Automation and Motion Control Blog

Universal Robots - Cobots are Making a Difference

Written by Kelly Howe | Sep 19, 2016 5:15:21 PM

This post is brought to you by Universal Robots.

When you think about robots being used in business does your mind immediately jump to the manufacturing industry?

According to the International Federation of Robotics, by 2018, ‘around 1.3 million industrial robots will be entering service in factories around the world’.

But the manufacturing however is not the only sector benefitting from robot automation, there are so many opportunities to reduce costs, improve business performance, optimize production, increase quality and drive revenue in other – and often surprising applications.

Due to their flexible nature and ability to work with people, collaborative robots (cobots) are innovating all types of tasks and industries. From the environment and the medical industry to food, fashion and television, cobots are shaking things up and turning heads everywhere.

These are five game changing ways Universal Robots is making a real difference.

Helping the environment
In a collaborative project with Glassworks Barcelona and Greenpeace Spain, Universal Robots technology was used to paint the digital signatures of bees as part of a project to get 250,000 people and 250,000 bees to sign a petition against the use of pesticides which are incredibly dangerous to bees.

Supporting medicine and saving lives
Collaborative robot arms are designed to mimic the range of motion of a human arm. At the Clinical Biochemical Department at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Gentofte, our cobots worked along side health care professionals to handle blood samples, enabling the lab to uphold a target of delivering more than 90% of results within an hour despite a 20% increase in samples arriving for analysis. 

There are many opportunities available within medicine for the use of cobots, in particular in surgical procedures where precision and accuracy is critical.

Providing entertainment
Cobots don’t only have a serious side they have fun and entertain as well. In France, our Universal Robots have worked side-by-side with television crews to provide the best in entertainment. 

The Universal Robots family can glide and film the quietest of scenes producing a seamless production.

Taking centre stage on the catwalk
Our UR5 was in the front row at this L’Oreal Paris fashion event, taking photos and bringing the beautiful high-end fashion to life. A creative and innovative customer experience that saw precious moments being captured forever. 

Food
We could all do with a helping hand in the kitchen. Right? At Hannover Messe 2015, UK-based Morley Robotics unveiled an autonomous kitchen machine that used two UR5 robot arms to reproduce the movements of a chef. In 25 minutes the robotic chef prepared a bowl of crab bisque from a recipe developed by Tim Anderson, a previous winner of BBC’s Masterchef.

Are you interested in a UR?