Five Emerging Robotics

FIVE EMERGING ROBOTICS
Submitted by:
Mark Dean Jovez
1. Cobots and Autonomous Vehicles
The word “cobot” is a portmanteau for “collaborative robot.” This branch of robotics exemplifies
the idea that autonomous machines will supplement rather than outright replace human labor.
The cobot industry is expected by some market researchers to grow by more than 33 percent per
year between 2018 and the end of 2026.
It’s not uncommon in heavy industries such as manufacturing for assembly line workers to
operate near robots. But the latest trend sees cobots becoming compact enough — and certain
enough in their movements — to move more freely between areas within factories or even
between separate worksites.
2. Robotic Arms, Mobile Manipulators, and Dexterous Grasping
One notable offshoot of robotic arms is known as the “mobile manipulator.” Of all the
autonomous and semi-autonomous robot types mentioned here, this is the one that looks most
like something out of science fiction. Mobile manipulators from companies such as Kinova and
Neobotix combine the raw strength of a robotic arm with portability and advanced pathfinding.
These robots can go anywhere an operator requires a literal helping hand, and they often require
little navigational intervention thanks to collision detection plus map-making features. In other
words, robots can “learn” safe routes between work areas.
3. Agility and Adaptability
What would these agile, flexible and adaptable robots actually look like?
Acutronic Robotics is one company that’s actively engaged with this topic. Thanks to their latest
creations — “Mara” (a modular robotic arm) and “H-ROS” (a flexible, open-source programming
framework for adapting common robotic components to different tasks) — the company believes
it has a solution that could solve “one of the main bottlenecks in the industry — integration.”
Thanks to modular, plug-and-play designs, intuitive open-source programming tools and a
selection of swappable robot grippers as well as modular joints with various grip strengths,
closing speeds, maximum payloads, and degrees of flexibility, companies can more cost-
effectively deploy articulated arms and use them for a wider variety of handling and manipulation
tasks than ever before. One robot can perform multiple jobs with just a quick swap of a single
part.
4. Sensing, Perception, and Navigational Control
There’s a bigger worry than “robots coming for our jobs.” It’s “robots coming for our fingers and
feet.” With this in mind, robotics designers all over the world have committed themselves to
improving the location awareness and sensing and perception capabilities of industrial robots.
The goal here is to improve the safety of cobots to the point that a greater number of
autonomous robotic technologies can work in harmony with human beings. Previously, heavy
robotic arms had to be cordoned off for safety reasons or even placed behind ballistic shields,
which puts a damper on their usefulness. With greater spatial awareness, we can count on
industrial robots for even greater usefulness. For instance, the CEO of Veo Robotics received his
inspiration from watching human automobile assemblers lift heavy car components.
With a boost to location awareness courtesy of sensors and smarter pathfinding, robots could do
the heavy lifting while welders and electricians do the work that requires extreme dexterity, all
within the same space.
5. Improved robotic exoskeletons
Robotic exoskeletons that people wear are not new but many of the previous iterations of the
concept limited workers' movement, because they had to stay connected to power sources.
However, the first battery-powered full-body industrial robotic exoskeleton reportedly will be
commercially available in early 2020. The developers claim it will give wearers a 20-to-1 strength
amplification. So, to a person wearing this robot and lifting 100 pounds, the load should only feel
like 5 pounds.

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FIVE EMERGING ROBOTICS

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