UR5e robot arm

UR5e robot arm
Status Active

Superusers

  • Ivan Penskiy (ipenskiy[at]umd[dot]edu)

Important documents and useful links

Overview

The lightweight, highly flexible, and collaborative UR5e industrial robot arm from Universal Robots is designed to automate repetitive and dangerous tasks with payloads of up to 11 lbs (5 kg). The UR5e flexible robot is ideal to optimize low-weight collaborative processes, such as picking, placing, and testing. This cobot arm has ±360-degree rotation on all wrist joints and can be controlled directly using the pendant and Polyscope software or using ROS (Robot Operating System).

Software setup

UR5e is connected to the lab's LAN with a static IP. The controlling PC uses Ubuntu 18.04 with real-time kernel and has ROS Melodic packages installed.

Location

Brendan Iribe Center 432, Room 0116.

Physical specifications

Maximum Reach 850 mm
Degrees of Freedom 6
Maximum Payload (Including End Effector) 5 kg
Pose Repeatability +/− 0.03 mm

Reservation

UR5e must be reserved before using. The reservation is done using the Google calendar. You will be able to reserve the equipment personally after attending the RML lab orientation and then following the steps below to gain access to the equipment.
Please estimate reservation times (they can be changed after the fact) and limit your reservations to a 12 hour maximum to ensure other users also have access to the system.

Video demonstration

The following videos demonstrate capabilities of UR5e:

UR5e: pick and place UR5e: examples from industry UR5e: Gazebo and MoveIt demo

Note: these are promotional and instructional videos. They are included for demonstrational purposes only. The details of actual operational procedures in RML can differ!

Important reminders

  • While this is designed as a collaborative robot, it is still a big robot that can do a lot of damage. Make sure the red emergency stop button is accessible at all times.
  • Make sure to turn OFF the robot when done working with it.
  • Be generally careful when working with UR5e.

Gaining access to equipment

Contact the lab manager (Ivan Penskiy (ipenskiy[at]umd[dot]edu).

Workspace setup

Follow this guideline to set up ROS workspace.

Shutting down procedures

  • Stop the ROS communication with the robot.
  • Stop the programs running on the teaching pendant.
  • Make sure that the end effector is not left too close to the mounting surface or not extended too far from the mounting point.
  • Turn OFF the robot from the teaching pendant (menu in the bottom left corner).
  • Turn OFF the controller box by pressing the power button on the teaching pendant.