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Anyone immersed in robotic technologies will tell you that contrary to popular belief, robots in production environments are about as unintelligent as they get – unless you take the time to add some smarts into the equation.

People don’t understand that a typical robot is designed to do the exact same thing over and over, explains Michael McCourt, president of Stratford, ON-based D&D Automation Inc. “Give it a slightly different part or orientation and it can’t handle that.”

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That basic repetitive functionality — like pumping out millions of circuit boards or bottle — might be enough when used in a high-speed, high-volume environment where one task is all that’s needed. When variability comes into play — such as welding several bolts onto a car fender — the option would be put more people on the task or invest in multiple robots.

It can look at what part is in front of it and its orientation, pick it out and perform the function required

New signs of intelligence for production drones are coming to the forefront with technologies that help robots think and react to production changes on the fly. D&D for one has just launched VERA™ (Vision Enabled Robotic Assembly), an adaptive technology that combines vision systems and programming that is currently being used in automotive welding and assembly tasks.