Universal robots?

Anyone have any experience with them? Or cobots in general? I was recently exposed to universal robots and was quite impressed with their software platform and how everything worked. Seems like the possibilities are endless...

This is not an ad or plug, I would truly like to know if any one on here has went down the Cobot road yet.

Yes.


In my opinion they are extremely easy to use and user friendly robots which is their main selling poing to non experts. However, their mechanical built in quality is poor, you can move their axis (with breaks on) with the hands and they are quite delicate and prone to breakdowns (like most cobots but especially them) so beware the environment conditions, it's not made for harsh conditions.


If you need speed, accuracy, durability, use traditional industrial robots. I have seen cobots mostly used in clean , easy applications. We have had several cobots breakdown (Fanuc too) that we never had with normal robots.

I've done a couple of cobots now - Fanuc and the next will be ABB. The difference has been some redundant load cells added to the arm base and closer monitoring of motor current. Along with tighter restrictions on payload and joint speed, a couple of new items to the safety task and there it is, a cobot.

From an application side, the trouble has come with the end-of-arm-tooling or payload - add a gripper and its no longer safe OR want to pick up something with mass and again its no longer safe.

The successful applications I've done is a alcohol sponge wipe to clean a surface before applying sealant, and an arm mounted Cognex camera for inspection/verification.

I have deployed 4 cobots in my plant so far....
We started with Sawyer from rethink robotics....many breakdowns, failures, and other quirky issues. Recently we were introduced to AUBO collaborative robots....I have deployed 3 in the last year running 24/7 with no issues to speak of. The models I am using have a 10 kg payload and a 52 inch reach. Extremely accurate and repeatable. They offer a few sizes, I believe a 3 kg, a 5 kg, and a 10 kg. I think they also have a 7 kg coming soon. Like I said, I am strictly using the 10 kg model so far as I do a lot of tray loading/box packing applications where I need a good amount of reach and the EOAT can get heavy as well, (bottle manufacturing). That said, the cost of 28k is also a very attractive price point for the payload/reach/accuracy it is capable of. Also the onboard I/O is quite impressive. 2 of the 3 units I have deployed strictly use the robots I/O. No external PLC needed.
I will say....I am impressed so far....
Knocking on wood....lol

We have had a play with the UR in the office. Most of those Cobots (UR/TM/Omron) are light duty in terms of build, but if you're using them appropriately, you shouldn't have an issue. They're easy to use, come with good software and can be interfaced for larger systems. We are also in the process of installing a Fanuc CR-35iA, which I believe is currently the highest payload Cobot on the market. There are some good advantages of these things for light/slow handling, and some time to be saved when you can work in and around them.


If speed and payload are not an issue then they are definitely out front with cost, footprint and access.

I had an interview with a tier 1 and they had one of those. The Director of Controls who was interviewing me said they had a "Collaborative" robot (Cobot?) and it didn't work well. Too slow. I believe one post said if you want slow and easy they're OK. The plant wound up putting a fence around it and safety gates and used it as a regular robot.

saultgeorge said:

I had an interview with a tier 1 and they had one of those. The Director of Controls who was interviewing me said they had a "Collaborative" robot (Cobot?) and it didn't work well. Too slow. I believe one post said if you want slow and easy they're OK. The plant wound up putting a fence around it and safety gates and used it as a regular robot.

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We tried that with the collaborative Fanuc LR Mate and it wouldn't work as a regular robot - once ordered with the collaborative option it was permanent. Couldn't bypass the DCS portion. Probably have to download new firmware.

I have seen 2 sawyers/rethink, in a plant and one was broke down for repair. I do not know what was broke, but it looked relatively new.

UR universal was pushing them on us for a short period of time since we are a distributor. They said they would give free training with a purchase, in ann arbor MI.

I still have never integrated one.
I have yet to find an application where i can fit into the payload.

If we did have an application we would probably use a motoman or fanuc cobot anyways.

I haven't used one, but I did evaluate them for some applications and concluded that the additional cost and sacrificed speed wasn't worth the savings in a safety fence/ interlocks, or that guarding would still be required due to the risk posed by the payload.

jstolaruk said:

We tried that with the collaborative Fanuc LR Mate and it wouldn't work as a regular robot - once ordered with the collaborative option it was permanent. Couldn't bypass the DCS portion. Probably have to download new firmware.

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Don't they have an option which allows you to basicallly use them as a non collaborative robot at unsafe speed, typically if you use laser radar to create the safe zone?


But even with the Fanuc collabortive green CR, I have heard that they are prone to breakdown, especially with the force sensor.

Iner said:

Don't they have an option which allows you to basicallly use them as a non collaborative robot at unsafe speed, typically if you use laser radar to create the safe zone?


But even with the Fanuc collabortive green CR, I have heard that they are prone to breakdown, especially with the force sensor.

Click to expand...

I could not find a way to make the Fanuc Cobot into a regular robot - DCS required the load cells to be calibrated and they were permanently integrated into DCS. So, max payloads, max speed, and max accelerations were noticeably lower than an equivalent non-cobot.

Ahhh man, I guess I can't use co-bot in die cast environment. haha