Will Smart Robots Control Manufacturing?

Given the growing importance of custom products and shorter product life-cycle, the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) could optimize manufacturing environments.

According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, smart robots offer new, customer-oriented solutions that improve manufacturing processes. Dr. Werner Kraus, from the department for Robot and Assistive Systems, explains:

Cyber-physical systems will play a key role in managing the increasing complexity of production systems. These are ‘intelligent’ machines, tools and components which communicate with each other via the internet in real time. Using sensors to collect physical data, such as production, logistics and management processes, they modify physical operations with the aid of actuators.

The Digitization of Manufacturing

Robots are also linked to one another via digital networks and utilize internationally-available data and services. Secure IT platforms like Fraunhofer’s Virtual Fort Knox offer manufacturing companies needs-based IT solutions. These can help optimize factory planning and operations, for example.

Dr. Kraus’s department has been working on several prototypes and technologies highlighting the advantages of a digitized manufacturing environment, including a bin-picking system.

Its automation software can locate workpieces randomly mixed in a bin, enabling a robot to pick them out.