Smart Hub Lanarkshire — the centre of excellence for manufacturing innovation and robotics — will be offering manufacturing businesses more opportunities to explore the possibilities of collaborative robots (cobots) this autumn.
The Smart Hub, which is a partnership between
North Lanarkshire Council,
New College Lanarkshire and the
University of Strathclyde, is home to a robotics and automation training facility and a dedicated space for SMEs to meet, learn and access business support and academic expertise.
The Hub is inviting manufacturing SMEs to participate in interactive cobot demonstration sessions, which will allow attendees to: see cobots in action in a mini-factory setting and observe them operating up close have a go at basic programming understand cobot task capabilities; learn about the applications for cobots in different manufacturing settings; and understand costs and return on investment potential.
The sessions are available every Tuesday until 27 September. For more information or to book a place, visit the website (
Smart Hub Lanarkshire events | North Lanarkshire Council).
Caroline Brown, North Lanarkshire Council enterprise development officer, said: “Smart Hub Lanarkshire has had its busiest quarter yet from April to June, with 318 participants accessing our events, one-to-one sessions and group cobot demonstrations. We have also had six companies taking part in two-week cobot trials since April, with some already moving to invest in the technology. There is a healthy pipeline of further trials planned through to the end of September.”
The cobot trials have been enabled by
Scottish Enterprise, which funded the purchase of an additional cobot exclusively for companies to trial for up to two weeks at no cost. This includes a feasibility review, induction training, technical consultancy support and a post-trial evaluation report.
Jerome Finlayson, head of High Value Manufacturing at Scottish Enterprise, said: “We are pleased to support Smart Hub Lanarkshire in getting its first mobile cobot. Being able to offer trials on a company’s own premises is fantastic, especially for companies that maybe haven’t had the chance to try automation before and see first hand the benefits this innovation can bring. Automation is a very effective way of creating a step change in productivity, developing skills and using staff more effectively and I would encourage any manufacturers thinking about using this in their manufacturing processes to come along to a session and find out more.”
Trial a robotBarry Skea, head of New College Lanarkshire’s Department for Science and Technology, said: “We are really encouraged by the ever-growing interest in Smart Hub Lanarkshire and hope our latest events and ongoing opportunities to trial a cobot will continue to be popular with manufacturing businesses. We are also planning to introduce some new cobot demonstration sessions later in the autumn, which will look specifically at how cobots can help with palletising and visual systems.”
Weekly ‘Meet the National Manufacturing Institute (NMIS) SME Engagement Adviser’ sessions are also available at Smart Hub Lanarkshire throughout September. Manufacturing businesses can learn more about industry-focused expertise and technical support.
Find out more at the website (
www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/business/smart-hub-lanarkshire/smart-hub-lanarkshire-events).