force and safety control features,
which ensure that if the robot collides
with a person it automatically stops
operating so it doesn’t cause bodily
harm. These features have eliminated
the need for safety guarding in the
vast majority of installed UR robot
applications and established the
company as a trailblazer for the
collaborative robot concept.
As well as this belief that safety is
simply the cost of entry to the cobot
market, UR’s frontrunner position
has been maintained by constantly
raising the bar for what the term
‘collaborative’ really entails. By this, it
means that the label not only means
humans can collaborate directly with
robots but also addresses ease
of use and implementation –
fundamentally, that a robot
is not truly collaborative
if it’s not affordable and
easy to work with.
UR’s most recent
raising of the bar
has come in the form
of the UR16e cobot,
which boasts a 16kg
payload capability. UR16e
combines the high payload
with a reach of 900mm and
The ergonomics
of a cobot arm are very
di erent to that of a
human; reach and
repeatability are better, as
is holding still for long
periods. In this situation
it can make a task far more
pose repeatability of +/-0.05 mm
comfortable for a
human to complete
making it ideal for automating tasks
such as heavy-duty material handling,
heavy-part handling and machine
tending.
“At Universal Robots we
continue to push the boundaries of
what’s possible with collaborative
automation,” says Jürgen von Hollen,
President of Universal Robots. “Today,
we’re making it easier than ever for
every manufacturer to capitalize on
the power of automation by bringing a
cobot to market that is built to do more
as it delivers more payload than our
other cobots.”
Like with UR’s other e-Series
cobots; UR3e, UR5e and UR10e, the
UR16e includes built-in force sensing,
17 con gurable safety functions,
including customisable stopping
time and stopping distance, and an
intuitive programming ow.
Another leap in terms of payload
and capability comes in the form
of the Yaskawa Motoman HC20DT
robot, the latest example of Yaskawa’s
expanding range of Motoman Smart
Series robotic solutions that are
helping users to meet the rapidly
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