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BURNABY, B.C. – Welding students at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) are working together with robots, also called “cobots.”

Cobots, a BCIT release said, are a type of lightweight robot that shares workspaces with human beings in the welding and metal fabrication programs while performing automated tasks without the use of complex programming.

“Students don’t need to know anything about computer programming to be able to set the system up. Learning how to use this technology will allow them to go out into the work environment and know where and how a collaborative robot could be used,” BCIT Centre for Welding Technologies and Metallurgy director Mathew Smith said in the release.

Cobots differ from robots in that they are smaller, cost less and are easier to use and also detect a human presence and adapt.

“If you’re working around a cobot, it will detect you and stop if you get in its way – making it safer to work around, whereas traditional robots don’t work that way because they have already been programmed to perform a specific task regardless of the circumstance,” Smith said.

Students will be able to automate common tasks including welding of pipe and structural joints, including groove and fillet welds, the release said, and a camera has been mounted on the robot’s arm to allow students to monitor the welding in real time.

The cobot will supplement training provided by the programs and not replace learning of critical hand skills, the release added, as those skills are required in B.C. to become a certified welder.

“Workers will be able to use cobots to perform simple and repetitive welding tasks, freeing up time to work on more complex welding problems. This will allow B.C. to expand its manufacturing base, which will ultimately create more jobs as we become able to onshore manufacturing that is currently completed outside of the country,” Smith said.