Automating the Ozarks

Like a scene straight from a science fiction book, robotics are being used by a handful of Ozarks manufacturers to create a safer, more efficient and technically accurate work environment. However, a low baseline aptitude in math and science among students pursuing higher education in technical fields is creating a challenge for both manufacturers and the educators training future workers in the robotics field.

Greg Herren, director of business development for Springfield-based Multi-Craft Contractors Inc., organized a recent day-long seminar designed to give area manufacturers an inside look at the functional potential for robot usage in their company settings. Herren said while the main use of robotics technology in the Ozarks is packaging and palletizing of goods, robots can improve any function that falls under one of the three “Ds.”

“Any job that is dirty, demeaning or dangerous is a prime example,” he said. “In jobs where there is high turnover or injury, robots can perform those functions 24/7, with the lights off.”

Multi-Craft Contractors provides contracting services, including automation and robotics consulting, mechanical and electrical engineering, manufacturing plant services and project management.  Herren said tasks that would take several workers, such as loading heavy machine tools, can be accomplished with a single robot on a slide gantry, minimizing risk to workers.

“The best way to get that message out is through education,” he said. “Our region has lots of room for robotic benefits.”

It’s a benefit an increasing number of light manufacturers are discovering. According to the Robotic Industries Association, after record-setting revenue gains of 38 percent in 2012 and 27 percent in 2011, the U.S. robotics industry is projected to finish 2013 at a more normal growth rate of around 10 percent. While the RIA estimates 232,000 robots are in use in U.S. factories, that number still represents fewer than one-quarter of U.S. companies that could use robotics. Inversley, Japan leads world robototics utilization with 75 percent.  

While the palletizing of heavy goods is the most common use of robotics in southwest Missouri, Herren characterized such usage as the “low-hanging fruit” of their functionality. Beyond the reduction of accidents and human injuries in heavy lifting or chemical environments, Herren said robotics bring increased accuracy and consistency in fine detail applications such as painting, drilling or circuit board operations.

Learning the trade
Keith Dinwiddie, technical education instructor at Ozarks Technical Community College, teaches several robotics courses at the school’s Lebanon campus. He said some students have taken higher-level math, but many lack basic arithmetic skills and are still “trying to dodge the same bullet that they did in high school.”

“With our tech programs, we embed a lot of math – by tying it to Ohm’s Law or gearing ratios, or force transmission,” he said. “When it’s tied to the real-world side of things, they don’t look at it the same way as traditional math. That approach helps to ease them in, and fill any gaps that may exist.”

But Dinwiddie said regardless of math skills, interest in his program has increased. He cites the number of area companies that have integrated robotics into their operations, including Springfield’s Ridewell Corp., NorthStar Battery LLC and McLane Co. Inc., as well as Copeland Corp. and Detroit Tool Metal Engineering in Lebanon.

“It may be a cultural shift,” Dinwiddie said. “Our students are embracing the idea of robotics in the workplace, and won’t have the traditional ‘robots are going to take my job’ attitude. Instead, they’ll be ready.”

In action
Zachary Young is one of two robotic programmers at Ridewell Corp. The Springfield-based company utilizes 17 welding robots in it production of suspensions for heavy duty trucks, trailers, buses and RVs. The robots – some as tall as 15 feet – are manufactured by Swiss company ABB, Ft. Collins, Colo.-based Wolf Robotics and Tipp City, Ohio-based OTC Daihen.

After beginning his career as a welder, Young went back to school, earning a University of Phoenix degree in information technology with a concentration in software engineering, and followed up with an intensive training course at Wolf Robotics.

“I’ve always been interested in robots ever since I was a kid,” Young said. “But with my welding background, everything just kind of came together in this job.”

As the second-shift programmer, Young codes the instructions for the Ridewell robots utilizing three variations of the ABB robot programming language, which he said is, “similar to old-school C-programming language, but is very indigenous to the robotic function.” Through a series of basic instructions, he strings together specific movements for a robot’s six axis points, each of which has a specific and finite range of functional motion. Coupled with the assembly platform’s movements on three axis points, those maneuvers allow the robots welding apparatus to reach tiny spaces within the vechicle axles and chassis it works on.

And while the access, precision and consistency of robotic welding are far greater than that of humans, Young said even a tiny mistake is exponentially magnified across the span of the process.

“It’s like a game,” he said. “When you change the movement at one point, then it affects the movement of every other axis. It sometimes takes a while to work out, but I usually can get within a millimeter of where I’m aiming.”