Most collaborative robots demonstrations tend to focus on pick-and-place or palletizing applications. But one of the more promising applications of the technology is in quality inspections.
At the Automate 2017 event in Chicago, Rethink Robotics showed how its robots, outfitted with an embedded Cognex camera for vision capabilities, are able to combine visual and tactical inspections processes. In the video below, you can see how the robot is able to visually assess that an on/off switch is in the incorrect position and corrects the problem with its gripper. Also shown is how the robot can detect a loose fitting on the assembly and notify an operator of the need to address that issue before finalizing the quality inspection process.
