You're Hired: Recruiting Mobile Robots
There's a new workforce out there, made up of highly intelligent, semi-autonomous robots. Here's some advice for picking the best candidate.
Jan 27th, 2021
Autonomous robots criss-cross the aisles of mammoth warehouses to retrieve items or stack and unload pallets. Robot arms move parts from one work cell to the next or perform some basic welding. A semi-autonomous control unit and 6-axis robotic arm combo sweeps in to handle COVID-19 disinfection services without endangering human lives.
Say hello to the next-generation robot workforce—a diverse group of highly intelligent mobile robots capable of performing tasks not possible with older robot technology and doing so in direct and safe collaboration with humans. While industrial robots have been part of the automation mix for decades, key advances in sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), software, machine vision, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), among other technologies, are coalescing to empower an emerging category of more capable mobile and collaborative robots that are easier to program, less expensive to deploy, and far more flexible in the kinds of tasks they can perform. Already, companies are deploying mobile robots to gain efficiencies moving products and materials, to assist in the picking process, to facilitate sorting, and to perform mundane assembly tasks to free up human colleagues to focus on higher-value work.