Towards multi-functional robot-based automation systems

Multi-functional robot cells will play an important role in smart factories of the future. Equipped with flexible toolings, teams of robots will be able to realize manufacturing processes with growing complexity. However, to efficiently support small batch sizes and a multitude of process variants, powerful software tools are required. This paper illustrates the challenges that developers face in multi-functional robot cells, using the example of CFRP production. The vision of a new programming environment for such future flexible automation systems is sketched.