ABB (www.abb.com) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (wwwglobal.kawasaki.com)— leading players in industrial automation and robotics — showcased the world’s first common collaborative robot (cobot) operating interface at last month’s Automatica trade fair in Munich.

The demand for cobots has outpaced the rapidly growing industrial-robot market, as user-friendly robots attract new users.

The fact that cobots can be programmed and operated by people without specialised training helps small and medium enterprises — in particular — to leapfrog the traditionally longer learning curves for industrial robots.

Cobots that can be operated easily can help to overcome labour shortages, and their flexibility to operate nearly anywhere in a factory without safety barriers makes them suitable for meeting unexpected demand peaks.

Per Vegard Nerseth, ABB’s managing director of robotics, said: “The new industry-standard operating interface will accelerate the already rapid growth we see in cobots.

“It will give many new manufacturers flexibility and scalability, while providing more interesting jobs for the world’s vital industrial workforce.”

The interface is a result of the collaboration between ABB and Kawasaki announced in November 2017, designed to share knowledge and promote the benefits of collaborative automation, in particular dual-arm cobots.

It includes a simplified human–robot interface with intuitive smartphone-like navigation and icons.

A joint collaborative automation demonstration at Automatica featured Kawasaki’s innovative dual-arm SCARA robot “duAro” working with ABB’s dual-arm ‘YuMI’ robot.