A Cobot is What?
The phrase collaborative robots are shortened to “Cobot.” Cobots cooperate with workers, as their name implies, and they often have direct interactions with people instead of the intrusive protective enclosures needed for conventional industrial robots. In a shared process, cobots are often created to relieve a human worker of a tiresome or taxing activity (for example, lifting heavy objects into position for a human worker to address). Today’s common cobots take care of chores like cleaning the floors, delivering groceries, and reviewing stock.
Four Myths About Collaborative Robots
The market for collaborative robots is expanding quickly, and Interact Analysis projects that by 2028, cobot sales will reach $1.94 billion annually. Due to this rapid expansion, there are a lot of misunderstandings and worries about how cobots will affect every industry.
One of the main worries is that eventually, these robots will replace human jobs. Today, we’ll address the most frequent worries and dispel common misconceptions regarding collaborative robots, which are showing up more often in our daily lives. We answer typical inquiries regarding what cobots can and cannot accomplish if they are safe, what kinds of businesses may benefit from them, and more, in addition to addressing concerns about robots stealing jobs.
- Cobots are Taking the Place of Human Workers
Although experts like PA Consulting believe that collaborative robots actually generate more employment and allow human employees to move into better, safer, and more interesting positions, many people worry that cobots will result in fewer jobs for human workers. Collaborative cleaning robots, for instance, may do labor-intensive, tedious duties like vacuuming that are nonetheless necessary for the health and safety of your workplace, freeing you and your team to concentrate on your more specific, uniquely human demands. Cobots assist individuals with the difficult work needed in reopening and starting to make up for commercial and experience losses, especially in a pandemic.
Companies that use cobots may also position the technology as a chance for workers and job hopefuls to improve, which will help them attract and keep talent. It’s crucial to remember that many tasks still need a human touch and can’t be entirely automated.
- Fear of collaborative robots
Cobots are particularly designed to operate directly alongside your team and share environments, in contrast to typical industrial robots that often need to be completely contained to avoid damage. The concepts of human-robot interaction, or HRI, are used in the design of cobots to guide all the minute aspects that come together to form your user interface and experience. They are designed to be accessible, pleasant, and ultimately unnoticeable in your daily life. This applies to everything about it, including how it looks, moves, has safety features, is programmed, and even has a personality.
Jeff Tingley, whose business offers services to workplaces, outlined how office users might come across his “friendly machine” in the New York Times, pointing out how the blinker communicates when it turns and how it stops when you walk in front of it. People within buildings “have blank stares or even unpleasant frowns throughout this scary moment,” he added. “When the Whiz goes by, it makes them grin. It’s almost like everyone wants to name it like a pet.
- Cobots cost a lot of money
Although they don’t have to be, collaborative robots may be pricey. While prices may vary depending on the seller and the kind of robot, cobots are always far less costly than conventional robots. Cobots are often affordable to install and maintain with little upfront expense. Additionally, cobots’ return on investment (ROI) may often be achieved in as little as a few months.
A small monthly charge may be paid by consumers to subscribe to certain cobots under the Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) concept. Additionally, novel financing options and preferences for both opex and capex are emerging.
- Only huge companies benefit from automation
Any size of business or organization may gain from integrating collaborative robots into their processes. Cobots are designed to increase productivity and simplify our work, and even one robot can save a lot of time, enabling you to concentrate on what really matters and making your day more human. For instance, SoftBank Robotics’ Whiz commercial robot vacuum displays your precise coverage, frequency, and efficiency as it sweeps around your area and eliminates irritating particles, allergies, and other irritants via near real-time data.
Additionally, it is simple to test and scale your solution when using cobots. To demonstrate the idea, many smaller-scale cobot users first deploy only one cobot to a single job. These customers may rapidly discover other use cases and add more cobots to assist them in achieving their objectives once they understand the time and money savings that the robots provide.
