It was suggested that in industrial robot design, a human-centered design concept is paramount, and safety is of the utmost importance because collaboration with humans is emphasized.

Arrow Electronics announced 'Industrial Robot Design for Global Challenges Proposed by ADI' via an e4ds webinar on the 13th.

Nicola O'Byrne, who gave the presentation, noted that robot adoption is increasing due to global consumption and labor shortage trends, and that the role of robots has been particularly prominent in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, it was reported that automation is progressing, focusing on 3D jobs in manufacturing companies, and the adoption of collaborative robots is accelerating, centered on the automotive industry.

In particular, while accuracy and speed were the most important design concepts in the design of previous industrial robots, it was stated that safety is the most important aspect in the design of collaborative robots because collaboration with humans is paramount.

It was also mentioned that general robot designs focus on integrating motors and servo drives for each axis, which is linked to the market trend favoring small and lightweight robots.

Consequently, the size of the robot controller cabinet is significantly reduced compared to the box size, and the cabling for the DC power coming from the cabinet, along with the communication network, is changed. It is possible.

Using this architecture, sensors and axes connected to the communication network of the robot and DC power can be added, and all power storage and control can be placed inside each integrated drive of each axis.

Because this architecture offers excellent flexibility, all changes to the system can be handled through software.

To achieve this, an integrated drive design is required to increase thermal efficiency and save space, and since it is unknown what type of system the robot is connected to, multiple protocols for network connectivity are generally necessary.

ADI stated that communication between robots and pumps or other machine tools in factories is particularly important, and to this end, it is providing various solutions through its Khronos portfolio.

ADI Khronos industrial Ethernet solutions are designed to deliver time-critical data perfectly and in a timely manner across applications, and feature complete industrial Ethernet solutions, software, and security capabilities designed to realize network convergence.

In addition, the recently released industrial Ethernet PHY ADIN 1300 is a 1Gbps switch, and the ADIN 1200 is a 100Mbps switch with industry-leading power and latency specifications. These products have undergone extensive testing for EMC robustness, such as surge, EFT, ESD, radiation resistance, conduction resistance, advanced radiation, and conducted emission.

The ESD level for ADIN1200 is 4kV/2kV for HBM, 200V for MM, and 1.25kV for FICDM.

"ADI provides market-leading sensor solutions by combining sensors and signal conditioning technologies," said Nicola Oburn. "While motion control for collaborative robots can be a design challenge, considering the types of tasks they will perform, they do not need to be as accurate as conventional robots."

In addition, it was stated, “Until recently, many robot designers have chosen solutions such as expensive high-performance optical encoders used in traditional high-performance robotics, but the new magnetic sensing solutions provided by ADI offer an economical solution with mid-range resolution, and ADI is also actively working on developing next-generation solutions with enhanced features and performance.”