Collaborative robots (cobots) are revolutionizing industrial automation by enabling safe, efficient, and adaptable workflows.
However, most manufacturers provide only limited control over how and where robots operate within a workspace. Doosan Robotics takes safety and flexibility further by offering six distinct work zones, each designed to regulate movement, sensitivity, and interaction parameters based on operational needs.
This unique multi-zone system allows businesses to optimize both productivity and safety, ensuring robots function precisely as required without unnecessary restrictions. Whether controlling movement boundaries, adjusting collision sensitivity, or customizing safety settings, Doosan cobots provide a heightened level of operational control that allows your employees to work efficiently and safely with your cobot.
Here at HESCO, the Doosan Robotics distributor for New England, New York, and New Jersey, we know how important workplace safety is. This article gives you an overview of the six work zones that Doosan cobots employ and how they can be used effectively.
The six work zones Doosan cobots offer, courtesy of Doosan Robotics
The Space Limit Zone establishes the outermost boundary of the cobot’s operational area, ensuring that it remains within a designated workspace. This zone prevents the robot from exceeding predefined movement limits, protecting both nearby workers and surrounding equipment.
By restricting movement beyond set parameters, companies can prevent unintended interactions with other machines or workstations. This feature is particularly valuable in environments with tight automation layouts, where precise movement control is essential to maintaining safety and efficiency.
Designed for maximum worker protection, the Crushing Prevention Zone applies more stringent safety parameters to reduce the risk of entrapment or clamping injuries. When operating within this zone, the cobot automatically lowers its force and speed, ensuring that any unexpected contact with a human remains gentle and non-threatening.
This feature is critical in environments where operators frequently interact with cobots, such as assembly lines, quality inspection stations, or packaging workflows. By reducing clamping risks, businesses can integrate cobots more effectively into shared workspaces without additional physical barriers
Not all workspaces require the same level of sensitivity to external forces. The Collision Sensitivity Reduction Zone allows operators to adjust the cobot’s sensitivity to better match specific tasks or environments. This zone is particularly useful when the cobot needs to perform tasks that involve pushing or pressing against surfaces, such as fitting parts together or sanding applications.
By fine-tuning collision detection, companies can strike a balance between safety and operational efficiency, reducing unnecessary stoppages while still protecting workers and equipment. This feature provides a more dynamic and customizable approach to cobot deployment in high-precision applications.
For industries requiring highly controlled and consistent tool positioning, the Tool Orientation Limit Zone ensures that the robot’s end effector maintains a predefined set of orientations while operating within a specific area. This prevents unwanted deviations in tool angle or alignment, ensuring that processes requiring strict orientation control—such as welding, dispensing, or machining—are executed with unwavering accuracy.
This level of control is especially beneficial in precision-driven industries like electronics manufacturing and automotive production, where tool misalignment can lead to costly defects or quality issues. By restricting tool orientation, companies can achieve more reliable and repeatable automation outcomes.
In applications where humans and cobots work side by side, the Collaborative Zone ensures safe interaction by reducing the robot’s speed when operating in shared workspaces. This allows workers to move freely around the cobot without compromising safety or interrupting workflow.
Unlike traditional industrial robots that require safety cages, Doosan cobots in this zone dynamically adjust their behavior based on human presence, making them ideal for tasks such as hand-guided assembly, material sorting, or cooperative pick-and-place operations. By allowing for fluid collaboration, businesses can increase productivity without sacrificing worker safety.
Recognizing that every industry has unique automation requirements, Doosan Robotics offers the Custom Zone, which enables users to combine multiple work zone features into a single, tailored safety and performance setting. This provides businesses with an unparalleled level of flexibility, allowing cobots to adapt to specialized workflows without requiring extensive reprogramming.
For example, a manufacturer could set a Custom Zone that combines collision sensitivity reduction and tool orientation limits, allowing a cobot to firmly press a part into place while maintaining a strict tool angle. This versatility allows companies to fine-tune their automation strategies, ensuring that cobots operate exactly as needed for each specific task.
While many cobot manufacturers offer only basic collaborative and safety zones, Doosan Robotics delivers a more comprehensive, customizable, and safety-enhanced approach. By allowing businesses to define precise operational parameters, Doosan cobots enable greater control over automation performance, leading to:
The ability to create multiple specialized zones within a single robotic deployment provides companies with more automation possibilities than ever before. Whether limiting movement, adjusting sensitivity, or defining custom safety parameters, these six work zones allow businesses to work smarter without compromising safety or flexibility.
To configure work zones for your Doosan cobot, start by powering on the robot and accessing the teach pendant, which serves as the main interface for programming and configuration. Once the teach pendant is active, navigate to the main menu, select "Settings," and then choose "Safety" to access the safety-related configurations.
Within the safety settings, locate the "Work Area Setting" option. This feature allows you to define specific zones by setting coordinate boundaries, helping you control where the cobot should operate or avoid. Input the necessary coordinates to establish the boundaries of each work zone, ensuring they align with your facility’s operational requirements and safety standards.
Next, determine how the cobot should behave when it enters or approaches these zones. You can configure it to slow down, trigger an alert, or stop entirely upon reaching the defined boundaries. Once these settings are established, save them and conduct thorough testing to verify that the robot responds appropriately. This step ensures that the configured work zones enhance both safety and efficiency in your workspace.
As industries continue to embrace automation, the ability to create structured, intelligent work zones is becoming an essential factor in maximizing cobot efficiency. They grant users a high level of control, adaptability, and safety, ensuring that humans and robots can work together more effectively than ever before.
These six distinct work zones enable businesses to deploy robots with confidence, precision, and peace of mind. By leveraging these innovative work zones, companies can unlock greater productivity, improved worker safety, and a more intelligent approach to industrial automation.
If you have questions regarding cobots, reach out to your sales representative or contact us for further insights into which models may be best for you and if cobots could be a great addition to your facility.