What marked a significant change in the manufacturing and production process of an industry, was Industrial Revolution. And what could be now termed as a neo-industrial revolution would be the inclusion of robots in such processes.
Universal Robots, a Danish robot manufacturer and innovator in collaborative robotic technology launched its operations in India on February 18, 2016. Termed as co-bots, these robots are designed to work with humans and to assist them in various tasks.
“Our collaborative robots help ease out processes in task driven industries like manufacturing, assembly and food processing. They work alongside their human co-workers to optimize and automate time consuming, repetitive and physically challenging activities in production flow”, said Esben Østergaard, Chief Technology officer, Universal Robots.
These co-bots or collaborative robot arms are simple, flexible and easy to deal with. The arms are named UR3, UR5 and UR10 indicating their payload handling capacity in kilos. These robots do not come with huge transformers or power supply. It uses a one-phase power supply that just needs to be in plugged in.
On being asked as to how will Indian SMEs benefit from a product hitherto alien to them, Pradeep David, General Manager for Universal Robots (India) said, “These co-bots are relatively easy to install and move in production lines. Moreover, with the kind of growth trajectory that Indian SMEs are following, such an instrument can deliver higher level of output. Suppose a product were to have a problem in its alignment or an engineer was delayed due to traffic, a co-bot if not fully, can atleast take care of the process.”
Universal Robots are currently employed in areas such as Bartending, Neurosurgery, manufacturing, Physiotherapy and even as chef’s assistants.
In a country like India, which has rampant unemployment, a product like this might increase that percentage even more. To put this apprehension at ease, the co-bots cannot replace human beings entirely. These robots cannot work without a human. And introducing this technology to India, will not only increase industrial output, but shall also educate the Indian workers with the upcoming technology.
The co-bots are designed to assist and not a replace human labour.
Founded in 2005, Universal Robots have sold over 7000 collaborative robots and ranked 25 on MIT Technology Review’s 2015 list of smartest companies.
If co-bots were to step in the Indian market, one can hope for a day when everybody will have a co-bot chhotu or a co-bot kaka for domestic help as well.
Source: financialexpress.com
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