ROBOTICS
FA L L E D I T I O N
Contents
3 — Teaching robots to perform tasks faster
8 — Mitsubishi Electric LoadMate Plus: A Pre-Engineered
Solution to Improve Productivity
9 — Tiny, shape-shifting robot can squish itself into tight spaces
13 — Cobots Make Hella Factory Automation More Agile
& Efficient
20 — How cobots have changed and improved the
robotics industry
22 — Mobile robot component market growth due to greater
investment, technology advances
25 — How electrification of linear actuators improve material
handling automation
2
Teaching robots to perform
tasks faster
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MIT researchers developed a framework that helps a nontechnical user
understand why a robot failed and fine-tune it with minimal effort to perform
a task effectively.
I
magine purchasing a robot to perform household tasks. This robot was built and
trained in a factory on a certain set of tasks and has never seen the items in your
home. When you ask it to pick up a mug from your kitchen table, it might not recognize the mug. As a result, the robot fails.
“Right now, the way we train these robots, when they fail, we don’t really know why. So
you would just throw up your hands and say, ‘OK, I guess we have to start over.’ A critical component that is missing from this system is enabling the robot to demonstrate
why it is failing so the user can give it feedback,” said Andi Peng, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student at MIT.
Peng and her collaborators at MIT, New York University, and the University of California
at Berkeley created a framework that enables humans to quickly teach a robot what
they want it to do, with a minimal amount of effort.
When a robot fails, the system uses an algorithm to generate counterfactual explanations that describe what needed to change for the robot to succeed. For instance,
maybe the robot would have been able to pick up the mug if the mug were a certain
color. It shows these counterfactuals to the human and asks for feedback on why the
robot failed. Then the system utilizes this feedback and the counterfactual explana-
3
Teaching robots to perform tasks faster
tions to generate new data it uses to fine-tune the robot.
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Fine-tuning involves tweaking a machine-learning (ML) model that has already been
trained to perform one task, so it can perform a second, similar task. The researchers
tested this technique in simulations and found that it could teach a robot more efficiently than other methods. The robots trained with this framework performed better,
while the training process consumed less of a human’s time.
This framework could help robots learn faster in new environments without requiring a
user to have technical knowledge. In the long run, this could be a step toward enabling
general-purpose robots to efficiently perform daily tasks for the elderly or individuals
with disabilities in a variety of settings.
Peng, the lead author, is joined by co-authors Aviv Netanyahu, an EECS graduate student; Mark Ho, an assistant professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology; Tianmin
Shu, an MIT postdoc; Andreea Bobu, a graduate student at UC Berkeley; and senior
authors Julie Shah, an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics and the director
of the Interactive Robotics Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory (CSAIL), and Pulkit Agrawal, a professor in CSAIL. The research will be presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning.
On-the-job robot training
Robots often fail due to distribution shift — the robot is presented with objects and
spaces it did not see during training, and it doesn’t understand what to do in this new
environment.
4
Teaching robots to perform tasks faster
One way to retrain a robot for a specific task is imitation learning. The user could demon-
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strate the correct task to teach the robot what to do. If a user tries to teach a robot to
pick up a mug, but demonstrates with a white mug, the robot could learn that all mugs
are white. It may then fail to pick up a red, blue, or “Tim-the-Beaver-brown” mug.
Training a robot to recognize that a mug is a mug, regardless of its color, could take
thousands of demonstrations.
“I don’t want to have to demonstrate with 30,000 mugs. I want to demonstrate with just
one mug. But then I need to teach the robot so it recognizes that it can pick up a mug
of any color,” Peng said.
To accomplish this, the researchers’ system determines what specific object the user cares
about (a mug) and what elements aren’t important for the task (perhaps the color of the
mug doesn’t matter). It uses this information to generate new, synthetic data by changing
these “unimportant” visual concepts. This process is known as data augmentation.
The framework has three steps. First, it shows the task that caused the robot to fail.
Then it collects a demonstration from the user of the desired actions and generates
counterfactuals by searching over all features in the space that show what needed to
change for the robot to succeed.
The system shows these counterfactuals to the user and asks for feedback to determine which visual concepts do not impact the desired action. Then it uses this human
feedback to generate many new augmented demonstrations.
5
Teaching robots to perform tasks faster
In this way, the user could
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demonstrate picking up
one mug, but the system
Combat Labor Shortages with Automation
would produce demonstrations showing the desired
action with thousands of
different mugs by altering
the color. It uses these
data to fine-tune the robot.
Creating counterfactual
explanations and soliciting
feedback from the user are
critical for the technique to
succeed, Peng said.
The process of loading and unloading parts or materials into a machine tool center,
better known as machine tending, can be a tedious task. LoadMate Plus™ is an
engineered solution that is seamlessly integrated, fully supported, and delivers ROI quickly.
Machine tending by LoadMate Plus™ offers:
l Easy implementation
l Flexibility and mobility
l Solutions to labor shortages, improved productivity,
and lower operation costs
Going from human
reasoning to robot
reasoning
Because their work seeks
to put the human in the
training loop, the researchers tested their technique
with human users. They
first conducted a study in
AD-VH-00151
which they asked people
6
Teaching robots to perform tasks faster
if counterfactual explanations helped them identify elements that could be changed
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without affecting the task.
“It was so clear right off the bat. Humans are so good at this type of counterfactual
reasoning. And this counterfactual step is what allows human reasoning to be translated into robot reasoning in a way that makes sense,” she said.
Then they applied their framework to three simulations where robots were tasked with:
navigating to a goal object, picking up a key and unlocking a door, and picking up a
desired object then placing it on a tabletop. In each instance, their method enabled
the robot to learn faster than with other techniques, while requiring fewer demonstrations from users.
Moving forward, the researchers hope to test this framework on real robots. They also
want to focus on reducing the time it takes the system to create new data using generative machine-learning models.
“We want robots to do what humans do, and we want them to do it in a semantically
meaningful way. Humans tend to operate in this abstract space, where they don’t think
about every single property in an image. At the end of the day, this is really about enabling a robot to learn a good, human-like representation at an abstract level,” Peng
said.
Adam Zewe
Adam Zewe, MIT News Office
7
Mitsubishi Electric LoadMate Plus: A Pre-Engineered Solution
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
Mitsubishi Electric LoadMate Plus: A PreEngineered Solution to Improve Productivity
LoadMate Plus cells can be configured to fit a variety of robot
applications, helping integrators, OEMs, and manufacturers
save time & cost with a complete robot and stand solution. With
its flexible options, the LoadMate Plus solution can be used for
pick-and-place, inspection, assembly, packing, and many other
applications.
8
Tiny, shape-shifting robot can
squish itself into tight spaces
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CU Boulder researchers have developed the Compliant Legged
Articulated Robotic Insect (CLARI), which is designed to passively change
its shape to work in tight environments, which could make it useful in
emergency situations.
T
he Compliant Legged Articulated Robotic Insect (CLARI), developed by CU
Boulder engineers, is a squishable robot that can passively change its shape to
squeeze through narrow gaps—with a bit of inspiration from the world of bugs. It also
has the potential to aid first responders after major disasters in an entirely new way.
Several of these robots can easily fit into a person’s hand, and each weighs less than a
ping-pong ball. CLARI can transform its shape from square to long and slender when
its surroundings become cramped, said Heiko Kabutz, a doctoral student in the Paul
M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Kabutz and his colleagues introduced the miniature robot in a study published Aug. 30
in the journal “Advanced Intelligent Systems.” Right now, CLARI has four legs. But the
machine’s design allows engineers to mix and match its appendages, potentially giving
rise to some wild and wriggly robots.
“It has a modular design, which means it’s very easy to customize and add more legs,”
Kabutz said. “Eventually, we’d like to build an eight-legged, spider-style robot that
could walk over a web.”
9
Tiny, shape-shifting robot can squish itself into tight spaces
CLARI is still in its infancy, added Kaushik Jayaram, co-author of the study and an as-
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sistant professor of mechanical engineering at CU Boulder. The robot, for example,
is tethered to wires, which supply it with power and send it basic commands. But he
hopes that, one day, these petite machines could crawl independently into spaces
where no robot has crawled before—like the insides of jet engines or the rubble of
collapsed buildings.
“Most robots today basically look like a cube,” Jayaram said. “Why should they all be
the same? Animals come in all shapes and sizes.”
Cockroach power
Jayaram is no stranger to robots that reflect the hodgepodge of the animal world.
As a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, he designed a robot
that could squeeze through narrow spaces by compressing down to about half its
height—just like cockroaches wedging their way through cracks in a wall. But that machine, he said, represented just the tip of the iceberg where animal flexibility is concerned.
“We were able to squeeze through vertical gaps,” he said. “But that got me thinking:
That’s one way to compress. What are others?”
Which is where CLARI, made to squeeze through horizontal gaps, scuttles into the picture. In its most basic form, the robot is shaped like a square with one leg along each
of its four sides. Depending on how CLARI is squeezed, however, it can become wider,
like a crab, or more elongated, like Jayaram’s old favorite, the cockroach. In all, the
10
Tiny, shape-shifting robot can squish itself into tight spaces
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robot can morph from about 34 mm (1.3 in.) wide in its square
shape to about 21 mm (0.8 in.) wide in its elongated form.
Unlike Jayaram’s earlier mechanized cockroach, each of
CLARI’s legs functions almost like an independent robot—
with its own circuit board and dual actuators that move the
CLARI, a miniature robot
designed by engineers at
CU Boulder, can passively
change its shape from square
to long and slender or wide
like a crab. Courtesy: Casey
Cass, CU Boulder
11
Tiny, shape-shifting robot can squish itself into tight spaces
leg forward and backward and side-to-side, similar to a human hip joint. Theoretically,
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that modularity might allow CLARI robots to take on a wide variety of shapes.
“What we want are general-purpose robots that can change shape and adapt to whatever the environmental conditions are,” Jayaram said. “In the animal world, that might
be something like an amoeba, which has no well-defined shape but can change depending on whether it needs to move fast or engulf some food.”
Web crawler
He and Kabutz see their current design as the first in a series of CLARI robots that they
hope will become smaller and more nimble. In future iterations, the researchers want
to incorporate sensors into CLARI so that it can detect and react to obstacles. The
group is also examining how to give the robot the right mix of flexibility and strength,
Kabutz said—a task that will only get more difficult the more legs the team adds on.
Ultimately, the team wants to develop shape-changing robots that don’t just move
through a lab environment but a complex, natural space — in which the machines will
need to bounce off obstacles like trees or even blades of grass or push through the
cracks between rocks and keep going.
“When we try to catch an insect, they can disappear into a gap,” Kabutz said. “But if
we have robots with the capabilities of a spider or a fly, we can add cameras or sensors,
and now we’re able to start exploring spaces we couldn’t get into before.”
Daniel Strain
Daniel Strain, science writer and beat contact, University of Colorado Boulder
12
Cobots Make
Hella Factory
Automation More
Agile & Efficient
T
he concept of collaborative robots, or “cobots,” isn’t
new, but it has taken a couple of decades for cobots to
become light and agile enough to be attractive for a company like Hella Electronics Corporation. Located in Flora, Illinois, Hella designs and manufactures a range of lighting and
electronics products for the fast-moving automotive industry.
Curtis Garrard, Head of Technical Services at Hella, says
the combination of ASSISTA robotic arms from Mitsubishi
Electric Automation plus visual programming and dynamic path planning from Realtime Robotics is changing the
company’s approach to factory automation.
Initially, Curtis says, the decision to go with the Mitsubishi Electric ASSISTA industrial cobots was based on a
long-standing relationship with Mitsubishi Electric. He explains, “When we started looking at collaborative robots,
Cobots Make Hella Factory Automation More Agile & Efficient
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sticking with Mitsubishi was a no brainer. We
have a very good relationship. We’ve got several
of their robotic product offerings already deployed, and for us, finding a collaborative robot
that fits with our current technology makes it not
only easier for us to support but easier for us to
integrate, as well.”
Visual Programming
The ASSISTA Collaborative Robot is designed to
change the perception of what a robot can be.
Light, agile and low-maintenance, the ASSISTA
requires less safety guarding than a traditional
industrial robot. Not only can human employees work around
ASSISTA collaborative
it safely, there is less hardware that needs to be moved along
robots are adding
with the robotic arm. The arm can be more easily re-de-
agility, safety and
ployed and “trained” for new tasks in other locations.
flexibility to the
factory automation
ASSISTA offers direct teaching, as well. Moving the robotic
arm by hand sets each memorized position, which works to cut
set-up and commissioning times to a minimum.
capabilities at Hella
Electronics
Corporation.
To meet Hella’s unique requirements, Mitsubishi Electric Automation worked with
Boston-based Realtime Robotics for two sophisticated functions: visual programming
and dynamic path planning. The two companies also collaborated with Power Motion, an authorized Mitsubishi Electric distributor, who supported Hella throughout
the entire process.
14
Cobots Make Hella Factory Automation More Agile & Efficient
“When Mitsubishi came to us and explained their relationship with Realtime Robotics,
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it was a very, very interesting concept,” Curtis remembers. “We had several use cases
where we felt like the ASSISTA cobot could solve specific problems. The tie in with the
Realtime Robotics solution really expands the problem solving capabilities.”
Tim Kalhorn, a Mitsubishi Electric Automation Channel Account Manager working
with Hella, says the ease of visual programming is incredible. “Ten years ago, you
almost needed a PhD to program robots. Now, with the graphical programming environment, you could program an ASSISTA cobot from a tablet PC. It uses pinch, zoom
and drag commands.
Hella Automation Engineer Ralph Barbre agrees. For example, Ralph says, reassigning
tasks is simple. “All I have to do is go into the graphical screen and change where a
pick point is. In the PLC code, each point is identified by a name. I don’t have to reprogram the PLC code. All I have to do is move that point to another location. The robot
just takes off and runs in a matter of a few minutes.”
The ability of the system to identify and remember named pick-and-place points also
allows the robot arm to be relocated, then brought back to the same table without
reprogramming. “As long as I put the robot back in the same spot where it’s pinned on
the table,” Ralph explains, “the pick or place point is going to be the same. The point
is identified within the environment of that location.”
Easy Multi-Robot Setup
While the ease of programming and reprogramming pick-and-place points saves time
and adds flexibility to single-arm applications, the Realtime Robotics dynamic path
15
Cobots Make Hella Factory Automation More Agile & Efficient
planning saves even more time as the robot operates in situations where more than
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one robotic arm operates in the same work cell.
“In the past,” Ralph Barbre recalls, “you would have to have several lines of code to
keep the robots from coming in contact with each other. You’d try to predict where one
is over the other and then write the code for a path to keep them separate at all times.
That creates a problem with latency so you have issues with speed.”
Even worse, if the robots do end up
hitting each other, which Barbre says
used to occur several times in a shift,
“the production line would be down for
the time it takes for a technician to come
and reset the robot, get everything in
the cell back to a home position and
then restart it.“
As Tom Munger, Director of Sales for
Realtime Robotics, points out, shutting down a line to
The ASSISTA Collaborative
reset a robot is an expensive proposition. “Typically in
Robot is designed to
an automotive plant, the minute the line goes down,
you’re experiencing tens of thousands of dollars in
potential costs every minute. The Realtime Robotics
technology keeps that line running longer because of
our automatic collision avoidance behavior.”
change the perception of
what a robot can be. Light,
agile and low maintenance,
the ASSISTA requires less
safety guarding than a
traditional industrial robot.
16
Cobots Make Hella Factory Automation More Agile & Efficient
Munger continues, “When end users are deploying multi-robot cells, they utilize a
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process known as ‘interlocks’ to ensure that robots in a shared space never collide with
one another. Realtime Robotics employs that concept in a much more dynamic way.
Our dynamic path planning system, which includes our Realtime Robotics Controller
and RapidPlan software, automatically manages all the robot motions in a given work
cell and communicates where each robot is going in real time.”
As a result, Munger says, end users have experienced up to an 80% reduction in time
spent motion planning during programming and optimization.
For the Hella plant in Illinois, Curtis Garrard estimates, “we’ve taken what probably
should have been about a two-week integration time frame down to just a couple of
days. What’s more, we’ve been able to do most of that work offline where we’re not
having to impact our production environment to fine tune things.”
Time savings also apply to the factory floor with benefits such as automated fault
recovery and automatic reboot. In the end, Tom Munger says, “users achieve much
higher robot uptime, and they don’t require expensive robot programmers to come
and make modifications to work cells if something goes wrong. In time savings on the
factory floor, our technology typically pays for itself in the first fault recovery instance.”
Bottom Line: Greater Safety and Efficiency
Munger explains dynamic path planning with this analogy: “It’s like GPS for cars. We
simply give the robot a start goal and an end goal and the robot will calculate multiple
different paths to get there. If an obstacle is recognized along one path, the robot will
evaluate what other paths it can take that would result in a non-collision behavior.”
17
Cobots Make Hella Factory Automation More Agile & Efficient
And it’s not only another robot that might force a different path. It could also be a hu-
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man entering the robot’s work space. Ultimately, that’s what enables the ASSISTA cobot to be truly collaborative with a human employee. It can handle the awkward, risky
or tedious tasks while the employee works safely alongside to manage the operation
and do other, more appropriate tasks.
Curtis Garrard notes that letting robots take over some work is good for
business, and good for Hella employees. “A lot of people don’t take into
account what an injury costs your business. Put a collaborative robot where
maybe an operator would be doing
some weird twisting, turning or very,
very repetitive tasks and you mitigate
that risk from an injury standpoint.”
Even before the COVID pandemic, Curtis notes,
factory workers were hard to find. In 2021, the labor
shortage became even worse. A Chamber of Commerce survey published in June of 2021 found that
The Realtime Robotics
solution allows two robots to
work dynamically around one
another, so you get closer to
cutting cycle times in half.
90.5% of companies reported a lack of available workers was slowing the economy in
their area, twice as many as cited before the pandemic.
Curtis says cobots like the Mitsubishi Electric ASSISTA help Hella find and retain good
employees because they make factory floor jobs safer and more attractive to potential
employees.
18
Cobots Make Hella Factory Automation More Agile & Efficient
He adds that those benefits work in tan-
“Finding a collaborative robot that fits
dem with the bottom-line efficiency of
with our current technology makes
factory automation. “A lot of your cost
it not only easier for us to support, but
benefit comes from how much you can run
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easier for us to integrate as well.”
and how fast you can run. So break times,
Curtis Garrard
lunch times, things that aren’t there with a
collaborative robot really help drive your
overall efficiency up and your costs down.”
Head of Technical Services
Hella Electronics Corporation
Curtis concludes that working with Power Motion to implement Mitsubishi Electric’s
ASSISTA collaborative robots with the Realtime Robotics visual programming and
dynamic path planning has been a winner for Hella all around. “The Realtime Robotics
solution allows two robots to work dynamically around one another, so you get closer
to cutting your cycle times in half. Plus, the robots being able to move around work
environment obstacles, such as incoming or outgoing material, or maybe an operator
coming in to do a quality check, that really helps maximize efficiency and safety. It’s a
very effective, agile, flexible manufacturing solution.”
AUTOMATION SOLUTION INGREDIENTS
• ASSISTA Collaborative Robots
• Realtime Robotics Realtime Controller
• Realtime Robotics RapidPlan Software
NEXT STEPS
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engineer, please
Connect with Us
19
How cobots have changed and
improved the robotics industry
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The introduction of collaborative robots (cobots) has revolutionized the robot
industry and improved access to industrial robotic systems.
C
ollaborative robots (cobots) represent a major opportunity in industrial automation by creating more up innovative shop floors where robots operate alongside
humans in a shared workspace, without the presence of safety barriers. As a result, they
are supporting advances within industrial environments, augmenting the capabilities of
operators as well as helping them focus on other tasks.
Cobots have been designed to interact with humans and to be simple to use. These
two features deliver multiple benefits – cobots are economical robotic systems that are
flexible and adaptable, so they can be quick to set up and redeploy.
Reduced overall investment costs
Reducing investment cost, as well as offering ease of setup, programmability and simplified integration with third-party devices, cobots have been able to address a number of the shortcomings faced by conventional industrial robots. In effect, they offer an
alternative to traditional robotic systems, expanding the possible applications on the
shop floor beyond collaborative uses.
For example, they have been helping entry-level users improve their robotics skills.
Similarly, they could offer a solution to companies interested in automating key processes but who in the past may have been limited by the available funding, manufacturing footprint or lack of in-house robot programming knowledge.
20
How cobots have changed and improved the robotics industry
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Innovative features
The innovative features of collaborative solutions
have actually also helped reshape the development of their counterparts, industrial robots, to
overcome their traditional limitations. Today it is
possible to find high-performance industrial robots on the market that are as safe, simple to use,
economical and easy to interact with as cobots.
The presence or absence of protective barriers is
no longer a distinctive feature separating industrial robots from cobots as many collaborative setups still
require the use of safety scanners or touch-sensitive
Courtesy: Mitsubishi Electric, Control
Engineering Europe
technology, just like industrial robots. The key remaining differentiator between industrial robots and cobots is their overall performance, with industrial solutions still able
to offer greater repeatability in positioning and speed.
So, with a growing number of different robots available today, it is important for end
users to clearly identify their requirements in order to get the solution that is best
suited to address their specific needs and maximize the potential gains. For example,
if companies are interested in infrequent interactions between humans and machines
while increasing the speed of a process, industrial robots are to be favored. Conversely, if close and regular interaction between humans and machines is key, collaborative
solutions represent the best option.
Barry Weller
Barry Weller is product manager at Mitsubishi Electric.
21
Mobile robot component market
growth due to greater investment,
technology advances
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The mobile robot component market is growing thanks to increased
investments all over the world and technology improvements. See video.
T
he mobile robot component market as a whole has been growing in the last several years and is projected to continue to do so. A recent report by Interact Analysis
indicates the market will have a projected value of $7.4 billion by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 45% over the next five years and will positively impact the manufacturing and non-manufacturing market.
Brianna Jackson, a market research analyst for Interact Analysis, who was involved in
conducting the survey, discussed some of the findings from the report and where she
sees the market heading in the next several years in a video interview.
Jackson described mobile robot components as all the organs that go into the robot.
“We’re talking about drives, the motors, the gearboxes, as well as the batteries and
the charging stations that are going to supply energy into the battery. Also the sensors
that give the robot information on where they are in their environment.”
All of these components are in high demand right now and the market has picked up,
Jackson said, thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The growth of e-commerce as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major
boost in the adoption of mobile robots,” she said. “Also, we saw constraints placed
22
Mobile robot component market growth due to greater investment
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
on the labor market, which because of labor shortage as well as the cost of labor, has
been a driver for industrial automation. But not just in the warehousing and logistics
sector, but also in the manufacturing sector.”
The impact is being felt in other regions, as well, and the report indicated China is help
spur the industry’s growth along with the Asia-Pacific region as a whole. The U.S. continues to have a majority of the revenues, but other areas are catching up. Jackson said
some of that is due to the United States putting less emphasis on building new warehouses and facilities were mobile robots might be needed. Companies like Amazon, she
said, are working with what they have in the United States rather than what they need.
“You kind of have the opposite happening in China and the Asia-Pacific region as a
whole because you have India building warehouses at a rapid rate, as well. You have
companies building partnerships with mobile robot providers in the same way Amazon
has done,” she said.
23
Mobile robot component market growth due to greater investment
The market looks bright indeed for the mobile robot market as a whole and the com-
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ponent market will benefit from this, as well, Jackson said. With this growth comes
maturity and consolidation with some of the vendors and suppliers.
“We see the standardization of components becoming more and more prevalent in
this market. With mobile robot companies providing different solution types, we don’t
want them to change that much between robot types.
She added companies are changing their purchase tactics, as well. Rather than buying a drive here or there from different vendors, companies are taking a more focused
perspective.
“Now we see the integration of components becoming a much, much larger trend and
we see bigger industrial players that are going to provide whole system solutions to
mobile robot manufacturers and that was expected as the use business scaled up.”
Trends that will likely continue as the mobile robot market goes from being young into
a mature and versatile industry impacting companies in many different industries all
over the world.
Chris Vavra
Chris Vavra is web content manager for CFE Media and Technology.
24
How electrification of linear
actuators improve material
handling automation
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Electric actuators are helping connect the emerging digital world and the
physical world. Three factors impacting industrial motion and seven linear
actuator advances are highlighted.
E
lectric linear actuators are helping raise material handling application to new
heights. As digital transformation extends the scope of automation to more axes
and electric linear actuators handle increasingly heavier loads, more material handling
system designers are converting hydraulic and pneumatic motion control to electric,
especially in new projects. Linear actuator suppliers are developing innovations that
extend the scope of material handling automation in load management, sizing, intelligence, durability, energy efficiency, safety and ergonomics.
The scope of material handling automation
Electric linear actuators now offer sophisticated, advanced capabilities for material
handling automation. Whether it be the peripheral intralogistics of conveying and
transporting or support for production processes such as feeding and filling, material
handling is increasingly vital to industrial operations. (Figure 1)
In an assembly operation, for example, linear actuators might feed materials, manipulating them to optimize access to work surfaces or diverting objects from one conveyor
to another. In another example,, setting up can consume up to half the work cycle in
food packaging operations. Linear actuators might reduce the time by automating the
unfolding of cardboard or cutting film.
25
How electrification of linear actuators improve material handling automation
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Electric actuators also can expand the controllable working radius, carrying materials
toward or away from processing. They might
support motion on forklifts, automated
guided vehicles (AGVs), telescopic lifting
units or overhead conveyors.
Figure 1: Forward-thinking factories incorporate
multiple of interconnected machines and devices
that take advantage of advanced actuator features to
enable a fluid, synchronized and safe manufacturing
process. These uses can include forklifts, assembly/
control stations and fixtures, AGVs, and components
that can be easily and quickly adjusted on the fly.
Courtesy: Thomson Industries, Inc.
26
How electrification of linear actuators improve material handling automation
Three factors impacting industrial motion
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Automating material handling motion sequences requires close consideration of the
following factors:
1. Physical properties. Material handling automation developers must consider
the shape, weight, size, position and direction stability of packages moving along
a plant or conveyor system. They also must consider how the package materials
affect their rollability, slide-ability, stack-ability, surface sensitivity and stiffness.
2. Environmental parameters. Material handling equipment designers must consider parameters such as room layout, machine size limitations and available degrees
of freedom.
3. Motion parameters. Like most motion control applications, material handling applications consider weight and inertia of the payload as determined by speed and
acceleration within cycle times and the required accuracy.
Material handling applications may also require special attention to kinematic factors such as drift, overshoot, stabilization time and interchangeability, with particular
attention to the drive, power transmission system, position measuring system and
bearings. Friction also can lead to play in the bearings, poor resolution of the position measuring systems and structural static deformation. Dynamic flexibility also can
contribute to neural weaknesses, which can lead to errors and failures. Equipment
designers must address all these factors within the context of maintenance, safety
and durability.
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How electrification of linear actuators improve material handling automation
Seven electric linear actuator advances for material handling
 Back to TOC
Electric linear actuators have been used in material handling operations for many
years. During that time, there have been many advances, optimizing them for supporting new industrial operations. These advances include:
1. Heavy load handling. Electric actuators can now handle heavy duty loads up to 25
kN, which had been relegated to hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders. These improvements are due in large part to component material improvements and advancements
in ball screw technology, such as implementation with ball bearings.
2. Extended stroke lengths. Electric linear actuators are now also capable of longer
strokes, tackling applications that hydraulics and pneumatics had previously dominated. Electric linear actuators had previously been limited to 300 or 400 mm per stroke;
they now can span up to 1.2 m.
3. Compact design for confined spaces. Actuators are often designed into confined
spaces. On a packaging line, for example, feeding and cutting systems may compete
with other units for space. On an AGV or forklift, space is always at a premium, and
actuator size can also impact energy usage. Actuators with housing the size of a passport can now handle loads up to 2000 N (450 lbs.) They fit into small spaces that previous-generation actuators would be either too large or too weak.
This compactness and simplicity are a major difference from hydraulics and pneumatics, which require an imposing infrastructure of equipment such as pumps, hoses,
valves, reservoirs and compressors. Electric actuators simply plug into a power supply
and connect to a network. Integrating a programmable logic controller (PLC) with an
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How electrification of linear actuators improve material handling automation
 Back to TOC
electric actuator allows for more efficient and seamless control, resulting
in reduced downtime, increased productivity and cost savings.
4. Improved intelligence and network integration. Electric linear
actuators are now available with modular onboard controls that enable
simple on/off switches, low-level switching, position
feedback and CAN bus network integration. They
can monitor and control, diagnose, read position and
operating statistics in real time, and be fine-tuned on
the fly. (Figure 2) As factories become more digitally
advanced, designers will integrate material handling
capabilities into more sophisticated operations. Loads
will move more intelligently, enabling programmed
motion sequences, remote system operation and synchronization across multiple actuators.
Figure 2: The integration of onboard
electronics into electric actuators
enables enhanced control functions
that were previously external, such
as switching, position feedback
and system diagnostics, directly
into the actuator. Thomson smart
actuators incorporate microprocessorbased printed circuit boards with
complementary software that allows
communication between remote
networks. Courtesy: Thomson
Industries, Inc.
5. Longer operating life. Material handling applications often run 24/7 in set-and-forget applications. Production line applications, such as an arm that diverts items from
one conveyor belt to another, have high-duty cycles and are subject to wear and tear.
AGVs, forklifts and other mobile equipment may be deployed in those applications
and usually run on batteries. (Figure 3) Equipment used outdoors or in hazardous environments, and subject to ingress from moisture and dust can also require long life.
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How electrification of linear actuators improve material handling automation
 Back to TOC
Linear actuators using brushless motors can have duty
cycles of 100% and up to 600 km of maintenance-free
life. This is a major advantage over hydraulic and
pneumatic technologies, which require almost constant maintenance. Plus, lubrication technology has
advanced to the point where some actuators are factory lubricated for life. Adherence to IP standards of
IP65, IP66 and IP69K prevent particulate, moisture and
other ingress that can shorten an actuator’s life.
Figure 3: For AGVs without human
involvement, remote control over
radio, Wi-Fi, satellite and other
communications is vital. In addition to
their remote benefits, electric actuators
reduce maintenance and environmental
concerns thanks to sturdy designs. This
all-in-one actuator package makes it
possible for AGVs to move goods over
larger areas no matter how demanding
the conditions. Courtesy: Thomson
Industries, Inc.
6. Safety and ergonomics. Material handling equipment constantly puts humans at
risk. For example, a machine that loses power may drop its load faster than a human
can get out of the way. There might be ergonomic challenges resulting from repeated
movements or awkward workpiece positioning.
Electric linear actuators aid in these situations with electromechanical and static hold-
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How electrification of linear actuators improve material handling automation
 Back to TOC
ing brakes, which hold the
load in place in case an
application loses power.
They also can make work
safer by raising, lowering,
or tilting worktables to
comfortable, more ergonomic angles.
Automated picking helps
avoid long feeder routes
and relieves the operating personnel from the work cycle of the machine as
much as possible, keeping ergonomics and safety a
priority. (Figure 4) Replacing hydraulic cylinders also
removes the risk of slipping and falling on leaked
fluid as well as product contamination from solid fluid
leaks.
Figure 4: Assembly/control stations and
holding devices are experiencing an
increase in automation. The individual
adaptation of workstations facilitates
work, increases operator comfort and
reduces the risk of injury, while securing
material and other equipment during
the assembly process. Courtesy:
Thomson Industries, Inc.
7. Customizing linear actuators for competitive
advantage. While the range of available technologies is growing, application diversity
also is driving the need for custom solutions. Designers are increasingly requiring components and systems to fit unique needs. Manufacturers often can meet these needs
with minor modifications to standard offerings, but on occasion they may have to design something from the ground up. Actuator suppliers with the broadest offerings
are most likely to adapt standard lines or have the expertise to design something from
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How electrification of linear actuators improve material handling automation
scratch. Their flexibility and willingness to augment their standard offering is also a fac-
 Back to TOC
tor. Customization capability is another significant advantage of most new designs for
electrified equipment. This equipment is often more modular than earlier generations,
and changes can be made by modifying, adding or removing axes. Electric designs reduce the need to redesign to larger components of a system such as a hydraulic manifold/valve redesign, tube or hose route.
Getting a strong return on investment (ROI)
To calculate the most accurate ROI with the right amortization on a custom project
for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and end user, designers must make
procurement decisions in the context of the entire product lifecycle, including production costs, ongoing operating costs and potential productivity. Likewise, the decision
should factor in the benefits of integrating the latest technology, such as onboard
electronics, which contribute to greater competitiveness for the OEM and benefits for
the end user.
Electric actuators are the key technology connecting the emerging digital world and
the physical world. Up until quite recently, this gap had been too wide to span. However, now that electric actuators are stronger, smarter and more affordable, the chasm
isn’t as daunting. Electrification is ushering in a new era of efficiency, which will contribute to better automation, improved material handling and better business.
Travis Gilmer
Travis Gilmer, Product Line Manager – Linear Actuators, Thomson Industries.
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