Analysis:
When collaborative robots were first introduced, their key value proposition was ease of set-up and integration, ease of programming and ease of use, with the concomitant benefits of fast deployment, greater flexibility and reduced operational costs. This was and is true, but ‘easy’ is a relative term.

Compared to traditional industrial robotics platforms, collaborative robots are, on the whole, easier to deploy and utilize. Still, for many businesses, especially those small-to-medium manufactures that were the primary target for collaborative robotics systems early on, collaborative robots are still too difficult to deploy and program/reprogram even for common manufacturing tasks.

SCHUNK addresses this problem with its Plug & Work Portfolio by providing high-quality electric and pneumatic gripping solutions and supporting modules for a wide range of application types that are easy to use and guaranteed to work with their respective cobot arms. – Dan Kara

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