Collaborative Robots and the Future of Painting and Wall Covering Contractors
OVERVIEW
The future of painting and wall covering contractors may be intertwined with the increasingly prominent role of collaborative robots (cobots). With the global cobot market predicted to reach $12.3 billion by 2025, a growth pattern largely driven by a diverse range of industries embracing automated solutions, the painting and wall covering sector is poised to experience significant transformations. Such transformative shifts offer the potential to enhance efficiency, increase accuracy, and reduce work-related injuries.
THE RISE OF COLLABORATIVE ROBOTS
In recent years, the investment and development in cobots have surged, with 74 percent of total global robot sales in 2019 alone attributed to cobots. These smart machines highlight an evolutionary leap in the robotics industry, equipped with sophisticated sensors, AI capabilities, and advanced safety features that allow them to work directly alongside humans. Such close collaboration can bring about significant productivity gains in painting and wall covering services, helping contractors save time, cut costs and increase their operational capacities.
COBOTS AND THE FUTURE OF PAINTING CONTRACTORS
Application of cobots in the painting and wall covering industry holds substantial potential. Their use can enhance precision, reduce waste, and increase speed of delivery. This next-generation technology can perform repetitive tasks with high accuracy while also benefiting from advanced algorithms that allow for adaptive learning, thereby improving efficiency over time. Given that painting and wall covering sectors are grappling with a labor shortage, with the U.S. Department of Labor estimating a 12 percent decline in available personnel by 2026, the introduction of cobots could offer a vital counterbalance by increasing productivity while reducing the need for manual labor.
IMPROVING SAFETY THROUGH COBOTS
With the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics noting a 58 percent incident rate in painting and wall covering contracting due to work-related injuries in 2019, cobots offer a unique solution to improve worker safety. By performing dangerous or high-risk tasks, cobots can substantially reduce the prevalence of workplace injuries, creating a safer environment for human workers. This shift could bring about huge savings in health and safety costs, and significantly improve the industry's overall safety record.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The global cobot market is predicted to reach $12.3 billion by 2025, offering an invaluable tool for painting and wall covering contractors.
- In the painting and wall covering industry, cobots can enhance precision, reduce waste, and increase speed of delivery, addressing a predicted 12 percent labor shortage by 2026.
- By introducing cobots to the workflow, there is potential for a remarkable decrease in workplace injuries, contributing to a safer working environment and substantial savings in health and safety costs.
3LAWS ROBOTICS: ENHANCING SAFETY & RELIABILITY IN ROBOTIC SYSTEMS
In the ecosystem of cobot applications and certifications, 3Laws Robotics presents a prime solution to enhance safety and reliability for robotics systems. Focuses include addressing the challenge of certification, a significant pain point for robotics companies, developing innovative software - the 3Laws Supervisor, built on Control Barrier Functions (CBFs).
With evidence of system robustness and robust safety features, 3Laws aims to ease the certification path. Several applications for 3Laws' technology span across warehouse automation, human-robot interaction, and dynamic environments. One highlighted use case involves an autonomous forklift customer who achieved a 40% efficiency gain, leading to a 6-month payback period.
Furthermore, 3Laws enables safe and uninterrupted operation of robots near humans, a growing requirement for collaborative robotics solutions. With its reactive collision avoidance capabilities, it allows robots to effectively operate within unpredictable surroundings, minimizing downtime caused by unnecessary e-stops or collisions.
Through real-time guardrails for autonomy stacks, 3Laws makes it possible for robots to operate closer to their peak capabilities while maintaining safety. This adaptable software works with a wide array of platforms, and is compatible with popular robotics middleware such as ROS and ROS2. View 3Laws Robotics as a next-generation safety solution that surpasses traditional e-stop methods, offering dynamic, predictive safety that can be safety certified for ISO 3691-4 and ISO 26262.