As factory manufacturing becomes increasingly complex, the demand for the flexibility of automated equipment is more urgent. Compared with the single - function features of AGVs and robotic arms, Universal Robots' collaborative robots, which combine the characteristics of both, are evidently more flexible.

In the parts assembly processes of traditional manufacturing industries such as 3C electronics, medical, daily - chemical, and mechanical processing, Universal Robots' collaborative robots can be used to perform operations like handling, loading, and unloading of processed workpieces, so as to meet the requirements of fully - automated and flexible production in workshops. For instance, a trackless navigation laser - guided AGV equipped with a robotic arm can automatically load goods using its onboard loading and unloading mechanism. After the trackless AGV automatically travels to the designated position, the robotic arm will automatically unload the goods and place them in the specified location. These collaborative robots can be rapidly deployed in automated factories, warehousing and sorting facilities, and automated supermarkets to achieve automated material handling, cargo loading and unloading, and material sorting. Although Universal Robots' collaborative robots, with their "hands" and "feet", have unique advantages in some application scenarios, compared with AGVs or robotic arms, their current practical applications are relatively few, and there are not many enterprises engaged in their development.

Since Universal Robots launched collaborative robots, some enterprises have joined this field in the past three years. However, overall, the number of new entrants is not large. One reason could be the technical difficulty. The combination of a robotic arm and an AGV requires the developing enterprise to master both technologies simultaneously, and figuring out how to make them work in coordination is also one of the challenges to overcome. For large enterprises like Universal Robots, which have a complete production line, the R & D of collaborative robots is relatively easier because they have sufficient technical accumulation in both robotic arms and AGVs. For those specialized AGV companies, it may be a bit more difficult. Therefore, some enterprises only develop general - purpose mobile platforms and then install robotic arms on their own after purchasing them. In addition, the lack of large - scale market applications is also one of the reasons why enterprises haven't increased their investment. Despite the broad prospects, in the current domestic market, the applications of collaborative robots are not widespread. Without the impetus of a large real - world market, enterprises won't invest heavily. Among the enterprises that already have products, collaborative robots are not their main products, and some enterprises are still observing the market. However, it is believed that with the continuous expansion of the market scale, after a certain period of market cultivation and technological iteration, collaborative robots will witness an industry - wide boom.

Universal Robots' collaborative mobile robots face problems such as market awareness, process application, and software - hardware iteration. The communication and hardware interfaces are not unified, the deployment process is complex, and there are requirements for accuracy, load - bearing capacity, and durability. Universal Robots' collaborative mobile robots possess core technologies such as independent navigation algorithms and cluster scheduling algorithms, and deeply integrate the control codes of AGV/AMR, collaborative robots, and machine vision. One set of protocols addresses the collaborative control of the three products, with an internal shared 48V bus power supply and shared control terminals among multiple devices.