Universal Robots launches its seventh generation robot platform at IMTS

Universal Robots A/S introduced Gen 7, its seventh-generation robotics platform, today at the IMTS trade show. The Teradyne Inc. subsidiary said the unified system upgrade enables customers and partners to deploy advanced AI-powered applications into industrial operations with the same robot experience that operators, technicians, engineers, and integrators prefer to work with every day

Anchored by the PolyScope X robot operating system, Gen 7 has a fully re-engineered control box, teach pendant, and tool flange. UR said it designed all of these to make demanding tasks and setups easier.

The Odense, Denmark-based company also added three new robot arms, UR10g-1750, UR17g-1300, and UR18g-950, named after their payload (in kilograms) and reach (in millimeters), to its e-Series and UR Series lineup. They are larger than some of its previous models.

“Our vision as a whole at the Teradyne Robotics Group is really to be this destination platform for physical AI,” Will Healy, the director of product and industry marketing, told The Robot Report. “You can do research in a lab, but ultimately you have to deploy it. Our robots are absolutely uniquely suited to deploy for these companies that are trying to actually do AI in a factory.”

As a whole, Teradyne has been putting more emphasis on AI in recent years. In its most recent earnings statement, the company marked its fifth consecutive quarter of growth. Teradyne credited AI as a main driver of its revenue growth.

“The reason people buy from UR over and over again, in surveys and interviews, is because of our ease of easy, our ease of deploy, our ease of programming,” Healy said. “The goal here is to make it even better, especially in this world of AI.”

Universal Robots downsizes controller without sacrificing power

UR’s new core controller offers 40% more compute power in a 30% smaller footprint than previous generations, said Universal Robots. The controller enables multi-network communication for modern automation and physical AI architectures, connecting to PLCs, HMIs, MES platforms, IPCs, and vision systems, reducing the need for external switches.

“We wanted to make [the controller] much more robust, so it can run bigger programs and more complex programs, industrial-size programs,” said Healy. “It’s much more compact than the previous one.”

CB7 is available at launch in a standalone control box version and a compact version for integration into an automation cabinet. The system is also compatible with e-Series and UR Series force- and power-limited robot arms.

“There’s two versions at launch, and really ultimately the idea here is trying to just enable the integrator. The biggest thing about the control box is what we’re bringing to network architectures,” Healy said. “The ability for folks to actually really start using the robot in a modern way.”

In the past, connecting a robot to the internet was a struggle, but Healy said this is becoming more and more necessary. So, UR is focusing on enabling its cobots to connect to different layers of the business it’s working for.

“This all happens through what’s called a managed switch in Ethernet networking. Basically, we can configure, though the robot, which data goes where in the architecture,” Healy said. “This is something IT people really want and love. It allows them to control what traffic shows up where in the network.”

Gen 7’s tool flange enables more flexibility, easier deployments

UR said the new g-Series tool flange enables the vision and sensing needed for AI models to run in real time with its cobots. It eliminates cabling complexity and makes it easier to connect cameras and high-bandwidth sensors, which is critical to advanced automation and physical AI deployments.

“[The new tool flange] is really for enabling AI, because nearly every application in robotics is moving towards having a camera at the wrist,” Healy said. “In the U.S., we don’t see a ton of adoption of that yet. But when I travel to Asia, nearly every robot has a camera on the end effector, and in Europe, probably half the robots have cameras on the end effectors. So, it’s coming our way, whether we’re ready for it or not.”

Additionally, built-in force-torque sensing, impedance control and RTDE (Real-Time Data Exchange) give the robot a sense of touch for physical AI applications such as dexterous manipulation and force-sensitive assembly tasks.

With the tool flange comes the new SP7 Smart Panel tool flange interface. The panel has safety-compliant freedrive functionality, LED lights, and three configurable input buttons capable of running PolyScope X Smart Skills.

UR said the Smart Panel cuts setup and programming time where touch-to-teach or operator interaction is important, such as high-mix, low-volume production.

UR upgrades the user experience with new teach pendant

Part of the release is UR’s new TP7 Core teach pendant. UR said the new teach pendant is more than 20 % lighter and more ergonomic than previous generations. It features multiple grip positions, configurable smart buttons, and a full HD display, plus a new virtual joystick.

“We spent a lot of time doing use cases, we’ve got dozens of designs we killed, and we ended up with a version that is really nice,” Healy said.

UR designed it to help users stay comfortable through long shifts and to make programming feel intuitive rather than technical. This allows operators to spend less time learning the interface and more time getting the job done.

“The most impressive thing [about TP7 Core teach pendant] is seeing people use it, the way their eyes light up,” Healy said. “We’ve put it in a lot of users’ hands to get feedback, and it’s just even more intuitive than ever before.”

UR users can continue using PolyScope X, which brings modern programming tools, ISO 10218-1 safety functionality and cybersecurity compliance. With open APIs and ROS 2 communication, PolyScope X enables programmers to build and deploy edge-AI applications utilizing IPCs and external AI processing.

Universal Robots keeps safety at the forefront

“If you we want to be the place where people land their AI, you’ve got to make sure you’re doing your due diligence on the cybersecurity side, and I would argue on the safety side as well,” Healy said. “If you’re going to give AI control over a robot, I want to make sure the robot continues to operate safely every time.”

Gen 7’s advanced and collaborative safety functions provide a PLd, Category 3 (ISO 13849-1) certified architecture. All g-Series robots are TÜV-certified to ISO10218-1 and UL1740. Teradyne Robotics said it is certified to IEC 62443-4-1 ML3 for cybersecurity, confirming that secure development practices are built into every stage of the software lifecycle.

“The way we’ve built our stack, the way that the AI gives commands to the robot, still allows the robot safety controller the ownership over the robot and a decision whether to follow those instructions or not, and whether they violate the safety rules or not,” Healy said. “So, the robot will reject commands from the AI that don’t play nicely with the safety settings.”

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