Video of the week: Co-bots lend a hand on Ford's production line

News

This week’s video comes from Ford’s assembly plant in Cologne, Germany where workers are being assisted by collaborative robots – aka co-bots - to fit shock absorbers onto Ford Fiestas.

Ford Motor Company said the introduction of co-bots is part of its research into Industry 4.0 and that over 1,000 production line workers have helped to identify tasks for which the new robots would best be suited.

The 1m tall robots work alongside their human counterparts at two workstations. Rather than manipulate a heavy shock absorber and installation tool, workers can now use the robot to lift and automatically position the shock absorber into the wheel arch.

Developed over two years, the robot programme was carried out in partnership with KUKA.