UR20
Universal Robots · Denmark · 2022
The arm that ended the idea that a cobot is a small machine: 1,750 mm of reach and 25 kg of payload, on a base 245 mm across. It was also the first Universal Robots arm whose lifting capacity later grew by a quarter without a single new part.
The UR20 was shown at the automatica fair in Munich in June 2022, made its American debut at IMTS in Chicago in September 2022, opened for global orders on 19 September 2022 and started shipping in the second quarter of 2023. It opened a new line above the e-Series: the first Universal Robots arm built around redesigned joints rather than a scaled version of the old ones. The joints are the story. Universal Robots states that the new design raises joint torque by roughly 25 percent and joint speed by as much as 65 percent against the previous generation, with tapered tubes for stiffness. The result is 1,750 mm of reach and a maximum tool centre point speed of 5 m/s from an arm weighing 64 kg that stands on a 245 mm footprint. For context, that reach is 450 mm longer than the UR30 and the UR15, both of which stop at 1,300 mm. The payload figure needs a date attached to it. The UR20 launched as a 20 kg arm. On 26 September 2024 the manufacturer raised the rating to 25 kg including the end effector, and the change required no hardware at all: PolyScope software version 5.19 or later is enough, and machines already installed on factory floors could take it as an update. The catch is stated in the same announcement — the higher figure applies in the top lift position, which is the wrist-down geometry of palletising, not the full working envelope. Robots shipped from within 2024 carry the software by default. Precision is where the size is paid for. Pose repeatability is +/-0.1 mm, twice the figure of the smaller and newer UR15 at +/-0.05 mm, which reaches the same 5 m/s. A buyer choosing between them is choosing reach and lifting capacity against accuracy, not against speed. The arm is sealed to IP65 and rated for ISO Class 4 cleanrooms. The tool flange carries an integrated M8 eight-pin connector that delivers 12 V or 24 V power, two digital inputs and outputs and analogue inputs directly at the tool, so grippers no longer need a cable run down the arm. A programmable LED ring shows robot state at a glance. Universal Robots, founded in Odense and owned by Teradyne, remains the largest supplier of collaborative robots in the world; it sells through integrators and publishes no list price. Specifications here come from the manufacturer's product page and its own press material; the company does not publish joint-by-joint speeds, power draw, noise or ambient limits for this model in the same public sheet it provides for the UR15, and those fields are therefore left empty rather than guessed.
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