Designing an Integrated Robotic Environment

Organisations are increasingly coming to understand the value and benefits of an integrated robotic environment. According to a recent survey, nearly half of manufacturing facilities currently use robotics as an integral part of their operations. As the maturity and capabilities of robotic solutions continues to advance, the sector is primed for a significant uplift in adoption.

The aim of a well-designed integrated environment is to complement human capital. Robots aid in reducing the variance when performing repetitive tasks and help foster more reliable and efficient operations. With examples of these benefits so readily apparent across a range of sectors, companies are looking to move beyond the initial exploratory phases and are pressing forward towards greater levels of integration.

To address any risks around complexity and fragmentation, decision makers need to consider integrating robotics through a holistic lens. This means building an environment in which people, processes and technology are all connected. Achieving this goal starts with how you design your environment.

Design with humans in mind

Everything produced in an integrated robotic environment needs to have humans at the centre of it. We often refer to this as ‘Humanufacturing’. This is where workers are given all the necessary tools and data they need to efficiently complete their job.

An integrated environment is one that helps simplify production processes and remove common frictions that exist from the worker’s perspective. The use of diagnostics and predictive maintenance can offer greater support and safer interactions for the workers involved. When improperly designed, operators may find a significant amount of their working day is spent fixing problems only after they have started to impact operations, often needing to halt machinery to resolve issues and thus impacting productivity.

Being able to predict problems ahead of time not only makes things simpler for the people overseeing the processes, but also minimises the risk of downtime for robotic equipment. A well-designed robotic environment will support a change in workers’ responsibilities, helping them to repurpose their skills towards directing and monitoring operations, rather than manually completing a task on a line. It isn’t just about making their day-to-day easier, but about helping them allocate their time more effectively.

Design with safety in mind

At its heart, integrated robotics enables humans to work with machinery in a safe way. By its very definition, the environment will be made safer due to the reduced reliance on physical human activity, even allowing remote monitoring and maintenance to be performed on machines while they are still operating.

The eventual goal for the smart manufacturing sector should be to have robots operate safely in an industrial setting with minimal need for human involvement on the shop floor. This can be through the utilisation of sensors and motion detection, which monitor the immediate surroundings and move differently depending on a human presence, therefore reducing occupational risks.

The use of AI and computer vision also supports further progress regarding safety. By allowing the robots to learn, operate and improve independently and autonomously, changes on the floor can be made automatically without any human intervention, which helps to further mitigating safety risks.