In traditional automation environments, integrating robots from different manufacturers requires significant engineering effort because every brand operates with its own protocols, coordinate systems, and programming languages. With the EDAS Robot Library, we remove this complexity by providing a unified interface for robot control.
In modern production environments, robots from multiple manufacturers often operate within the same automation cell, but each brand communicates differently. FANUC, KUKA, ABB, and Universal Robots all use proprietary protocols, coordinate systems, and programming languages, which traditionally means that every integration requires deep manufacturer specific expertise. As more robot brands are introduced into a system, the engineering effort grows quickly, making scalable automation difficult to maintain.
The EDAS Robot Library removes this complexity by introducing a unified abstraction layer that hides the differences between robot manufacturers. Instead of interacting with brand specific protocols, users operate through a consistent set of functions within EDAS such as moving the robot, recording paths, changing tools, or executing measurement programs. Behind the interface, brand specific drivers translate these commands into the native communication protocol of each robot controller, allowing the user to work with different robots through the same system.
When a robot brand is integrated into EDAS, all required communication and configuration work is completed once at the platform level. This integration includes the communication protocol, configuration handling, unit conversions, and program execution. Once available, that robot brand becomes part of the EDAS ecosystem and can be used in any project without additional engineering work, allowing users to simply select the robot as part of their system configuration.
Within a robot manufacturer's product family, the communication protocol between the controller and EDAS remains the same, while only the mechanical characteristics such as reach, dimensions, and joint limits differ between models. Because of this, adding a new robot model from an already supported brand is a configuration task rather than a development effort. The user selects the manufacturer, loads the kinematic model of the robot, defines the connection settings, and the system is ready to operate.
The EDAS Robot Library currently supports more than twenty robot brands and variants, covering industrial robots, collaborative robots, positioning systems, and mobile platforms. Supported industrial robot manufacturers include FANUC, KUKA including KUKA D24, ABB, Yaskawa, and Hyundai. Collaborative robots include Universal Robots, Aubo, Doosan, Elite in CS and EC variants, Franka Emika, and Hans, while positioning systems such as Weiss turntables and custom OPC UA controllers are also supported alongside mobile platforms such as Omron autonomous mobile robots.
Setting up a robot in EDAS follows a guided workflow that remains identical across all supported manufacturers. Users add a robot to the project, configure the network connection, load the kinematic model for the specific robot, attach the measurement tool or sensor, and perform calibration using EDAS built in routines to align the coordinate systems. Once configured, the robot can immediately be used for jogging, path execution, and automated measurement tasks.
The unified robot integration allows measurement programs to run independently of the robot manufacturer, meaning a program created in EDAS can be executed on different robot brands simply by changing the robot instance in the project. Users do not need to write manufacturer specific robot code because EDAS handles command generation internally, while simulation, collision detection, and calibration operate consistently across all robots within the same system.
The Robot Library is designed with a plugin based architecture that allows new robot brands to be added without modifying the core EDAS platform. Once a new driver plugin is implemented, all existing EDAS capabilities such as planning, execution, collision detection, and calibration automatically work with the new robot. This modular structure ensures that robots, sensors, and metrology software remain independent components, allowing the system to scale as new technologies and automation concepts emerge.
