Optimize Cobots for Worksite Efficiency

Precision and productivity strengthen automation and motion control opportunities

Pictured above: Figure 1—Cobots are ideal for machine tending applications like the one shown here. They can often tend multiple machines at once to free up workers for more important tasks. Image courtesy of Motion Automation Intelligence.

Collaborative robots have been hugely beneficial for manufacturers of all sizes over the past 15 years, and their share of the total robot market continues to grow every year. As of 2025, hundreds of different cobot models are available from dozens of manufacturers. Today, we will discuss the differences between industrial and collaborative robots, advantages of cobots, typical cobot applications, case studies, and some specific robotic solutions. 

Let’s begin by looking at problems facing manufacturers today. 

• The cost of goods has increased dramatically.
• Engineers are in high demand, and labor rates have skyrocketed.
• Many companies are seeing a lack of skilled workers, and supply chain disruptions are unprecedented.
• Inflation remains high.

So, how can you address these issues within your company? One way would be to automate some of your production processes. 

Let’s look at industrial robots, which have some significant pros and cons:

1. They have been used across manufacturing verticals for quite some time.
2. Industrial robots can run at very high speeds with high repeatability and carry very high payloads.
3. A big downside is that they can be dangerous to your workforce. Industrial robots are very heavy and must be framed or caged to protect your team.
4. As industrial robots are difficult to program, your business would need a dedicated programmer on staff, or you could outsource that work. Thus, industrial robots have a significant financial cost to deploy and support them effectively. 

An alternative to industrial robots would be collaborative robots (cobots). According to the Robotic Industries Association, a cobot is a robot specifically designed for direct interaction with humans within a defined shared workspace. 

There are many advantages with cobots, which are: 

• Specifically designed to work alongside people.
• Safer to use and do not require guarding.
• Have a lighter payload and are very easy to program.
• Offer high flexibility, low cost of integration and fast return on investment.
• Help manufacturers automate simple, repetitive tasks such as machine tending (Figure 1), assembly, processes (e.g., painting, glue dispensing, welding), part testing and material transport. 

Simple, standardized tasks, such as palletizing, are ideal for cobots. If you have labor that workers may not want to do, such as dull, dirty or dangerous tasks, a cobot may be a perfect fit. 

Cobots have helped our customers, such as a medical device manufacturer with employees manually loading and unloading a grinding machine. This was a situation where skilled employees were fulfilling a mundane task. Motion Automation Intelligence (Motion Ai) devised a solution and added cobots to the process. The cobots pick up the parts from a feed mechanism and offload the finished pieces to a conveyor for inspection. The average cycle time was cut by over 50%, freeing up employees to focus on their own skillsets. The manufacturer saw increased product quality, throughput and employee satisfaction, as well as a reduced overall cost. 

Figure 2—Using a vacuum gripper to pick parts out of a bin is another common task for cobots. Image courtesy of Motion Automation Intelligence.

End-of-Arm Tooling (EOAT) Options 
Many challenges that our customers face can be solved with a cobot and a gripper. However, depending on the individual needs of the manufacturer and their process, a wide array of end-of-arm tooling options is available. These include electric grippers, pneumatic and vacuum grippers (Figure 2), wrist cameras, vision systems, and dispensing, palletizing, machine tending, welding and screwdriving options. 

Electric grippers are the most popular tooling option for some common cobot applications, including machine tending and pick and place. They typically come in two- and three-jaw configurations, offering precise control that allows you to vary your grip force, speed and position. This lets them handle different part types with ease.

Pneumatic grippers use pressure from a compressed air supply to open and close the gripper fingers. Since most manufacturing facilities have access to compressed air already, deploying pneumatic grippers is easy and cost-effective. The largest benefit of these grippers is that they can provide a high amount of gripping force in a small package.

Vision systems consist of 2D or 3D cameras that give the cobot vision. They allow the robot to locate objects, recognize patterns or scan barcodes. This may eliminate the need to present parts to the robot in a structured way since it can locate objects on its own. Vision systems also help the cobot carry out optical inspections, e.g., checking parts for defects.

Dispensers are end-of-arm tools that uniformly dispense liquids. The most common applications for dispensers are gluing and sealing. These are perfect cobot applications because of the monotonous and repetitive nature of the work. A dispenser ensures you always use the same amount of product in the same way, reducing errors and waste. Standard, built-in path planning software tools enable a user to quickly implement dispensing about a unique 3-D path for the part contour needed.

Screwdrivers are a niche solution, but we are seeing more of them. Recently, our team at Motion Ai automated several applications that required this EOAT type. Our screwdriver version comes with all the software and hardware needed to automate this mundane task. Today’s screwdriving solutions are smaller and less complex than their predecessors, making them viable for manufacturers of all sizes.

Palletizing solutions are the ideal answer for many projects for our customers. Motion Ai offers an off-the-shelf solution that includes software and hardware to optimize this task that can be especially tedious for human workers. Once the hardware is set up, simply enter your box dimensions, weight and pallet layout into the software, and you can be palletizing in a matter of minutes—with no motion programming necessary (Figure 3).

In both screwdriver and palletizing solutions, the main benefit is ergonomics. Each screwdriver and palletizer installation gets the job done more efficiently and usually faster, allowing workers to take on other, less strenuous tasks.

The ecosystem of products that has developed around collaborative robots means that these days, almost any application can be solved with an existing solution. And if an off-the-shelf solution doesn’t exist, check with your distributor for options. A full-service distributor will have experienced engineers who design custom cobots to solve applications like those listed above, plus a full line of motion control and automation products to complete your automation projects.

Figure 3—End of line palletizing is the perfect example of a labor intensive job that can be done with cobots. Image courtesy of Motion Automation Intelligence.

The Latest Cobot Trends 

What does the future hold? We are already seeing cobots become more intelligent through advanced AI integration. With AI, cobots can adapt to dynamic environments, learn from data, and make real-time decisions. This allows cobots to become even more efficient by optimizing movements and improving advanced inspection tasks. 

Becoming more common in the marketplace, cobots are getting more affordable. The expansion of the cobots-as-a-service (CaaS) model, where people can rent before buying, has lowered the barrier to entry even further. This means that cobot technology is now available to businesses of almost any size. Cobots are also being used in non-manufacturing applications in industries such as retail and agriculture.

As cobots continue to evolve and become more accessible, a wide range of industries are empowered to enhance productivity, flexibility and innovation in their operations.

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