ToMM2 - Future Collaborative Assembly Team of Man and Machine

Important results from the project

The aim was to build a demonstrator cell as close to production standard as possible in order to identify practical, particularly safety, challenges when designing, installing and operating a cobot cell involving a large robot. This was done and several important findings have been possible to report to industry and academia in two “industrial shows”, where the second demonstrated an installation with full industrial production standard, and at several international conferences, likely contributing to an increased implementation rate for cobots in the automotive industry.

Expected long term effects

The assumed deliverables have also been delivered, including 6 academic papers.: - A physical demonstrator cell, to demonstrate collaborative installations involving large robots - Industrial evaluation model - Conceptual model for cobot business case analysis - One licentiate thesis, and publications for a PhD thesis - Three student projects and/or student theses works The assumed up to date state-of-the-art and trend analysis within the area has been challenging to produce as the international cobot field has developed very rapidly during the project.

Approach and implementation

Scania´s, AB Volvo´s and Volvo Cars´ expertise in practical automation and security solutions, together with Linköping University and Swerea´s expertise from the research front for collaborative solutions led to two demo installations, one of which achieved full industrial production standards. The project found that there are no "collaborative robots", only "robots in collaborative settings" and that installing large robots in collaborative installations requires a significant resource effort