SCARA 4-axis industrial robot

The Selective Compliant Articulated/Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) is usually a 4-axis industrial robot. The kinematics is like a human arm, with the first joint being referred to as the shoulder and the second as the elbow. These two joints allow movement in the X- and Y- axes. The third joint is a translation joint and moves along the Z-axis. The last joint, called Theta-Z, gives a rotation around the Z-axis (wrist rotation).

SCARA robots reportedly offer the best price/performance ratio as regarding speed. They are faster than cartesian robots (because they move less mass) and 6-axis robots (because they have fewer joints and are usually more rigid).

They are very common in pick-and-place, assembly, and packaging applications. The electronic printed circuit board industry, in particular, use large numbers of SCARAs for placing semiconductor ICs and other components on the circuit boards of computers and related equipment.