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Why are Universal Robots so popular with Universities in NZ?
While most Universal Robots are out in industry making New Zealand companies more efficient, they are also becoming popular with Academic Institutes around the country. The latest to be supplied is a new GEN III UR5 robot for the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at the University of Canterbury.
Associate Professor Richard Green is well published in the field of vision systems for automation. We asked him why Universal Robots are so popular with Universities, as we dropped off his brand new UR5.
“The department chose a Universal Robot because of its ability to work in collaboration with people in a safe manner, which is ideal for both teaching purposes and research on our robot pruning project.
Universal Robots are also supported by an open source software package called ROS (see www.ros.org) which provides a framework and many useful functions when using a robot in a research environment.
The ability to communicate directly with the robot hardware using the API is also critical. Students program their applications in C++ and this is seamlessly compatible with the Universal Robot.
Being able to define ‘no go’ zones on the latest Gen III robots during both the teach mode and playback is extremely helpful when trying to avoid damage to the robot or surrounding equipment as students are learning to work with the robot.”
As the Distributor for Universal Robots, Design Energy is excited about being able to provide academic discounts with the help of the Universal Robot. This UR5 is the fifth Universal Robot to make its way into Universities around New Zealand, and the new features on the Gen III UR's mean there are likely to be many more in the future.
From left: Jessica Lim (Software Engineer), Associate Professor Richard Green (Department of Computer Science and Sofware Engineering) and Scott Paulin (PhD Student researching dynamic path planning) with their new Gen III UR5 from Universal Robots.
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