Application of Collaborative Robots in Research and Education in Learning Factories

According to IFR, the number of installed Cobots has more than tripled from 2017 (11,000 units) to 2021 (39,000 units). Moreover, Cobots are present not only in companies but also in Learning Factory environments, where their usage is diverse. The target of this paper is to show how they can be integrated into education and research to accelerate the distribution of the technology. One approach is to bring the collaborative functionality closer to students and professionals in the form of interactive workshops, which were developed based on industrial applications and systems. In the workshop, four different Cobot scenarios were covered, and it starts with a common theoretical input about human-robot collaboration (HRC), derived by DIN ISO/TS 15066. Then, the basics of teaching/programming stationary/mobile Cobots are addressed. For the HRC mode “Force and Power Limitation”, the UR5 (Universal Robots) and the Panda (Franka Emika) are used. For mode “Speed and Distance Monitoring”, a HORST600 (Fruitcore), combined with a safety laser scanner is applied and for mobile robotics, an LD90 (Omron). An interactive training program task for each robot system was developed and descriptions and learning videos were provided to the participants. Another approach is the inclusion of Cobots in R&D projects that are performed in Learning Factories, like a current research project. In the project, a Cobot is used to scan rooms to digitalize them. One work package is about the simulation of a Cobot scanning scenario in a Learning Factory, which will be described in the paper.