AUTOMATION COBOT ADVANTAGES
An online
application builder
allows systems
to be confi gured,
viewed working
and cobot program
and ‘how to’ cards
downloaded
Doing the other stuff
Universal Robots is the global leader in
the manufacture and supply of
collaborative robots (cobots) – robots
that can safely work alongside people. The
company was set up and is headquartered in
Denmark’s robot hotspot of Odense (See
Machinery, July 2019, p10 & www.is.gd/
xetuke). In fact, with more than 100 robot
companies there, Odense is the global centre
of cobot efforts. Says Mark Gray, UK sales
manager, Universal Robots (www.is.gd/
wumanu): “We’ve got more than 42,000
robots worldwide. So, we’ve got a true global
footprint. And we’ve got the biggest footprint
of any collaborative robot manufacturer out
there. And the reason for that is that we’ve
been doing it longer than anybody else. We
think we’ve got about 50% of the market
share for cobots globally.”
Today, the range includes four cobots:
UR3, UR5, UR10 and UR16, the number
being the payload in each case. Repeatability
for UR3e and UR5e models is ±0.03 mm and
for the UR10e and UR16e it’s ±0.050, while
there’s force detection that supports location,
alignment and indexing of workpieces.
Gray is clear on one key point: cobots do
not substitute for traditional industrial robots.
“When we speak to people on production
sites, they ask us about the difference
between industrial and collaborative robots.
If you look at a typical production site, you
might see four or ve big industrial robots
working away. But you might see 30 people
carrying out small, simple tasks. Those are
the kind of things that collaborative robots
are designed for.” For example, an assembly
of parts that requires parts to be screwed
together once the parts are put together.
A person could use dexterity to pick and
assemble parts, while the cobot could
undertake the placing and xing of screws.
Human-robot collaboration can boost
productivity by up to 85%, he offers.
This is just what the originators set out to
deliver. Back in the early 2000s, Universal
Robots’ founders speci cally looked at why
smaller companies in Denmark weren’t using
robots. They found ve reasons, which the
company’s cobots were designed to address
through: fast set-up; easy programming;
collaborative and safe; exible deployment;
and fastest payback period (video highlighting
these: www.is.gd/yelowe).
So, on the rst and second, out-of-the-box
a cobot can be unpacked, put down and
programmed easily through the company’s
Polyscope software, with a rst program
running in under an hour. Says Gray: “We
wanted the robots to be easy to get out of the
box and working quickly to deploy quickly. So,
the robots are all plug-and-play with plugs on
the end of the cable that connect straight into
the control panel. They come pre-loaded with
the software and are pre-calibrated, so
there’s no complicated setup.”
On programming he says: “We have only
three levels of training. We have an online
portal and then two, two-day courses to
become an expert. So, you’re only ever going
to have to invest four days of your time to
become an expert in programming.”
Polyscope is step driven and there are prewritten
tools, he goes on, adding that hand
guiding cobots to position is also supported,
which make them very simple and easy to set
up. The programming software is also free –
Universal Robots is the only robot maker to
give its software away free, Gray stresses.
Online eLearning is also offered free,
incidentally, which features nine modules.
Regarding safety, the cobots are designed
to be safe, in accordance with various
international standards, so that’s a given.
Gray highlights that for those wishing to
Universal Robots recently held a webinar to underline the capabilities,
benefi ts and applications of the company’s cobots for machine
tending. Andrew Allcock attended and has this précis of the event’s
key messages from the global cobot market leader
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets | May/June2020 37
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