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Updating the Universal Robot Operating System
Updating the Universal Robot Operating System

How to update the Polyscope version running on the UR robot

Matt Bush avatar
Written by Matt Bush
Updated over a week ago

The Universal Robot (UR) Operating System (Polyscope) is the application that runs on the robot controller and operates the robot and allows user interaction with the robot. Periodically UR will release updates to this software, once Hirebotics has fully tested the new release and approved if for use a notice will be sent out to update the robot. To install updates to the robot it is currently necessary to download the file from the UR website, place it on a USB drive and then install that on the robot from the touch pendant. The following steps will walk you through the process.

Some Icons you will encounter in the text below

Hamburger Menu

Automatic Mode

Manual Mode

Determining what version of Polyscope is currently running on the robot.

From the Hamburger menu on the upper right of the teach pendant select the About section see image below.

This will list the current Polyscope version. The version will appear as something like URSoftware 5.3.1.64192. The critical thing to know about this version id is the first two sets of numbers so something like 5.3.x.x, this is needed as when we do the upgrade we will need to go step by step at that second number.

For instance let’s say there are three versions of the 5.4 software available, 5.4.0, 5.4.2, 5,4.3, if we want to upgrade from 5.4.0 to 5.5.1 we do not need to install 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.5.0 and then 5.5.1 but we can jump straight from any 5.4 to any 5.5 version. The robot will not allow you to jump though from 5.4 to a 5.6 version for instance without installing at least one of the 5.5 versions.

NOTE: Starting with Polyscope version 5.8.2 you are now able to jump directly to the latest version of software without installing all of the intermediate steps. This applies to any current version of Polyscope equal to or greater than 5.5. So if the robot is currently running 5.5 or newer you do not need to install 5.6, 5.7 to get to 5.8, you can install 5.8 or newer directly.

Download the appropriate file(s)

Now that you know which version of software the robot is currently running you can visit the UR support site which will take you directly to the download section for robot software. From this site you will be able to select the proper version of software. If you are currently running 5.4.x you would want to download 5.5.x, 5.6.x, etc until you get to the latest version of the software. It’s recommended you download the latest version of each minor step, so for instance if there is a 5.5.0 and a 5.5.1 available for the 5.5 series of software, download the 5.5.1 and ignore the 5.5.0.

Copy files to USB Stick

Once you have downloaded the files simply copy the files to a USB stick as this is what we will place into the robot for the upgrades. Please save the file to the root directory of the USB stick, not within a folder.

Upgrade the Robot

  1. Plug the USB stick into the robot. There is a USB port on the touch pendant on the upper right side of the pendant.

  2. If required switch from Automatic mode to Manual mode and enter the password that is required, Automatic mode can be seen in the upper right section of the teach pendant.

  3. Using the Hamburger menu on the upper right select the Settings menu item.

  4. From the Settings menu choose System in the lower right corner, this will expose a sub-menu that will have a tab for Update

  5. WIth the USB stick plugged into the teach pendant hit the Search button (middle right of above image) on the System->Update screen. This will provide a list of available updates. Choose the update that you want to install by touching it with your finger. This will cause the Update button (lower right in the image above) to become active. Touch the Update button and follow the on-screen prompts.

  6. The robot will begin to install the software, it will shutdown and reboot automatically. Once the robot reboots if you need to install additional updates you can repeat the above steps starting at step 2.

  7. Once you have installed all of the versions that are required please initialize the robot and resume operation as normal. Click here for initialization instructions.

    1. While the robot is initializing it may need to update the firmware on the joints and you may see a message in regards to this, it is normal

  8. If required, return to Automatic mode by selecting the Manual mode and choose Automatic

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