Project

Fraunhofer Institute for
Systems and Innovation Research ISI

The European Robot Initiative for Strengthening the Competitiveness of SMEs in Manufacturing

The need More than 228 000 manufacturing SMEs in the EU are a crucial factor in Europe’s competitiveness, wealth creation, quality of life and employment. To enable the EU to become the most competitive region in the world, the Commission has emphasized research efforts aimed at strengthening knowledge-based manufacturing in SMEs as agreed at the Lisbon Summit and as pointed out at MANU FUTURE –2003. However, existing automation technologies have been developed for capital-intensive large–volume manufacturing, resulting in costly and complex systems, which typically cannot be used in an SME context. Therefore, manufacturing SMEs are today caught in an “ automation trap” : they must either opt for current and inappropriate automation solutions or compete on the basis of lowest wages. A new paradigm of affordable and flexible robot automation technology, which meets the requirements of SMEs, is called for.

Breakthrough

In contrast to an incremental series of automation innovations, this initiative is intended to exploit the potentials of industrial robots, because they constitute the most flexible existing automation technology. The consortium is set to create a radically new type of robot system – a whole family of SME-suitable robots – that is to become a commodity within SME manufacturing, thereby providing a breakthrough towards the required new paradigm.

Objectives

Hence, the SMErobot initiative offers an escape out of the automation trap through:

  • Technology development of SME robot systems adaptable to varying degrees of automation, at a third of today’s automation life–cycle costs;
  • New business models creating options for financing and operating robot automation given uncertainties in product volumes and life-times and to varying workforce qualification.
  • Empowering the supply chain of robot automation by focusing on the needs and culture of SME manufacturing with regard to planning, operation and maintenance.

Innovations

The anticipated technical innovations enabling the breakthroughs and impacts of a novel SME robot automation paradigm are the prime deliverables of the technical work packages. The following innovations are radical :
 
  • Robot capable of understanding human-like instructions (by voice, gesture, graphics)
  • Safe and productive human-aware space-sharing robot (cooperative, no fences)
  • Three–day–deployable integrated robot system (modular plug–and–produce components)

The S&T objectives

The S&T objectives are directly derived from scientifically challenging technical requirements that in general terms are:

  • Motion teaching : Task operations including complex motions should be taught in a humanlike manner, reducing the programming time by a factor of 10 .
  • Installation time : Needs to be reduced by a factor of 5 , even when carried out by nonexperts. The installation time today forms a major obstacle to bringing robots into SMEs.
  • Simplicity of use: Automation is still hard to use by regular operators. Special training and customization is needed and not always work. Human–Machine Interfaces play a special role here but are very difficult to set–up and is currently done on an individual basis. Novel solutions enhancing usability and friendliness can decrease the meantime between operational failures of the system by a factor of 10 .
  • Cost of automation equipment : A robot is a huge investment for a SME today (around 150 k€), especially when the cost of fixtures, grippers and tooling is included. It is estimated that the equipment cost for widespread SME use must be reduced by a factor of 2 .
  • Process knowledge : Since RTD today is less familiar with SME shop-floor needs, software for process control too often provides complex settings and parameters that are expressed in technical system–oriented terms (rather than in the terms of the SME users ) and are difficult to tune. Process–tuning time should be reduced by a factor of 10.
  • Safe operation (also contributing to installation time reduction): Should permit simple integration with existing production and manual work.
  • System reconfiguration time : Needs to be reduced by a factor of 5 , to enable short production changeover time, allowing small batch sizes .
  • Service and maintenance : Although robot reliability is very high today, the addition of other automation components makes a system more complex and more likely to fail. Nevertheless, SME personnel should be supported in such a way that service and maintenance can be done independently of manufacturer support, and, therefore, costs can be reduced at least by a factor of 2 .

The Role of ISI

Evaluation of the Socio-Economic Effects: The objectives of this WP are to

  • Evaluate the socio–economic impacts of the developed technical solutions for different SME end user types,
  • Design and analyse options of new manufacturing business models for SME end users regarding the developed technical solutions and future developments (technology and market roadmaps ).
  •  
Exploitation: The objectives of this WP are to

  • Create and audit innovative business plans and spin–off roadmaps for robot manufacturers and system integrators,
  • Present and spread the audited project business plans and technical project results on a road show.

Status

ongoing

Commissioned by

EU DG Research

Partner

IPA, ITIA, DLR, Prospektiv, KUKA, ABB, REISS, COMAU, GÜDEL etc.

For the first time, the five major European robot manufactures have joinded forces in SMErobot, in close cooperation with key component manufactures, five leading research institutes and universities, and consultants for multidisciplinary RTD, dissemination and training efforts.

Publications

none as yet
 
Please visit also the project site http://www.smerobot.org