Universal Robots (UR) introduced the UR AI Trainer at GTC 2026, developed in partnership with Scale AI, representing a shift towards robots transitioning from pre-programmed functions to AI-driven tasks. According to Anders Beck, VP of AI Robotics Products at Universal Robots, the demand for AI capabilities is growing among a wide range of customers, necessitating a solution for collecting precise robot and vision data to train AI models on the intended deployment robots. Beck highlighted that the UR AI Trainer is the first-of-its-kind solution in the industry, bridging the gap from lab to factory for AI model training.
One of the key challenges in AI robotics training has been fragmented hardware and low-quality data capture. Current training data is typically gathered on research robots unsuitable for production settings, often relying solely on visual feedback, which can complicate tasks requiring delicate or contact-rich interactions. The Direct Torque Control and force feedback features of the AI Trainer address these issues by providing developers with direct control over the physical interactions of the robot, leveraging the robust hardware employed in over 100,000 industrial deployments.
The collaboration with Scale AI allows the UR AI Trainer to facilitate integrated robotics data capture. By enabling human operators to guide UR robots through tasks in a leader-follower setup, synchronized data collection during real-time demonstrations produces structured datasets essential for training Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. Operating on UR’s AI Accelerator platform, the AI Trainer combines collaborative robots with Scale AI software to support scalable data capture in production environments, facilitating continual optimization of physical AI systems.
UR and Scale AI plan to release a comprehensive industrial dataset collected on UR robots later in the year. At UR’s GTC booth, visitors can experience the AI Trainer in action by guiding leader robots to control follower robots for tasks such as smartphone packaging, with haptic feedback for imitation learning and VLA training. The demonstration data is recorded in real-time on Scale’s platform and is replayable directly on the AI Trainer, offering a hands-on experience of capturing robot training data for AI models.
Universal Robots is a prominent player in collaborative robotics, with over 100,000 cobots sold globally, known for their user-friendly platform and intuitive PolyScope software. A part of Teradyne Robotics, Universal Robots is distinguished for its comprehensive services and a vast cobot ecosystem. Scale AI focuses on developing reliable AI systems for crucial decision-making, offering high-quality data to power AI models for impactful applications across various sectors. Founded in 2016, Scale AI is headquartered in San Francisco, dedicated to building, deploying, and overseeing AI applications with trust and integrity.
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