WarehouseRobot arms beside people

Collaborative robot arms

Name: Collaborative robot arms
Brand: Universal Robots, FANUC, ABB, and others

by Universal Robots, FANUC, ABB, and others

Collaborative robots, or cobots, are robot arms made to work near people in factories and warehouses. One maker, Universal Robots, says it has sold more than 100,000. Universal Robots website

Stage 5 of 5

Regulator-cleared or mass market

Which rule placed it

Evidence: Company-reported only
Human help: None reported
Last milestone: 1 Oct 2026

01Can I get it?

Yes, in places

Where it works today: On sale to businesses worldwide from many makers; used in factories and warehouses. Universal Robots news, 14 Sept 2026
Published price: No published price in our sources.
Human help: Our sources report it working without human help.

02Track record

What has actually happened

Every milestone is dated and links to the page it comes from. Lines marked company-reported rest on the maker's own word.

1 Oct 2026
Update
Teradyne and Chinese cobot maker Elite Robots settled a separate legal dispute by agreement.
Universal Robots news centreCompany-reported
14 Sept 2026
Unveiled
Universal Robots showed Gen 7, an upgraded version of its cobot system, at a trade show in Chicago.
Universal Robots news, 14 Sept 2026Company-reported
27 Aug 2026
Update
Teradyne, which owns Universal Robots, sued a German arm of Chinese cobot maker JAKA in a European patent court, saying JAKA's cobots copy its patented hardware and software.
Universal Robots news, 27 Aug 2026Company-reported
2026
Mass market · sets the stage
Universal Robots said it had sold more than 100,000 cobots worldwide.
Universal Robots websiteCompany-reported
2008
On sale
Universal Robots, a Danish company, sold its first collaborative robot arm.
Universal Robots company pageCompany-reported

03Safety and incidents

What has gone wrong

No crashes, recalls or regulator reports in our sources. That is not proof none happened; we add them when a regulator or trusted outlet reports one.

How we placed it

The rule, not an opinion

Stages are worked out by published rules from the dated milestones above. We never rate robots, and no maker can pay to change a stage.

5
Regulator-cleared or mass marketThis robot
A regulator has cleared it where approval applies: FDA clearance or approval for a medical robot, a permit to run with no one aboard for a self-driving vehicle, or an FAA approval for routine drone flights. Or: Widely sold: sales in the hundreds of thousands, or a product category you can buy in ordinary shops.
Placed by: Universal Robots said it had sold more than 100,000 cobots worldwide (2026).
4
Paying customers
Delivered to customers who pay for it, beyond a trial, or a paid service the public can use.
3
Pilot
Working with a named customer in a real setting, as a trial.
2
Pre-orders
Orders, reservations or deposits taken, with nothing delivered yet.
1
Demo only
Shown in videos, staged events or a factory, with no units working for customers.

What we couldn't confirm. Worldwide cobot sales totals from an independent source (such as the IFR) were not found on the pages opened. FANUC and ABB cobot figures were not checked. All sources here are Universal Robots' own pages.

Sources

Cite this page

Robotics Verdict. “Collaborative robot arms (Universal Robots, FANUC, ABB, and others): how far has it got?” roboticsverdict.com/robots/cobots. Checked 19 October 2026.