Artificial intelligence can turn the most dangerous industrial robots into helpful coworkers, and that could transform manufacturing.
seven-foot-tall robot arm moves in a blur, carrying a piece of metal about the size of a bowling ball from one workbench to another at superhuman speed. But when a human worker reaches for the piece, the robot goes into slow motion and then eventually stops. As soon as the person steps away, the robot speeds up again.
The machine and the young man are assembling a car suspension together. To anyone familiar with industrial robots, this seems insane.
Industrial robots are capable of killing a person. They are normally either caged off inside factories or monitored by a sensor system that shuts everything down if anyone comes within a few feet. Normally, you’d have to be plain nuts to try grabbing something from one.
But this isn’t any normal robot. Developed by Veo Robotics, a startup based in Waltham, Massachusetts, it uses technology that can turn even the most hulking and brutish industrial robot into a safe workmate.
Veo puts several 3-D sensors around an industrial robot. Its software first builds a representation of a scene. It then identifies objects, including people moving around; estimates where things are headed; and controls the robot accordingly. The smallest error could have catastrophic consequences.
Veo’s CEO, Patrick Sobalvarro, says he got the idea while visiting a BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Many tasks, such as installing a dashboard, were being done manually because they involve connecting tubes and cables. But the dashboards are heavy and awkward for a person to maneuver around.
“We put a robot in there for the stuff that doesn’t require dexterity,” says Sobalvarro of the suspension demo. “It cuts the manufacturing time in half.”
Hand me the wrench
A new breed of collaborative industrial robot could transform manufacturing by blurring the line between human and machine capabilities.
Robots are powerful and precise, but there are lots of things they cannot easily do, like fine manipulation or work involving flexible objects. Likewise, humans are adept at manipulation, and good at improvising and adapting, but we aren’t very good at moving heavy items hour after hour.