Cobots and humanoid robots: in Cittadella industrial production adapts to workers

In a production line in Cittadella, it is no longer the operators who have to adapt to the pace of the robots, but the opposite. This is the principle behind CoAdapt, the project financed by the European Union through Horizon 2020 which led the BNP company, specialized in ergonomic solutions for industrial production, to develop cobots together with the Lab Village of the University of Padua - collaborative robots without the safety barriers of classic industrial robots, replaced by sensors that stop them in case of risk - capable of slowing down when the operator shows signs of fatigue.

A second project, financed by the Veneto Region and in the start-up phase, will expand the research to humanoid robots, capable of replicating the movements of the human body and moving autonomously in space.

The solutions, already adopted by companies in the automotive and household appliances sectors, were created to respond to a demographic problem: the increase in the average age in companies, a consequence of the demographic winter and increasingly late retirements.

«The demographic winter and increasingly late retirements have led to an increase in the average age in companies, with positive consequences, the greater experience of people, but also negative ones, linked to the physical wear and tear of workers, who often have limitations to their activity also certified by medical prescriptions», explains Carlo Pettenon, CEO of BNP.

«Thanks to the collaboration with the iNest Consortium and in particular with HtLab of the University of Padua, we have designed innovative production lines in which we overturn the traditional paradigm: people dictate the pace and robots adapt».