Cobot

Despite the challenges facing the wider manufacturing industry during the coronavirus pandemic, collaborative robots continue to attract attention and investment, due to their ease of use, redeployability, and convenience to end-users who struggle to afford more traditional forms of automation.

Universal Robots’ best-selling robot UR10e is launching with an increased payload, enabling the cobot to serve even more applications and handle heavier items while improving overall productivity for customers. Universal Robots (UR) is launching an enhanced UR10e with an increased payload of 12.5kg (27.55lbs), creating new possibilities for applications such as palletizing, machine tending, and packaging.

The two-day Machine Tending Expo, February 23-24, focuses on deploying cobots to tend machines such as CNC, press brakes, injection molding machines or 3D printers. In live demos, keynotes and interactive booth sessions with exhibiting partners, Universal Robots shows its solutions on how to implement cobots, tackling the labor shortage, while improving crucial machine uptime.

Collaborative robot solution manufacturers are leveraging the convergence of several enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine vision, and advanced gripping technologies in robots making them safe to work with thereby disrupting traditional robotic solutions as well expanding robotic use cases to laboratories, healthcare, semiconductor wafer handling, and assembly.

Collaborative robots – or cobots – remain the fastest growing segment of industrial automation, projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30.37% during 2020–2025. Cobot market pioneer Universal Robots (UR) solidified its frontrunner position today by selling the 50,000th UR cobot, which was purchased by a German manufacturer to enable higher productivity and better employee safety.