Industrial and Commercial Service Robots

In recent years, there has been an increase in the usage of service robots in industrial and commercial applications, i.e. robots performing services for or in collaboration with humans. Whether as automated guided vehicles for flexible, adaptive material flows in production, as autonomous inspection and maintenance robots for unmanned plants such as oil rigs or offshore wind parks, or as a production assistant for handling and assembly tasks – mobile service robots optimize cost-efficiency, quality assurance, flexibility and safety in a wide range of implementation scenarios.

Automated guided vehicles enable material flows to be flexibly adapted to the requirements of the respective task and to dynamically-changing environments. Parallels and synergies are found in state-of-the-art driver assistance systems and highly-automated vehicles.

When it comes to unpleasant work, such as commercial cleaning tasks, or dangerous jobs such as inspection and maintenance tasks on oil and gas platforms, service robots ensure consistent quality and promote better working conditions. Employees are relieved of these burdensome tasks and hazards are avoided.

Specially-adapted and highly-integrated service robots not only enable automation potentials to be fully exploited in typical areas, such as manufacturing and assembly, but also in areas where flexible automation is much rarer, e.g. agriculture. Consequently, service robots are implemented in milking carousels, or used for weeding and harvesting tasks.

 

Service Robots for Production

For Germany to remain an internationally-competitive manufacturing location, cost efficiency and output flexibility need to be improved and consistent levels of quality ensured. This can be achieved through implementing mobile service robots.

 

Robots for Retail Logistics

For Germany to remain an internationally-competitive manufacturing location, cost efficiency and output flexibility need to be improved and consistent levels of quality ensured. This can be achieved through implementing mobile service robots.

 

Cleaning Robots

Despite being monotonous and repetitive, cleaning tasks still tend to be conducted manually. Automated cleaning systems can be used to cut costs, reduce staffing numbers and minimize potential risks.

 

Service Robots for Inspection and Maintenance

The inspection and maintenance of process equipment and manufacturing systems call for consistent precision and reliability while performing repetitive tasks tirelessly. At the same time, environmental conditions, such as explosion hazards, need to be taken into account.

 

Service robots for Agriculture

Fraunhofer IPA develops and offers agricultural robotics solutions for undefined and dynamic environments, ranging from navigation software for field swarm cooperation to machine vision and new small-scale robot concepts.