Universal Robots' online ecosystem Universal Robots+ in top industry ranking 2017 in Germany.
The expert jury of the INDUSTRIEPREIS 2017 (German Industry Award) has rated Universal Robots’ online ecosystem Universal Robots+ “BEST OF 2017” in the category “Services”. With this distinction the independent panel of judges – consisting of industry experts, professors and trade journalists – honors groundbreaking industrial solutions, which combine economic and technological use with high societal or environmental benefits. Universal Robots+ convinced the expert panel with its capability to help especially small and medium sized enterprises to easily get started with automation and thus with Industry 4.0.
“We are delighted with this award. We see it as further confirmation of our role as pioneers and with this initiative we provide a vital service to the entire industry,” says Helmut Schmid, Managing Director of Universal Robots (Germany) GmbH and General Manager Western Europe. “Universal Robots+ is a key component of our “do-it-yourself” strategy. This aims at significantly lowering automation hurdles by further reducing implementation complexity and cost. Robot applications must become so easy to implement and flexible that anybody can operate them.”
With the online platform Universal Robots has created a virtual toolbox for partners and end-customers, in which they will find everything they need to assemble the most suitable plug & play robotic application for their company and needs.
More than a simple online community
Since its launch Universal Robots+ has become an extensive ecosystem for developers, distributors and end-customers, in which all conceivable applications for the collaborative robot arms UR3, UR5 and UR10 can be developed and showcased.
The online platform consists of two parts: The showroom features innovative end-effectors, accessories and software solutions; all of them plug & play components that guarantee a smooth integration with the UR cobots. In addition, Universal Robots also offers a comprehensive support and marketing platform to developers with its free-of-charge UR+ Developer Program. Participants receive not only free tech-support when developing new robot accessories, but also benefit from access to an ever expanding, global distributor and customer network.
The ecosystem’s present growth documents the high demand for this new concept: The number of UR+ products in the showroom has now risen to 35. Meanwhile, 260 developers have already registered for the UR+ Developer Program, a number estimated to grow further by the end of the year.
We believe that collaborative robotic technology can be used to benefit all aspects of task-based businesses – no matter what their size.
We believe that the latest collaborative robot technology should be available to all businesses. The nominal investment cost is quickly recovered as our robotic arms have an average payback period of just six months.