VDE dialog: Industrial robots have been in use in Germany for more than 50 years. What has changed in that time?
Jörg Rommelfanger: I’ve been with ABB for twelve years, and in robotics for a total of 25 years – I’ve been fascinated by the subject ever since I was a student. A great deal is changing in this market, including in recent years. We are mainly familiar with large robots from industry, such as the automotive sector. Today, industry has to adapt much more quickly and flexibly to production processes and quantities. We’re emerging from a time when it was all about producing high quantities and quality 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Today, manufacturing companies have to adapt much more rapidly to different configurations and volumes.
Will this also change or increase the number of robotics users?
Technology is enabling us to enter new markets that were previously closed to us. Take the bakery around the corner; it also needs automation because it can no longer find skilled workers. In addition to large customers, many smaller SMEs and craft or trade businesses are of interest to robot manufacturers. Robotics helps them all – because many more companies can and must pay for automation these days.
How can more flexibility be achieved?
A great deal is happening on the software and control side in particular. For example, take the question of how to program a robot for a new task nowadays. This is no longer complex coding, but logical programming of processes, as some children are already learning in secondary school. This makes it much easier to put a robot system into operation. The next step will be AI algorithms. However, that technology is still in its infancy. We are already very good at monitoring and evaluating large volumes of data. But in future, it will also be possible to program robots with voice commands. Or to automatically derive the required programming from customer documents or product descriptions.
Will robots also become more intelligent in other ways?
Yes. Significantly more computing power can be integrated into the control system. Supplemented by the appropriate sensor technology, it is possible to design robots that can see and feel. This also brings us closer to the possibility of a robot teaching itself processes in unstructured environments. You would no longer tell the robot how to get from A to B, but instead show it a map of an unfamiliar factory building and give it a task. You would also specify whether it should perform the task in the fastest or most energy-efficient way, for example. It would then find the right mode itself.
Will the external shape of the robot remain the same?
If you look at the mechanical aspect, it may seem that everything looks the same as before, but a lot is changing there too. The materials are different, for example. This is driven by the desire of many users to be able to produce more sustainably. That makes it possible to significantly reduce the weight of the manipulators, i.e. the robot arms. At the same time, we can recuperate energy from braking movements of the robot arms, just like in electric cars.
How will the operational range of robots develop in the future?
The focus will certainly continue to be on making robots even more mobile, for example by putting a cobot onto a mobile platform. We are also seeing advances in sensor technology and room detection. This has already created a system that can navigate and position itself much more autonomously in unstructured environments.
So the robot colleague marching alongside the worker will soon be a reality?
Humanoid robots are still a little further away. However, it’s good that this vision is being promoted, as this will drive the entire development forward. We no longer have any technical limitations. A lot of technology can already be incorporated into robots today.
So why aren’t we seeing many more of these robots in use?
In the end, their use must always be worthwhile. That’s the balance you have to maintain. There will also be use cases for humanoid robots, but perhaps initially in areas such as the care sector rather than in industry. To put it bluntly, in many cases, you don’t need the legs – and the legs are what make things very complex.
