Machine tending is by far one of the most popular uses for collaborative robots by manufacturers. Tending, in this context, refers to loading raw materials or parts, and then unloading them once they’ve been processed, from a CNC machine. It involves picking up and placing the objects, opening and closing safety doors, working in harmony with the workholding and the parts supply and removal areas. 

It’s a repetitive task, but it requires a fair amount of accuracy and adaptation, as often parts are supplied in irregular positions, and must be adjusted to correctly fit to the workholding. Until recently, for this reason, machine tending is one area in which industrial automation has been a challenge. Collaborative robots, or cobots for short, are changing this. They are cornerstones of smart factories, in which the flexibility, accuracy and safety of human work can be matched in automation.

Machine tending applications such as cutting, milling, drilling and injection molding can thus be carried out 24/7, allowing manufacturers to greatly scale up operations. What new technology is making this possible, and how is it different to traditional automation? Below, we answer these questions by looking at five key new technologies.

5 Advanced Robotics Technologies Revolutionizing Machine Tending

It’s now common knowledge in the manufacturing industry that collaborative robots are safe, easy to configure, and reliable. But for those interested in automated cobot solutions, what else is there to know about these robotic arms?

Vision Systems

One of the biggest challenges of machine tending automation has been that of working with raw materials or parts that may be supplied to the working area in irregular shapes or positions. When unstructured supply has been the case, as it has been and still is in many factories, it has been essential for a human to correctly identify, realign and place objects accurately in CNC machines. Parts may be supplied at an angle, on trays in multiple, irregular positions, or even piled up. Most traditional robots simply aren’t capable of effectively surmounting this challenge.

Giving collaborative robots the ability to see brings them in line with the human ability to adapt to these supply scenarios. Integrated 2D and 3D cameras, mounted on cobot arms, allow the measurement of distance and object size, and the identification of rotation and absolute position. This allows gripping and sorting, in correction of irregularity.

About the JAKA Vision System:

JAKA cobots can be fitted with the JAKA Lens 2D, an integrated high-resolution 2D camera. It enables the recognition of 2D surfaces, 3D objects, colors, locations and distances.