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Robotics: The Engelberger – The Academy Award for Robotics
The Engelberger. It’s the top honor in the field of robotics, an award that has been presented annually since 1977. The award is named after Joseph F. Engelberger, the “father of robotics.” Engleberger was founder and president of the first robotics company, Unimation. This year’s award was $5000 and presented in Munich Germany.
This year’s award was given to Esben Østergaard for development and promotion of the concept of a collaborative robotic arm, or cobot. Østergaard’s company has sold more than 25,000 cobots and they are used now extensively in production environment. Cobots are typically much smaller and slower than traditional industrial robots that are used in heavy manufacturing. They are designed to work side-by-side humans and have been adopted for use in manufacturing electronics, semiconductor, metal and machining, automotive, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals.
Cobots are designed so that if they collide with a person, the robot will automatically stop moving to ensure that no physical harm can be done to a human. This concept of built-in safety is central to the idea of a collaborative robot.
Østergaard said that “when we invented the collaborative robot, people were laughing at it. In the beginning, there was not a lot of respect. It has been a journey. In the past few years, people have been noticing. It’s a legitimate market; now we’re getting traction. Our robots are easy to program and easy to move around. The built-in safety is changing manufacturing.”
