A compact and nimble robotic arm helps make copies of itself

Danish company Universal Robots introduced its new robot UR3 . This is the lowest possible load model among other models, the UR5 and UR10. The product is a gray-blue robotic arm for industrial use. And this roboruki has rather unusual characteristics.

The manipulator is light (11 kg, maximum load - 3 kg), compact and inexpensive ($ 23,000). Each of the three hinges is a servo motor that can rotate 360 ​​degrees. Developers especially focus on facilitating the task of programming the robot. For example, in the “training” mode, a person can arbitrarily move parts of a robotic arm, literally leading the robot “by the handle” - after which the robot will precisely repeat these movements. To work with the robot, a tablet device and software of its own design are attached to it. The robot is controlled by a Linux-based system, and the interface for programming the robot is made in Java.

You can learn how to program a robot in just a few minutes, instead of the few days or even weeks that it takes to configure other complex industrial robots. In 10 minutes, the journalist, who was first shown the robot, was able to draw up a simple program for transferring a plastic cup from a table to an urn.



Another distinctive feature of UR robots is high security and the ability to work in the same room with people. Robot sensors pick up resistance in a collision with an obstacle and stop movement instantly. Similar sensors help the robot to follow the shape of the part when working - for example, when applying sealant to it. In this case, his movements do not need to be programmed for several different parts - he will simply repeat the contours of each of them.



The manipulator is able to move at a speed of 2.5 m / s and at the same time observe the accuracy of movements up to several hundredths of a millimeter. In their own production, Universal Robots already use their robots, which, thus, help to create new copies of themselves.