Assembly line manufacturing like automobiles can lead to back strains when employees sped their working days lifting items from packing cartons.
But, using world-first technology, at the Audi plant in Ingolstadt, Germany robots are for the first time working alongside human employees without being separated by fences and other safety items.
Equipped with a camera and suction cups, the robots are used to lift items like coolant tanks from their cartons and hand them to humans for installation into vehicles like the Audi A4, A5 and Q5.
Audi says it will continue to develop its robot-human technology but will never let people lose their independence to machines nor allow robots to take human jobs.
“The factory of the future will feature increasing interaction between man and machines,” explained Dr Hubert Waltl, Audi’s board member in charge of production. “That allows us to automate routing operations and to optimize ergonomically unfavourable workplaces.”
As well as its two plants in Germany (Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm), Audi produces vehicles in Hungary, Belgium, Slovakia, Spain, Russia, India, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.
