ColRobot

On a production line, every second counts and the last thing companies want is to waste valuable expertise on low-level tasks. Nowadays, manufacturing competitiveness depends largely on its productivity, flexibility and agility to react to market demands. Robots are a key element to achieve such competitiveness, especially if they are able to collaborate with humans in a shared workspace on the shop-floor, creating a co-working partnership. The paradigm for robot usage has changed from an idea in which robots work with complete autonomy to a scenario in which robots collaborate with humans. This means taking the best of each partner, human and robot, by exploring the cognitive and dexterity capabilities of humans (focus on value-added tasks) and the capacity of robots to produce repetitive work and provide assistance.

ColRobot (Collaborative Robotics for Assembly and Kitting in Smart Manufacturing) is an H2020 project that proposes a new generation of collaborative robotic systems specifically for the automotive and aerospace industries. Their technology consists of a mobile manipulator which acts as a ‘third hand’ for production line workers: it can autonomously move around the factory looking for pieces or tools, deliver them or hold them while the operator performs another task. The solution was completed in two versions for different use cases, in the automobile and aerospace industry, and these versions were implemented and validated in two real-world operational environments, Renault and Thales Alenia Space (TAS). Renault uses the robot to remove non-ergonomic sequences of assembly tasks, while TAS uses it to automate low-level tasks while letting humans focus on tasks requiring specific expertise or attention.

The ColRobot project aims to combine cutting-edge European robot technology with end-user requirements for assembly processes to create an integrated system for collaborative robotics in which a mobile manipulator acts as a “third hand” by delivering kits, tools, parts, and holding work pieces while the operator works on it. Humans will cognitively and physically interact with ColRobot robots using gestures, touch commands and demonstrations. The robot will be able to navigate autonomously in the factory floor to pick up the required parts and tools and prepare kits for assembly. The process will be supervised by a safety system that pushes the limits of standardization in collaborative robotics. The technology readiness level (TRL) will be increased by means of continuous iterative real-world testing (performance, usability, relevance in manufacturing), validation and improvement.

Besides the University of Coimbra, ColRobot involves the contribution of the following European institutions: INESC TEC (Portugal), École Nacionale Superieure d’Arts et Metiers (ENSAM), Centre d'Innovation des Technologies sans Contact EuraRFID, AKEO PLUS, RENAULT SAS and Thales Alenia Space (France), Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy), Fraunhofer-IFF (Germany), AIMEN - Asociación De Investigación Metalúrgica Del Noroeste and Technaid SL (Spain). The project was coordinated by ENSAM.

At University of Coimbra,