"Iron" intelligence

Achievements of today

Usually color with classical industrial robots bright paint. But at all not to lighten the mood to workers in workshop and to warn about possible danger of the equipment to human life. However ideas of robotic complexes changed literally a few years ago when the market was entered by collaborative robots. Equipped with special sensors, they are able to work so that not to do harm to the person workmate.

The BioRob robot is created in BIONIC ROBOTICS Bionic Robotics company in a bionic paradigm - the elastic mechanism of capture reminds elastic muscles and sinews of a human hand. Its movements remind the movements of a human hand, only much faster and exact.

BioRob is supplied with the manipulator which structure is very similar to a hand of the person

The robot of Bosch of APAS is supplied with a protective leather cover and controls own security perimeter: if the person appears in a dangerous zone, the speed of movements of the robot decreases. It is placed on the mobile platform which can easily be moved manually, and does not require exact fixing of the manipulator for work as the smart interactive controller allows to adjust automatically working programs taking into account the changed external factors.

The BOSCH APAS robot assistant can work literally together with the person

Today such manipulator can have quite budget cost, and its setup often represents rather simple procedure. It led to appearance of the robots having in addition to traditional abilities like dexterous unfolding of tablets or packaging of products uncommon skills.

New "professions" of collaborative robots

In 2018 all news portals of the world were flown by news about the Nino robot bartender – development of the Italian architect Carlo Ratti. This robot for only a few seconds cooks any cocktail from the extensive list of the menu.

Nino robot bartender

And at the end of January in Voronezh the first RoboMarket — brand store of TARKOS brewery with self-service and the robot sommelier opened. Many processes of steel already usual for the automated shops: mobile application which provides identification of the visitor, with the linked bank card for payment of purchases, payment using the smartphone on a goods barcode. And here tasting of rare sorts of beer is carried out by the robot: he is able to look after the interlocutor, keeps up the conversation, using gestures. At the time of opening of shop the robot was able to tell about eight sorts of beer with unusual tastes.

The robot bartender works in robo-shop of beer in Voronezh

The KUKA company developed the small and flexible IIWA robot who can work in very limited space. He easily is installed to any assembly lines and at the same time provides rather high loading capacity (7 and 14 kg) suitable for small production workshops. It is interesting that the manipulator can be trained in the basic working functions, directing it the hand.

IIWA - the easy and flexible robot from KUKA company

The Belarusian company Rozum Robotics releases the easy collaborative robots intended for work at small manufacturing enterprises from the sphere easy (for example, production of footwear) and the food industry (completing and warehousing of finished goods), metal working (service of machines, welding, cutting, painting of products). And yes, it can easily can enter an image of the robot barista.

Belarusian robo-hand of Rozum Robotics company

In Skolkovo cafe the service was taken up by the first completely Russian robotic manipulator made "Hamster robotiks Engineering". The model of the HR-3 robot is joint a child of the companies "Hamster robotiks Engineering, BaseALT, Baikal Electronics which combined efforts for development of the first Russian platform of industrial computers. As a part of the platform – ADP equipment on the basis of the BE-T1000 processor (Baikal-T1) and the Viola operating systems for servers and workstations.

The first duty station of the Russian HR-03 robot – cafe in Skolkovo

"Hamster robotiks engineering" positions the device as the Russian analog of the KUKA robot of the American company Universal Robotics. The robot who contains six swivel joints is expected payload up to 3 kg and is capable to execute mechanical transactions, moving different objects of the set algorithms. Control of violation by the person of inner boundary of safe perimeter is implemented.

The HR-3 "Hamster Robotiks Engineering" model supports three systems of global geopositioning

Smart and pilotless production transport

The largest Russian coal company SUEK employed several pilotless the BelAZ-7513R dump truck, equipped together with Vist company, child structure of Tsifra Group: they work in Khakassia on Abakansky coal mine where coal production is conducted by an open method.

Before nearly a year Vist carried out works on adaptation of the autonomous movement of the robotic BELAZ-7513R dump truck in winter conditions. In particular, failure tests during which the dump truck continuously worked 24 hours were made, made 468 cycles and passed 153 km. It is interesting that in Vist company managed to train the machine to go without turns, the so-called, shuttle course. The driver of the huge dump truck such cannot make, and, meanwhile, the shuttle course allows the machine to perform quicker the work, reducing time of idle times of the expensive excavator.

Solutions of tomorrow

Smart production site

The robot dump truck is one of elements of the large project of informatization "An intellectual pit" in which the Tsifra company participates. Partners in development created also robotic front-end loader which is controlled together with the pilotless dump truck remotely from distance to 2500 km. In plans – development of the independent BelAZ-78250 loader which will be able to build a 3D model of mountain weight for loading, to define the most effective operations procedure, to correlate the movement to dump truck provision. The operator (person) will issue only remotely instructions at the beginning of work and in special situations. As a result one operator will be able to service 3 - 5 robotic loaders.

"Intellectual pit": the pilotless dump truck and the loader work together under control of the remote manager

Technologies of "An intellectual pit" have the good export potential. So, at the end of February, 2020 implementation of the Russian management system for mining is complete in Peru – there developments are conducted by local mining company Cosapi Mineria.

The management system for mining in Peru works at Digits technologies

The remote-controlled or robotic BelAZ dump truck is a successful example of development and practical implementation of smart cyber-physical production systems, Sergey Sviridov, the director of research of Tsifra company is sure.

The value of such solution consists in an opportunity to manage the equipment at a great distance, and upon completion of the current development stage the dump truck will be independently controlled without permanent participation of the pilot. In other words, the operator will only issue tasks, and the dump truck will independently move on career, safely interacting with other participants of the movement, - he explains.

According to the director of research of Digit, such IT solutions include detailed analytics of processes which are supposed to be optimized setup of data collection, creation of models and their constant automated control. The base of such solutions is made by the analytical systems using statistical analysis and machine learning.

Similar solutions are not universal as are surely calibrated according to features of the specific used cyber-physical systems, i.e. use data specific technology or production processes,

Smart digital production

Even more difficult task is automatic control of production process (transactions), i.e. Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM). It, certainly, looks very perspective for the enterprise as the methodology of the class MOM allows to increase considerably due to digitalization transparency of production processes. However this task has a considerable nontechnical component.

At production planning it is necessary to define precisely a target metrics which is interesting to the customer. It can be cost reduction, accumulation of added value of a unit of production, or increase in production volumes on available capacities is and will be benefit for our client, explains Sergey Sviridov.

But it is previously necessary to receive a number of additional data.

So, important beforehand will know, first, what product demand (demand forecasting models are for this purpose used), and, secondly, by what methods it is possible to reduce costs (it becomes, as a rule, due to adaptation of the solution to changeable raw materials).

At such model predict product characteristics at entrance raw materials in the beginning, and then select the necessary managing parameters and other features of process. All this then is described mathematical models, tells Sergey Sviridov.

It is obvious that for practical use of methodology the MOM enterprise should propose ready-made industry solutions which solve the specified range of problems. With them the supplier usually comes to the potential client.

One of the directions of improvement of such smart systems – the improved tools for planning solving of tasks.

At the moment they provide suboptimal solutions and are badly scaled, ,-Sviridov explains.

Digital double of production

"The digital double" - the popular term in the circles connected with industry informatization. However, as Sergey Sviridov notices, for him there is no standard settled interpretation yet.

Here, for example, what contents is put in this phrase in the United Engine Corporation (UEC) which started large-scale researches on implementation of technology of the digital doubles (DD) of aviation engines. It is supposed that the works I will are completed in 2024, and virtual doubles all Russian aircraft engines which are at a development stage, production and operation will receive.

The digital double in interpretation of UEC is a single trained digital system which includes a complex of the techniques and mathematical models describing work of a product (aircraft engine) for all its lifecycle: design, tests, production and operation.

Mathematical models are divided into two groups. Models which are created at an engine design stage concern one. The second group covers models which allow to perform digital tests. The complex structured array of all requirements to a product is added to them: to technical characteristics, economic and ecological indicators and also requirements of technical documentation, standards, etc. The leading specialist of department of the innovative development of UEC Ivan Timofeev calls TsD "integrator practically of all end-to-end digital technologies".

In principle, creation of the digital double of manufacturing enterprise should be followed by digitalization not only all production assets (by the way, UEC it is necessary to develop specialized mathematical models and techniques of their use for each part, whom in the aircraft engine thousands), but also all production and business processes.

The calls facing the industry. When will production become "absolutely smart"?

Receiving the digital double means digitalization, both assets, and technology and business processes. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to formalize many processes as decision making by people is their cornerstone, and they often cannot explain, how exactly they make decisions, tells Sergey Sviridov.

Process of formalization of knowledge of processes can be really "tough nut" on the way to creation, both digital doubles, and techniques of their operational formation, for example, in the service mode.

In particular, for this reason, Sergey Sviridov believes, the concept of the digital double, most likely, does not mean some final status of the enterprise:

Always there are processes which are too human and tsifrovizutsya badly. But the final sense of such projects for the customer is clear - to take as much as possible processes happening at the enterprise under control and to make them measurable, controlled, and solutions to accept on the basis of data on these processes, but not on the basis of historically developed approaches or judgments of certain people.

The digital double is not only use of mathematical modeling which is everywhere used in the industry now. It is other philosophy of perception of a product, a new paradigm of development of the engine-building industry and the aviation sphere.

In other words, informatization is only the first stage of life in information society. Under this banner the world crossed a threshold of change of the millennia and today approached a change point: through fabric computerized production, communication and business processes sprout outlines new – intellectual – IT tools which will begin to change gradually our ideas of traditional branches of the economy and methods of adoption of managing solutions. Under this sign, apparently, there will pass the next decade of the 21st century.

You See Also

• Artificial intelligence (AI, Artificial intelligence, AI)
• Digital double (Digital Twin of Organization, DTO)
• Unmanned vehicles (world market)
• Unmanned vehicles in Russia
• Pilotless trucks

Robotics