The A to Z guide of robot technology for beginners: M to P
11 December 2018
In the latest instalment of ABB’s A to Z blog, covering M to P, they discuss how British manufacturers could be making good with new technology rather than making do with what they have; creating national goals to prepare Britain for the future; and how offline programming and increased precision can boost productivity.
The explosive pace of technological change has made the potential of technology to change our working lives a topic of public debate, particularly when it comes to the use of robotic automation.
In 2017, market research consultancy Opinium and the cross-party think tank Demos conducted research amongst 2,000 British adults to discover public attitudes towards technology and its impact on the future. The study found that while 50 percent of UK adults are optimistic about technology and the benefits it could bring, 35 percent believe their job is at risk from the “next wave of technological innovation” which includes artificial intelligence and automation.
With UK manufacturing companies under increasing pressure to become productive and keep pace with overseas competitors, it is important that technology providers, automation suppliers, educational institutions and the Government work together to change the attitudes of UK workers by addressing the challenges and concerns that the future of technology may bring.
M is for Making good
Back in 2013, the All Party Parliamentary Manufacturing Group published a report called “Making Good”, examining the rate of take-up of new production technologies in the UK and comparing it to other countries around the world.
The result of extensive conversations with UK companies, particularly SMES, the report identified an abiding culture driven by achieving short-term goals and savings, with many companies retaining outdated production equipment rather than investing in the latest technologies. The report concluded that this focus on ‘make do and mend’ rather than ‘make more and spend’ was impairing the UK’s ability to keep pace with its global competitors.
Fast forward five years and the picture is slightly more encouraging, with a growing number of companies now reportedly investing in automation. One driving factor behind this is the prospect of labour shortages caused by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, which is already starting to have an impact on the availability of workers in certain sectors, with companies finding it harder to recruit workers from Eastern Europe.
That investment in automation is starting to increase in the UK is evidenced by the rise in the number of robots being shipped to the UK during 2018, with 2,400 new units predicted to be in place by the end of this year compared to 1,787 in 2016, according to the latest set of statistics from the International federation of Robotics (IFR).
A look at the number of robots set to be installed in Germany (22,500), France (5,200), Italy (9,000) and Spain (4,700) shows that the UK must raise its game considerably if it wants to keep pace with its European competitors, not to mention China, where 165,000 robots are predicted to be installed in 2018.
Overcoming the ‘make do and mend’ mentality means that UK companies need to look for ways to deploy the latest production technologies in their processes. In some cases, this might even mean replacing older and/or outdated robots with the latest models to take advantage of developments in areas such as improved software options or programming.
One example of this is Northampton-based specialist shoe manufacturer, DB Shoes, which had been using two 20-year old robots as part of its manufacturing process. The robots, supplied by another robot manufacturer, were used to scrub the sides of the leather uppers on its shoes prior to them being joined to the polyurethane soles through a moulding process.
When the company wanted to adapt its process to handle a wider variety of shoe designs, it found that the robots lacked the necessary flexibility, with the controller unable to accommodate the range of extra programs needed.
After contacting Bedfordshire-based ABB Authorised Value Provider, Premier Automation, David Denton, Managing Director for DB Shoes, was recommended a solution utilising two ABB six-axis robots. Utilising the latest control technology, the two new robots have more than enough memory to accommodate all 210 of the company’s production programs, with the ability to handle more if required.
Since the robots were installed in December 2017, they have worked perfectly, enabling DB Shoes to produce around 300 pairs of shoes each day, with the potential to handle 700 if required. For David, a key benefit of the robots is their ability to be quickly switched between any program in the company’s full shoe range.
Overall, David is very pleased with the new robot cells, which are well on course to offer a payback on investment within three years. “With 60 percent of our sales coming from our online business to business and business to consumer retailing activities, we need to be able to offer the broadest range of shoes and deliver them quickly without compromising our quality standards,” he says. “Thanks to the expanded capabilities of the robots, we are able to offer the sort of production performance and turnaround that you’d expect from a much larger operation.”
N is for National goals
Last year the Government published its long-awaited Industrial Strategy white paper, focusing on how to prepare and equip Britain’s industrial sector for the future. The wide-ranging document looks at a number of areas, including how technology is likely to impact on our working lives and how it can be deployed to meet the Government’s ‘Grand Challenges’ to put the UK at the forefront of the artificial intelligence and data revolution.
The white paper includes a recent study which found digital and advanced technologies, created a net total of 80,000 jobs annually across a population similar to the UK. Based on this finding, it has been estimated that these technologies could add £232 billion to the UK economy by 2030.
Recognising the need to provide people with the knowledge and skills needed to maximise the opportunities offered by this new technology, the white paper includes pledges to invest £406m in maths, digital and technical education. An additional £64m is also to be allocated to create a national retraining scheme to help people to re-skill themselves in the use of digital technologies.
With a lack of skills identified as one of the major barriers to the wider take up of robotic automation in the UK, ABB is doing its best to help educate engineers both young and old about the possibilities that robots can offer. Our Milton Keynes training centre regularly receives visits from schools, colleges and universities, with students being shown the latest robots and how they can be applied on factory floors.
We also offer a wide range of training courses for delegates from manufacturing companies to help them develop skills in everything from robot programming through to maintenance. In the last 12 months, we estimate that over 1,000 people attended one or more of our courses, providing an encouraging sign of a growing number of robot-capable engineers operating in the UK.
O is for Offline programming
Offline programming offers a great way to configure and test a robot before committing the time and investment to installing it for real. Enabling everything from a standalone robot to a fully integrated production cell to be modelled and put through its paces in a virtual environment, offline programme can help to reduce the time, cost and complexity of introducing robotic automation to the factory floor.
ABB’s own RobotStudio simulation and offline programming software tool allows users to build a complete installation for virtually any application, from palletising through to welding. The tool features an extensive library of 3D models, covering our entire robot family and other accompanying equipment. It can also be customised where necessary to enable customer-specific CAD models of items such as parts or specialised attachments to be imported as well.
RobotStudio is built on the ABB VirtualController, an exact copy of the real software used to run a physical robot. It allows very realistic simulations to be performed, using real robot programs and configuration files identical to those used on the shop floor.
By enabling accurate simulation of how the robot will behave in real-life conditions, the software provides an ideal way of assessing cycle times and testing different scenarios. The resulting final program can then be uploaded to the robot once it has been installed to ensure it delivers optimum performance.
Another offline option available to those who want to be able to test how robotic automation could fit into a complete facility, is the creation of a discrete event simulation. These models effectively recreate an entire installation, such as a warehouse or factory, as a 3D model, showing the different elements within the process and demonstrating how they would interact with one another under various scenarios.
By simulating the inputs, outputs, cycle times and efficiencies of each operation, the model can be used to predict bottlenecks, effects of changes in resources, impact of new equipment, or the potential consequences of downtime on production activities.
P is for Precision
The five senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell – have provided humanity with a valuable evolutionary advantage. With many of these senses now being replicated by technology, these same evolutionary advantages are increasingly being incorporated into robots to enable improved precision in manufacturing processes.
Two senses in particular – vision and touch - are being applied to a growing number of robots in a wide variety of applications. With these senses, robots can now see and ‘feel’ materials, enabling them to spot potential obstacles or irregularities and adapt their performance to achieve higher levels of accuracy and precision.
An example is our Integrated Vision plug and play package, which allows you to embed advanced vision-guided tools directly into any of our robots.
Using 2D vision guidance, Integrated Vision offers a range of benefits, including:
• The ability to track products more accurately
• Improve supply chain management
• Improve quality
• Troubleshoot challenging lines and processes
• Significantly expand the use of robotic automation
Another challenge which manufacturers face when automating their process is tasks requiring dexterous handling.
Traditionally, robots in applications such as cutting or machining have been controlled using pre-defined paths and speeds based on the shape and material of the product being produced. Although this provides parameters for the robot to work to, it does not factor in deviations which could impair the ability of the robot to perform the task.
Force control technology, such as our own Integrated Force Control package, enables a robot to react to its surroundings and deviate from its programmed path or speed based on feedback from a force sensor. The technology uses pressure and speed to control the movement of the robot around or over the product being processed. If contact between the robot and the product varies, then the robot can act accordingly, increasing or reducing the applied pressure and varying its speed.
Applications for this technology include grinding, polishing, deburring and deflashing. One of the package’s features allows a robot to grind, polish or buff parts while maintaining a constant force between the tool and the work piece. Another feature enables a robot to deburr or deflash partlines and surfaces of parts at a controlled speed, thereby slowing down when encountering excessive burrs or casting flash.
In our next blog
Look out for our next blog where we will discuss quality, reshoring, using system integrators and how traceability within manufacturing is achieved through robotic automation. To find out more about how your organisation could benefit from introducing robots, sign up to our next Switch to Robots seminar or subscribe here for the latest ABB Robotics news.
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