Meet the Next Generation of Universal Robots at IMTS

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Visitors to Universal Robots’ booth E-4841 at IMTS 2014 get the opportunity to program a robot with safety features that adjust to the context it operates within. Esben Østergaard, CTO of Universal Robots, explains that the patented new safety concept is a logical development of the Danish robot manufacturer’s collaborative robot arms.

“With the integration of the True Absolute Encoder, our robot-arms can be integrated even more easily into other machineries while startup also becomes much faster and simpler for all applications,” says Østergaard.

Unlike most other industrial robots with incremental encoders that work like absolute encoders, until the battery runs out, the encoders in the UR robots are not battery driven, therefore named “True Absolute Encoders” eliminating the need to frequently re-initialize the robot arms since their position in space is known despite the robot not requiring battery power to achieve this function.

Though the robot arms UR5 and UR10 are equipped with numerous new features, Universal Robots remains true to its approach of user-friendly, lightweight robots.

The visual appearance of the six-jointed UR5 and UR10 robot arms, with a payload of 5/10 kilograms respectively, remains unchanged. But inside of the robot arm itself, as well as in the controller, are more hidden surprises; sixteen additional digital I/Os doubles the number of built-in I/Os which are easy to configure either as digital signals or as safety signals.

The control box has a revised design and a rebuilt controller to further improve the possibilities for connecting equipment to the control boxes.

“We are the only manufacturer of lightweight robot arms with a long lasting experience in a wide variety of industries. Our R&D department worked hard in order to integrate input and feedback from end users into our product development,” comments Enrico Krogh Iversen, Universal Robots CEO, on the latest development from Denmark.

“With our flexible robot-arms, we address a broad target group — whether it is (un-)loading of CNC machines in a ten-man firm or a gluing-process at an automotive manufacturer, everyone benefits from our robots. Because they perform the dull or harmful jobs that needed to be done by humans before,” says Iversen.

All the new features of the 3rd generation robots have been certified by TÜV (Technischer Überwachungs-Verein — a German organization that work to validate the safety of products) and tested in accordance with EN ISO 13849:2008 PL d and EN ISO 10218-1:2011, Clause 5.4.3. Universal Robots Universal Robots is a result of many years of intensive research in robotics. The product portfolio includes the UR5 and UR10 models that handle payloads of up to 11.3 lbs. and 22.6 lbs. respectively.

The six-axis robot arms weigh as little as 40 lbs. with reach capabilities of up to 51 inches. Repeatability of +/- .004” allows quick precision handling of even microscopically small parts. For more information, visit imts.com