The Art of Touching
Robotics: The robot needs to have precision contact with the object to be ground, the speed must be constant and it must keep to the prescribed curves, as well as moving in several dimensions. That makes programming the robot extremely challenging.
Leif Thomsen, owner and director of the Robotool company
Within the last two to three years, there has been a veritable explosion in the number of Danish companies making use of industrial robots. And the number of companies delivering robot solutions has risen correspondingly.
“Each year, prices drop by 10 per cent – and performance increases by 10 per cent again,” says Leif Thomsen, owner and director of the Robotool company, specialising in the art of producing grinding robots.
“It’s something of an art: the robot needs to have precision contact with the object to be ground, the speed must be constant and it must keep to the prescribed curves, as well as moving in several dimensions,” says Thomsen. Currently, his is the only company in northern Europe capable of supplying this kind of robotic solution; its areas of application include furniture factories, where rounded edges are a must. “For a mathematically correct solution, the robot needs to have six axles, so that it can operate at all angles. That makes programming the robot extremely challenging.”
Having worked with robots in previous employment at the LEGO toy factory and ECCO the shoe company and, having decided to start Robotool, Leif Thomsen believed he would primarily be making tools for clients’ robots. But he soon found that very different parameters were paramount.
“Instead of just supplying individual tools for existing robots, we found ourselves supplying total solutions where the processes and the finances were at least as important as the technology involved. Today, when a customer comes to us with an enquiry, we actually begin by defining the problem, analysing the process and calculating the finances. Only after that do we come up with a solution. In some cases, this may well lead to rearranging work processes rather than introducing robot technology.”
The relatively high wages level in Denmark is another powerful urge when it comes to introducing robot technology, however. The same is true of the restrictive working environment regulations. Robots operate without costly investments in air extraction equipment, outside normal working hours and without regard for monotonous, repetitive work. And they produce uniform quality.
“Our competency is unrivalled when it comes to quality,” says Thomsen. “Ultimately, the robot only does what it is told to do. If bad work goes in, then bad work goes out. Because we know something about tools and processes, too, we’re able to put together a package ensuring 100 per cent quality results.”
Robotool’s specialisation in object contact and finish poses major demands on future development.
“We are working intensively on producing robots with as many human qualities as possible. The first step along the way is to integrate computer vision into robots – adding the sense of sight to the sense of touch. They can already move, hear and observe. The rest is coming, and things are proceeding at astonishing speed.”
www.robotool.com
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