Technological trends in industrial robots

Main article: Trends in the Russian IT market

2021: Key technological trends in industrial robotics

Industrial robots are becoming more intelligent, skillful, finding more and more new applications. As you know, the success of robotic industry in the world is much more noticeable than in Russia: the average robotic density is almost 20 times higher (113 versus 6). And this is understandable, because in Western countries the processes of development and introduction of robotization in production have been going on non-stop, since the 60s of the last century. And our production enterprises, as a result of well-known socio-economic shocks, were in a situation when for a long time they were not up to innovation.

But for 10 years now, Russia has shown very high growth rates of robotization, the last 2-3 years are about 40%. This was made possible due to a number of factors and, of course, due to the development of various robotization technologies.

Safe cobots

Traditional industrial robots have been used, as is known, mostly in the automotive industry. Robots there, as a rule, are behind the conveyor, tuned to perform one task, they are distinguished by high performance. They can be dangerous for a person who finds himself in their work area, so when they are used, it is necessary to observe safety measures, in particular with the help of fencing.

Collaborative robots (cobots) are much safer. Their appearance became possible thanks to the development of robotics - a component base (drives, controllers, various sensors, etc.), special software. Cobots are easily reconfigured to perform other scenarios and solve new production tasks. Operators are able to do this directly in production. Among the unconditional advantages of cobots, in addition to flexibility and multitasking: a relatively low price and, accordingly, a short payback period.

Safe interaction with a person at work is a very important advantage of cobots over traditional industrial robots. According to experts, the collaborative robot was originally created so that it could stop if a person appeared in its area of ​ ​ action. Therefore, they work more slowly than traditional industrial ones, although they are technically able to work faster.

Cobots are very convenient - they can work next to a person thanks to a well-thought-out security system, "states Igor Knyazev, Fructonad Group. - There is no need to install fences, electronic locks and expensive security systems for which the customer pays. Despite their small size and carrying capacity, they are also universal, like their older brothers - industrial robots and perform monotonous work with small weights - welding, painting parts and blanks, shifting blanks, selecting product items, picking up an order. Thanks to modern software, a robot can be entrusted with almost any monotonous operation. Cobots are quite easy to program and maintain - these characteristics bribe our customers.

Cobots are able not only to stop if a person appears in the area of ​ ​ action, but also to interact productively with him. There are different levels of cooperation between the coboat and the person, we list them in terms of the degree of increase in contact productivity:

• work zones intersect, but the useful actions of the robot and the person are spaced in time;
• interaction in one work area and at one time (the robot supplies the part to a person);
• a robot and a person interact in real time when the robot is able to read and respond to human actions.

Cobot can be created by a manufacturer, but it happens that the integrator uses a traditional industrial robot and makes it collaborative. For example, the APAS robot created by Bosch is based on the FANUC robot.

Everything is simple: the cobot is more modern, "concludes Ilya Sedogin, development director of Energom. - Sooner or later all brands producing industrial robots will introduce a line of cobots. And in our opinion, a cobot is not a separate unit, but just a subspecies of a robot that reduces professional requirements for both the integrator and the employees of the company operating this equipment.

Machine vision

Machine vision (also called "technical") has long been used in robotic systems. In particular, the use of robots in conveyor production to move blanks requires high positioning accuracy. This is not always possible and then machine vision comes to the rescue. The digital camera receives an image of the workpiece in the working area of ​ ​ the robot, the software analyzes it, formulates a task before the robot and he performs it. Tasks that can be solved using machine vision: monitoring the product assembly process, counting objects, measuring their parameters, and many others.

Experts confirm the growing interest of manufacturers in this technology, the emergence of new tasks where it can be used.

Machine vision in robotic solutions has been used for a very long time, but still for a long time it was rather poorly distributed, "says Mikhail Zotov, general director of DS-Robotix. - Restrictions were both on the part of the hardware and on the cost. At the moment there are available 2D and 3D cameras, there is good software that allows you to work with the obtained images and use these solutions in real tasks, which are increasingly complicated. This makes it necessary to use robots in new areas, and technical vision greatly helps this. A good example is sorting and further manipulation of parts randomly folded into containers or supplied to the conveyor.

At the same time, according to Artem Lukin, General Director of TECHNORED, machine vision has not yet gained wide application, since the robotic complex is becoming more expensive, and the use of this technology is not always advisable for purely economic reasons.

If we talk about industrial robotic complexes, then this technology is not yet presented everywhere, "says Artem Lukin, TECHNORED. - According to the results of 2020, we applied machine vision only in every fifth to sixth project. This is due to the fact that most tasks can be solved by more reliable and affordable means, which significantly reduces the cost to the end customer. However, the situation is rapidly changing, technical vision is becoming more accessible and easier to implement and operate. Therefore, machine vision has great prospects, especially in the problems of loading equipment and welding. We invest in the development of our own components, in the so-called 'Plug & Play' kits. They are very easy and quick to integrate into industrial and collaborative robots. Also, leading manufacturers of gripping devices, vision systems and welding equipment are actively moving in this direction.

Konstantin Tolstoy, manager of Universal Robots for the development of sales in Russia & the CIS, also agrees with the limited use of cobots with machine vision.

If you look at projects with collaborative robots, then the share of such tasks - with technical vision - is no more than 10%, "said Konstantin Tolstoy. - These are mainly tasks for reading marking codes. Also, technical vision is involved in assembly tasks, or when the robot needs to pick up the product from the conveyor or from the tray.

Olga Boytsova, product manager for Robots at Omron Electronics, emphasizes the great possibilities and prospects of machine vision in robotics.

Technical vision allows you to significantly simplify the solution of problems related to the orientation of the product, its shape and labeling, "says Olga Boytsova. - For example, thanks to machine vision, object shifting tasks have become universal. Based on Omron booths with built-in vision, you can solve the problem of quickly changing the working area with a label orientation, and this does not require additional calibration of the robot.

Andrei Danilov, head of the business development department of industrial robotics at FANUC, states that machine vision is used to solve the problems of adaptive control of the production process during such production operations as robotic laying, sorting and assembly, welding. The share of robotic systems with machine vision is not yet large, the expert says, but the trend towards the growth of implementations can be traced.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies

Experts talk about the close relationship between the development of robots and artificial intelligence, while recalling that not every controlled robot has AI elements. If the robot only executes operator commands, then the AI is absent here. But when the algorithms are implemented at the level that ON is the control element of the robotic system, it artificial intelligence is present here. Such a robotic system has a greater degree of autonomy, recognition of changes in the environment and variability in reactions to these changes.

But not all situations can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy, laying the right reactions at the level of software algorithms, and machine learning comes to the rescue. For industrial robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning have received special importance due to the appearance of cobots in production that can interact productively with humans. These technologies are also required for direct performance of production tasks - quality control, sorting and others. Experts are confident in the prospect of using cobots with AI in Russian production, although they state that this market niche is just beginning to develop.

Following the growth in the use of technical vision, the tasks of applying artificial intelligence are also being updated, "says Mikhail Zotov, DS-Robotix. - They are closely related, since the data obtained from digital cameras must be interpreted correctly. With the existing complexity of tasks and the increase in the number of data processed, basic software tools are no longer enough. First of all, such solutions are used for quality control, defect detection, and sorting. In addition, artificial intelligence technologies are in demand in welding and painting when it comes to piece or small-part batches. The cost of developing software for such tasks is still high, and the number of implementations is very small. This market is just beginning to take shape.

Despite the fact that the supplemented AI robotics is just beginning to be introduced in Russia, there are already examples of successful cases, recalls Konstantin Tolstoy, Universal Robots.

In Russia, there are still a lot of simpler, more routine tasks that need automation, and only then it will be possible to move to complex tasks where the use of artificial intelligence is necessary, "says Konstantin Tolstoy. - Although we have several cases where AI is used. For example, the Sberbank Robotics Laboratory has developed a solution that allows the robot to determine the type, shape of the object and, according to this data, choose a convenient capture point for further movement. They plan to use such systems in warehouse logistics.

Andrei Danilov, FANUC, is sure of the great potential and good prospects of robots with AI elements.

In industrial robots, the use of machine learning with AI elements is relevant for those tasks where there is a need for autonomous self-training - working with randomly arranged volumetric parts, detecting and correcting defects, "says Andrei Danilov. - At the moment, such robots are not very popular, but we see a growing trend and interest in such equipment among new customers related to logistics.

Cyber security

The creators of robots pay much attention to the physical security of the interaction of humans and robots in production, sometimes forgetting about cybersecurity. The main reason: the information environment of the enterprise in which the robot operates is supposed to be initially safe. But this is not always the case, since sometimes robots directly connect to the Internet - for example, to update firmware from the manufacturer. And the internal IT environment of the enterprise is not always sufficiently protected.

Researchers identify several types of attacks on industrial robots: an attack on the control system, a change in the logic of operations, and a number of others. Obviously, this can lead to damage to parts, and even to injuries to a person interacting with a robot. Experts say that the cybersecurity of industrial robots is important to consider as an element of an integrated industrial security system.

We believe that security is one of the main vectors of the work of any companies in the information and technical sphere, "says Grigory Schoolchildren, TRIZ ROBOTICS. - Speaking about the cybersecurity of industrial robots, we talk about the security of the entire production complex, not forgetting other important things, for example - about commercial and industrial secrets, about the protection of intellectual property. For us, the issue of security becomes only more relevant, attracting the increased attention of our specialists. Today we are ready to offer a number of solutions for protecting customer technologies.

Representatives of vendors claim that they are paying great attention to cybersecurity today.

Our company takes cybersecurity very seriously, "emphasizes Konstantin Tolstoy, Universal Robots. - Therefore, in our robots with each new update, there are more and more built-in functions that allow you to configure the security policy of remote control of the robot without installing external devices or involving third-party specialists.

Igor Knyazev, head of the marketing department of Fructonad GROUP, speaks of the cybersecurity of robotic complexes as one of the challenges that must be addressed. He notes that the hacking of the system as a whole or a separate industrial robot today is a large potential threat, which can lead to large economic losses.

Not only hacking and causing momentary damage can cause a significant problem, but such a form of industrial espionage as surveillance of production processes and obtaining commercial information on the production of products for commercial purposes, "Igor Knyazev also notes. - Today, the problem of cybersecurity is solved mainly by ensuring the autonomy of industrial robots, the integrator sort of "cuts" them from the rest of the world. They work without access to the Internet and, if necessary, enable remote control (for example, for remote debugging of the program) they are specially connected to the network, and then, accordingly, they are transferred back to offline mode.

Andrei Danilov, FANUC, recalls the inevitability of using cloud services in future productions and the increasing relevance of cybersecurity in this regard.

Questions about cybersecurity arise, first of all, in the case of equipment working with external networks and Internet access, "says Andrei Danilov. - Most Russian customers using industrial robots are quite conservative, they are in no hurry to connect equipment to the network. Nevertheless, the use of cloud services in the future is inevitable and with the growth of production, the relevance of cybersecurity will only grow.

Trends in the development of the component base

As is known, the component base of the robot includes drives, rotation angle sensors, controllers, inertial sensors and systems, and a number of others. The leaders in this market, of course, are Western manufacturers. But in Russia there are their own manufacturers. According to the map of industrial robotics prepared by TAdviser and NAURR, 10 companies in Moscow, 5 in St. Petersburg, one company each in Perm, Yekaterinburg, Taganrog, Mtsensk and Fryazino near Moscow are engaged in the production of components for robots.

Unfortunately, today this issue remains open, but even here I try to find pros, "says Grigory Schoolchildren, TRIZ ROBOTICS. - Yes, far from the entire component base can be covered by our production facilities. But this only means that we have time, initiative personalities and skillful hands that will help create something of our own, unique, taking as a basis basic samples. Perfectly normal practice. With the growth of robotics, technical support will come!

Igor Knyazev, Fructonad Group, considers the advantages of the Russian robot component market to be the remaining strong foundation since Soviet times in the form of a strong design school. Among the disadvantages, the expert calls a strong bias towards the defense industry, poor cooperation between market participants, low implementation speed, personnel hunger and weak support from the state.

Konstantin Tolstoy, Universal Robots, notes the development of controllers in the direction of controlling not only the robot, but also peripheral devices.

Already, the cobots of our company are equipped with full-fledged software and logic controllers, "emphasizes Konstantin Tolstoy. - In addition to controlling the robot, such a PLC can take on the tasks of controlling third-party devices and the periphery.

Olga Boytsova, Omron Electronics, also speaks about the special attention that vendors pay to controllers.

Recently, we have a new series of NJ series controllers with a built-in robot control functionality of up to 8 pieces, "says Olga Boytsova. - These controllers provide synchronization of automation technology, which allows customers to improve the speed and accuracy of production, model the entire production line, simplify maintenance and reduce the time to market.

The multiplicity of component base development vectors is emphasized by Andrei Danilov, FANUC.

Mechanically, industrial robots are developing quite conservatively, here the changes are more associated with optimizing the design for ease of maintenance and repair, as well as minimizing dead zones, "says Andrei Danilov. - The development of controllers goes primarily in the direction of improving the performance of the system, unification and standardization of the component base, as well as to improve the user interface, both from the point of view of simplification of programming and from the point of view of transition to alternative platforms.

About the future

How likely is a completely deserted production, when robotic technologies - all together and each individually replace a person in any position? The future is vague, the points of view are predictably different.

In mass production with a full production cycle, robotization should replace absolutely all stages with difficult working conditions and processes that require high accuracy, "suggests Andrei Mukhametzyanov, director of BFG Robotics. - The simplest, constantly repeated tasks should also undergo robotization. The world already lives in areas of deserted production. This gives maximum quality, flexibility, quick rescheduling and independence from emergency situations such as pandemics.

At the same time, we must not forget about the economic effect, Andrei Mukhametzyanov is sure, robotization is not needed for the sake of robotization, and for each project it is necessary to calculate a payback model.

But as Artyom Lukin sees the technological model of ideal production, who noted that already in the present his company has implemented several projects with a high degree of integrated robotization.

First of all, production should quickly adapt to market demands and remain profitable, for which flexibility is important, recalls the main Artem Lukin, TECHNORED. - Most interesting is the following concept: production consists of universal robotic sites that are not tied to a specific product or operation, while successfully performing a wide range of tasks in automatic mode. Training time, rescheduling is reduced to several minutes. And between these sites, autonomous mobile robots move, carrying out all the logistics of materials, tools and finished products. Our company has already implemented several similar projects, and their number will only grow.

Grigory Schoolchildren, TRIZROBOTICS, emphasizes the flexibility of production processes and the need to minimize the human factor.

I think that in the coming decades, flexible production systems (GPS) will become the foundation of any production, "says Grigory Schoolchildren. - As for the field of application, first of all, we are talking about optimizing flexible, "intelligent" and self-learning industries that belong to almost any sphere in which the minimization of the human factor is required, associated with an increase in the overall efficiency of the production line.

And the TRIZROBOTICS representative sees the ideal future in the optimal robotization of production, the main goal of which is to create comfortable conditions for the employee, and not a complete replacement of a person in production.

We talk a lot about robots, about cars, but we always want to think about people, "says Grigory Schoolchildren. - For me personally, the ideal production model is the minimized risks of economic and physical nature, increased to the maximum level of productivity and, of course, comfortable conditions for employees of enterprises. Who knows, perhaps in the coming years we will be able to manage entire production complexes without leaving the home office.

2019-2020

During the introduction of robots into production, domestic integrators use a number of technologies - image processing, orientation in space, cloud technologies, etc. For example, Abagy Robotic Systems creates a system that can program a robot based on drawings and external sensors - without human participation. The Slam navigation system of KUKA mobile robots used in Skolkovo allows the robot to independently navigate in space and "see" the changes taking place around. The current direction of technological development is interaction with elements of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Consider in more detail several technological directions in the development of industrial robotics, which experts spoke about in late 2019 - early 2020.

Increasing use of machine vision technologies

Integral components of Industry 4.0 are machine vision and radio frequency identification chips built into the technological equipment of robots.

A good example is matrix production, in which robotic platforms can bring robots not only blanks, but also tools, tooling. All this is determined through radio frequency identification chips and machine vision, which allows robots to become a universal production unit, capable of producing completely different things without human participation in reassignment. For example, a factory producing cars can, without the participation of a person, rebuild to the production of motorcycles in a day. Such technologies are already actively used by KUKA in industry, "said Dmitry Kapishnikov, CEO of KUKA Russia.

The BFG Group is in solidarity with Kapishnikov. Machine vision, according to the company, is increasingly being used in modern robotic solutions, which are becoming more complex.

Machine vision is actively used in the assembly process, to identify the location of the collected products, to level the quality of procurement production. The use of machine vision allows you to significantly accelerate and simplify the above processes, - specified in BFG Robotics.

According to Artem Lukin, founder of TechnoRed, the general distributor of Universal Robots in Russia, machine vision is increasingly being introduced into robotics, as this technology is becoming more accessible and advanced. In two or three years, according to the expert's forecast, machine vision will completely revolutionize the market for industrial solutions and will be introduced in every second project.

Kawasaki Robotics believes that in Russia this technology is not yet very popular, with the exception of seam tracking in welding. At the same time, in developed countries, as noted in the company, the machine vision system is already actively used, especially on flow lines in the food industry.

Kawasaki has developed machine vision software products: K-Finder in the 2D vision system and K-Stereo in the 3D system. K-Finder is a software complex that detects an object, checks for compliance with form and color. The system supports the operation of any cameras. Additional lighting may be required to provide higher accuracy. Up to eight controllers can be connected to this system through an Ethernet network, Kawasaki Robotics said.

Head of the Department of Robotics FANUC RUSSIADmitry Kainov informed TAdviser that the company's arsenal is a solution to the iRVision vision system. According to Kainov, it can be implemented by the customer without complex programming or expertise, since it is an integrated solution in the robot that does not require an external interface.

Demand for adaptive robot control technologies

According to experts, adaptive robot control technologies are increasingly in demand. Various systems and sensors are being developed to allow the robot to recognize changes in certain conditions associated with its task or affecting its work.

The robot recognizes objects in real time, adjusts its trajectory, rebuilds security zones, etc. Such management methods make it possible to increasingly reduce human participation in the production process, "said Arkady Dilman, head of digital production at Prof-IT Group.

Human and Robot Collaboration Security

Recently, very much attention has been paid to the safety of the process of collaboration between the robot and humans. According to Yevgeny Krysanov, chief engineer of the integrator company MDI2B, for more flexible and safe integration, robot manufacturers are equipping their complexes with safety packages such as SAFE MOVE (ABB) and DCS (FANUC).

At the same time, certain categories of robots are initially "sharpened" to work side by side with people. We are talking about collaborative robots (cobots). This type of devices is small in size, while they are easy to program and use, safe for humans.

These robots have many built-in security functions, due to which they can work side by side with people in open space. They do not need to be placed in cages or separated by a fence. Hence their name - collaborative robots. They act as human assistants who can be next to him, "says Katerina Slanska, marketing manager at Universal Robots in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS.

Cobots can complement and improve the performance of employees without posing any threats. Many such developments, according to Kawasaki Robotics, are carried out in the field of medicine and pharmaceuticals. KUKA, in addition to medicine, widely uses this type of robot in the automotive industry. Universal Robots is increasing the use of such devices in various industries.

Collaborative robots help to save employees of production departments from routine operations, thereby freeing their time for more responsible tasks.

Palletization is perhaps the most frequent task for which our cobots in Russia acquire. This is especially true of the food and beverage industry. They are also often ordered for servicing numerical control (NC) machines. They are also in demand for tasks such as "raise and put." For example, in production, where there are conveyors, the robot can take a certain amount of product from the belt and place it in boxes. I must say that palletization, servicing CNC machines and "lift and put" are the most common tasks for which our robots are used throughout the world. Often, cobots are also used to twist something during assembly, move objects using computer vision. But we have examples of the unusual use of our robots. For example, one of the customers uses a kobot as a barista who brings glasses, There is also an example when the kobot was used as an operator to shoot videos on TV. It's great for stabilizing the camera. One of the interesting cases is the use of cobots as assistants to medical personnel to help rehabilitate patients in a coma. The range of industries where cobots can be used depends, among other things, on the legislation of the country in which they are bought. In the United States, for example, the law does not allow the use of a robot in restaurants, [1] "said Katerina Slanska, a representative of Universal Robots, in an interview with TAdviser.

Integration of industrial robots with other solutions

An important area of ​ ​ development in the field of industrial robotics is the integration of robots with other software and hardware solutions. For example, Prof-IT Group is ready to offer customers the integration of industrial robots with MES systems - to take into account the progress of production, QMS - to manage product quality, RFID - for traceability of operations and products by the Internet of Things platform with the capabilities of predictive analytics of the state of industrial equipment, says Arkady Dilman.

Kawasaki Robotics sees prospects for expanding the capabilities of the robot through additional means of connection and interaction. Robots receive additional connection modules, including through wi-fi and Bluetooth technologies.

Director of Strategic Projects of Lanit Sergey Litvinov believes that "cloud robots" have the greatest potential, which are integrated into the enterprise's production IT systems and can perform certain functions within the framework of general business processes.

Industrial Robot Safety

Protecting robots from various vulnerabilities is another important area. According to TAdviser, KUKA Russia CEO Dmitry Kapishnikov, the issues of protecting German robots from exposure from outside the network began to be discussed in Europe 15 years ago. At the same time, KUKA robots, according to him, as of the end of 2019 have the maximum possible protection. However, he clarified that a good specialist will always find a vulnerability in the robot, so the issue of protecting industrial robots should be put at the level of the entire enterprise and have several levels.

There is no need to neglect this question. Many companies, such as CISCO and IBM, already have ready-made solutions for this, in addition, we know that Kaspersky Lab is also actively developing protection packages for industrial equipment, "said Dmitry Kapishnikov.

Universal Robots believes that the spread of robots that have interfaces to access the network will give impetus to the emergence of new classes of viruses.

To avoid the introduction of malicious code and prevent unauthorized remote control, advances in the field of cybersecurity are actively being introduced into robotics. For this, for example, there are several levels of security policies, the company notes.

The problem of industrial cyber systems, according to Arkady Dilman, is the complex elimination of vulnerabilities by manufacturers. For its reasons, he noted the use of specific software, outdated equipment and difficulties in interrupting the process.

To ensure the safety of industrial robots and cyber-physical systems, first of all, qualified personnel are needed, monitoring possible risks 24/7, vulnerability search activities and, of course, training personnel - since even minimal knowledge in the field of cybersecurity can significantly reduce the risks of threats, "said Arkady Dilman.

Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies

In the field of industrial robotics, machine learning technologies are reflected.

Artificial intelligence (AI) mainly develops on the side of personal computers with powerful processors in combination with neural networks. And the robot in this context is, as a rule, an "actuator" whose controller receives the finalized data after processing by artificial intelligence in the mode of a finished program or adaptive execution of instructions.

From our point of view, in the context of the industrial robot market, it is more correct to talk about machine learning, when using analytical blocks of the Internet of Things platform, you can use robots more effectively, "said TAdviser Arkady Dilman.

TAdviser was told about the development of a machine learning system that is intended for small-scale production in Kawasaki Robotics. The essence of the system is the variability of the operation. If necessary, the operator in manual mode trains the robot in a new trajectory, after which the robot itself is able to recognize the signs of variation and repeat the new movement. In addition, when combining robots into a single network, the experience of one robot can be transferred to all robots of its network. This creates a single knowledge base that any robot in the network can use. This technology was called "Saxressor" and is being actively introduced at Japanese enterprises, representatives of Kawasaki Robotics explained.

Weber Comehanix believes that machine learning will allow the development of artificial intelligence.

This is what is really needed to implement complex and complex automation projects. Training in algorithmic procedures over time will replace "hard" programming, which will simplify and accelerate the development of artificial intelligence, the company predicts.

Universal Robots said that the cobots the company produces are a striking example of the use of AI in industrial robotization:

Thanks to AI, they can work side by side with people. Cobots are specially designed for interaction with humans. Among the advantages of such machines is the possibility of imitation training. When working with cobots, you do not need deep knowledge in programming. They can be trained by anyone (after taking two-day courses), these robots are very easy to use. You just need to click on the record and do the necessary actions, and then repeat them several times. The machine then plays the movements offline.

Applying Open Source Code to Target Audience

Manufacturers treat the use of open source software in industrial robots in different ways. KUKA robots, for example, do not use it.

In industrial robots, the most important thing is the speed, smoothness and accuracy of movements, which should be repeated thousands of times. How is this achieved within our code? This is the main intellectual secret of any manufacturer of serial industrial robots, "said Dmitry Kapishnikov.

However, other developers consider this direction important and promising. As noted by Artem Lukin, founder of TechnoRed, one of the first robotics companies to use open source code when creating robots, was Universal Robots.

This allowed hundreds of developers to produce all kinds of applications, solutions, accessories and extensions for robots, "explained TAdviser Artem Lukin.

According to Ivan Borodin, CEO of the manufacturer of logistics robots Ronavi Robotics, the use of open source software allows the vendor to expand the target audience. Industrial robots with a closed code, as Borodin noted, can only integrate as a finished turnkey project.

We offer partially open source robots. The part of the code that is responsible for traffic safety is completely closed, and the part of the code that is responsible for interfacing with artificial intelligence and controlling the swarm of robots is open. This simplifies the integration of logistics robots into existing business processes and warehouse or manufacturing management systems. Thus, we simplified the customer's entry into the robotization of the warehouse, while maintaining a high level of safety, "Borodin said.

Industrial Robot Controllers Development

A modern trend in the development of industrial robot controllers is the incorporation of additional "smart" functions - software and hardware options that allow robots to perform much more technological operations. This opinion, in particular, is held in the FANUC.

KUKA primarily focuses on the convenience and cost of servicing controllers. According to Dmitry Kapishnikov, in most cases for an industrial enterprise, the size of the controller does not matter much, but the speed of its repair, in case of failure, is paramount.

Pre-diagnosis programs, remote monitoring and easy replacement of components allow us to give 25 years of support for our products, "he said.

The BFG Group notes that controllers are becoming smaller, while their performance is increasing. In addition, the number of additional peripheral equipment that can connect to them is constantly increasing.

Kawasaki Robotics said that the company created the most compact and lightweight controller for an industrial robot:

The next generation controller received the letter F and has a number of undeniable advantages. Firstly, it implements the function of power recovery, which gives its savings of about 10%. Secondly, the new controller already has global specifications that support the standards of many countries. In addition, it allows you to connect up to four 32-channel modules.

Speaking about the development trends of controllers used for industrial robots, the company noted that industrial robotics are on the way to simplify and facilitate the control of the robot, as well as its integration into industrial processes.

Technology is evolving to make the robot accessible to small and medium businesses. Adapt it for small-scale production, - noted in Kawasaki Robotics.

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