The term degrees of freedom is particularly important in the fields of automation, robots, industry and Factory 4.0. Degrees of freedom indicate how many independent movements a technical system - for example a robot arm - can perform simultaneously. Each direction or axis in which a part moves counts as one degree of freedom.
Imagine a human arm: It can rotate at the shoulder joint, bend and stretch at the elbow and rotate the wrist. Each of these movements corresponds to one degree of freedom. A robotic arm with six degrees of freedom can therefore work almost as flexibly as a human arm. This is important in automation because complex tasks often require millimetre-precise and versatile movements.
The more degrees of freedom a system has, the more versatile and precise it can be used. In Industry 4.0, machines with several degrees of freedom enable flexible production and adapt more easily to different tasks. To summarise, degrees of freedom are a measure of the freedom of movement of machines and determine how versatile an automated system can be used.
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