Even though robots are considered a cornerstone of today’s competitive manufacturing particularly in auto- mobile and related component assembly, there are still challenges to solve for manufacturing to efficiently re- spond to changing consumer behavior and global shifts in competitiveness。 Furthermore, high-growth indus- tries (in electronics, food, logistics, and life-sciences) and emerging manufacturing processes (gluing, coat- ing, laser-based processes, precision assembly, fiber material processing) as well as  fulfilling sustainabil- ity regulations will increasingly depend on advanced robot technology [54。1]。 Additionally, the range of fea- sible applications could significantly increase if robots were easier to install, to integrate with other manu- facturing processes, and to program, particularly with adaptive sensing and automatic error recovery。 Further challenges result from the integration of various types of controls (programmable logic controller (PLC), com- puter numerical control (CNC) sensors) with the robot controller, from close human–robot collaboration and fenceless production with both lightweight and heavy duty robots, and from an increasing need to save energy。72608

Design and production of industrial robots on the one hand, and the planning, integration, and operation of robot work cells on the other hand are largely in- dependent engineering tasks。 In order to be  produced in sufficiently large quantities, a robot design should meet the requirements for the widest set of potential applications。 As this is difficult to achieve in practice, various classes of robot designs regarding payload ca- pacity, number of robot axes, and workspace volume have emerged for application categories such as as- sembly, palletizing, painting, welding, machining, and general handling tasks。

Generally, a robot workcell consists of one or more robots with controllers and so-called robot peripherals, e。g。, grippers or tools, safety devices, sensors, and ma- terial transfer components for moving and presenting parts。 Typically, the cost of a complete robot workcell is four to five times the cost of the robots alone; how- ever, efforts are underway to drastically reduce these costs through use of increased robot functionality and artificial intelligence [54。2]。 A robot workcell is usually the result of customized planning, integration, program- ming, and configuration, requiring significant engineer- ing expertise。 Standardized engineering methods, tools, and best-practice examples for specifying and designing robot workcells have become available to provide pre- dictable performance and to secure investments [54。3]。

Today’s industrial robots are mainly rooted in the requirements of capital-intensive large-volume manu- facturing, typically defined by the automotive, electron- ics, and electrical goods industries which make up 80% of all robot installations。 Future industrial robots will not be a mere extrapolation of today’s designs, but will rather follow new design principles addressing a much wider range of application areas and industries。 At the same time, new technologies, particularly from the in- formation technology (IT) or the consumer domain will have an increasing impact on the design, performance, use and cost of future industrial robots。

International and national standards now help to quantify robot performance and define safety precau- tions, geometry, and media interfaces [54。4]。 Most robots operate behind secure barriers  to keep  people at a safe distance。 Recently, improved safety standards have allowed direct human–robot collaboration, permit- ting robots and human factory workers to share the same workspace [54。5, 6]。

54。2 A Short History  of Industrial  Robots

The invention of the industrial robot dates back to 1954 when inventor George  Devol  filed  a  patent on a programmed article transfer (Fig。 54。1)。 After team- ing up with young engineer and entrepreneur Joseph Engelberger, the first robot company, Unimation, was founded。 It put the first robot into service at  a Gen- eral Motors  plant  in  1961  for  extracting  parts from a die-casting machine。 Most of the hydraulically actu- ated Unimates were sold through the following years for  workpiece  handling  and  for  spot-welding  of car