Getting Acquainted With Your New Machine: The Basics of Robotic Training
Industrial robotics training is beneficial for both business owners and your employees.
Employees often value the opportunity for paid professional development. Employers may expect benefits like reduced risk, lower employee churn, and efficiency gains.
Learn more about robotics training and how to get started with NRTC Automation below.
Programming and different robot programming languages
In order to complete tasks, robots are either guided in real time or programmed to work autonomously. Today, the majority of modern industrial robots are programmed.
While robots are typically packaged with user interface software, positional data and procedure will typically need to be programming. There are a few common programming methodologies used today:
Teach pendants: The most common method for programming an industrial robot is a teach pendant. Teach pendants are hand-held control systems with several buttons or a touchscreen. Usually, the teach pendant becomes obsolete after the robot has been programmed to perform tasks. Most industrial robots are sold with teach pendants, allowing customers to deploy them without additional software or programming.
Offline programming: A newer method that can be used to automate is offline programming. Offline programming involves the creation of a virtual simulation of the robot’s desired actions. The simulation can be created offline and deployed to the robot when refined. Because offline programming is a newer method, fewer professionals are familiar with it compared with teach pendants. However, offline programming can improve safety and limit disruptions to production.
Lead-through: Lead-through programming involves physically moving a robot through the desired actions. The technique is popular for repetitive actions along a fixed path, like paint spraying. The robot captures the positions along a path and logs them into memory to use later. Though lead-through programming simplifies programming, it has become less popular in recent years because many industrial robots have become prohibitively large to manipulate.
Because of the proprietary nature of robot software, it’s common for robot hardware manufacturers to provide their own software. For example, ABB uses RAPID, FANUC uses Karel, and KUKA deploys KRL.
While there are over 30 robot programming languages due to a lack of standardization, there are similarities between them. Typically robotic programmers are able to gain a broad understanding of programming, without learning each proprietary language.
NRTC Automation offers basic programming to advance troubleshooting to empower teams with the skills and confidence to deploy your industrial automation solutions.
Diagnostics
Critical changes that occur in an industrial robot’s system parameters can result in loss of productivity as well as unsafe manipulator operation. Therefore, monitoring and prognostics are essential for the optimal use of industrial robots.
Today, diagnostics are performed at a regularly scheduled maintenance interval, unless a critical error requires immediate action. However, the prevalence of affordable sensing technology and advanced analytics presents an emerging opportunity for fault detection.
Automated fault detection for industrial robots is challenging because it requires vast amounts of labeled training data under healthy conditions. Therefore, unsupervised machine learning algorithms, which can detect, predict, and alert on faults with high accuracy are gaining in popularity.
Repairs
Frequently, the service needs of intricate production capital are more complicated than the actual robots. Repairs are often expensive, complicated, and unpredictable. While staff may be able to handle ongoing maintenance, repairs can be complex and sometimes require years of experience to resolve.
Industrial robot repairs may involve replacing or even refurbishing components. Additionally, to avoid major delays, it’s important to have the right parts and tools on hand that may be required to fix common issues.
Common issues that warrant repairs include:
Power supply issues: Robots are powered by electricity and they use it in a number of ways, often amplifying or stepping down as needed. The electrical requirements for an industrial robot can be difficult to maintain.
CPU malfunction: Central processing units are also subject to wear and may require repairs to perform up to production standard.
Control panel errors: A number of variables can impact robotic controls, such as frequency and electromagnetic interference.
Incorrect installation or programming: Since installation can be highly technical and specialized to the facility and requirements, leaving a lot of room for error.
Mechanical failure: While many issues can be a result of programming errors, mechanical failure can cause unexpected faults.
Some industrial robotics owners choose to hire an on-staff technician to make repairs, while others decide to outsource to dedicated third-party repair companies. Many robot manufacturers and brokers also offer repair services.
NRTC Automation can conduct a top-down analysis of requirements and recommend a personalized training program to match your repair needs.
Maintenance
When it comes to industrial robots, it’s rarely possible to set it and forget it. Though robots can automate high-efficiency tasks, they require ongoing maintenance.
Regular maintenance has numerous benefits including:
Decreasing downtime
Avoiding loss of production due to undetected problems
Prolonging the lifespan of expensive industrial robots
Increasing production efficiency
Robot manufacturers list different schedules and cadences for preventative maintenance. Common industrial robot maintenance tasks include:
Tightening external bolts: Bolts and screws may loosen over time and should be tightened as needed.
Greasing joints: Periodically greasing joints with the correct grease blends will ensure smooth operation.
Testing and replacing batteries in controller and robot arm
Cleaning inside and out: Over time, robots can accumulate grease, dust, and other particles which may create safety and electrical issues. Grease, filters, vents, and cooling fans must be cleaned regularly to maintain robot health.
50-cycle verification tests: A 50-cycle verification test will provide data on robot operation. The tests will surface many concerns, such as repeatability issues, that need to be addressed.
Programming, repairs, and ongoing maintenance or complex, production robotic machinery can be daunting. NRTC Automation’s personalized training programs can help you get the most mileage out of their machines and learn from experts in industrial robotics.
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NRTC Automation is dedicated to providing high-value industrial automation and manufacturing equipment solutions to all our customers.
From decommissioning and tear out to industrial robotic training services to custom flexible work cells, NRTC is the key to integrate your workplace. With personalized training and custom-built designs, NRTC Automation is the destination for all your industrial automation and manufacturing equipment services.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you meet your production goals.