Universal Robots

Universal Robots is a Danish manufacturer of smaller flexible industrial collaborative robot arms (cobots), based in Odense, Denmark. The business volume in 2019 was USD 248 million. The company has 680+ employees (2019) and 1,100+ partners around the world.[1]

Universal Robots
IndustryAutomation
Founded2005
FounderEsben Østergaard, Kasper Støy, Kristian Kassow 
HeadquartersOdense, Denmark
Key people
Jürgen von Hollen (CEO)
ProductsIndustrial robots
RevenueUSD 248 million (2019)
Number of employees
680+ (2019)
ParentTeradyne
Websitehttps://www.universal-robots.com

History

Universal Robots was founded in 2005 by the engineers Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy, and Kristian Kassow.[2][3] During joint research at the Syddansk Universitet Odense, they came to the conclusion that the robotics market was dominated by heavy, expensive, and unwieldy robots. As a consequence they developed the idea to make robot technology accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.[4] In 2008 the first UR5 cobots were available on the Danish and German market. In 2012 the second cobot, UR10, was launched.[5] At Automatica 2014 in Munich the Company launched a totally revised version of its cobots.[6] One year later, in spring 2015 the table-top cobot UR3 was launched.[7] At Automatica 2018 in Munich a brand new generation of Universal Robots' cobots called e-Series was launched raising the standard for collaborative robots. In September 2019, the company launched UR16e suited for high-payload tasks, like heavy material handling, heavy machine tending, packaging & palletising, and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).

UR was purchased by Teradyne for US$285 million in 2015.[8][9]

Products

The products consist of the heavy-duty UR16e, the table-top UR3 and UR3e,[10] the UR5 and UR5e,[11], and the UR10 and UR10e.[12]

All cobots are six-jointed robot arms with a very low weight including cable of respectively 11 kilos, 20 kilos, 33 kilos, and 33 kilos. The UR3 and UR3e have a lifting ability of 3 kilos and a working radius of 500mm (19.7 in), the UR5 and UR5e have a lifting ability of 5 kilos and a working radius of 850mm (33.5 in), the UR10 and UR10e a lifting ability of 10 kilos and a working radius of 1300mm (51.2 in), and the UR16e a lifting ability of 16 kilos and a working radius of 900mm (35.4 in). The e-Series has a pose repeatability between ± 0.03mm and 0.05mm.

Universal Robots collaborative robots (cobots) can work right alongside personnel with no safety guarding, based on the results of a mandatory risk assessment.[13]

The safety settings of the latest generation of Universal Robots’ lightweight cobots can be adjusted for each specific solution.[14] The robot arm can run in two operating modes of the safety functions; a normal and a reduced one. A switch between safety settings during the cobot’s operation is also possible. All these safety functions are safety rated PL d (EN ISO 13849:2008 ) and certified by TÜV NORD.[15]

UR's cobots are used within both small to medium-sized businesses and large corporations [16] within industries such as automotive, electronics, metal & machining, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing.

In 2016, the company launched its online ecosystem Universal Robots+, and in early 2017 it launched a new online digital learning platform called Universal Robots Academy. Through this platform, users go through nine learning modules, learning how to program the UR collaborative robots.

In 2018, a brand new generation of Universal Robots' cobots called e-Series was launched raising the standard for collaborative robots. The 'e' in e-Series stands for empowering, ease of use, everyone and evolution.[17] The e-Series consist of four cobots: the UR3e, UR5e, UR10e, and finally the UR16e which was launched in 2019. In comparison to the previous generation, the CB Series, they have a higher accuracy for both position repeatability (± 0.03, ± 0.03 and ± 0.05 mm) and force (± 3.5, ± 4.0 and ± 5.5 N) and torque (± 0.10, ± 0.30 and ± 0.60 Nm), since they have a built-in Force/Torque sensor.[18] With the e-Series, they also added a few more safety features, re-designed the teach pendant to be more intuitive and simplified the programming flow with more wizards.

gollark: They're still evil.
gollark: Haskell is clearly ***evil***:```haskellunsafeCoerceunsafePerformIOundefinederrorunsafeLaunchMissilesunsafeCreateSkynet```
gollark: ```To be fair, when Obi-wan asked Han if the Falcon was a fast ship, he wasn't interested in how well it would perform in a drag race. He was interested in getting to Alderaan quickly because he had an urgent message to deliver. The Kessel Run being made in 12 parsecs demonstrates that the Falcon is capable of shaving off a significant amount of distance (and therefore, more than likely, time) travelled in Hyperspace, which was exactly what Obi-wan and Luke needed at the time.```
gollark: OpenComputingSomething.
gollark: OpenCL DOES exist.

References
  1. "Distributors of Universal Robots". universal-robots.com. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  2. "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  3. "Our history | Universal Robots". www.universal-robots.com. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  4. "Danish Firm Develops Light-Weight Robotic Arm". roboticstrends.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  5. "Robotic Solutions for Small and Medium-Sized Applications". automationworld.com. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  6. "Universal Robots presents the next generation of lightweight robots". ifr.org. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  7. "UR3-Roboter". Universal Robots. Archived from the original on 25 March 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  8. Godske, Bjørn. "Universal Robots solgt for 1,9 mia. kroner" Ingeniøren, 13 May 2015. Accessed: 13 May 2015.
  9. "Collaborative robots open new fronts in automation". The Business Times. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  10. "Technical specifications UR3" (PDF). Universal Robots. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  11. "Technical specifications UR5" (PDF). Universal Robots. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  12. "Technical specifications UR10" (PDF). Universal Robots. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  13. "ISO/TS 15066:2016 Robots and robotic devices -- Collaborative robots"
  14. "Universal Robots' tablet-controlled factory robots work safely with humans". newatlas.com. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  15. "Universal Robots Develops Lightweight Robots". ceasiamag.com. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  16. "Cheaper robots can help SMEs become more flexible". emtworld.com. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  17. "e-Series Brochure" (PDF). Universal Robots. 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  18. "e-Series Technical Introduction". Universal Robots. Retrieved 2018-07-23.

External links[1]
  1. "Universal Robots UR3 Arm Is Small and Nimble, Helps to Build Copies of Itself". Universal Robots UR3 Arm Is Small and Nimble, Helps to Build Copies of Itself. Retrieved 2019-08-20.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.