Universal Robots and Siemens collaborate to develop Totally Integrated Automation development interface

Recently, Universal Robots (UR) announced a collaboration with Siemens Digital Industries to develop an interface for the Siemens Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal. UR expects to complete the interpreter interface in the fourth quarter of 2021, at which time the UR collaborative robot will become part of the Simatic robot library in the Siemens TIA environment. With this automation platform, machinery manufacturers and system integrators can seamlessly integrate collaborative robots into complex machines and manufacturing environments.

“Mechanical and plant engineers, as well as manufacturers with large production facilities, will benefit from the TIA integration of collaborative robots,” said Bernd Meier, Director of Global Key Accounts and OEMS at Universal Robots. “With the new interface, they will soon be able to apply UR’s feature-rich collaborative robot products with high control accuracy and repeatability in complex production lines and enjoy the benefits of all aspects of digital automation – from digital planning and integrated engineering to transparent operations.”

Production line integration: simplifying robot deployment

全面的TIA博途工程框架可为用户在广泛的制造自动化项目规划上提供支持。2020年11月，西门子出台Simatic机器人程序库，以作为对此应用程序的补充。 “机器人程序库”用户可通过统一的用户界面，在TIA博途中直接对协作机器人进行编程并将其纳入计划中，该计划现在还将包括UR的协作机器人，这使得受益于协作机器人技术的公司范围显著扩大。在各行各业的工厂工程解决方案中，用户都将可以应用UR协作机器人。

“We are preparing to welcome UR as a new partner to start piloting the new Simatic robot library,” said Tobias Fengel, Marketing Manager at Siemens Digital Industries. “We are pleased to be able to offer our customers forward-looking solutions together with the leader in collaborative robots in the near future.”

Combining collaborative robots with new technologies

Thanks to the integrated design of the TIA Portal, users can now run UR collaborative robots in production lines themselves and teach functions such as jog mode or waypoint generation. A new comprehensive library allows users to download programming examples to use them to control UR collaborative robots.

“UR cobots have always been known for their intuitive operation. With the integration of the Simatic Robot Library into the TIA Portal, UR cobots can be integrated and deployed more quickly into complex production lines. This also makes it easier to combine UR cobots with technologies such as Edge data analysis or cloud services and include them in the monitoring of factory conditions,” said Bernd Meier.