Robot arms
Collaborative robot arm (cobot)
A robot arm designed to work near people at limited force and speed, easy to reprogram: machine tending, packing, screwdriving, light welding.
Good at
Small-batch, changing tasks; quick to deploy without big safety cages (after a risk assessment).
Watch out for
Slower and lighter than industrial arms; "collaborative" depends on the application, not just the arm.
Specs that matter for this type
- Payload
- Reach
- Repeatability
- Weight
- Ingress protection (IP)
- Axes
- Safety standards (as stated by the maker)
Jobs it does
Usually the main robot for
Also used for
Models we've catalogued
How to read this. Specs come from each maker's own spec page or datasheet, with the link and the date we checked it. Blank means the maker doesn't publish it (or we haven't found it). Scores are a whirrwork assessment, not a lab test: we only score a model when independent trials or tests exist. Methodology.
| Model | Payload | Reach | Repeatability | Weight | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FANUC CRX-10iA FANUC | 10 kg | 1,249 mm | 0.05 mm | – | Not enough evidence to rate |
| Universal Robots UR20 Universal Robots | 20 to 25 kg | 1,750 mm | 0.01 mm | 64 kg | Not enough evidence to rate |
| Universal Robots UR30 Universal Robots | 30 to 35 kg | 1,300 mm | 0.01 mm | 63.5 kg | Not enough evidence to rate |
Also called: cobot.