As of 2005, the robotic arm business is getting to a mature state, where they can provide enough speed, accuracy and ease of use for most of the applications. Vision guidance (machine vision) is bringing a lot of flexibility to robotic cells. So we have the arm and the eye,
But the part that still has poor flexibility is the hand: the end effector attached to a robot is often a simple pneumatic, 2-position wrench. This doesn't allow the robotic cell to easily handle different parts, in different orientations. (Limitations of robots in warehouse with multiple product lines).
Hand in hand with increasing off-line programmed applications, robot calibration is becoming more and more important in order to guarantee a good positioning accuracy.
Other developments include downsizing industrial arms for consumer applications and using industrial arms in combination with more intelligent automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to make the automation chain more flexible between pick-up and drop-off.
One thing to note is that these robots are usually employed in production plant with limited product lines, but with increase trend towards automation they are starting to be seen in warehouses and DC with multiple product lines.
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