BRILLIANT: Cobots at the cutting edge of precision instruments

The ancient art of watchmaking is synonymous with high-end artisan craftsmanship, only performed by masters of both dexterity and design. But as any master of such a craft will tell you, to make the finest objects, one must first acquire the finest tools.

Ideal-tek is a leading manufacturer and supplier of precision hand tools such as tweezers, cutters and instruments. Based in Switzerland, the tools they make are used not only by watchmakers, but also jewellers, engineers, medical devices manufacturers, the electronics industry and life science laboratories. Now, Ideal-tek is among a growing number of SMEs that are seeking to galvanise their tradition of human craftsmanship by turning to the emerging field of collaborative robotics.

Large industrial enterprises are no strangers to robotics and automation, but these technologies have yet to make significant inroads into SMEs. Unlike larger businesses, SMEs are characterised by high product variability, small batch production, and labour-intensive tasks that are reliant on the skills and experience of workers, all of which represent challenges for introducing automation.

To meet these challenges, the BRILLIANT project is developing a smart, orchestrated, and reconfigurable collaborative work cell based around a Universal Robots robotic arm that will help reduce the adoption barriers of collaborative robotics solutions for SMEs. “We want to combine the flexibility and dexterity of humans with the repeatability of collaborative robots, or cobots, to instigate a new era of artisanal manufacturing 4.0”, says Elias Montini of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), who is one of the lead engineers in the project.

Over the past year, SUPSI and Italian software developers Holonix have been working with Ideal-tek to integrate a cobot solution that carries out the final stages involved in producing a pair of tweezers. Watching the work cell in action is impressive, the robot arm deftly moving between different workstations to weld the two blades of the tweezers together and then smoothing down the weld point and cleaning the product up to its final finish.

When introducing such solutions into a small company, it is important to think about scalability, reconfigurability and the different possible applications that the work cell might be used for. “A situation we have often seen in the past when cobots are deployed is that after a few months, the annual production needs of the task it is being used for are met, after which the cobot is left to idle for the rest of the year,” says Montini.

“That is why it is essential to incorporate flexibility and reconfigurability from the beginning, so that the work cell can be used productively all year round.”

BRILLIANT is developing a procedural method that will support companies throughout the process of introducing automation, from the selection of the application to the design and deployment of the solution, as well as introducing software solutions that improve the flexibility of the collaborative work cell.

In the case of Ideal-tek, the BRILLIANT project has aimed to develop a completely parameterised part programme, minimising the number of fixed waypoints in order to make the setup efficient and effective in the production of different types of tweezers, without modifying the code. It has also created a graphical interface that can support the worker in defining the parameters of the process and in monitoring the status of the collaborative work cell.

One of the concepts being promoted by SUPSI in the project was starting work on the solution in the laboratory setting, then moving to simulations, and finally finishing with deployment at the company. This was a huge success and meant that the finalised solution was set up and ready to produce tweezers in just two days – much to the surprise of those working at Ideal-tek!

Acceptance of collaborative robots by workers has also been a focus of the work carried out in the BRILLIANT project. “When we arrived at Ideal-tek, the workers’ initial reaction was that the robot would not be able to perform the tasks,” says Montini.

“After two days, their minds had been changed, and they were maybe a little apprehensive that the robot might put them out of a job! Ideally, what we would like to do in the future is to have a day of presentations where we introduce the concept of collaborative robotics and explain that this kind of automation is meant only for the most tedious, repetitive, and non-value-added tasks. Skilled workers are still needed, and their experience is invaluable.”

More and more SMEs are interested in these kinds of solutions, but there are currently few technology providers that deal with collaborative robots, and most of those are expensive. Montini believes, however, that the technology is now ready, and more adoption will be seen soon. “We have also learned from the mistakes of the past,” he says. “In a project we worked on for an injection moulding company a few years ago, the technology provider designed a solution that was neither flexible or scalable, and though the investment was huge, it did not fit the expectations or needs of the company. Now, we know that it is important to start by trying to solve really simple tasks, making sure that the solution can be scaled and adapted for other tasks, and ensuring that it does not necessarily require a huge investment.”

The BRILLIANT project is running a survey of end users and technology providers to investigate levels of adoption and the perception of collaborative robotics from both industry and academia, from which a publication will be produced. To take part, please scan the QR code below.