Cobots and Robot Arms for Irish SMEs and Schools

A collaborative robot, or cobot, is a robot arm designed to work near people without the large fixed cages traditional industrial robots need. Cobots are usually lighter, slower and easier to program, often by guiding the arm by hand and saving positions.

One point is often missed: collaboration is a property of the whole application, not just the arm. The 2025 revision of the robot safety standard ISO 10218 now includes the requirements for collaborative applications that used to sit in the separate technical specification ISO/TS 15066. A cobot holding a sharp blade or a hot part may still need guarding, reduced speeds or sensors. The arm being "collaborative" does not make every task safe.

For an SME, the attraction is practical. A cobot can take on a repetitive, dull or awkward job, run through a lunch break or a night shift and be moved to another task when orders change.

Figures come from the manufacturers' published specifications. Prices are purchase guide prices (USD, excluding tax and shipping, from Robots International), for the arm only.

The two ranges do different jobs. myCobot arms are teaching and prototyping tools. Fairino arms are industrial cobots, with the FR3 rated IP54 (IP65 optional), industrial fieldbus options and software modules for palletising, welding and pick and place.

The best first cobot project is boring, repetitive and well defined. Some examples that suit the Fairino range:

• Machine tending. Loading and unloading a CNC machine, press or test rig. The FR5's 922 mm reach covers many small machine doors.
• Pick and place. Moving parts from a tray to a fixture, a conveyor or a box.
• Packing and palletising. End-of-line boxing and stacking of light cartons. The FR10 handles 10 kg over a 1,400 mm reach.
• Small assembly and inspection. Holding a part under a camera, pressing in a component or applying a bead of adhesive, where the FR3's ±0.02 mm repeatability helps.

Jobs that are usually poor first projects: anything with constantly changing parts, soft or tangled materials, very tight cycle times or no space for the arm to work safely.

A simple test: if you can write the task down as ten clear steps that never change, it is a good candidate.

For teaching, the Elephant Robotics myCobot range is the more manageable choice.

• myCobot 280 Pi. It has a Raspberry Pi built in, so students can plug in a screen, keyboard and mouse and program the arm directly. Beginners can start with myBlockly block coding and move to Python and ROS. At 860 g it is easy to move between desks. Guide price from $1,099 (USD, excluding tax and shipping, from Robots International).
• myCobot 320 Pi. A 1 kg payload and 24 V industrial I/O for linking to PLCs and sensors, which suits apprenticeship and further education courses on automation.
• myCobot Pro 630. Longer reach, up to 2 kg payload and collision detection, for third-level labs.

For engineering colleges and training centres preparing students for industry, a Fairino FR3 gives hands-on time with the kind of teach pendant, fieldbus and safety settings used on real lines. Our STEM robots for Irish schools guide covers other classroom options.

The arm is only part of the cost and effort. A working cobot cell usually needs:

1. An end effector. A gripper, vacuum cup, screwdriver or other tool, matched to the part.
2. A stable mount. A heavy table or pedestal. Fairino arms mount in any orientation, including wall and ceiling.
3. Fixtures and part presentation. Trays, jigs or a conveyor so the robot finds parts in the same place every time.
4. Integration. Signals to and from your machines. Fairino controllers support TCP/IP and Modbus TCP/RTU as standard, with optional CC-Link, Profinet, EtherNet/IP and EtherCAT.
5. A risk assessment and any guarding, scanners or speed limits it calls for.
6. Programming and training. Fairino supports a 10.1 inch teach pendant, a web app and SDKs for C#, C++, Python, ROS and ROS2.

A useful tip: custom gripper fingers and simple fixtures can often be 3D printed while you test ideas. We rent a Bambu Lab P1P 3D printer from our Dublin fleet, and our 3D printer rental guide explains how businesses use it.

Employer duties. The Health and Safety Authority notes that under Section 8 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, employers must make sure machinery is designed, provided and maintained so as to be safe and without risk to health, and that its use should be covered by a risk assessment. Chapter 2 of the General Application Regulations 2007 sets minimum requirements for work equipment.

New EU machinery rules. The Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 applies from 20 January 2027 and replaces the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. EU-OSHA notes it is designed to better cover AI that performs safety functions and autonomous mobile robots. If you combine an arm, a gripper and fixtures into a new cell, check who is responsible for the conformity of the complete machine.

Standards. ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2 were revised in 2025, with collaborative application requirements now inside the main standard and more attention to cybersecurity. A competent integrator or safety adviser will work to these.

Our implementation guide walks through the steps from pilot to everyday use.

1. Pick one task and measure it: cycle time, parts per shift, scrap rate and who does it now.
2. Check funding. Enterprise Ireland's Digital Process Innovation grant explicitly mentions robotics and automation. Manufacturing research centres such as Irish Manufacturing Research, which leads the FactoryxChange European Digital Innovation Hub, help SMEs with digital and automation projects. See our robotics grants and funding guide.
3. Choose the arm by payload, reach and the environment it will work in.
4. Plan the cell with an integrator or an experienced in-house engineer.
5. Start small and expand once the first task runs reliably.

You can buy the Fairino and myCobot arms through Robots International, which Rentabot is an affiliate of, or send us a rental request for a trial. We source rental units through reseller partners case by case and pricing is on quote. Browse the robot arms category or contact us.