Yaskawa Motoman HC10 vs UR12e: The Market Veteran Meets the New UR Generation

Both arms have six degrees of freedom (DOF), so kinematically they belong to the same class. The differences hide in the numbers and in how contact is detected. The UR12e's payload is 12.5 kg — the maker stresses that this is a real figure, not a rounded one as in the older e-Series naming — against 10 kg for the HC10, a quarter more. Reach goes the other way: the HC10 extends 1,379 mm, the UR12e 1,300 mm, so Yaskawa has roughly 79 mm more working radius. The HC10 weighs 47 kg; for the UR12e we have no confirmed mass, so we do not compare that parameter.

The sensing differs too. The HC10 has six built-in torque sensors, one in each joint, so it detects an impact on any part of the arm. The UR12e measures forces and torques with a sensor at the tool end, which describes more precisely what is happening to the tool and the part. On top of that, the HC10 offers Direct Teach: the operator guides the arm by hand and records the path without writing code — in our comparison this function is listed only for that model. Whether a robot may work without guarding is decided by a risk assessment of the workstation under the rules described in “Robot Safety Standards”, not by the datasheet alone. How to read such parameters side by side is explained in “How to Read a Robot Datasheet”; a refresher on “Degrees of Freedom (DOF) in Humanoid Robots” helps anyone starting from scratch.

Both designs belong to cobots — Yaskawa is a Japanese company founded in 1915, Universal Robots a Danish one founded in 2005.

Neither manufacturer publishes a list price, so a cost comparison rests on quotations, not on figures from the internet. Practical tips for collecting quotes are in “How to Buy a Cobot Step by Step”, and the option of deducting part of the cost is covered in “Poland's Robotization Tax Relief”.

Availability in Poland is confirmed for both. The HC10 can be bought through yaskawa.pl, the direct Yaskawa subsidiary based in Wrocław, which simplifies service and technical support. The UR12e is sold by the authorised partners elmark.com.pl; among other Polish sellers, Procobot of Wrocław is listed as a Universal Robots Gold Distributor. A manufacturer's subsidiary gives a single point of responsibility for the robot; the UR partner network gives a choice among several integrators and usually makes offers easier to compare.

The UR12e's typical applications are palletising and machine tending, the HC10's assembly and machine tending. Whoever stacks cartons on a pallet will benefit from the UR12e's higher payload, because every extra kilogram of gripper and part stays within the load budget; check the tool weight together with the part, though, not the part alone. Repetitive tasks on a factory floor, where people often walk up to the robot, suit the HC10 with its distributed sensing and hand guiding — an operator without programming skills will set up a path faster.

A similar class includes the FANUC CRX-10iA, also with a 10 kg payload; comparisons in this class are covered in “Universal Robots UR5e, UR10e and UR20 Compared”. Work in a warehouse — palletising at the end of a packing line — more often calls for reach and payload than for contact sensitivity.