Universal Robots (UR), global industry experts in collaborative robotics, have introduced the UR AI Accelerator, a ready-to-use hardware and software toolkit designed to accelerate the development of AI-powered cobot applications.
The UR AI Accelerator is tailored for both commercial and research applications, providing developers with an extensible platform to build and deploy AI solutions, reduce time to market, and advance robotics research.
Powering AI Solutions with NVIDIA and Orbbec Technology
The toolkit integrates seamlessly with UR’s next-generation software platform, PolyScope X, and leverages cutting-edge technologies, including NVIDIA Isaac™ accelerated libraries and AI models running on the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin™ system-on-module. It also features the newly developed Orbbec Gemini 335Lg 3D camera, enabling precise 3D imaging for advanced robotics tasks.
With these technologies, the UR AI Accelerator supports a wide range of applications, including pose estimation, tracking, object detection, path planning, image classification, quality inspection, and state detection. Developers also have the flexibility to choose their preferred toolsets, programming languages, and libraries to create custom programs tailored to specific needs.
Through its integrated architecture and in-built demo programs, the UR AI Accelerator provides developers with a ready-to-use platform to bring innovative AI-powered cobot applications to market faster and more efficiently.
Leadership Commentary
“With the UR AI Accelerator, we provide our partners with everything they need to develop and deploy new, innovative AI solutions,” said Kim Povlsen, CEO and President of Universal Robots. “We are already a leading platform for taking AI cobot applications to market and now we are pushing the boundaries even further. The most exciting part will be seeing the impact of these new capabilities for our partners and end customers.”
James Davidson, Chief AI Officer at Teradyne Robotics, emphasized the accelerator’s potential to revolutionize robotics development. “UR’s AI Accelerator is built for where AI will really make a difference—if you’re building solutions on our platform, it will decrease your time to deployment while also de-risking the development of AI-based solutions. With our objective to take physical AI to an entirely new level, AI Accelerator is just the first to market of a series of AI-powered products and capabilities in UR’s pipeline, all with the focused goal of making robotics more accessible than ever before.”
Showcasing the AI Accelerator
The UR AI Accelerator debuted during the same week as ROSCon 2024 in Odense, Denmark, where hundreds of robot software developers gathered to explore the latest in robotics innovation. At the ROSCon exhibition, UR demonstrated the AI Accelerator in a CNC machine tending application, showcasing its capabilities for industrial automation.
The PolyScope X platform, a key enabler of the UR AI Accelerator, is globally available and supports cobot automation across industries. It is compatible with UR’s e-Series cobots and the new-generation UR20 and UR30 models with a small hardware upgrade.
Universal Robots will further showcase PolyScope X’s capabilities at the upcoming PolyScope X Festival in November, featuring real-world solutions developed with the platform, including innovative AI applications.
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Source/Photo Credit: Universal Robots
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