PRESS RELEASE: Collaborative Robots to help Australia rise from the ashes following bushfire devastation
Universal Robots (UR) to make ‘cobots’ more accessible for farmers who need a helping hand
Australia, March 10th, 2020 –
Collaborative robots known as ‘cobots’ could become the next instalment to join the ranks of Australia’s bushfire recovery effort, following a devastating fire season that claimed more than 30 lives, razed more than 12 million acres of land and destroyed 2,500 homes and businesses.
Cobots are a specific breed of robot designed to work safely alongside humans rather than in isolation from them. Soon, they could become an extension of Australia’s bushfire recovery effort by helping workforces around the country to rebuild.
Company Universal Robots (UR) – the most trusted and widely deployed manufacturer of cobots in the world – is encouraging manufacturers and farmers to consider using automation to rebuild following the disaster and is offering a financial services leasing programme as a lifeline.
“We want all business owners, including those who suffered losses in Australia’s bushfires, to be able to immediately put cobots to work without an upfront capital investment. UR financial services offers a fast, low-risk and financially friendly model to accelerate automation,” said Darrell Adams, Head of SEAO (Southeast Asia and Oceania) at Universal Robots.
Under the programme, manufacturers would be able to upgrade existing cobots, add additional units or test cobots for the first time – equipping them to maximise productivity, quality and profitability without the initial capital outlay.
“The bushfires have been absolutely devastating for Australia and the trail of destruction is significant. We encourage farmers and food producers to enlist cobots to hasten the rebuilding process and implement technological advancements, by tackling some of the more tedious and repetitive tasks in industry,” said Adams.
UR cobots can be programmed to perform an array of functions include packaging, palletising, assembling, welding, product handling and much more. One of their key advantages is their ease of use even by untrained operators, providing manufacturers with the means to quickly increase productivity and profits in times of need.
“Cobots can be programmed, operated and maintained by existing employees regardless of their previous robotics or automation experience. Even an untrained operator can unpack a UR robot, mount it and program its first simple task in less than half a day. For more complicated tasks which require integration UR is able to assist customers through training, service providers and expert advice”, Adams said.
In the agricultural sector, cobots are already helping to increase food production through automated food processing applications including planting, seeding, fertilising, irrigating, weeding, pruning and harvesting. They are skilled even in delicate applications such as disinfecting and milking cows, resulting in reduced labour costs and time taken to complete jobs.
“Introducing cobots to your workforce will allow your current employees to use their time more effectively on tasks that aren’t as repetitive or strenuous on the body. Cobots can essentially become part of your production process, allowing you to hit your targets faster – which is especially important for many Australian producers right now,” said Adams.
Despite numerous trials and research into the use of cobots in Australia, the uptake of cobots in agriculture has been slow. UR believes this the perfect opportunity to utilise the technology to speed up our agricultural production during a time of need.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what cobots could assist Australia with. They have the potential to do much more as we modernise our food manufacturing,” he said.
Depending on the application, UR predicts a single cobot would typically pay for itself within 6 to 12 months of being implemented within a workplace.
How cobots are already improving Australian agriculture
Australian capsicum farmers spend approximately 20-40 per cent of their total operational costs on harvesting labour. When combined with a shortage of skilled labour, this can result some capsicums not being harvested at all.
To address this, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in partnership with UR, developed a state-of-the-art cobot called Harvey. As one of the best robotic harvesters in the world, Harvey uses robotic vision and manipulation technique to identify and autonomously harvest the fruit. In trials, Harvey took an average of 20 seconds to pick a capsicum with a 76.5% pick rate – a significant improvement on previous harvesting technologies that averaged 106 seconds per fruit with a much lower 33% pick rate.
Video available for use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKTrWf1tYew&feature=youtu.be
About Universal Robots (UR)
Universal Robots was founded in 2005 to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible collaborative robots (cobots) that are safe to work with. Since the first cobot was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly cobot now sold worldwide. The company, which is a part of Teradyne Inc., is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, and has regional offices in the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Turkey, China, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. In 2018, Universal Robots had a revenue of USD 234 million. For more information, please visit www.universal-robots.com or read our blog at https://blog.universal-robots.com.
More video available for use:
• Robotic farming of the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO8PmqEI0cc
• Cobots packaging eggs for Cascina Italia: https://www.universal-robots.com/case-stories/cascina/
• Cobots harvesting lettuce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFC3OvkVKaQ
Media contact:
Rene Rose, Positiv for Universal Robots
