engineering

Universal Robots

Universal Robots is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Universal Robots rather than just read about it. In short: Universal Robots is a global leader in collaborative industrial robots (cobots), based in Odense, Denmark. Since 2015, the company has been part of Teradyne Robotics, a division of Teradyne, Inc.

Key takeaways

Universal Robots belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Universal Robots to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Universal Robots from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Universal Robots is a global leader in collaborative industrial robots (cobots), based in Odense, Denmark. Since 2015, the company has been part of Teradyne Robotics, a division of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ: TER), a leading supplier of automatic test equipment and advanced robotics solutions. Universal Robots pioneered the development of cobots, selling the first commercially viable cobot in 2008. It has gone on to sell over 100,000 cobots globally. Today, Universal Robots remains a leading industry player. Its cobots are now being combined with artificial intelligence to bring physical AI to production and industrial environments.

History Universal Robots was founded in Odense, Denmark in 2005 by Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy, and Kristian Kassow. During joint research at the Syddansk Universitet Odense, the founders came to the conclusion that the robotics market was dominated by heavy, expensive, and unwieldy robots. That led them to develop the idea to make robot technology accessible to small and medium-sized businesses. In 2008, the first UR5 cobots were available on the Danish and German markets. In 2012 the second cobot, UR10, was launched. In spring 2015, the table-top cobot UR3 was launched. In 2015, Universal Robots was acquired by Teradyne for US$285 million. In 2016, Universal Robots launched the UR Academy, a training platform that offers online and in-class robotics training courses. In the same year, Universal Robots launched the UR+ Ecosystem, a platform for third-party developers to create and sell products that are compatible with collaborative robots from Universal Robots. At Automatica 2018, a German trade fair for smart automation and robotics Munich, Universal Robots introduced a new generation of collaborative robots called the "e-Series". In 2019, the company launched the UR16e cobot. In 2020, Universal Robots had installed 50,000 collaborative robots worldwide. In April 2022, Universal Robots announced that it had broken ground on a new headquarter in Odense, Denmark. The headquarter will be shared with Universal Robot's sister company MiR. It will be the world's largest hub for collaborative robots and autonomous mobile robots. In 2022, Universal Robots opened its 100th training center for cobot programming in Täby, Sweden. The company has training centers in 23 countries. At Automatica 2022, a German trade fair for smart automation and robotics, the company revealed the UR20 as its latest product addition.

Products Universal Robots has seven collaborative robots on the market. All robots are six-jointed robot arms. The CB3-series consists of the UR3, UR5 and UR10, while UR16e, UR10e, UR5e and UR3e are part of the newer e-series. The UR20 is the first collaborative robot in a whole new generation of collaborative robots.

Universal Robots' collaborative robots are used for many different applications including welding, machine tending, palletizing and grinding (abrasive cutting) within industries such as automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals, plastics, food and beverage.

Awards and recognition Universal Robots received an Honoree in the "robotics" category at Automation World's "Leadership in Automation" in 2016.

At the Learning Technologies Award in London at the end of 2017, the UR Academy was awarded "Silver" in the category "Excellence in the design of learning content - international commercial sector" In 2018, Esben Østergaard, one of the co-founders of Universal Robots, was awarded the Engelberger Robotics Award for his work on developing Universal Robot's collaborative robots. At the 2018 Annual Manufacturing Leadership Awards, Universal Robots won three awards in "Collaborative Innovation Leadership" for the UR+ platform, "Smart Products and Services Leadership" for the product portfolio, and co-founder Esben Østergaard received an award in the category "Visionary Leadership".

References

External links Official website Universal Robots UR3 Arm Is Small and Nimble, Helps to Build Copies of Itself

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Universal Robots

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Universal Robots claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Universal Robots before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Universal Robots ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Universal Robots

In research: Universal Robots appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Universal Robots in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Universal Robots is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2015 mergers and acquisitions, Companies based in Odense Municipality, Danish brands, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Universal Robots outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Universal Robots in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Universal Robots means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Universal Robots out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Universal Robots in simple terms?

Universal Robots is a global leader in collaborative industrial robots (cobots), based in Odense, Denmark. Since 2015, the company has been part of Teradyne Robotics, a division of Teradyne, Inc.

Why does Universal Robots matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Universal Robots?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Universal Robots.