
