OVR Series small industrial robots

A typical SCARA or 6-axis robot arrives as a sealed package: proprietary servo joints, a dedicated controller, a teach pendant and a robot language your team has to learn. That is the right choice for high-speed, high-payload cells, but it is heavy on cost and specialist skills for a plant that only wants to automate one loading or sorting job.

OVR takes the opposite approach. The arms are deliberately simple aluminium structures driven by standard AZ Series motors on 24 VDC. You can buy spare motors off the shelf, swap them yourself, and set the robot up from a PC without a pendant. The trade-off is honest: payloads stop at 5 kg on the articulated arms (10 kg maximum on one SCARA model), and speeds are modest. OVR is aimed at the large middle ground of small, repetitive tasks where a big robot is overkill and a pneumatic pick-and-place is too inflexible.

• All axes on standard αSTEP AZ motors with battery-free absolute sensors
• 24 VDC input, so battery operation on an AGV/AMR is possible
• Customer-replaceable motors keep downtime and spares cost low
• Programmed from a PC in MRC Studio: no robot language, no ladder logic
• Industrial robots, not cobots: plan guarding and safety accordingly

Start with the motion, not the robot. If the part simply moves from one flat position to another on a table or conveyor, a SCARA or a 4-axis parallel-link arm is usually enough. If the part has to be tilted, turned over or approached from the side, you need the wrist freedom of the 5-axis or 6-axis arm. If the work area is a rectangle and you care most about accuracy and rigidity, the Cartesian robot is the simplest and most precise option.

Then check payload including the gripper. The 5-axis and 6-axis arms carry 1 kg, and an electric gripper can use a good part of that, so weigh the complete end effector. The 4-axis arm (5 kg) and the Full 360° SCARA (10 kg maximum, 3 kg rated) suit heavier trays and cartons. Finally size the reach: draw the pick and place points on the layout and make sure both sit comfortably inside the working envelope, not at its edge.

One point often missed: the OVR SCARA has no built-in vertical (Z) axis. Its three axes are the two arm joints and a rotating tip axis. Vertical motion comes from a separate mechanism, such as an EL Series electric lifting column under the robot, a DR Series compact electric cylinder at the tip, or a linear actuator, and the MRC01 controls these too. That design is what keeps the arm only about 56 mm thick, but you must include the lift in your selection.

• Flat transfer, conveyor to conveyor: OVR3041K3-H SCARA or OVR4 4-axis
• Heavier load or full-circle work zone: OVR3046K10-H Full 360° SCARA
• Long reach across a wide bench: OVR3070K3-H (700 mm) or OVR4088K5-V (880 mm)
• Tilt, flip or side approach: OVR5035K1-V or OVR6048K1-V
• Rectangular area, highest accuracy: 3-axis Cartesian (±0.02 mm)
• Weigh the gripper and the part together against the rated transportable mass

MRC Studio breaks start-up into three steps: initial settings, operation programming and operation check. The set-up wizard asks you to pick the robot type; for OVR models the arm dimensions are already stored, so you mainly enter the end effector and axis settings. Oriental Motor says a newcomer can learn the software in about 30 minutes.

Programs are built by dragging commands into a sequence and filling in values. The controller handles point-to-point moves, linear, circular and arc interpolation and palletizing patterns, and it stores the kinematics so you work in X-Y-Z coordinates rather than joint angles. A PLC then starts programs and passes data over EtherNet/IP, or through eight digital inputs and outputs if you prefer simple wiring. For vision-guided picking, MRC Studio includes a calibration routine to convert 2D camera coordinates into robot coordinates.

Before buying, the free MRC Studio Simulator lets you build a program and watch it run in 3D, and those programs can be reused on the real robot. The MRC Reality app shows a virtual OVR robot in your actual workspace on an iPhone or iPad, which is a quick way to check whether it fits between existing machines. AB Automation uses these tools to prove the cycle and layout with you before an order is placed.

Choose a conventional SCARA or 6-axis industrial robot when you need high speed, payloads above 5–10 kg, very short cycle times or a fully enclosed high-throughput cell. Those robots have far more powerful servo joints and are the right tool for high-volume assembly and heavy handling. AB Automation also integrates these, including Mitsubishi Electric robots.

Choose OVR when the task is light and repetitive, space is tight, and the priority is a low entry cost and in-house maintainability. The flat SCARA can reach through openings and under shelves where a tall SCARA body would clash, and the 5-axis and 6-axis arms weigh only 12.5 kg, so they can be mounted on a linear slide or moved between stations. Because everything runs on AZ motors, the same maintenance team that looks after your AZ-driven machines can support the robot.

• Payload: OVR 1–10 kg vs typically much higher on standard industrial robots
• Programming: MRC Studio drag-and-drop vs proprietary robot language and pendant
• Maintenance: stock AZ motors, customer-replaceable vs OEM joint service
• Power: 24 VDC vs mains-powered robot controllers

For most SMEs the business case for a small robot is simple: one repetitive station, often on two or three shifts, that currently ties up an operator and produces inconsistent output. The savings come from redeploying that operator to value-adding work, fewer handling errors and damaged parts, and steadier cycle times. The costs to weigh are the robot and controller, the gripper, guarding, integration and training.

OVR helps on the cost side in three ways. Integration is lighter, because the set-up wizard and command-based programming cut engineering hours and a PLC programmer can take over without robot training. Spares are standard AZ catalogue items rather than robot-specific assemblies. And the robot can be simulated and tested with your parts before purchase, which reduces the risk of a system that does not meet the cycle. We recommend calculating payback on the real shift pattern and the realistic cycle time proved in simulation, not on best-case figures.