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Cobots, Exoskeletions, and AI Self-Driving Cars, Oh My!
Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider
I remember the first time that I saw a cobot in action. It was on a factory floor where I had previously helped put in place a robotic arm that performed automotive parts assembly. This cobot, considered a collaborative robot or a co-robot, or some assert it should be referred to as a “cooperative” robot, contained some of the latest new tech in AI.
In the case of the cobot, it was designed and built to be near to humans and work in unison with humans.
There were some AI developers that were hoping to ultimately replace the human worker by further refining the cobot, allowing the cobot to do the entire effort of the assembly for the part (ultimately aiming to be a fully “lights out” warehouse operation without any human workers per se).
This splitting of the task had made good sense in that the robotic arm could quickly undertake its effort and was able to do so as a “partner” with the human. To avoid having the human in-the-loop, it would be necessary to either get a cobot that had greater dexterity with human-like robotic fingers or consider redesigning the part so that it could be assembled differently.
The human workers had become comfortable with the cobot.
