Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Switzerland has opened a new chapter in the advancement of robotics with the inauguration of the Swiss Cobotics Competence Center. Located within the premises of the Switzerland Innovation Park Biel in the canton of Bern, the center stands as an exemplary hub for knowledge and demonstration in the realm of cutting-edge collaborative robotics or cobotics.
The Swiss Cobotics Competence Center is a giant leap forward in the pursuit of integrating robots more intimately and adaptively into our daily workflows (© S3C).
New robotics
The Swiss Cobotics Competence Center is a unique platform for expertise and demonstration of cutting-edge collaborative robotics (or cobotics) and represents a significant stride towards embedding robots more closely and flexibly in our everyday work.
With its foundation, the Cobotics Competence Center aspires to become the national hub for the development and testing of next-generation cobotic solutions, promising to reinvent the concept of human-centric design in industrial applications.
Bridge to industry
While these machine helpers have the potential to bolster the competitive standing of the Swiss manufacturing industry, collaborative robots are not yet commonplace in Swiss factories despite consistent technological advances. The new center aims to bridge this discrepancy between the emerging technological prowess and the industry’s reality, facilitating a wider application of cobotics across industrial sectors.
At its core, the center functions as a repository for cobotic knowledge and a testbed for applications. It draws strength from the support of the Swiss Smart Factory, the Bern University of Applied Sciences, the Swiss Federal Technology Institutes in Zurich and Lausanne, as well as 14 other academic partners.
The 18 industry partners include start-ups such as Aica and VU Engineering, alongside small and medium enterprises as well as larger corporations like Siemens. This melting pot of intellect and resources has been structured into a public-private partnership, marking a significant collaboration between academia and industry.
Automation focus
The center’s primary focus areas include the precision and watchmaking industry, the machine tool industry, medical technology, and laboratory automation, aiming to serve as the Swiss industry’s principal contact point for cobotic endeavors. The center features cobotic test and demonstration platforms representing typical industrial tasks, to assist the industry with everything from testing and training to implementation and validation of cobotic solutions.
The center has been recognized as a research institution of national importance and funded under the “Advanced Manufacturing Technology Transfer Centers” initiative by the Board of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the Federal Department for Economic Affairs, Education and Research.
As part of the federal action plan for digitalization, the center is seen as a critical element in the nationwide effort to stimulate innovation and expedite knowledge transfer, leading the Swiss industry into a new era of collaboration with robotics.
Text: GGBA (Editing by SCCIJ)
