Hi, guys! Philip English from RoboPhil.com and today we have an interview with the guys from Ufactory, who are telling us about their robots.
Philip English – Right, hi guys. Sir Philip English iREX2019, just checking no one’s going to bang into my camera. Right, so we got, we’re here at another stand today called UFactory?
UFactory – Yeah UFactory.
Philip English – UFactory okay. So just going to get like an introduction and then like an overview of just what UFactory is all about. So can you introduce yourself?
UFactory – UFactory is a robot company, start in 2013. So we have been six years already. Actually now, our company has only two desktop robot arm. One is this one, the uArm sweep pro.
UFactory – Okay. This one we have some more than six year already, and this one the first time start out is in US.
Philip English – Right okay.
UFactory – Yeah because we do a crowd funding in Indiegogo.
Philip English – Crowd funding? Oh okay.
UFactory – Yes.
UFactory – And we get almost 1 Million US Dollars on Indiegogo in 2017.
Philip English – Wow okay, that’s good going.
UFactory – This is the second one
Philip English – Okay.
UFactory – This one will have five, six and seven access robot arm.
Philip English – Right okay.
UFactory – Yeah. And this one we start another crowdfunding on Kickstarter last November.
Philip English – Right.
UFactory – And we get also almost 1 Million US Dollars.
Philip English – Wow okay.
UFactory – Yes.
Philip English – So what’s the payload of these robots.
UFactory – For this big one, five, six and seven axis they all have the payload more than 3.5 Kg.
Philip English – 3.5 Kg okay.
UFactory – Especially this six axis have five Kg.
Philip English – Five kg.
UFactory – Yeah.
Philip English – And then the smaller one? The smaller robot, what’s the payload for that one?
UFactory – Yeah this one mainly target for the makers and education so the payload is only 500 kilograms.
Philip English – Okay, okay.
UFactory – Yes.
Philip English – And this is fully safety so someone bangs into it the robot is going to stop?
UFactory – Yes, we set the talon detection function,
Philip English – Right.
UFactory – So if the customer or anyone touch it it will stop. But now the function not open.
UFactory – Oh I see I see okay.
Philip English – It’s software controlled. Okay okay. And you guys are obviously like around the world already. You’ve got distributor from like japan, who is this gentleman here. Then you have a distributor in America and the UK.
UFactory – Actually we have distributors all over the world.
Philip English – You have? Okay okay.
UFactory – Yes.
Philip English – So for distributors in Japan, do you sell this into sort of schools and universities and collages? Is that the main market?
UFactory – Yes, currently we are selling to collage, some research company. But we also sell these double talons for the purpose of industry also, yes.
Philip English – Okay, okay so it goes into industry as well?
UFactory – Yes.
Philip English – And is that like electrical companies or component companies, or I guess companies that have a very light weight product?
UFactory – Some automotive parts companies have interest in these double talons to cut down the cost of assembly.
Philip English – Yeah okay, so obviously like it cuts out like a part of the process so it’s cheaper. Okay, that’s all right, so for UFactory are they looking to make another robot which is going to be like heavier payload or you’re just going to stick with this robot for a while?
UFactory – Actually in the future we will try to develop a longer reach robot arm,
Philip English – Okay
UFactory – Yeah, maybe about one meter, one meter.
Philip English – Right.
UFactory – But maybe the payload will be still the same as before. As we mainly target the consumer, education and light industrial market, so they don’t request, very high requests for the payload.
Philip English – Right, I understand.
UFactory – So the main point is reach, one meter reach, that is the main point for next year.
Philip English – Right so less than a year, you’re going tot have one that reaches one meter?
UFactory – Yes.
Philip English – Right okay. And what sort of price like is one of these robots, so a dollar price.
UFactory – Maybe the price will be a little higher. Increase a little higher.
Philip English – Right, like what’s the current price?
UFactory – The current price for six axis is $8000 US dollars.
Philip English – Okay $8000 US dollars, okay for education.
Philip English -And what have you seen is your biggest market? Is education your biggest market? Or have you seen a big market in industry as well?
UFactory – Just now as I said, we mainly target three markets. One is the education, that means from when they start to university.
Philip English – Okay.
UFactory – These occupy about 50% of the market.
Philip English – 50% okay.
UFactory – And the second is light industrial market.
Philip English – light industrial.
UFactory – Light industry means that this, xArm robot arm can be used in light industrial application. That means that this industry company, they don’t very high request for the payload, the reach and the speed so
Philip English – Okay.
UFactory – For the furthermore xArm can exactly meet their request.
Philip English – Right.
UFactory – Yeah and sub market is the consumer market, like people will buy for the automation coffee, automation milk tea, similar like this one.
Philip English – Okay, I’m with you, yeah yeah.
Philip English – So it’s expanding in all those three areas really yeah.
UFactory – Yes.
Philip English – Okay okay. So the future is a new robot with a longer arm, and then from there, then you’ll see. Do you only do these types of robots? What about the tools, like so you make these tools as well? So like the suction plate on this one, and then the arm picker, is there more and more like accessories?
UFactory – Yes, currently, we only have two tools. One is the gripper, and the second is the suction cup as you can see.
Philip English – Right okay.
UFactory – And then in the future we’ll try to set more tools according to our customer’s request.
Philip English – Customers like request right, we get more tools out that way. And what’s the vision system? Has the gripper got like a vision system? Like can it see what its picking up?
UFactory – Actually, if customers want to add this visions system function, they need to purchase the vision system from another company.
Philip English – Okay.
UFactory – But this one can be combined with the vision system from another company.
Philip English – Right okay, I’m with you, I’m with you.
UFactory – Yes.
Philip English – Okay, no that’s great. I think that’s a good like overview of how everything works so yeah so like thank you very much for the interview.
Philip English – Yes, thank you.
UFactory – Thank you.
Ufactory: https://www.ufactory.cc
Ufactory YouTube: https://youtu.be/OPDxuWFUtpo
Philip English: https://philipenglish.com
Sponsor – Robot Center: https://www.robotcenter.co.uk