Adjust — Automatic Feature Location for Universal Robots

Adjust is a URCap for Universal Robots that lets your robot find out where the part actually is — and corrects the whole program to match. Using the robot's built-in force/torque sensor, Adjust physically touches off on a workpiece or fixture, calculates its true position, and automatically shifts every waypoint that references it. No vision system, no extra hardware.

Why Adjust?

In real production, parts and fixtures never sit in exactly the same place twice. Tolerances stack up, fixtures get bumped, raw material varies. The usual answer is expensive vision systems or painstaking manual re-teaching.

Adjust solves this with the sensor your robot already has. It probes a few reference surfaces, works out how far the part has moved and rotated, and updates your program on the fly — so a single taught program keeps running accurately shift after shift.

Key Features

• Touch-based part location — Uses the robot's force/torque sensing and tool contact detection to locate physical features by touch, with no camera or external sensors required.
• Automatic program correction — Located features are published as native PolyScope Features (coordinate frames). Any waypoint taught relative to that feature shifts automatically the instant the part is found — correcting an entire sequence from a single measurement.
• Two modes for any job:
  • Adjust — Three contact searches locate the part's position (X, Y, Z). Ideal for compensating part placement variation.
  • Adjust Advanced — Six contact searches recover the part's full 6-DOF pose (position and orientation: RX, RY, RZ), for parts that can shift and tilt in any direction.
• Coarse + fine probing — A fast approach search is followed by a slow, high-precision touch for repeatable, accurate contact points.
• Baseline memory — Save a measured reference pose to the installation so it can be reused across multiple programs. Measure once, reuse everywhere.
• Fully tunable — On-screen sliders for:
  • Search speed (10–100 mm/s)
  • Contact force threshold (5–20 N) — gentle on delicate parts
  • Maximum search distance (50–500 mm)
• Easy teaching — Define each search as a simple Start + Direction point pair using familiar PolyScope teaching, with built-in Teach and Move to buttons.
• Reusable feature library — Create, name, and manage as many features as your application needs from the installation screen.

How It Works

1. Set up your features in the Adjust installation node — name each surface or datum you want the robot to locate.
2. Add an Adjust node to your program and teach the contact search points (Start + Direction for each axis).
3. Run the program. Adjust probes the part, computes its real position (and orientation, in Advanced mode), and updates the corresponding PolyScope feature.
4. Everything taught relative to that feature snaps into place — pick, place, machine, dispense, or assemble with confidence.

Typical Applications

• Machine tending and fixturing where part placement varies
• Pick-and-place from loosely positioned trays, pallets, or fixtures
• Locating raw stock or castings before machining or deburring
• Assembly and dispensing that must follow the real part, not the nominal one
• Any task currently requiring vision just to correct for position

Requirements

• Universal Robots e-Series robot (built-in force/torque sensor required)
• PolyScope 5.9 or later
• Licensed per robot (tied to the robot serial number)

Adjust is developed by SE Automation. For licensing and support, visit apps.seautomation.se.