Robotics for Industry 4.0 – Human-robot collaboration

On 21 October 2020, TRINITY project hosted the last episode of its webinar series on Robotics for Industry 4.0. The aim of the series was to present to the broader audience the robotic demonstrators that SMEs are currently implementing thanks to TRINITY funding, obtained through the first round of open call closed in March 2020. Each project will run from 6 to 12 months, and the SMEs can benefit of TRINITY expertise to benefit the most from their innovative robotic solutions for the all duration of their implementation. The webinar series is made of 4 events, each one grouping the demonstrators according to their field of application. In this episode, the companies that are now implementing their robotic demonstrators have presented their innovative solutions in the field of human-robot collaboration.

After a brief introduction on the TRINITY project and the opportunities that SMEs can have through our open calls, the first demonstrator to be presented was ‘DynaMo -Real time dynamic motion planning for industrial robots’ by Joachim Paasche, CEO at Adaptive Robotics AS, Norway. DynaMo joint effort will implement RTDMP as part of a bin picking application in Kuka R&D lab in Augsburg, Germany. RTDMP will become an essential part of solving the need for flexibility, agility and low lead times for flexible multipurpose robotic picking systems. project applied for will enable them to reach their goal of creating a highly flexible picking application which can serve the needs for the growing SME market.

The second demonstrator to be presented was ‘AGILE – Increasing the agility of the automotive cable assembly‘, by Mr Paulo Marques, Founder of AllbeSmart LDA, Portugal. The AGILE project will develop and demonstrate advanced robotics solutions to increase the agility of the automotive cable production. It will replicate and adapt 3 TRINITY Use cases to be integrated and validated in the new generation of robotic machines designed to produce automotive wiring harnesses. Expected results include a 30% decrease of the cycle time in a cable assembly process, thanks to Human-Robot collaboration, and a 50% decrease of the average time required to train an unexperienced operator, thanks an AR application.

‘AMS -Affective Manufacturing System’ was the next demonstrator on the agenda and its overview was given by Erwin Meinders, CEO at Mentech Innovation B.V., Belgium. The project demonstrates an affective production platform for high-quality production of low-volume high-mix products. The platform integrates a novel operator stress detection module of Mentech, based on measured physiological features of the operator, and artificial intelligence algorithm for stress detection. The measured stress levels are used in a smart decision algorithm to optimize production performance. Possible benefits achievable through their demonstrator is an increased yield (10-15%), increased production quality (10-15%), and moderate stress levels and more work satisfaction (happiness).

Next demonstrator to be showcased by Greg Agriopoulos, CEO at Quanta & Qualia PCC, Greece was the ‘TRAINMAN-MAGOS -TRAining of an INdustrial MANipulator Using the MAGOS Platform’. Although the use of industrial robotics in the automotive industry is mainstream, there are still parts of the production process which need human intervention – demand for increased dexterity. These manual tasks increase the production time and reduce the flexibility of the production line, as well as the quality of the end product. TRAINMAN-MAGOS aims on tackling this challenge. The application of this solution foresees an average increase in productivity for technology adopters following demonstration experiments by decreasing the complexity of trajectories programming time (+20%), and an increase in company production due to demonstration actions by decreasing the complexity of trajectories programming time  (+12%).

The event, as well as the series, was concluded with the presentation of ‘ICON -agile eleCtric mOtor manufacturing’, by Mr Stefano Ellero, Area Manager at Stam S.r.l., Italy. STAM will deploy three TRINITY-originated HRC modules in ICPE shop floor: 1. Human detection and projection-based interaction interface, to allow human operators safely performing preparatory and finishing tasks on a stator; 2. Object classification, to automatically recognize the stator and load the related parameter set to generate the robot trajectory to wind the coils. ICPE will benefit from optimised and more agile manufacture of electric motors: they will increase productivity and cover a wider range of offering, reacting more quickly to customer demands and increasing profits through optimised production. STAM will benefit by marketing engineering and consultancy services for the deployment of safe HRC modules in various manufacturing scenarios.