Cobots vs. industrial robots – the differences

15 March, 2023

A flexible human co-worker vs. a high-precision workhorse in safety zone

Both are robots, that's for sure. With the help of both, manufacturing processes can be optimized, the workload of employees can be decreased, and growth can be increased despite the shortage of skilled workers. But what are the differences between cobots and industrial robots, and what is the right choice for which automation project?

Cobots vs. industrial robots – general concepts Cobots or collaborative robots are so-called HRC robots (human-robot collaboration) – coming with build-in safety technology for preventing occupational accidents. These robots act as mobile co-workers for humans - made for direct interactions and even hand-in-hand collaboration, e.g., quality control, pick-and-place or in educational institutions as well as for medical applications. Cobots are typically smaller, more lightweight and mobile compared to industrial robots, and programming cobots is much easier to learn.

In contrast, the very powerful but heavy industrial robots perform like real powerhouses on the production line, e.g. in automated painting or robotic welding in series vehicle production. While handling high-performance, heavy-duty, and very precise automation taks even in large or hazardous production environments, these robots operate independently of direct human interaction and inside a secured area - known as the robot cell. However, the programming of industrial robots is very complex and time-consuming.

Cobots vs. industrial robots – operating & programming Both programming cobots and industrial robots does require prior knowledge as well as specific training. But there are major differences.

Programming automation processes with cobots can be done fairly easy, in a flexible setup, and without a deep programming knowledge. Because cobots come with more or less intuitive GUIs (graphical programming interfaces) a skilled worker can master by him or herself after a few training sessions. Furthermore, the Freedrive Mode for manual, hand-guided positioning of the robot arm is provided.

With industrial robots, it's completely different. The programming languages not only differ from one manufacturer to the next but are also highly complicated. It requires costly, specialized programming experts to teach an industrial robot, and they need to consult with the right production application specialists beforehand. During the entire setup of a new automation process with an industrial robot, the production stops. In case of a lack of availability of the programming expert, downtime can last for several days or even weeks.

A new method to work very easy with robots is known as "no-code robotics". Instead of classic programming with code, people use an intuitive user interface to teach a robot, similar to the interface of a smartphone app. This means that cobots and industrial robots can always be taught in the same way and without long training sessions.

Cobots vs. industrial robots – performance Automating production with robots generally aims to improve performance and quality. Whether a cobot or an industrial robot is more suitable for the individual application depends on various parameters.

For the benefit of greater safety and flexibility, cobots have limits in terms of speed (maximum 1000 mm/s), workload (around 40 kg max.) and accuracy. Industrial robots can perform up to 10 times faster and are capable of handling even heavy loads without affecting accuracy in a negative way. That said, achieving a very high precision and performance is not always required.

Cobots vs. industrial robots - safety & space requirements When it comes to the decision cobot vs. industrial robot also space & safety aspects matter.

Cobots always come with built-in sensing systems to immediately stop a critical process - e.g. in case a human hand gets into the dangerous automation zone. So, a cobot can be operated in the most workspaces and without extra safety space. Moving it to another workstation on a mobile base construction is quite quickly.

Industrial robots not only have a larger and heavier size than cobots, in addition such robots can only be operated in a secured robot cell. Otherwise, industrial robots could cause serious accidents with humans. In the best case, dangerous tasks per se should be automated in a safe robot cell, even if they could theoretically be performed by a cobot. Once installed, an industrial robot can only be moved to another place with very high effort and significant downtime.

Therefore, cobots are sometimes the better choice for smaller productions and manufacturing facilities even if an industrial robot could perform more accurately or quickly elsewhere.

Cobots vs. industrial robots - costs & suppliers Ranging from around 5,000 to 400,000 - the bigger, the more expensive!A list of the world's leading robot OEMs in the industry includes YASKAWA, Fanuc, Universal Robots, KUKA, ABB, Mitsubishi, Yamaha, DENSO and more. They offer a great range of robot models for different applications, which can be explored on the manufacturers' and resellers' websites. Strongly generalized, it's said that the bigger, the more expensive. Of course, the brand, complexity, versatility and more aspects also make a difference in the pricing. For example, a simple "entry-level cobot" starts at around €5,000 but is only suitable for very limited use in production. High-quality cobots cost €35,000 and more. Industrial robots starting at around €25,000, up to hundreds of thousands. In addition to the purchase of the robot itself, additional costs arise for programming efforts, sensors, safety technology, additional tools, maintenance, trainings etc. Especially the high programming costs can be reduced up to 75% by implementing a uniform, intuitive programming solution with no code. No code solution „Wandelbots Teaching”