The third hand, cobots assisted precise assembly

Abstract

Collaborative robots (Cobots) are indispensable tools in the factories of the future. Owing to their safety centered design, Cobots are allowed to work side by side with humans, making their use as an assistive third hand appealing for tedious assembly tasks. Consequently, we propose a robot that can be hand-guided to lift and hold parts in place while the human performs assembly tasks. Such functionality reduces the risk to workers (falling components for example), provides precision, allows lifting heavier parts, and increases productivity by allowing human workers to focus on more value-added tasks.