A study on Cobot investment in the manufacturing industry

Abstract: A collaborative robot is something of growing interest for companies in the manufacturing industries to implement. However, a collaborative robot is quite new in today’s market. An issue that arises is that no implementation process for collaborative robots exists today, as well as no requirement guide for skills, as well as actors, has been defined. The aim of this project was to examine how an implementation process of collaborative robots in manufacturing companies could look like. Focusing on charting the integration process steps of a collaborative robot, and identifying the actors as well as skills needed for successful cobot integration, with the aim achieve the goal of this thesis by answering the research questions. The thesis had the following research questions: Research Question 1 – How is an integration process for implementing a cobot represented in the manufacturing companies? Research Question 2 – What particular skills as well as actors are required when implementing in a cobot in the manufacturing companies? To answer the research questions, the author conducted several interviews with different companies. The interview questions were mainly constructed in order to answer the RQs but also to get an understanding for the different aspects of what a cobot is, what is required as well as how it compares to a traditional industrial robot. The thesis resulted in an implementation process with several steps constructed in order to implement a cobot as well as different aspects of what skills and actors are needed. In order to separate the aspects, the respondents were categorized into different roles which are the developer, integrator and the user. The different roles were all vital, providing an understanding from different perspectives. Keywords: Collaborative robot, cobot, Human-robot interaction, Human-Robot Collaboration, Development strategies, Automation, Industry 4.0.