ROME – Dietmar and Robbie are inseparable. They work together at the Ford plant in Cologne, Germany, fixing the covers to the engines. The former inserts two lids into the holders, while Robbie presses them firmly into place, a precision task in which the holes must be perfectly aligned: only in this way can Dietmar fix the lids with an electric screwdriver, allowing the motor to continue its course along the production line and ending up under the hood of a Ford automobile.
In short, a team work, where if one is missing, the other falls and vice versa. But there is a small detail: Dietmar is human, Robbie is not. It is a robot, or rather a co-bot, a term that defines a “collaborative robot”, which came into operation in Cologne to support staff with reduced mobility. Robbie has been “entrusted” with Dietmar, an employee who has lost the use of his shoulder and wrist, and he shows up at work every day, ready to help him like a guardian angel.
“Over the years it has become increasingly difficult to do my job, then this little robot arrived and now it is as if I had an extra arm”, says Dietmar Brauner. “It has changed my life and I hope it can also give others the possibility of continuing to do the work they love, as happened to me “.
The research project is supported by the RWTH University of Aachen and the Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR), the largest provider of disabled services in Germany. In the past, Ford has introduced other cobots that have been programmed to assist production line workers with complex procedures, such as vehicle polishing. And in the future, new ones could arrive to be allocated to other establishments besides the one in Cologne: hundreds of little, willing Robbies scattered around the world and ready to help their human friends.