August 25, 2014: Universal Robots released UR5 and UR10 lightweight robots. When a human enters the robot’s work-cell, the robot arm can operate in reduced mode, and then resume full speed when he leaves again. Or, the robot can run full speed inside a CNC machine for example, and then reduced speed when outside. To achieve a switch between normal and reduced safety mode, eight safety functions are monitored by the safety system: Joint positions and speeds, TCP positions, orientation, speed and force, as well as the momentum and power of the robot. The settings can only be changed in a password protected area.
True Absolute Encoders allow the robot to achieve faster start-up because its position is recognized upon power-up eliminating the need to frequently re-initialize the robot arms since their position in space is known despite the robot not requiring battery power to achieve this function. The robots have been certified by TÜV (Technischer Überwachungs-Verein - a German organization that work to validate the safety of products) and tested in accordance with EN ISO 13849:2008 PL d and EN ISO 10218-1:2011, Clause 5.4.3.
