Economy

KEY POINTS

Cobots Vs Robots

·         Small, collaborative robots are called as COBOTS.

·         A Cobot is intended to work hand-in-hand with humans in a shared workspace.

·         This is in contrast with full-fledged robots that are designed to operate autonomously or with limited guidance.

·         Cobots support and relieve the human operator of his excess work.

·         E.g. In a biscuit factory, the cobot would package the biscuits while the worker segregates burnt ones not fit for consumption.

Suitable for India

·         Cobots are flexible and can be used just as a tool.

·         Use of cobots helps avoid overplaying the role of a robot which tends to dominate the workflow, relegating human contribution to the background.

·         Populous and labour-surplus country like India will benefit from the cobots as, it will not result in job cuts because of its co-existence policy and increase productivity as well.

·         Cobots are capable of creating jobs and making small businesses competitive.

·         MSMEs constitute 90% of the total industrial units that spread all over India.

·         Indian MSMEs employ 40% of the country’s workforce, making them the employment powerhouse of the country.

·         Right now, automation seems to be only for the few large companies that have the engineering resources that have the capital invested.

·         Nobody has figured out how to deal with the small/medium segment and the flexible requirements in that space.

·         Cobots come to the rescue of MSMEs with its significant features of flexibility, easy to use and less space occupying.

Advantages of Cobots

·         Safety

·         Accuracy

·         Compactness

·         Cost-effectiveness

·         Lightweight nature

·         Low payback period

·         Increase productivity

·         Reduced power consumption

·         Zero annual maintenance costs

·         Retention of IP within the company