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ODICO


FROM GUST TO GALE: MANUFACTURING ROBOTS SPEED WIND FARM CONSTRUCTION

THE FUTURE OF MAKING

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Image courtesy of lorem ipsum


FLEXIBLE ROBOTICS TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES WIND TURBINE MANUFACTURING EFFICIENCY

Denmark has long been a world leader when it comes to renewable energy—the
country sources almost half of its electricity consumption from wind power
alone. Now manufacturing robots from Danish company Odico are set to transform
this pioneering industry even further. The company is bringing robotic precision
to wind turbine manufacturing, helping its customers reduce risk and triple
productivity. And by enabling frontline workers to build designs from a tablet,
Odico’s technology helps drive agile, continuous improvement in the booming
renewable energy sector.


PRECISION MATTERS

Pushing a drill bit through a sheet of metal may seem a mundane thing, but when
that metal is attaching a 12-ton aluminum blade to a wind turbine in the North
Sea, the way the holes are bored matters quite a lot. Get the placement wrong by
a millimeter, and months of design, fabrication, and assembly work could be
wasted.

Stopping expensive and painstakingly engineered components from landing in the
scrap heap is part of Odico’s mission. Founded in 2012 in Odense, Denmark—home
to a thriving cluster of robotics companies—the company specializes in advanced
robotics that bring manufacturing technology to the construction industry. Odico
develops super-agile, mobile manufacturing robots that can be recalibrated on
the fly. Each robot can triple in-factory productivity for companies
specializing in smaller production runs, making it perfect for wind turbine
construction.

Odico’s robots boost in-factory productivity for companies specializing in
smaller production runs. Image courtesy of Odico.


MANAGING A RIGOROUS MANUFACTURING PROCESS

In the past, drilling holes in something as big as a wind turbine blade would
have been done manually. A human operator running a large drilling unit would
need to ensure that each hole met exacting specifications for type, shape,
depth, diameter, location, and quality. The drilling unit itself had to be
perfectly calibrated, fitted, and rigorously maintained. The person at the
console had to have stamina and patience in this time-consuming process.

“Today, turbine blade profiles are moved by crane to drill each hole required,”
says Anders Bundsgaard, founder and CEO of Odico. When operators finish drilling
one hole, the profile has to be moved to a different position and fastened in
place to fit the exact requirements. Because every profile needs up to 48 holes,
about six profiles can be completed on a good day.

Odico Founder and CEO Anders Bundsgaard. Image courtesy of Odico.


ACCOMMODATING SHORT-RUN MANUFACTURING

Under these constraints, wind turbine production volumes tend to be
small—hundreds of units versus the tens of thousands one would expect in a
typical factory run. This allows engineers to continually make updates,
refinements, and improvements, but it also hinders standardization. “For
low-volume factory runs of 100 to 120, you can’t automate production in a
traditional way,” Bundsgaard says. Every new order means going back to the
drawing board. “And most robotic manufacturing systems have their roots in
automotive, where you’re creating 100,000 cars or components at one time,” he
adds. “Altering the design spec is difficult and usually requires someone with a
design or engineering degree.”

To simplify this process, Odico created Drill Mate, a “beast of a robot” that
can automatically drill precision patterns over and over again in complex metal
profiles. Its modular architecture allows for quick, in-factory installation.

Drill Mate combines robotic drilling with the latest developments in
computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). It’s designed for precise, heavy-duty work,
with a  multiphase drilling head and 6-axis manipulator that make the robot
highly maneuverable. Each Drill Mate manufacturing robot has enough onboard
computing capability to support a seamless file-to-factory workflow—which means
designers can do rapid prototyping on the fly, and frontline workers can quickly
execute changes on-site. This enhanced programmability and flexibility benefits
companies specializing in smaller production runs with fast turnarounds.

For Odico’s customers in Denmark’s booming renewable energy sector, which is set
to increase wind power production by nearly 80% in 2024, those capabilities are
boosting productivity and enabling agile, continuous improvement.


MANUFACTURING FROM A TABLET

To refine the company’s offerings to this growing market, Bundsgaard and his
product development team experimented with ways to embed Drill Mate more
seamlessly into a standard CAM workflow and make it even easier for frontline
workers to execute changes to a drilling spec.

Odico worked with Autodesk to integrate Drill Mate with Fusion 360. A few taps
on a tablet, and changes to drilling coordinates and requirements can be
executed on the factory floor using Fusion 360’s CAM interface.

“For a young, dynamic industry like renewable energy with wind turbines, it’s in
the DNA of design teams to continually innovate and improve,” Bundsgaard says.
With our new system, anyone who can use a CAD/CAM interface can make changes in
a matter of hours.”

Autodesk worked with Odico to integrate Drill Mate with Fusion 360. Image
courtesy of Odico.


IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY WHILE SAVING JOBS

So far, Odico’s robot deployment has delivered impressive results. Using the
previous manual system and machinery, wind turbine manufacturing clients could
typically complete six profiles a day. With Odico’s solution, they can drill 18
profiles—three times the typical industry output.

But even with such an impressive jump in productivity, Bundsgaard doesn’t think
robots have to upset the workplace balance between human and machine. “Robots
are saving manufacturing jobs,” he says. “At the moment, we risk being in a race
to the bottom with low-wage markets. The people that’s going to hurt most are
the workers on the front line. By making robots more adaptable to individual
needs, we’re going where the market is headed. Upskilling is going to be
necessary, of course, but instead of being replaced, we see job roles evolving
to match a broader range of robotics applications.”

In Bundsgaard’s view, robotic automation isn’t killing jobs but changing the way
humans and devices work together.


A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN HUMANS AND MACHINES

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020 shows that an increasing
number of employers agree with Bundsgaard: It estimates that although 85 million
jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labor between humans and
machines by 2025, 97 million new roles may also emerge—roles that are more
adapted to the new division of labor among humans, machines, and algorithms.

This transformation will almost certainly include more portable and agile
solutions like Odico’s pop-up Factory on the Fly, a mini manufacturing facility
housed in a portable trailer. Designed for the construction industry, it
promises to let anyone safely and easily use robots to construct building
elements with a tablet. With it, manufacturing can be done close to the supply
chain, reducing the need to ship parts halfway across the planet.

Odico’s technology shifts the time-consuming process of calibration and fitting
required for precision drilling to robots like Drill Mate. Image courtesy of
Odico.

“For us, the dream scenario is being able to hand control over technology to the
people on the factory floor or at the construction site. For that to happen,
it’s vital that these tools keep their user-friendliness. Ideally, you want to
be able to take someone from the workshop and train them up in 15 minutes, and
then let them run with it.”

—Anders Bundsgaard, Founder and CEO, Odico


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A version of this article ran previously on Redshift.

Learn more

Learn about robot programming software for manufacturing

Explore more Design & Manufacturing solutions

Find out how to adapt your workforce to the era of automation

View a version of this article than ran previously on Redshift


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