What is a cobot?

A cobot, or collaborative robot, is a type of robot that can safely work together with both people and other cobots. Compared to the traditional industrial robots, they are more affordable, smaller, can easily be deployed in various processes and are built and programmed to cooperate with people. Hence the name ‘collaborative robot’.

What is the difference between robots and cobots?

The main difference between industrial robots and cobots is that cobots are designed to work alongside and together with human employees. They are built to assist people and create a safer and healthier workplace. As cobots work alongside people, they have special built-in sensors that guarantee the safety of employees. When a cobot comes into contact with an employee, it stops immediately. Due to these safety functions, there is no need for extra safety measures such as fencing.

Industrial robots, on the other hand, do the work instead of employees and are often used in heavy manufacturing. They are usually large installations that operate at high speeds with heavy products. They require a lot of safety measures as employees need to stay out of their workspace. However, for task such as the picking and placing of heavy parcels in markets such as 3PL, industrial robots can be very beneficial.

What are the advantages of a cobot?

Cobots offer several advantages and can easily perform various pick and place tasks. They are perfect for the automation of your warehouse or production process, as they:

• Are highly flexible
• Are safe to work with
• Improve quality of work
• Increase productivity
• Scale your business

To learn more, read our blog about the advantages of a cobot.

Where can cobot palletizers be used?

Collaborative robots are used for the automation of many types of processes and tasks. They can help increase efficiency and improve quality of work. Cobots are not created to take over people’s work, but to take on monotonous and repetitive tasks. This allows employees to focus on tasks that require problem solving and creativity; what people are good at.

As cobots are able to carry out many different tasks, they are suitable for a large range of industries, including Logistics, E-commerce, Fashion, Food and Pharma. Many of these industries use cobots for pick and place tasks. That is what we offer at Smart Robotics; cobots as a service for various pick and place tasks, including palletizing and item picking.

What is the ROI of a cobot?

When considering automating with cobots, the return on investment is a crucial decision maker. Luckily, the price of implementing a cobot in your warehouse is generally lower than the price of an industrial robot. As a cobot cooperates safely with people it needs no additional safety measures such as fences or cages. Also, it is a very compact system that easily fits into existing production lines without having to clear a lot of floorspace. However, the most important factor is that cobots are easier to (re)program and can be adjusted to perform other tasks. They are highly flexible and can be implemented in various processes.

At Smart robotics, we see that customers who have implemented our intelligent palletizing and item picking solutions achieve an average ROI of 1 to 2 years.