Local company's cutting edge way to make working with robots safer

Updated: 7:51 PM EST Mar 6, 2020

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There are more than three million industrial robots in factories around the world, but many are in cages to protect the people around them. Robots are basically working blindly, if you like, with our technology, were essentially opening the eyes of the robot, allowing to actually work more like a human operator would do. Here are four robots randomly moving about. Neither knows what the other is going to do, but watch how they never hit each other, even stopping to let another move through, then resuming its task once the coast is clear. Jason Barden, a Boston based real time robotics, explains how they made it possible. We just say to each robot, This is where you're starting. This is your goal position on The robots will be able to find a motion plan or a path which is obstacle free and be able to do so autonomously. It's called rapid sense. Ah, collision avoidance system for robots. Real time solution allows people and multiple robots to work in the same space without the need for expensive safety systems or time consuming software programming. Traditionally, it may take months to actually do this programming. We can reduce it by 75 to 80%. They do it by calculating millions of possible pass a robot could take and by using strategically mounted cameras. Software directs the robot. Which way to move or not move to accomplish its goal? Watch what happens when I put my hands in front of a car Welding robot. Very dangerous in most situations on the robot will stop really quickly. Cameras detect my presence and my arm shows up in the program. The robot, in fractions of a second stops and then again, if you go and put your hand in the cell one more time, sometimes it can even find a path right around. I was just going right around my hand. Yes, this technology also allows a robot's movements to be instantly changed. If one baht breaks down, another can quickly step in and take over. We're opening the eyes of the robots to enable them to work on the fly and dynamic environments. The company originally started out of Duke University but moved to Boston in 2016 and now employs 40 people, and the reason they brought it up to Boston was, there's so much talent here in the engineering space robotic space and software engineering. So So what are you telling me? We need more robots like this that can work around people. Yeah, it's kind of surprise you a little very interesting statistic. Manufacturing is increasing the United States, but less people actually seeking manufacturing jobs and baby boomers are retiring from factories at record pace is so it's expected there's gonna be a shortage of two million factory workers in the U. S. In the next 5 to 10 years. And robots may actually fill that void. So when that thing was coming around, we were you afraid? Very. You know, it's it's really pretty neat how it just works right around you, you know, just kind of like, thinks moves. Work, needs to go fasting stuffs. I feel like Mike may be braver than, I assure you. It's very, very safe.

Local company's cutting edge way to make working with robots safer

Updated: 7:51 PM EST Mar 6, 2020

As robots become more and more common, they often interact with people, and in manufacturing that can be dangerous.

As robots become more and more common, they often interact with people, and in manufacturing that can be dangerous.

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Local company's cutting edge way to make working with robots safer - WCVB Boston