Industrial Automation Magazine India

Our new cobot portfolio is the most diverse in the market

Published on : Thursday 01-04-2021

Subrata Karmakar, President – Robotics & Discrete Automation, ABB India Ltd.

What is the significance of the launch of the new ABB cobots and the essential differences between the GoFa and Swifti models?
ABB’s GoFa and SWIFTI cobot families have expanded our cobot portfolio, helping our customers accelerate collaboration and opening cobots to first-time users in a broad range of sectors, such as healthcare, logistics, retail and SMEs in the industrial sector. The market potential for ABB’s cobots is huge.

GoFA is engineered for first-time users and SMEs, helping businesses automate processes involving heavier loads and longer reaches to assist workers with repetitive and ergonomically challenging tasks. It has a payload of up to 5 kg and it is the fastest cobot in its class with a speed of up to 2.2 metres per second and can be mounted in any direction. Owing to intelligent torque sensors in each joint, the GoFa cobot immediately senses any unexpected contact with a human, and comes to a stop within milliseconds. 

SWIFTI cobots bridge the gap between collaborative and industrial robotics. It is a fast and accurate collaborative robot for payloads up to 4 kg, designed for intermittent collaborative work with humans. It functions at a speed of up to five meters per second and comes with enhanced collaborative safety measures and ease of use, along with additional advantages such as speed, robustness, and precision of an industrial robot. 

The safety laser scanner system on the cobot can also detect a human approaching, and direct the cobot to stop activity. As the human exits the safety zone, the cobot will then return to full speed, to keep productivity high, saving valuable time.

An external device for lead-through programming allows for intuitive robot movement programming for SWIFTI, while GoFa features lead through programming by ‘grabbing’ anywhere on the robot.

ABB has a strong presence in industrial robots. How are the cobots impacting this market at the lighter payload end of the spectrum?

Our new cobot portfolio is the most diverse in the market, offering higher payloads and speeds to complement YuMi and Single Arm YuMi in our line-up. These stronger, faster and more capable robots are engineered for first-time users, SMEs and our industrial customers who need the speed and strength of an industrial robot that is able to work intermittently with humans. Building on the success of our YuMi family, the expansion of our cobot offering is one of our strategic levers aimed at improving our offering.

While the collaborative robot market is still a small one compared to the overall robotics market, cobot sales are gaining momentum and the development of new higher payload cobots like GoFa and SWIFTI will be a key driver to accelerate this growth, encouraging businesses to automate. GoFa will help businesses automate processes involving heavier loads and longer reaches (5kg and 950mm, with fastest in-class speed) to support workers with ergonomically challenging tasks, while SWIFTI bridges the gap between industrial and cobots designed for intermittent human collaboration with best-in-class speed and accuracy. 

Together, our portfolio will unlock automation in businesses to support tasks including material handling, machine tending, component assembly and packaging in manufacturing, labs, logistics hubs and warehouses, workshops and small production facilities.  

Currently, we see the most potential in the up to 5kg cobot payload segment and therefore expect GoFa and SWIFTI to be very successful.

India has a low installed base of robots compared to Asian peers. With the current emphasis on manufacturing, what is the potential of the market?

We believe that this is the right time for cobots. The market is gaining momentum. The global demand for collaborative robots is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent between 2020 and 2025, while the value of global cobot sales is expected to increase from an estimated ~0.7 billion USD in 2019 to ~1.4 billion USD by 2025.

ABB is also witnessing trends, such as reshoring/nearshoring to improve supply chain resilience; having production lines that are more flexible and better able to cope with significant changes in demand; or processes without human contact. These trends have been around for a while, but Covid-19 has changed perceptions and priorities for customers on the need for automation solutions that increase flexibility and simplicity, thereby accelerating their adoption. 

In 2019, The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) found that India averages just four robots per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing industry. While it is relatively much lower compared to some other countries, the acceptance of the need for robots is gradually being achieved in India. It is only a matter of time that Indian industries take on automation to achieve efficiency and productivity.

What are the industry segments in India most likely to adopt cobots for automation?
GoFa™ and SWIFTI™ are engineered to help businesses automate processes to assist workers with tasks including material handling, machine tending, component assembly and packaging in manufacturing, medical laboratories, logistics hubs and warehouses, workshops, and small production facilities.

We expect that these stronger, faster, and more capable cobots will accelerate our expansion in high-growth segments including electronics, healthcare, consumer goods, logistics and food and beverage, amongst others, meeting the growing demand for automation across multiple industries.  

GoFa™ and SWIFTI™ are intuitively designed so customers need not rely on in-house programming specialists. This will unlock industries that have low levels of automation, with customers able to operate their cobot within minutes of installation, straight out of the box, with no specialised training. 

ABB has recently launched a robotic solutions delivery facility at Bangalore. What is the experience here in terms of customer applications?
Our Robotics solutions facility enables Indian customers to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0 including cutting-edge robotics and digitalisation technologies. We deliver robotic applications and digital solutions for a variety of Indian industries, including automotive, food & beverage, electronics and other upcoming sectors, from this facility.

We have an upcoming Customer Experience Centre planned at the facility for customers to learn about the latest technology and applications in robotics, including ABB’s dedicated robot simulation and programming software, RobotStudio. Additionally, the facility also hosts a paint lab where customers can run simulations of a broad range of industrial painting applications.

In addition, there is also a demonstration centre available where the latest technologies in robotic welding, gluing and material handling will be showcased to customers and can be used to carry out joint prove-out sessions.

How do you view the various policy initiatives and their impact on robotics in India?
Robotics is a requisite for making the Indian industry globally competitive and for the country to attract foreign investments. The ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative implies that India needs to be self-sufficient and become an attractive investment for both global and local companies. Also, the Government’s Production Linked Incentives for 10 sectors will further facilitate large-scale manufacturing, development of a supply chain ecosystem, and that of new manufacturing clusters in the country, and thereby, accelerate the adoption of automation in the industries. 

One way to increase adoption is by providing taxation incentives to companies capitalising on robotics. Capital expenditure would automatically increase the adoption of robotics. This would incentivise robot manufacturers to set up manufacturing hubs in India, providing impetus to making India a regional robotics technology hub.