Q&A: Insights from KUKA's Marsha Marcus

What was clear from the very start was Marsha’s huge enthusiasm for her subject matter – robots and, cobots, in particular. 

Having worked for leading aerospace companies as a qualified aerospace applications engineer,Marsha left this arena to head towards furthering her career in robotics. Karen was keen to learn why. 

Having attended the Paris and Farnborough Airshow for years and seen state-of-the-art hardware on display, I am intrigued as to what made you switch from the aerospace market to robotics. 

My career move was carefully constructed and designed in a way where I could leverage all my skillsets – networking, stakeholder management, working cross functionally with R&D teams, sales and not forgetting my most important stakeholder, my customers. 

I knew that a product manager role was somewhere that I would absolutely thrive. The road to product management was not an easy one, I had to obtain 3+ years of commercial experience in sales, so I had to trade in my highly technical comfort-blanket role as an application engineer for a position in sales. It so happened to be the first company that provided me the opportunity to obtain my sales experience was a robotic manufacturer. Since then, I have never looked back, as it was love at first sight with robots. 

When we met, you seemed incredibly keen to talk about robotics but especially driven to research cobots, particularly as they relate to electronics, fast moving consumer goods and Tier 1 & automotive markets. Could you elaborate on this? 

Certainly, in the electronics market, we require precision and accuracy for sensitive assembly applications. Within the cobot product portfolio, KUKA also offers a cleanroom variant cobot, our LBR iisy CR, which allows our cobots to work within stringent environmental conditions, where there are strictly limited particles allowed to be present in the air. Crucially, this is one of our USP’s, and some of the related applications within this sector are wafer handling, POD/FOUP handling, open cassette handling, jedec cassette handling, and finally, load-board handling. 

Within the FMCG market, it is really important that we have a product that can be adaptable to different tasks, as there are often changes in production lines. A fenceless cobot is perfect in these circumstances, as it is easily programmed and re-deployable for different repetitive tasks, which allows for a high degree of flexibility. 

Another one of the USP’s of KUKA is our impeccable hardware which is vital for the Tier 1 and the automotive industry. The hardware has bypassed the benchmark points of its predecessor in every possible way. For instance, with the repair concept, our LBR iisy has different configurations of its cable sets which minimises failure and increases its Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF). Most of the components used for the LBR iisy are similar to those that KUKA has used on the Agilus, so it is not only industrially proven to withstand arduous tasks, but it also has a very attractive repair concept, in comparison to its predecessor. 

As we head towards the second quarter of this century, how do you perceive change in the evolution of these markets in relation to hardware, firmware, and software? You hint at the 27% or so electronics market reaching saturation so which other sectors will gather greater momentum, do you think? 

I believe there will be a huge shift in market evolution, where new markets will start to emerge stronger such as renewable technology, battery production for electric vehicles and net zero applications are met etc. With regard to both hardware and software, there will definitely be a considerable need to implement both – equally. With hardware integration, I believe the space of cobotics working with humans will become more common in industry, as safety and ISO standards increase. The use of IIoT devices will also become commonplace, as it can provide real time data for preventative maintenance to ensure the machines run more smoothly and do face minimal downtime. 

In terms of software, user interfaces will become more highly sought after, as this will act as a platform for easier integration and deployment with robotics for both software and hardware interfaces – enhancing the customer experience. 

As technically skilled labour shortages exist across Europe, and supply chain issues are disrupted by the Ukraine and Gaza wars, how, in your opinion, can KUKA’s cobots help to minimise production delays across various industries – if at all? 

KUKA cobots help to minimise production delays by being easy to use and with their new operating system and tree-based programming methods, allow for quick and easy to build programs, which does not require a robotic professional to build and deploy.  

It is flexible where it can be reprogramed and redeployed for various production lines within a manufacturing facility. 

Safety is imperative in any market. How does the incorporation of leading-edge sensor technology in cobots, for example, assist KUKA to meet with current safety standards? 

Safety is paramount at KUKA, and we do not take this topic lightly. There are many standards we take into consideration when developing a cobot, for example in terms of hardware, our cobots have force torque sensors incorporated in every joint which makes it highly suitable for sensitive applications. With impedance control features, we can demonstrate this, as they are highly sought after for assembly applications within the electronics industry where the robot is able to innately realise this feature – incredibly – without the help of any external hardware/flex effectors.  

The design of the body of the robot is also different to our industrial robots, as it is more curved and streamlined as it is a human robot and collaboration requirements are imperative in adhering to cobot design standards. We were delighted to win the Reddot design award in 2022 for the design of our larger payload cobots, which is a remarkable achievement, specifically, for my collective R&D team.  

As for velocity controls, we are able to adjust the speeds based on proximity of humans. There is also a safe stop function, which allows the cobot to safely stop if the force exerted on the cobots exceeds the parametrised value. 

Last-but-not-least, we always recommend to our customers that they conduct proper risk assessments and to certify a cell using third party safety partners. Advice can be accessed via our website. 

Everyone is talking about AI in every sector of our lives. So, is KUKA’s involvement with camera manufacturers the company’s key strategy to leading the way in this arena? 

KUKA’s involvement with different camera partners are a significant part of the company strategy in the space of AI driven technology in robotics. We often say vision is the eyes of our robots within our industry. Using 3D & 2D cameras allows for the robots to see the workspace and permits it toperform tasks within applications such as quality inspections and assembly.  

Some assembly tasks have a high degree of variation, using complex machine learning algorithms, so the vision system is able to learn in real time through scanning the defined workspace to learn the exact point of pick up for the target part it requires to pick and place.  

At Automatica 2023, we even came up with a cell which currently displays our used case for bin picking – with the use of a camera and a cobot. 

Net zero is an existential crisis for the globe, so could you comment on how cobots can contribute towards limiting energy consumption, thereby helping us to reach our net zero targets? 

During my time in robotics, I have made many visits to different factories which had a need to automate high variation applications with long cycle times, so the use of a cobot is more suitable here as it can minimise scrap rates and waste, which then can make a saving to material costs. Most of the time, the tasks here are very intricate and highly labour intense so I suppose this all contributes towards sustainability. 

As for highly non-adaptable production lines, cobots can also help with optimising production and lowering energy consumption, as we do not have to redesign a line but allow the flexibility of a cobot which can contribute towards more lean manufacturing as we can integrate it within an existing line – without too much modification to the overall process. 

Finally, Marsha, where do you see the future of cobots heading and do you see your future and that of other young female engineers intrinsically linked with the development of this technology? 

The future of cobotics is immense, as it will always be the first point of collaboration with new emerging technology. There will certainly be more advancements in the AI space, where cobots will be capable of making some tasks based on learning patterns from the environment to improve their adaptability to the environment without the need for complex programming. 

I am grateful and thankful to be working in the space of robotics with such incredible advancements. I am hoping that my story can make a difference to any young female engineers out there who are planning to make a break into the robotics world. I am also happy to provide mentorship to break gender barriers and stereotypes and foster more inclusion within the space of robotics. 

This article originally appeared in the July'24 magazine issue of Electronic Specifier Design – see ES's Magazine Archives for more featured publications.