Unleashing the Power of Co-botics: Transforming Labor in the Digital Age

Whenever new automation technologies emerge, there are questions (and concerns) about the impact on labor, for better or worse. Automation is an essential factor in productivity growth, particularly in manufacturing. 

MIT has found that robotics do replace human jobs to some extent, a new generation of robots designed to augment and enhance human worker productivity and effectiveness. The term “co-botics” refers to a type of robotics technology that incorporates “collaborative” capabilities into robotics. A project at Northwestern University in the 1990s adopted the term to describe robots designed to work safely alongside humans in industrial settings such as assembly lines.

What Distinguishes Cobots?

Cobots are designed to be lightweight and easily programmable, with integrated sensors and safety features. They enable collaboration between humans and robots without compromising human safety. These robots excel at handling tasks that require strength, like lifting heavy materials. They are also adept at performing repetitive actions, such as assembling parts. Additionally, cobots utilize computer vision and video analytics to identify defects or quality issues, ensuring high levels of precision and efficiency. Currently, most Cobots are designed for industrial uses, particularly manufacturing, as efforts to expand the market to small and medium-sized businesses have met with mixed results. Rethink Robotics, which introduced its Baxter Cobot in 2011, shut its doors in 2019 while the assets were ultimately parceled off to different industrial firms.

Source: Universal Robotics

There are multiple uses for Cobots in different industries:

• Manufacturing - Cobots can work alongside humans on assembly lines, handling tasks such as materials, parts assembly, pick-and-place operations, and quality control. Some systems allow human workers to physically guide Cobots during the training and programming process, allowing for easy implementation and updates.
• Logistics and Warehousing - Cobots can assist with tasks like inventory management, packing, sorting, and even autonomous mobile robot navigation. Amazon, for instance, has made significant investments and acquisitions (including Kiva Systems) for its automated warehouse picking and packing systems.
• Healthcare - Cobots can be used for many tasks, including medication delivery, lifting and transferring patients, disinfection, and surgeries. The global pandemic significantly accelerated the adoption of Cobots for disinfection and delivery of supplies and medication
• Agriculture - Cobots can assist in functions like crop monitoring, precision farming, harvesting, and crop spraying.
• Retail - Retail Cobots are used for inventory management, shelf restocking, and customer assistance.
• Food - Cobots can assist in the food industry with tasks like sorting, cutting, packing, and palletizing
• Construction – Cobots are increasingly used in construction for tasks such as bricklaying, materials handling, and heavy lifting.

Across industries, Cobots can help reduce physical stress and risk of injury to workers and automate low-level, repetitive tasks, thus enabling workers to focus on higher value-added activities and increasing overall efficiency and output.

Source: Kristoffer Tripplaar/Alamy

What Will Businesses Need to Know to Adopt Cobotics?

The dynamic characteristics of managing human-robot collaboration will require different skills to implement and manage, driving demand for workers with evolving capabilities. Highly valued skills will include robot programming and maintenance (including robot programming language, task configuration, hardware, and software troubleshooting and maintenance); Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) expertise (which includes design and implementation of UIs, safety protocols, and collaboration optimization); workplace safety (involving knowledge of protocols, risks, safety standards, and regulations); business process analysis (to ensure that Cobotics are incorporated effectively into workflows and applied to appropriate tasks); and training for existing and new users.

Momenta is the leading Digital Industry venture capital + value creation firm, accelerating entrepreneurs and leaders devoted to the digitization of energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chains. Since 2012, their team of deep industry operators has invested in 50 entrepreneurs and helped scale over 150 industry leaders via their award-winning executive search and strategic advisory practices.