One adaptive robot family, two very different machines

Yaskawa sells the Motoman NEXT line as a single idea in four sizes: an industrial arm that recognises what is in front of it, decides and checks the result, instead of replaying a taught path. Read side by side, the four data sheets — edition 06/2026 — describe two different machines wearing one badge. The small pair is light and quick. The NEX7 carries 7 kg, weighs 48 kg and repeats a position to 0.01 mm; its base swings at 375°/s and its tool flange turns at 1,000°/s. The NEX10 carries 10 kg for 58 kg of own mass and 0.015 mm. The large pair is a different kind of hardware. The NEX20 doubles the payload of the NEX10 but nearly quadruples the mass, from 58 kg to 225 kg. The NEX35 reaches 35 kg of payload and 370 kg of mass. The ratio of robot weight to payload jumps from roughly six-to-one in the small sizes to eleven-to-one in the large ones — the series is a shared control philosophy, not one mechanism scaled up and down. Speed and precision follow the mass. From NEX7 to NEX35 the base slows from 375°/s to 180°/s, the tool flange from 1,000°/s to 400°/s, and repeatability loosens fourfold, from 0.01 mm to 0.04 mm. The intelligence is identical across the range — the same YNX1000 controller and the same NVIDIA Jetson Orin decision unit — but a robot that decides in real time and then swings its base at 180°/s is a different proposition from one that does it at 375°/s. Adaptivity is sold uniformly; the ability to act on it is not. One number is not monotonic: the NEX20's tool flange turns at 900°/s, faster than the NEX10's 800°/s, so wrist speed is a design choice per size rather than a straight consequence of payload. Two caveats about the source. Yaskawa's own NEX35 sheet is inconsistent about the product name — the headline reads NEXT35, while the file name, the running head and the catalogue all read NEX35 — and it prints the lower-arm motion range as -140/-90°, a span of 50° that no articulated lower arm has; neighbouring sizes are given as +135/-100° and +145/-100°. We have treated that figure as a misprint and left it out of our profile rather than repeat it. All four sizes now have profiles in our catalogue. The gap between what was announced and what is offered runs wider than one model: the 4 kg NEX4 of the 2023 announcement has no product page in Yaskawa's North American catalogue, and neither do the two collaborative arms, NHC12 and NHC30, presented with the platform in September 2024 — the collaborative section of that catalogue lists only the older HC10DTP, HC20DTP and HC30PL (checked 6 September 2026). Seven machines were announced for the platform; four can be found in the catalogue.