Industrial Robots: Main Types and the Most Popular Applications

"Forced labor" is the literal meaning of the Czech word "robot", which first appeared in the 1920s. However, it was only in the 1960s that industrial robots were introduced into automobile production shops of assembly plants. 

From a scientific point of view, an industrial robot is defined as an "automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator, programmable in three or more axes, which may be fixed or mobile for use in industrial automation applications". However, in manufacturing we view industrial robots as workers that can perform dangerous or repetitive tasks required for production operations with a high degree of precision. 

The first industrial robot, Unimate, joined the assembly line at a General Motors plant in the town of Ewing (New Jersey) in 1961. It was an automated die-casting machine that lowered hot door handles and other car parts into coolant tanks on the production line, moving them to workers for final finishing and polishing. 

The programmability of industrial robots was largely a tool that allowed them to be used for many different tasks, but it did not really give them intelligence. They performed monotonous and unsafe tasks and were valued for their accuracy and repeatability. As a result, according to the International Federation of Robotics, the automotive industry has been the most important consumer of industrial robots since 2010. 

Industrial robots have revolutionized relevant workplaces across all industries since they first appeared in production environments. In fact, the growth of the industrial robot market is incredible. According to some forecasts, its market value will exceed $66 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.1% over this period. 

10 historically common applications of industrial robots

1. Arc welding. It became commonplace in the 1980s. One of the driving forces behind the shift to robotic welding is improved worker safety from arc burns and inhalation of hazardous fumes. 
2. Spot welding. Joins two touching metal surfaces by passing a high current through a point, which melts the metal and forms a weld that appears in a very short time (about 10 ms). 
3. Material handling. Manipulator robots are used to move, package and sort products. They can also automate functions related to transferring parts from one piece of equipment to another. Direct labor costs are reduced and most of the tedious and dangerous activities traditionally performed by humans are eliminated. 
4. Machine tending. Robotic machine tending is the process of loading and unloading raw materials for processing and monitoring while the machine performs its work. 
5. Painting. Robotic painting is used in the automotive industry and many other sectors because it improves product quality and consistency. Costs are also reduced through fewer rework cycles. 
6. Picking, packaging and palletizing. Most products are handled several times before final shipment. Robotic picking and packaging increase speed and accuracy and reduce production costs. 
7. Assembly. Robots regularly assemble products, freeing people from tedious tasks. Bots increase productivity and reduce operating costs. 
8. Mechanical cutting, grinding, deburring and polishing. Increased robot dexterity makes possible a production task that would otherwise be very difficult to automate. An example is the manufacture of orthopedic implants, such as knee and hip joints. Hand-polishing a hip joint usually takes 45-90 minutes, while a robot can perform the same function in just a few minutes. 
9. Gluing, sealing and spraying materials. Sealing robots are built with numerous robotic arm configurations that allow the device to apply adhesive to any type of product. The main advantage of this application is improved quality, speed and consistency of the final product. 
10. Other processes. These include robots for inspection, waterjet cutting or soldering. 

Five main types of industrial robots

According to the International Federation of Robotics, there are more than five types of industrial robots, but the most common ones can and should be classified by their mechanical design: 

• Cartesian robots operate along three linear axes using a Cartesian coordinate system (X, Y, Z). This means they use three sliding joints to move up and down, in and out, and side to side. Cartesian robots are the most widely used industrial robots, typically for CNC machines or 3D printing. 
• SCARA robots, selective compliance assembly robot arm, have two parallel rotary joints that provide compliance in a plane. A SCARA robot is typically used for assembly and specializes in lateral movements. 
• Articulated robots are bots with 2 to 10 (or more) joints connected to the base by a twisting joint. Resembling a human arm, they are commonly used in packaging, painting, metal casting and other industrial applications. 
• Delta robots are spider-like bots widely used in food, pharmaceutical and electronics production, connected by a common base. A delta robot is typically used for fast pick and place due to its precision at high speed. 
• Cylindrical robots: these compact bots are considered well suited to confined spaces and have at least one rotary joint for rotational movement and a prismatic joint for linear movement. Common applications of cylindrical robots include simple assembly, die casting, and machine loading and unloading. 

The future of industrial robots and their applications

Although historically the above applications and robot types may have been the most common, today's devices care less about their mechanical structure. They are data collectors. Early generations of robots had to be separated in their own world, while today they can be integrated into the workforce. 

In the past, bots were asked to perform very specific tasks, usually in a fixed location. But today the collaborative use of industrial bots is developing rapidly thanks to environmentally safe sensors that influence their form factor and functionality. Now these collaborative industrial robots, or cobots, work alongside factory operators, performing only a small part of what people do. 

The spread of sensors has allowed them to work in environments with people and record information about their surroundings. As a result, we can collect data at every stage of the production process for full control and detailed data analysis to make better decisions in the future. 

Advances in robotics also allow us to take robots out of factories and make them mobile and autonomous for entirely new applications, such as retail. In 2019, autonomous bots stormed grocery stores when Ahold Delhaize introduced the Badger Technologies robot, designed to improve store operations. Equipped with numerous sensors, navigation systems and cameras, the robot moves through store aisles alongside employees and customers to scan floors for hazardous conditions such as spilled liquids. At the same time, the device tracks stock of missing, misestimated or misplaced items. 

In other industries (for example, agriculture), drones can survey a field to find defects in crops. They can analyze water levels and dryness when determining product ripeness. Mobile robots and drones monitor oil and gas pipelines and power transmission systems, performing regular inspections and identifying signs that maintenance is needed in order to effectively direct maintenance crews. 

At their core, robots still perform routine, monotonous and labor-intensive tasks that employees dislike, while providing invaluable data to improve operations. Without sensors and other recent advances, this would not be possible. Artificial intelligence, of course, is a key part of creating such devices. AI will change what robotics can do, but that is still at least a decade away. 

In industrial robotics, success depends on exponentials. It uses exponential technology curves in industries adjacent to robotics to drive their adoption. It is hard to push technological innovation into such industries, but when you adopt technologies from "outside" industries, the possibilities are limitless.