UR Capabilities

UR Capabilities or URCaps are hardware and/or software extensions for the Universal Robot system. The purpose of URCaps is to seamlessly extend any Universal Robot with customized functionality. Using the URCap Software Platform, a URCap developer can define customized installation screens and program nodes for the end user. These can, for example, encapsulate complex new robot programming concepts, or provide friendly hardware configuration interfaces. The main benefits of the URCaps framework are: • Seamless integration with the “normal” PolyScope workflow • Both, the URCaps framework and PolyScope, promote the same workflow. • Provides means for easy setup of third party hardware, which is usually a complex task not suited for regular end-users (like factory workers). The benefits are: lower technical expertise required, less time for setup and allows easy repetition for setup of 3rd party hardware -> lower setup costs. • By lowering the threshold for configuring and programming robots, URCaps create a potential for highly reconfigurable solutions in the production environment. The robot becomes a general purpose tool rather than a highly specialized setup. URCaps share the same goal as LIAA; focussing on lean manufacturing and assembly by providing a platform for synergetic human-robot-interaction. Moreover, both have the goal to lessen the distance between common operator roles and robot specialists.