Škoda Auto, MATADOR Group and KUKA: ending the separation between humans and robots in factories.

People and robots working next to and with each other? What sounds like the future is now the present, thanks to a Central European partnership involving a new generation of collaborative robots, freed from the safety restrictions required in the past.

Škoda Auto (part of the Volkwagen Group since 1991), MATADOR Group and KUKA have come together in the town of Vrchlabí, at the foot of the Giant Mountains, for a production initiative without borders or fences. The industrial cultures of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany connect the three companies, while human-robot teamwork on the factory floor has taken on a new dimension following the removal of the security fence that once separated these members of the modern workforce.

And all this happens in a car factory that produces direct shift automatic transmissions. There, an industrial robot does what industrial robots are good at: increasing productivity, reducing costs and improving output quality. In this specific case, the KUKA LBR iiwa places the piston of the gear actuator in the transmission – accurately and gently performing a very repetitive task.

Škoda wins
1) Production workers now work together with the KUKA LBR iiwa on high-precision tasks without the need for safety fences.

2) The digitalization of production means that the Vrchlabí factory is becoming increasingly data-driven.

3) Robotics is part of the factory modernization and will lead to more investment and innovation.

https://www.kuka.com/en-de/industries/solutions-database/2017/11/solution-robotics-skoda

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