IoT and robotics colliding together
By: Adapt Ideations
Tags: Manufacturing, Data, IoT, Robotics, Robots

IoT and robotics colliding together

With the universal pressure for companies to cut costs and increase productivity in all areas of their company, the use of robotics and in general emerging technology will become increasingly important. Adapt Ideations Jan 19, 2020·4 min read

Robotics is in fact not a new technology, it has been around since the 1960s. Since implementation, robotics has assisted companies in creating products and materials. Even though robotics has been around for over 50 years, it’s full potential has not yet been realised as they have only been able to work in a segregated environment and on seperate tasks.

Many people today wonder if robotics and IoT are separate fields or if their technology has seamlessly come together. When you think about it modern-day robotics and IoT have increasingly been growing together simultaneously as IoT is effectively able to enhance robotics. The two technologies have essentially come together creating the internet of robotic things as it’s called (IoRT).

IoRT, in a nutshell, are intelligent devices monitoring what is occurring around them. The data then comes together and the intelligence of the devices enables it to decide a course of action and how it should react to the events. IoT drives innovation, data-driven optimisation, and digital transformation for companies. When IoT comes together with robotics it allows robots to have enhanced capabilities such as greater data processing capabilities and the ability to respond to unexpected conditions through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). It’s only the start for the full potential of robotics to be discovered.

IoT and robotics technology go hand in hand together. IoT effectively can enhance robotics as a whole and allow further capabilities to be unlocked when both come together. IoT’s focus is on supporting devices and achieving capabilities such as sensing, monitoring and tracking while the focus of robotics is on the action of itself and reaction to events around it.

The two technologies come together creating the IoRT community can significantly enhance one another. Advances in IoT, AI, & ML will only enable robotics to be further enhanced and increase the number of capabilities currently experienced making the technology further appealing to large companies. As mentioned in previous blogs, it’s only a matter of time before Industrial IoT (IIoT) takes off further. IIoT will become a big part of the future for the manufacturing industry.

Purchasing robots can be justified as the capabilities and technology are significantly being enhanced. It’s believed that IoT will continue in the future to play a defining role in allowing robotic companies to have more control over equipment. CEO of Veo Robotics has mentioned as only a small percentage, 13% of the world’s total number of industrial robots are currently collaborative, there is much more to work towards achieving in the near further with the rapid advances in technology.

With the universal pressure for companies to cut costs and increase productivity in all areas of their company, the use of robotics and in general emerging technology will become increasingly important. Robotics alone will enable companies to boost their productivity and lower their ongoing operating costs as it will decrease the amount of manual labour required to operate. Robotics as such will either replace workers or add value to their daily operations as robots with emerging technology can learn from human actions and tasks. Collaborative robots will only become more popular in the coming years due to their ability to learn and evolve as time goes on. They will only become smarter as technology evolves further.

As the average age of workers in the manufacturing industry are increasing its important to understand why it is aging. Many millennials prefer to work in other industries that are less labour intense and are seen as more meaningful jobs. While there will be a significant decrease in the number of manufacturing jobs, it will allow other jobs to be created by robotics essentially opening up a whole new field to people that will be more interesting and meaningful than current manufacturing jobs.

Investments in robotics will become increasingly important for manufacturers due to the lack of popularity of manufacturing jobs and increasing competition in the field. IDC has predicted that 60% of G2000 manufacturers will take up the use of automated technologies such as robotics, and AI in the near future. As repetitive tasks can now become automated by robots, it will enable humans to save a considerable amount of time and decrease the number of overall human errors greatly improving efficiency in repetitive jobs.

As new technology continues to be developed, increasing capabilities will be enabled in technology and devices previously implemented. With time these devices and technology will become increasingly smarter. It’s not hard to establish that many types of robots already exist, however, their full capabilities have not been recognised completely. As emerging technology continues to work alongside robotics and increase capabilities of them, various benefits can now be established such as increasing productivity, reduction in labour costs and working collaboratively in the work environment. Now is the time to get on board and establish how robotics can assist your company.