The introduction of collaborative robots has brought two major improvements: safer human-robot collaboration and robot programming. As safety features have been discussed in a past blog post, this post will deal with the ease of hand guided programming. Here are a couple of examples on how easy it is to program a collaborative robot. We have focused this article on Universal Robots because of the amount of content we have found on the subject. But basically all collaborative robot models are capable of working this way.
So take a look at how Universal Robots markets their product as easy to integrate and easy to program.
You probably recognize that marketers always like to make thing look a lot easier than it is in real life. If you are already a roboticist then this is probably realistic for you, but if you are a first time user here is another example of what it takes to program a robot. This video probably more closely reflects your learning curve and really demonstrates how to program in real time.
And to be honest, most of the demos that you see on the Robotiq website have been done by our marketing guy: YIKES!!! Well, this is not to say that marketers are not good at programming, it's just to demonstrate that it is easy for somebody without any technical background in robotics to program this robot. (I think I might still have stuck my foot in my mouth, hmmm, so moving on.) If you translate that to your worker on the factory floor, you can imagine that they can learn very easily how to program some collaborative robots.
Robot Tool
Robot tools should be as easy or easier than the robot to program. This is why we provide adaptive tools that are designed (mechanical and software) to fit collaborative robots and particularly UR robots. When you install your Gripper, pre-packaged software programs can be installed in the teach pendant of the robot. This allows you to test the different features and settings of the robot arm and Gripper; and to program a simple pick and place operation without breaking a sweat.
Simulation
Since a collaborative robot has been designed to be hand guided, it is kind of rare to see collaborative robot simulations, but they exist. Some simulation software offers you the ability to place the robot in a virtual scene with the actual surroundings of the robot and program the different points and trajectories you want to execute. If you are in a big workshop where the production cannot stop for any reason, it is probably wise to test out a few simulations before changing the program on your robot. This can be a game changer for production switches and can reduce your setup time considerably.
These demos show you how easy it is to program a UR with a Robotiq Gripper. And even if you think this seems like a marketing ploy, it isn’t, it really is easy to program these robots. I can personally vouch for this as I had the chance to program a UR3 and UR5. It took me one or two hours to get all the major features of the robot. So, if you were still doubting or wondering how difficult it is to programming a robot, trust me a UR is easy to program.
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