The phenomenal rise of collaborative automation systems over the past decade or so has seen collaborative technologies deployed on a growing number of quality control applications. Collaborative automation enables companies of all sizes to improve throughput and reduce cycle times on inspection tasks.

The days when only large companies could adopt automation are long past. Collaborative robots (cobots), lightweight industrial robot arms (LIRAs) and affordable peripherals such as vision systems and grippers have created a new paradigm by making low cost, easy to use automation solutions available to small-to-medium sized companies for the first time.