Comau + CIM4.0 (case424)
Welcome to the CIM 4.0 (Competence Industry Manufacturing) in Turin.
Demo assembly station with a Comau Racer-5 COBOT
Our approach
The demo application that Comau implemented @CIM4.0 is a collaborative robotic – or cobotic – station to show exactly what can be achieved with a collaborative robot. The Comau Racer-5 cobot combines the use of vision systems with an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify the parts placed on the process pallet, it then picks up the parts just like an industrial robot and moves them to the right position for assembly.
In this phase, the operator intervenes to handle the small skateboard axle screws that the robot’s clamp is unable to pick up. During this operation, the robot switches from industrial mode to collaborative mode and waits for the human operator to perform the task.
There is no need for access barriers and the operator can approach the robot in complete safety either to remedy a possible malfunction or to perform the manual operation, all in conformity to certified safety standards for collaborative operations involving humans and robots.
Paolo Brizzi, CIM4.0 Digital Manufacturing Program Manager , said:
Our aim was to construct a line that performs an assembly process as similar as possible to that of a real industrial production line. To do so, we had to build a complete little factory, with all the connectivity required in terms of operational technologies, based on a segregated profinet architecture and an IT system with a backbone for workstations, an office network, and architecture for connecting to the cloud and to a redundant network via two high-speed fibre connections.
THIS IS COLLABORATIVE
The Racer-5 cobot switches from industrial mode to collaborative mode
There is no need for access barriers or fences
The robot behaves just like an industrial robot when the operator is not nearby
The robot combines the use of vision systems with an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify the parts
About CIM
The Competence Centre Manufacturing Industry 4.0 (CIM4.0) aims to provide the strategic and operative support instruments for manufacturing-oriented enterprises toward the digital transformation of industrial processes (from design to production, from R & D to the supply chain, from cybersecurity to the blockchain) accordingly to the Industry 4.0 vision. CIM4.0 aims to strongly accelerate, at local and national level, the transformation process of a wide portion of Italian production ecosystem; especially SMEs. CIM4.0 propose itself as an integrated reference point for all those activities concerning the push of skills and good practices. Besides, it provides training actions and experiences in the field, technological sectors and industrial areas of the Piedmont region; also spreading this expertise in the overall Italian territory. The CIM4.0 is based on the concept of “pilot lines” or manufacturing demonstration lines.