Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021 - 18

Future of Automation
time and reducing costs during production
process changeovers.
Giving manufacturers the ability to
control deployments themselves, in -
cluding most of the maintenance and
programming, is empowering for the
end-user. And the automation is moving
fast in this direction. As end-users
become more empowered by increasing
usability, the role of integrators will
change, too. Integrators will be able to
focus more and more on deploying
automation, rather than designing and
programming applications.
Difficult-to-program, mostly singlepurpose,
traditional industrial robots
remain the largest segment of today's
industrial robotics market. So, despite
some exceptions - found particularly in
the fast-growing cobot and lightweight
industrial robot segments - the industry
has some way to go when it comes to
providing the flexibility manufacturers
require.
In the future, however, as more companies
embrace flexibility in their robot
and robot component designs, manufacturers
will be able to (re)deploy
automation quickly and easily as a matter
of course.
Growing Intelligence
The plug-and-play, all-electric dual gripper for material handling applications shown here is the
type of easy-to-use end-effector that's set to become the norm in tomorrow's manufacturing facilities.
(Credit: OnRobot)
And one of the key catalysts for that
change will be growing standardization
on both the hardware and software side.
Standardization
Why should integrators spend time
on reinventing the wheel with customized
solutions when they can buy
standardized products? Standardized
automation provides widespread interoperability
between components, is
cheaper than designing systems from
scratch, and frees integrators to focus
on deploying robots and getting applications
running.
Today, more and more integrators
are doing package deals with standardized
products. This means cost savings
for manufacturing customers on installation
and maintenance. As standardization
spreads, it will also mean that an
integrator who could install five projects
today will soon be able to install 50.
The integrator will charge less per in -
stallation, driving the cost down and
18
Cov
making automation accessible for cashstrapped
SMEs, while also enabling in -
te grators to make more money than was
previously possible.
Standardized products are available to -
day and there are efforts underway to
develop robotics software and hardware
standards but the industry has some way
to go to achieve anything like universal
standardization.
Flexibility: The Changing Role
of the Integrator
Flexibility is many things, but in es -
sence, it's a set of tools to make sure that
your production is lean, agile, and able
to redeploy and change quickly.
The future of manufacturing automation
means flexible automation designed
to meet the customization de -
mands of the manufacturing company
customers. It also means flexible, easily
customizable production setups and
automation that is easy to program and
easy to (re)deploy, minimizing downwww.techbriefs.com
ToC
Expect
to see more artificial intelligence
(AI) features incorporated into
the entire production line including
within every robot and end-effector. AI is
a crucial enabler of the data collection
and analysis processes that support
Industry 4.0.
AI can already be used to provide
remote monitoring capabilities by providing
transparency into issues that arise
when, for any reason, your robot doesn't
work or fails to work at the level of efficiency
required for your application. In
the future, this transparency will be a
standard component of every installation.
Expect AI-supported remote monitoring
applications, for example, to
become standard within the next few
years, along with massive growth in AIenabled
remote maintenance and vi -
sion-based inspection applications.
Eventually, programming will be performed
by AI platforms built on top of a
universal software interface used in all
robots.
Automation-as-a-Service
As the " As-a-Service " business model
develops, building on the Robots-as-aTech
Briefs, October 2021
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Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021

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