During the CeBIT 2016 in Hanover, Germany, the Chinese ICT Giant Huawei and German Industry 4.0 innovator KUKA Robotics signed partnership agreement to explore opportunities in smart manufacturing across European and Chinese industrial markets.
This cooperation will lead to an advanced collaboration between these two expert companies in the fields of areas of cloud computing, big data, mobile technology, and smart industrial robots. The research and development in this field will help to make manufacturing easier and possibly safer by leveraging human-robot collaboration (HRC).
Industry 4.0
This buzzword is also known as fourth industrial revolution. After the mechanization, introduction of assembly lines and computer automation, Industry 4.0 has its focus on the utilization of cyber physical systems in manufacturing. Building robotic components that are centrally controlled, yet aware of their human colleagues, is important for this to take shape.
Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC)
HRC means not to replace humans with machines but to support the human workers in manufacturing. The target is not to reduce staff but to improve working conditions by sourcing labor-intensive tasks to robotic workers. Also these robotic workers require control and maintenance, which are activities, provided by humans.
Safety first
The dimension of cyber physical systems across industrial markets helps on many angles in finance and human resources alike, but the one subject with key focus should be the safety of people. In 2015 there was a major accident at Volkswagen, which led to the death of a person, caused by a “robot”. Whether it was an error by the human controller, an issue with the software, or a hardware problem is unclear, but it is clear that all this innovation must be accompanied with equally innovative security measures.
Message from the business
“The manufacturing industry is undergoing profound transformation, and robots will be critical to revolutionizing factories and driving new opportunities. KUKA plays a central role in promoting and developing smart manufacturing solutions in Germany and across the world,” said Ryan Ding, Executive Director and President of Products & Solutions, Huawei. “We’re confident our strategic partnership with KUKA will enable Huawei to lead the way in helping global manufacturing enterprises transform their factories and gain significant competitive advantages from realizing smart manufacturing.”
About Huawei
Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Our aim is to enrich life and improve efficiency through a better connected world, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler for the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Huawei’s 170,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Our innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world’s population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees. (About text provided by Huawei)
About KUKA Robotics
The vision of KUKA Roboter GmbH is to establish the robot as an intelligent helper. It will be able to support humans in production by virtue of its high-quality work and will enable the cost-effective use of robots even in small and medium-sized production facilities. Robots and humans work hand in hand, complementing each other with their respective skills. (About text provided by KUKA Robotics)
YouTube: KR AGILUS (English)
Photo credit: Huawei / KUKA
Source: Huawei / Guardian
