In this dialogue, Speaker A raises concerns about large, highly integrated robot deployments becoming "sticky" investments that lock companies into a single, expensive solution, and asks how flexibility can be achieved through training people to program robots for varied tasks. Speaker B contrasts traditional high‑volume, low‑mix industrial robots—typically fenced and dedicated to one task—with collaborative robots (cobots) that, after a proper risk assessment, can operate without cages. He emphasizes that most cobot projects do not require guarding, allowing easy redeployment using light curtains, area scanners, and mobile pedestals. The conversation highlights the importance of safety assessments for cobots handling hazardous tools, the need for workforce training to program multiple tasks, and practical strategies for making robot systems adaptable and cost‑effective.
Chapters
If they were to opt for this like very big investment with a lot of integration, a lot of complexity, you know, kind of in the back of my mind as you were describing that, I was like, that sounds so sticky. And like, that is gonna be an investment where you get entrenched and then you're not gonna ever wanna use that robot to do anything differently because you're still waiting on that return for this big expensive product or kind of sell. So when it comes to, again, like smaller or like smaller applications or use cases, That flexibility, which is not something that I think is typically associated with robots, right? That flexibility of use, I think is something really interesting. And I'd love to know more about how you're training folks to program robots differently to do different tasks and kind of that range of options that customers have with a specific design. That was a very nebulous question, but it's really interesting to kind of dive into the flexibility that like robots have.
They're designed to do one task. And they're designed to do it. It's high volume, low mix for traditional robots. Yeah. And it requires a fence and it moves very fast. With cobots, it's a bit of a different game because now, depending on your risk assessment, right? You still have, like, just because it's a collaborative robot doesn't mean like, oh, it's just safe. 'Cause if it's wielding a machete or a blowtorch, I've been making that joke with an old boss for years, several old bosses, you know, it's like, oh, if it's wielding a blowtorch or if it's wielding a, we talk about like unloading raw cut product that's still It's basically holding a sword. You know, you still got to do that safety assessment. But if your risk assessment shows that the robot does not need to be guarded, which I'd say the vast majority of projects I've worked with, the robot has not needed a cage. So those robots become very easy to redeploy because you don't have to pick up this whole fence. Yeah. And carry the fence along with it. You can just do light curtains or area scanners or whatever, which basically take the robot on a wheeled pedestal and drop a few pins in the floor and move it to a new location, and it can do a whole new task.
