Epson Robots on September 24 unveiled the AX6, a six-axis collaborative robot arm the company positions as its most compact force- and power-limited platform. The 900 mm-reach arm carries a 6 kg payload and is packaged in a carbon-fiber housing intended to slot into cleanrooms, life-sciences labs and mobile-manipulation stacks running on autonomous mobile robots.
Force limits and Class-5 cleanroom design
The AX6 was engineered to ISO Class 5 cleanroom compliance out of the box, letting Epson channel the arm into semiconductor back-end, pharmaceutical and consumer-electronics assembly cells without additional dust-tight covers. Its force- and power-limited joints allow shared workspace with human operators under ISO 10218 collaborative rules, while a lightweight structure lets it ride on top of an AMR for pick-and-place across an entire production floor rather than one workstation.
RC-A1010 controller and no-code stack
Behind the arm sits Epson's new RC-A1010 controller, which the company pairs with a no-code interface aimed at customers that historically resisted cobots because programming teach pendants and offline simulation demanded specialist engineers. "Collaborative robots have lowered barriers to entry for many new users by simplifying programming while enabling applications where space and interaction are critical," said Rick Brookshire, director of product and robot development at Epson.
Global availability through distributor network
The AX6 will be sold globally through Epson Robots' distributor channel, competing with force-limited arms from Universal Robots, ABB, Doosan Robotics and, from a distance, Epson's own SCARA lineup. Epson has been steadily expanding its collaborative-robot range as manufacturers shift smaller cells to lighter, safer hardware; the AX6 is the second cobot the company has launched in the last 12 months.
The arm also joins a widening slate of physical-AI-ready hardware surfacing this month, including Arduino's VENTUNO Q robotics board, NVIDIA's Isaac ROS 5.0 and Google's open-source Intrinsic Core stack.
Reporting based on coverage from The Robot Report.