With the increasing complexity of factory manufacturing, the demand for flexibility in automation equipment is becoming more urgent. Compared with the single function of AGV and robotic arm, the UR composite robot that combines the characteristics of both is obviously more flexible.

In the component assembly process of traditional manufacturing industries such as 3C electronics, medical, daily chemical, and mechanical processing, UR composite robots can be used to handle, load, and unload processed workpieces to meet the requirements of fully automated and flexible production in the workshop. For example, the trackless navigation laser AGV car is equipped with a robotic arm, which can automatically load goods using the onboard loading and unloading mechanism. After the trackless AGV car automatically travels to the designated position, the robotic arm will automatically unload the goods and place them at the designated location. It can be quickly deployed in automated factories, warehouse sorting, and automated commodity supermarkets to achieve automated material handling, cargo loading and unloading, material sorting, and more. Although UR composite robots have both hands and feet and unique advantages in some application scenarios, they currently have fewer practical applications and fewer development companies compared to AGVs or robotic arms.

Since UR launched composite robots, there have been some companies joining this camp in the past three years, but overall, there are not many entrants. The reason may be that technical difficulty is one aspect. The configuration of robotic arm and AGV requires the development enterprise to master both technologies simultaneously, and how to make them work together is also one of the difficulties that need to be overcome. For large enterprises like UR with complete production lines, the development of composite robots is relatively easy because both robotic arms and AGVs have sufficient technological accumulation. For those professional AGV companies, it may be a bit difficult. Therefore, some companies only develop universal mobile platforms and then install their own robotic arms after buying them back. In addition, the lack of scale in market applications is also one of the reasons why companies have not increased their investment. Despite the broad prospects, there are not many applications of composite robots in the current domestic market, and without the promotion of a huge real market, enterprises will not invest heavily. Among the companies with existing products mentioned above, composite robots are not their main product, and some companies are still observing. But I believe that with the continuous expansion of the market size, after certain market cultivation and technological iteration, composite robots will usher in an industry explosion.

UR composite mobile robots are facing issues such as market awareness, process application, and software and hardware iteration. The communication interface and hardware interface are not unified, the deployment process is complex, and there are requirements for accuracy, load, and durability. The UR composite mobile robot has core technologies such as autonomous navigation algorithms and cluster scheduling algorithms, and deeply integrates control codes such as AGV/AMR, collaborative robots, and machine vision. A set of protocols solves the collaborative control of three products, with internal shared 48V bus power supply and shared control terminals between multiple devices.