Cobots are kinder, gentler robots

17 Jun 2002

Researchers at Northwestern University have invented a new kind of collaborative robot, or "cobot." Cobots don't have the powerful motors that drive conventional robots and that make robots dangerous to human co-workers in factory settings.

"Cobots can work safely with people, and yet you'll never see them replacing people, because cobots simply can't move on their own at all," said inventor J. Edward Colgate, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern's Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. Colgate described a prototype cobot this week at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Atlanta.