Collaborative robot technology is offered by established industrial robot makers, and new to market companies, but industry is struggling to take advantage:
The legal framework is not established beyond principles
Inherently safe designs were not defined and agreed with regulators.
This technology offers potential to improve industrial productivity and flexibility with a new and unique proposition:
Supporting manual operations ergonomically
Lower cost automation that is inherently safe by design
Flexibility to move, easy to re-allocate.
This project seeks to establish safe payloads and systems of work to enabling robots to be designed and built to operate in true collaboration with people.
NISSAN
Nissan is a global full-line vehicle manufacturer that sells more than 60 models under the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands. In fiscal year 2015, the company sold more than 5.4 million vehicles globally, generating revenue of 12.2 trillion yen. Nissan engineers, manufactures and markets the world's best-selling all-electric vehicle in history, the Nissan LEAF. Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan manages operations in six regions: ASEAN & Oceania; Africa, Middle East & India; China; Europe; Latin America and North America. Nissan has been partnered with French manufacturer Renault since 1999 and Mitsubishi Motors since 2016 under the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Contribution from RTOs
MTC & DTI
Understand how to implement collaborative robots, drawing from ISO/TS 15066
Risk Assessment process for system implementation and safety certification
Implementation of systems and their certification for industrial uses, such as:
ABS assembly box/part handling
Bolting assist
Mastic and primer application
Impact (expected)
Deploy collaborative robot systems into NMUK in FY16 as proof of concept. The systems must be truly collaborative – inherently safe by design.
