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KR 16
KUKA
Not yet assessed
- Height
- —
- Payload
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- Verified autonomy
- not assessed
- Real deployment
- not assessed
- Status
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- Price
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KR 16
KUKAThe KUKA KR 16 is a 6-axis industrial robot arm with a 16 kg payload capacity, 1610–1611 mm reach, and ±0.05 mm repeatability, manufactured by KUKA. It is a mature, widely-deployed industrial automation platform available new, used, and refurbished, with pricing ranging from approximately $13,000–$25,000 refurbished to higher for newer variants. The robot is programmed and integrated by engineers using KUKA's controller ecosystem (KRC2/KRC4/KRC5) and software tools such as iiQWorks and iiQKA.OS2; it executes its programmed tasks autonomously in industrial settings without human teleoperation. KUKA continues to expand its broader portfolio with newer families (KR CYBERTECH, KR AGILUS ultra) and AI-oriented platforms (AMP), but the KR 16 itself is a legacy/mature product line.
Availability
Specification
- payload capacity
- 16 kg
- reach
- 1610–1611 mm
- robot weight
- 235 kg
- price (used/resale range, legacy models)
- $20,000–$50,000
Price
No public price — contact the supplier for a quote.
Good · Bad · Ugly
Evidence-graded claims from the KUKA deep report
KUKA industrial robot arms execute welding, material handling, and palletizing tasks autonomously — no human performs or drives the task during normal operation.
Independent community sources [15][16][17][18][19] describe KUKA arms operating in live production environments without per-task human intervention; this is further consistent with the standard definition of industrial robot autonomy and corroborated by Wikipedia [13].
from KUKA deep report →KUKA hardware is well-built, reliable, and accurate — particularly strong for heavy-payload and welding applications.
Multiple independent Reddit practitioners [16][17][18][19][20] across different forums corroborate hardware quality and reliability for heavy-payload and welding use cases, though long-term repeatability comparisons with FANUC remain contested [19].
from KUKA deep report →KUKA partnered with Viam (April 2024) to publish a driver in the Viam Modular Registry, and with Nokia for a 5G SA private wireless network deployment.
Both partnerships are confirmed by independent third-party announcements: the Viam partnership via PR Newswire [11] and the Nokia 5G deployment via Nokia's own newsroom [12]; however, operational outcomes and scale of deployment remain unverified.
from KUKA deep report →
KUKA's iiQWorks engineering suite delivers 98% cycle time prediction accuracy, collision-free path programming from CAD, and seamless simulation-to-controller transfer.
These capabilities are described exclusively in KUKA's own official iiQWorks documentation [4]; no independent test, customer case study, or third-party reviewer has verified the 98% accuracy figure or the seamless transfer claim.
from KUKA deep report →KUKA's KMP autonomous mobile robot series navigates autonomously for material transport in industrial environments.
KUKA's official AMR pages [3][1] describe autonomous navigation capabilities and offer a fleet sizing calculator, but no independent customer deployment report, third-party test, or journalist account verifying real-world KMP fleet performance at scale was found in the dossier.
from KUKA deep report →
KUKA occupies the premium market segment with higher upfront costs than ABB, FANUC, and Universal Robots, justified by superior performance and lower total cost of ownership.
The TCO superiority claim originates from a commerce/analyst source with promotional bias [5][6]; independent community users recommend KUKA primarily as an escape from FANUC-specific frustrations rather than as an objectively superior platform [16][18], and the software friction documented by practitioners directly undermines the TCO argument.
from KUKA deep report →KUKA offers AI-based predictive maintenance and computer vision as part of its software capabilities.
This claim appears only in a commerce/analyst source [5][6] with no independent verification; no KUKA official documentation, customer case study, or third-party review in the dossier substantiates deployed AI predictive maintenance or computer vision functionality.
from KUKA deep report →
About the company
Editorial directory of real robot products from leading global manufacturers. Each entry links to the manufacturer's official page.
