Škoda Auto, MATADOR Group and KUKA: ending the separation of humans and robots in factories.
Humans and robots working beside each other and with each other? What sounds like the future is now the present, thanks to a central-European partnership involving a new generation of collaborative robots freed from the safety restrictions required in the past.
Škoda Auto (a part of the Volkwagen Group since 1991), MATADOR Group and KUKA have come together in the town of Vrchlabí near the foot of the Giant Mountains for a manufacturing initiative without borders or fences. The industrial cultures of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany link the three companies, while human-robot teamwork on the factory floor has entered a new dimension after the removal of the safety fencing that once separated these members of the modern workforce.
And all this is happening in an automobile factory that produces direct-shift-gearbox automatic transmissions. There, an industrial robot does what industrial robots do best: grow productivity, reduce costs and improve output quality. In this particular case, the KUKA LBR iiwa inserts the gear actuator piston into the transmission – precisely and gently doing a very repetitive task.
Škoda Wins
1) Production employees now work alongside the KUKA LBR iiwa on high-precision tasks without the need for safety fencing.
2) The digitization of production means that the Vrchlabí plant is becoming more data driven.
3) Robotics represents part of the modernization of the plant and will lead to more investment and innovation.
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