Applications For Low-Code Robotics

Low-code or even no-code solutions deliver exactly what they promise: little or no code is required to program. More precisely, it is about the intuitive and visual possibilities of programming. It is already being used in many areas of software development, and low code is also gaining ground in industrial robotics. This is mainly because medium-sized companies are gradually gaining access to robotics in the industry. The advantages of low code are obvious here:

• Little to no programming knowledge is required
• No dependence on external specialists or service providers
• Fast implementation, including flexibility in adjustments

The advantages play primarily into the hands of those companies that want to automate simple, repetitive activities. Because a simple pick-and-place activity can just as easily be implemented using visual control. Nowadays, complex programming languages ​​are no longer required for this.

Classic areas of application are, therefore:

• Handling and feeding of components
• Simple assembly activities
• Pick and place tasks

How Low-Code Robotics Works

Controlling a robot using a low-code solution usually works via a touch panel. On this touch panel (see figure), it is possible to drive the robot to the targeted positions. Once the robot has reached the desired position, the software independently suggests commands that can be executed at that position. Graphics visually supports the explanation of the command options, so no in-depth specialist knowledge is required here either.

Limits Of Low-Code Robotics

What is the catch? Of course, every coin has a downside – including low-code robotics. You are limited in the use of low-code solutions.
While a low-code system is sufficient for simple activities, it is the more complex and precise assembly activities where you will reach your limits. Assuming you have a gluing process (such as here in our practical project ): Here, the robot has to follow a contour that is not linear but consists of several different curved paths lined up next to each other. If this is the case, the effort involved in graphical programming is too high, and you should better use classic robot programming.
Whether a low-code solution suits your specific application can often only be answered individually. Feel free to contact us if you would like professional advice.

Also Read: Collaborative Robotics How Do Robots Help Humans In Industrial Work

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The Utopia Of The Intelligent Factory

It sounds fantastic. You produce your products in record time. Your production costs are flying low – your output quantities are skyrocketing. Your customer is enthusiastic and always gets his deliveries on time and in optimal quality. His only problem is that he can’t buy larger quantities from you. And what else do you have to do? You put the raw materials and individual parts in your production hall, lean back and watch as the transportable product comes out at the back. Your automated, networked production systems do the rest.
A picture book story, or: Industry 4.0 through rose-colored glasses. But when we wake up from our little daydreams, reality often looks different. At the same time, this description is no fictitious fairy tale. Let’s take a closer look.

Automation: A Coin With Two Sides

If these so-called “cyber-physical production systems” exist, why are they not the reality for most companies? In medium-sized companies, in particular, production processes are still primarily carried out “classically manually.”

A conflict between theory and practice: Your problems will not suddenly vanish into thin air just because you are declaring the automation of your production. The advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons of automation, should be considered carefully. We want to give you an overview.

Advantages

• increase in productivity
• Ensuring quality standards
• Transparency in production

Disadvantages

• Increased complexity
• Declining flexibility
• High investment costs

Benefits Of Automation

Increase in productivity and cost-effectiveness:  Automation completes repetitive motion sequences just faster. Low cycle times and high quantities characterize automated processes. In addition: a machine never sleeps, and a device doesn’t have a weekend. You can easily manufacture 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on automated systems without burdening your employees with this. Increased productivity leads to increased profitability. This, in turn, leads to increased competitiveness.

Ensuring quality standards:  We humans have tons of qualities. We are creative and empathetic. We spin ingenious ideas far away from any logic. And I prefer sound human judgment to cold machine algorithms when it comes to life or death. Doing the same movement 8 hours a day without losing concentration is not one of our talents. Whether we like it or not, the human source of error is natural and sometimes costs companies considerable sums in complaint costs. This is where automation has the edge. But beware: A person is also at work to set up the machine. It will deliver the quality it is designed to provide.

Transparency in production:  key figures determine current day-to-day operations. Just-in-time delivery – both from the supplier and to the customer – requires exact data from production planning. Automation delivers. You receive production figures, scrap figures, and Co. in real-time. In connection with the database with your ERP system, key figures are determined, conclusions are drawn, and actions are derived. In high-end systems, you don’t have to perform the derived actions yourself. The networked machines take care of themselves.

Disadvantages of Automation

Increased complexity through networked systems: You can think of the interaction of all the components in your production system as a multitude of cogs that mesh to function as a whole. What happens when two teeth don’t fit properly? Or if a tooth breaks off? You will quickly notice the fault – at the latest, when your machine is at a standstill. The cause, on the other hand, is often found less quickly and eliminated even less rapidly. Complex production systems are beautiful as long as they run smoothly. However, the more opaque the programming and networking of your machines, the more difficult it is to eliminate faults. Automations designed for freedom from maintenance and high system availability and integrated remote maintenance modules can help here.

Declining flexibility: It’s the classic duel: flexibility and various variants vs. productivity and quantity. In principle, automation thrives on the highest possible output quantity since this is where the most excellent efficiency can be achieved. In return, you give up a certain degree of flexibility in your production. The problem: More and more customers are demanding this flexibility. The trend towards individualizing products up to batch size 1 is progressing. A development that is also causing the players in the automation industry to sleep restlessly. Good for you because more and more solutions in sensor technology, cross-product robotics, or modular building block systems are emerging from this drive.

High investment costs:  The main reason many medium-sized companies are not yet members of the “Industry 4.0” scene club is the high entrance fee. The risk of a bad investment is classified as too high. Budget? Usually small. The Covid-19 pandemic? It doesn’t make things any easier. An economical approach to automation is, therefore, elementary for you.

Conclusion: Individual Solutions Are Needed!

The fact is: In the long run, a process optimized through automation should save you more costs than you initially invested in it. When will you achieve the desired ROI (return on investment)? This can usually only be said after a comprehensive analysis. But we can tell you: The industry recognizes your challenges. The spectrum of automation solutions ranges from “all-inclusive” to “very affordable.” So it’s ideal for getting through the entrance even on a small budget.

It is like it is. If you love the rose, you must also put up with its thorns. And in the same way, the advantages of automation will always have disadvantages to a certain extent. So try to maximize the benefits and minimize the downsides. You will succeed if you closely examine your processes, recognize potential, and ultimately work out the best individual solution for you. It may take a lot of effort and brainpower initially, but you’ll thank yourself in the end.

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Implement Robotics In All Most Susceptible Systems

Currently, companies that decide to invest in digitizing their invoices have a great chance of increasing their level of productivity. Don’t let the pandemic destroy your business, discover here how document automation can cover the remote administrative needs of any business, with information available daily.

Companies have more significant opportunities in a highly competitive market by bringing robotics or automation of processes to the most vulnerable business systems. They manage to improve efficiency and the assessment of results with it.

One of the main areas that need automated processes is the administrative and financial departments. There are applications for scanning invoices, bank reconciliations and automatic data processing that provide a lot of manual work time. Thus, in departments with a high workload and more vulnerable to human error, they can prosper and improve considerably.

Improve The Efficiency Of The Business Environment

The evolution capacity of companies that implement digitized processes in their different departments is impressive. On the contrary, those that do not invest in technology are relegated and condemned to die. The automation revolution covers many aspects:

• New job opportunities are created.
• Services are diversified.
• The quality of customer service improves, with much shorter delivery times and physical expansion of the business.

It cannot be denied that automation is a great advantage for companies, but it is also for their employees. They will be able to be much more organized in their work, efficient and with less workload than processing daily by hand.

The digitization of accounts payable, receivable, legal documents, files, inventories, and any other necessary paperwork will be available to a client whenever needed, with less time to search, access and consult the information.

Automatic Data Extraction

Once business processes and transactions have been automated, there’s no need to waste valuable time searching books stored in the basement for specific documentation. Those obsolete files full of dust are no longer needed. With strategic automation, everything is always available to all interested parties with the possibility of access to different users, regardless of their country of residence.

Likewise, the use of robotics also allows us to include digital data and extract it. Thus there are fewer errors in data that will be shared later, and they would be much more reliable figures than if a human transcribed them. An automated system works by itself; it does not need more than a couple of simple instructions to fulfill its function. This means that a company will be much more transparent, and with less document fraud, nothing escapes digitization.

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RPA Tool For The Public Sector

The City Council of a small town works daily, with numerous written documentation. It has begun to digitize it to streamline the management of citizen procedures and unify everything in the cloud and reduce the physical space it occupies.

This information is being computerized in PDF format and, now, the need arises to transfer specific data found in it to Microsoft Excel tables. Until now, they were doing it by hand, and, far from reducing time, this task had become tedious and repetitive. The City Council was facing budget problems since this process consumed, in addition to time, many resources (staff and computer equipment).

The implementation of RPA in this department solved all these problems: the software was parameterized so that, once a day, it would recognize all the new documents in the system, extract the necessary data and complete it in Excel. With the RPA tool, this process was automated, the processing, management, and solution of citizen requests were streamlined, increasing the level of satisfaction of employees and users. In addition to this operation, the corresponding department receives monthly reports summarizing the metrics, such as incidents, time values ​​, and resources.

RPA Tool For The Health And Pharma sector

A company produces instruments that are used in the laboratory by different researchers. Your IT department is overwhelmed with the many reports you have to make throughout the working day, as well as the monthly and annual reports required by your business partners. Making calculations, they realized that they had to make about 20 reports a day and more than 50 at the end of each month, from production, resources, etc.

The IT department got together and decided to introduce Robotic Process Automation in their line of work. Thanks to this decision, the reports are made during non-productive hours, usually during the night, so the employees optimize their work position and save costs and time.

RPA Technology For The Utilities Sector

Businesses that manage the production and distribution of energy resources need a tool capable of measuring and monitoring the values ​​of critical energy control systems, such as pressure and temperature. All the data collected during this process is necessary in case of an audit for errors made and to avoid accidents.

Usually, this large amount of data is managed by several operators who, every day, must collect, compress and file within their user login. In addition to being a tedious task in which mistakes can easily be made, loss of information, for example, consumed a considerable part of the working day of these employees.

After analyzing this situation, Process Automation with the RPA tool is the best solution to solve this workflow. It frees workers for more important maintenance tasks and reduces errors to more than half. On the other hand, RPA robots can generate a recovery file of all the information, that is, a backup, thus improving its security level.

RPA Software For The Retail Sector

A frozen food supplier company generates many processing and shipping orders from all its customers: supermarkets, hotels, and restaurants, among others. With the RPA bots, the sending of requests and the output documentation, as well as the generation of invoices, are tasks that are no longer performed by the staff, which is why the output times of the products have been streamlined, offering an improvement in the quality of customer service. In addition to this process, RPA automation was installed in the warehouse to control inventory levels in real-time.

RPA For Companies In The Hotel Sector

The IT department of a hotel company had a manually programmed code to manage employee payroll, another for supplier invoices, and yet another for fund transactions to different company accounts. The code had to be reviewed from time to time, and it was worked on almost daily since it was recurrent that it needed improvements and new parameterizations. The IT department had a small team dedicated almost exclusively to this work, which made it necessary to organize the department’s work every week to avoid delays in other orders.

After collecting all the information from this process, the employees presented a project to implement RPA in this area. With automation, they could free themselves from this tedious activity since the RPA bot creates a file with the information, encrypts it, and virtually connects it to the different accounts and banks. Payment processing is no longer an IT task but an automated process for the Accounting department.

RPA Tool For The Tourism And Leisure Sector

The Customer Service department is one of the most daily jobs in the Tourism and Leisure sector. They receive many calls and emails generally managed by a work team exclusively dedicated to it.

This generated a backlog of customer requests, with the consequent discomfort and increasing pressure on employees. The robotization of processes can create a fluid work chain in which an appeal could be resolved the moment it is received. Thus, when a request arrives, the first robot filters it to go to the corresponding person who will give it a solution. Meanwhile, the agent receives complete information, speeding up service and increasing customer satisfaction.

Also Read: RPA And BPM The Perfect Strategic Alliance In Process Automation

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These are two examples of incorporating technological tools in restoration that the delivery company Just Eat could soon join with robotics. This has been commented on in an intervention at the Foodservice Robotics Pioneers world forum. This company wants to “accelerate the benefits of robotics to revolutionize the way we eat, “as explained on their website.

During its participation, it has been anticipated that the introduction of autonomous vehicles in food delivery will be gradual and as support for peaks in demand or peak hours, not as a replacement for the personnel currently in charge of the task.

A prototype of an autonomous delivery robot that can carry up to 70 kilograms has been presented as part of the firm’s presence at the forum. This device uses an electric motor for transport, with autonomous batteries of up to 80 kilometers per charge. The device has a system of sensors and video cameras to avoid obstacles, identify traffic lights, or know traffic state.

The firm has maintained this type of initiative for some time. Specifically, more than three years ago, I was conducting a pilot test for home delivery of food in north London, with which it launched robot transport through the application.

In 2017, the company launched a pilot test in the London boroughs of Greenwich, Southwark, and Milton Keynes, with ten robots from the startup Starship delivering orders through the streets of these areas. These devices transported the order to the indicated point, sending a notification two minutes before arrival and another one already in front of the door. It was necessary to unlock the robot using an access code in the customer’s possession to collect the order.

Also Read: Robotics – How Robots Will Help In Education

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What Will The Classes With Robots Be Like

The current educational framework is changing considerably. And much of the blame is on the digital revolution of the Internet or mobile devices. Gone is the time when you had to memorize each name and date. Especially since many of the new concepts soon become obsolete.

The future education will be based on creativity, personal values, critical thinking, and debate. The teaching will be personalized for each student, who will have to solve their challenges to overcome. How do teacher robots fit into this novel concept of education?

Robots can make teaching a lot more fun at all levels. But of course, especially boys and girls. This is essential but that the students remain motivated and interested. Classes with robots will be more interactive, giving free rein to students’ concerns. The dynamics in which students spend most of the time sitting and listening will end forever.

These artificial teachers will become real eminences in the field of science and engineering. Your data will be stored in the cloud and, therefore, shared with the rest of the robots, analyzing the results and improving their methods is a real revolution in teaching.

Also Read: The Advantages Of Collaborative Robots In The Industry

What Will Be The Roles Of The Robot Teachers Of The Future

Robots can be excellent teachers’ assistants. Your analytical skills, data processing speed, and unerring memory will be invaluable as classroom support. Their appearance will not be intimidating, and on the contrary, they will develop excellent social skills.

They will be great teachers. Today, they provide optimal results in various subjects such as languages, engineering, mathematics, and other similar branches. And they interact with children to teach them to sing or dance. However, it is in the humanities field where its performance is yet to be determined.

Will we be able to discuss philosophy with a teacher robot in the future? Of course, they will have the necessary academic knowledge, learn from their mistakes, and evolve. But perhaps this is not enough to replace a flesh and blood teacher in advanced courses. However, at the primary and medium levels of education, robots will perform practically any function.

For this, machines must emulate human behavior. And even more important that they know how to read the body language of their students. The goal is for your responses to be emotional and as human-like as possible. We know that teacher robots can be infallible in many things, but their capacity for empathy has yet to be developed.

And we also have doubts about its programming. For example, if the robot’s mission is to help students learn more, it may suggest challenging problems for them. Conversely, a robot aiming to pass students could ask too simple questions.

Benefits Of Robots In Education

• Digital resources are increasingly important in teaching, and these machines are authentic databases of maps, videos, graphics, and other indispensable tools for study.
• The robots are being implanted in the first courses so that the youngest of the house are soon familiar with their presence. In this way, they will see technology as something natural. And those who want to dedicate themselves to science in the future will have the best possible motivation in front of them.
• Robots prioritize participatory education. Group dynamics are essential for students to learn as soon as possible to work as a team.
• It also allows the emergence of critical thinking and leadership, stimulating young people to think “out of the box” to approach the proposed challenges creatively.
• Another of the great benefits of robots is that they will reach the most remote areas of our geography, covering essential education services at a low cost. And they will also fill the jobs for which there are too many vacancies. For example, in Japan, it is difficult to find native English teachers. For this reason, robots have been successfully implemented that are meeting this demand.
• Learn while having fun. Improve the teaching process. End frustration in the classroom and boost self-esteem. These are just some of the advantages of robots providing our children in a much nearer future than it seems.

Also Read: Big Data, AI, Robotics And Cybersecurity, The Technologies That Contribute The Most To Curbing Covid-19

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Benefits of using collaborative robots in industry

The  industrial robotics  offers the opportunity for operators to perform tasks that would otherwise be more difficult to perform and offers clear advantages such as:

Fewer work accidents

Thanks to the use of these robots in the industry, fewer workplace accidents occur. The reason is quite simple and is that these robots end up being exposed to the most dangerous tasks, instead of workers. In addition to considerably reducing the most serious accidents, they have also greatly reduced the most common injuries, such as bone or muscle injuries due to effort, since obviously, a robot does not suffer from these problems.

Likewise, for their manipulation with toxic or dangerous substances, robots are a great solution to avoid exposing the worker to this series of risks. All this, we must always remember that it is being carried out through the use and supervision of the robot itself by an operator, the robot is never doing it on its own. The operator acts as a guide and uses the robot as a tool, making it much more efficient, increasing its performance by up to 85% because it is not fatigued and also has fewer physical limitations.

The mix of strength and decision

A collaborative robot has many more advantages than a traditional robot. To the classic strength and endurance by which a conventional robot is characterized, we have to add the rationality and decision – making capacity of the person who is using it. This added value that is added to this robot helps to a great extent to improve the automation of processes within the industry.

Another advantage that these robots have is that being constantly guided by humans, they do not need complex programming to work, making them much easier to program, they end up being more accessible and, therefore, much cheaper. Thanks to this simplicity, it is much easier to incorporate them into any factory, since they can be adapted without any problem.

In short, the world of robotics is constantly evolving to offer us robots that interact with the operators, allowing easy integration into production processes. These robots provide many solutions to the industrial landscape, thereby managing to end many problems that this had, achieving a much more efficient and also more productive environment for the worker. The collaborative robots are a tailored solution, available to any company.

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The report ‘Trends in the work environment 2020: the skills of the future’, prepared by Udemy for Business, the product of Udemy to learn for work environments, highlights that AI will become one of the tools that will be developed and will help to professionals in 2020. Its application has already reached sectors such as marketing, allowing to analyze the behavior of consumers to adapt their campaigns to their preferences, or to financial teams, which for example can already reduce transport costs Thanks to your application. In any case, we can consider the methods of application of AI in companies infinite.

Every day, the advantages of Artificial Intelligence begin to be valued more when it comes to boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes carried out by business professionals.

Although this technology may be novel, its arrival and evolution have not occurred overnight. Among the 10 most learned skills in Udemy during the last triennium (2016-2019) are OpenCV, the free artificial vision library originally developed by Intel, and artificial neural networks, which mimic the human neuronal process; both with a great impact on the development and evolution of AI techniques.

What Do AI Professionals Think?

The development and leadership teams of the companies have decided to bet on AI and the research promoted by Udemy for Business indicates that 35% of those responsible for these teams include it among the 10 technological skills on which their professionals should be trained in 2020. When questioned about how employees view automation and disruptive technologies, such as AI, a more positive view of its application in jobs is evident and only 12% believe that it could lead to the loss of their jobs. On the other side of the balance, 29% acknowledge being excited to learn skills of this type that allow them to play new roles in their sector.

One of the firms that have opted for AI is Publicis Sapient. The company dedicated to the transformation of digital businesses already has an AI academy for all its professionals, who will see their knowledge updated in a subject that can be used and developed in various business lines.

Companies Become Data Collectors

AI cannot work without data on which to perform calculations and, therefore, companies are focusing their efforts on collecting them. To obtain all this information, companies have begun to boost the technical skills of their employees by training them in algorithms, Deep Learning or automation. The application of these capabilities subsequently allows the development of AI processes.

One of the sectors that will bet on AI in 2020 will be that of consumer goods. According to the same report, among the 10 technological skills that will be developed the fastest in 2020 are learning algorithms for application in AI and natural language processing; which are in first and eighth place, respectively.

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