Universal Robots

History

Universal Robots was founded in 2005 by the engineers Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy, and Kristian Kassow. 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 enterprises. In 2009 the first UR5 robots were available on the Danish and German market. Since 2010 the company expands its activities steadily. Meanwhile, the robots are distributed globally. In 2012 the second robot, UR10 was launched. At Automatica 2014 in Munich the company launched a totally revised version of its robots. One year later, in spring 2015 the table-top robot UR3 was globally launched.

UR was purchased by Teradyne for US$285 million in 2015.

The robot arms are used in production by companies such as Lear Corporation, Franke (company), Oticon, bridge metal industries, Johnson & Johnson, Clamcleats, Kunshan Dongwei, VW and BMW. The company received the IERA award (2012) that honors innovative achievements in the field of robotics and was named one of Denmark's 30 most important export companies and thus included in the "ExportCanon" in 2013.

Products

The three main products are the compact table-top robot UR3, the flexible robot arm UR5, and the biggest one, the UR 10. All three are six-jointed robot arms with a very low weight of respectively 11 kilos, 18 kilos and 28 kilos. The UR3 and the UR5 have a lifting ability of 3 and 5 kilos and have a working radius of 500mm and 850mm (19.7 in; 33.5 in). In addition the UR10 has a lifting ability of 10 kilos with a reach of 1300mm (51.2 in). Each of the robots’ joints can rotate through +/- 360° and up to 180 degrees per second. Furthermore the UR3 has also an infinite rotation on the end joint. The accuracy of the robots’ repetitions is +/- 0.1mm (+/- 0.0039 in). Universal Robots are "Collaborative Robots" (cobots) which means they can work right alongside personnel with no safety guarding, based on the results of a mandatory risk assessment.

The safety settings of the latest generation of Universal Robots’ lightweight robots can be adjusted for each specific solution. 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 robot’s operation is also possible. All these safety functions are safety rated PL d (EN ISO 13849:2008 ) and certified by TÜV NORD. The Danish company now has over 2,000 collaborative robots deployed in 43 countries worldwide. 80% of these work directly alongside employees with no safety guarding.

Due to its own low weight and its size, as the comparably low initial outlay, both robot arms are mainly used within medium-sized enterprises such as packaging, automotive, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, metal working, and manufacturing.

IERA-Award and ExportCanon

In 2012, Universal Robots received an IERA Award, during the trade fair Automatica in Munich, Germany. Initiators of the prize are the international robot organisations; the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

Other awards include Good Design Award (Japan), Game Changer Award (RoboBusiness), DIRA Automation Award. Universal Robots was named one of Denmark's 30 most important export companies in 2013 and thus included in the "ExportCanon". UR received the innovation prize at the Portuguese EMAF exhibition in Oporto in November 2014. And few months later the company achieved rank #25 on MIT Technology Review’s list of the 50 Smartest Companies 2015.