Want to work with robots? There’s a course for that

Since 2016, Universal Robots, the world’s leading collaborative robot (cobot) company, has offered robotics training to customers and others with an interest in collaborative robots.

And now, after having grown increasingly popular in the past years and with 119 onsite training centers across the globe, more than 200,000 robotics enthusiasts have joined the Universal Robots Academy.

“It is amazing to see that so many robotics enthusiasts from all over the world have joined us to enhance their robotic skills and benefit from the training we offer,” says Mikkel Vahl, Global Head of Academy and Education. “We’re a company on a mission – automation for anyone, anywhere. A key part of this is providing our customers and robotics enthusiasts with high quality training that gives them the skills they need to unleash the full potential of their cobots.”

With customers ranging from big global companies to small, family-owned businesses, Universal Robots helps automate anything from bin picking to heavy-load palletising and ship welding. This variety is reflected in the Universal Robots Academy which offers a range of courses from free virtual e-learning to in-depth and in-person classroom training.

“No matter the task or the size of your company, you can find relevant training that can help you become even more successful with your automation. And we can see it works – customers who do take training with us are ultimately more successful and confident,” says Mikkel Vahl.

The explanation for this connection is simple, he adds. “Compared to other industrial robots, cobots are simpler to program and operate. But no matter if you are an application engineer, a robotics expert or new to robotics you will benefit from taking instructor-led training.”

One customer, who went through the Academy training, is Jon Gelston, owner of Colorado-based injection molding company Aim Processing. Gelston had very little direct experience with robot programming and used the resources he found through the free online portion of the UR Academy. “There were self-training modules in both video and read-along formats that were very helpful for us to learn from in terms of applications and improvements in procedures that would benefit a variety of our applications,” he says. “By utilising the resources in the UR training database and support site, as well as the Universal Robots’ community of value-added resellers and add-on components, it really enabled that project to come to a great success.”

New training offers coming up

The users of UR Academy come from more than 130 different countries and have all taken some of the free online courses or participated in either virtual or in-class robotics training led by highly-skilled specialists from either Universal Robots or an Authorised Training Partner. In North America alone, in-class robotics training is offered through 28 different authorised training centers. With the training offers continuously being updated, UR Academy has several interesting additions coming up later this year and in 2024.

This includes new UR20 e-learning teaching customers to set up and program the newest cobot from Universal Robots. New risk assessment e-learning, a palletizing learning path and a new and improved simulator are also among the upcoming additions and updates to the UR Academy.

Facts about UR Academy

• Started in 2016
• More than 205,000 registered users by August 2023
• Users from 130 different countries
• 119 Certified Training Centers worldwide with more opening soon