Common Robots and Elevate Robotics stated the autonomous system pays for itself inside one 13-floor undertaking. | Supply: Common Robots
As much as 1,000 ft. into the air, building employees want intensive security rigging to put in glass panel brackets. This important job not solely places staff at risk, but it surely’s additionally repetitive and boring. To maintain employees protected and permit them to do extra high-value work, Harmon Inc., a U.S.-based glazing firm, is automating the method with know-how from Elevate Robotics and Common Robots A/S.
Harmon is an early adopter of this know-how, and up to now, stated it has seen a quick return on funding (ROI). As well as, the Bloomington, Minn.-based constructing façade firm stated the robotic system has improved employee security, in addition to consistency and precision in set up. The three companions stated the robots present a 3x multiplier on guide labor and supply a payoff inside one 13-floor undertaking.
Historically, to put in fasteners for glass façade panels on high-rise buildings, employees must align, drill, and torque brackets in place to specific specs, all whereas hanging off the aspect of a constructing. Not solely is the job not ergonomic, however there may be additionally a big probability for harm if a device or bracket falls to the bottom beneath, the place different employees could also be.
“Security is at all times first in thoughts,” stated Don Birmingham, common superintendent at Harmon. “For those who can effectively do a job and take all the protection dangers out of it, I believe any contractor would join that. So far as the employees, I believe they’d a lot relatively be contained in the handrail working a robotic than hanging off the sting of the constructing.”
Elevate Robotics makes use of two UR20 arms
Elevate Robotics makes use of two UR20 collaborative robotic arms from Common Robots for the revolutionary building platform. The San Francisco-based firm has mounted these two cobots on every cellular robotic base. The small footprint and management packing containers of the UR20 make them simple to combine right into a cellular software.
“As a result of Common Robots has completed an amazing job of creating their arms very power-efficient, in addition to making it simple to combine right into a DC energy resolution, we will straight join our arms to the battery and have our robots working absolutely, wirelessly on a building website,” stated Gary Chen, co-founder of Elevate Robotics.
As well as, the UR20’s IP65 score gives confidence for Elevate’s prospects in utilizing the robots even in inclement environments together with mud and rain, in addition to excessive temperatures. The corporate has run the robotic efficiently from 20°F beneath zero as much as 120°F.
To develop its system, Elevate stated it used all kinds of assets from Common Robots, together with on-line technical documentation and assist through myUR. It additionally used the boards on each the Common Robots web site in addition to their GitHub.
“Assist from UR has been improbable,” famous Conley Oster, the co-founder of Elevate Robotics. “Any points that we bumped into or any questions that we had early on, we had a devoted purposes engineer from UR that was in a position to assist us. The UR neighborhood and boards had been extraordinarily useful to us as properly. We had been at all times in a position to give you an answer in a well timed method.”
Harmon says robotics reduces guide necessities
Harmon reported quite a lot of enhancements since deploying the Elevate Robotics system. For instance, the guide set up course of for façade brackets sometimes requires two to 4 employees. Compared, the robotic requires just one particular person to handle it per set up location.
“It’s a 3x multiplier on conventional labor,” stated Oster. That multiplier gives quick ROI for the robotic, sometimes offering breakeven for the robotic at about 13 flooring primarily based on a month-to-month lease and amortizing the robotic throughout the variety of installations on every ground.
The system didn’t simply work sooner than guide labor; it was additionally extra correct, exact, and constant, the businesses stated.
“In guide installs, round 30% of all fasteners sometimes aren’t put in in the suitable spot,” Oster stated. “Utilizing a robotic like ours along side whole stations permits us to precisely place fasteners on the constructing’s edge or throughout the constructing’s core. We are able to set up inside plus or minus three-sixteenths of an inch, which is much superior to what we’ve seen in guide installations.”
Lastly, the system additionally contains software program that gives quick perception and historic logs of on-site information. This provides actual torque values and alignment for each bracket in actual time, versus random high quality inspections which might be sometimes completed a number of instances on every ground.
Harmon had “as-built” information, which allowed its group to regulate anchor positioning earlier than the glass partitions had been put in.
“I believe probably the most profit we received was the stories of the place the anchors had been put in,” Harmon’s Birmingham stated. “The earlier we discovered any deviations past specs, the simpler it was to eradicate them going ahead.”
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