ABB Robots and the Push to Automate Data Centers

From IBM 704 operators to Meta testing ABB, Kinova and Watney robot arms: how robots are moving into data center upkeep, and where ABB's YuMi and Molg fit.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/23/20261 min read

The first computer rooms were run entirely by hand. In 1957 NASA's IBM 704 needed operators to mount tapes and swap faulty parts, and a room of cabinets took a full crew to keep running. If something failed at night, someone had to drive in and fix it.

Black and white photo of a woman at a console and a man at a cabinet of an early IBM computer
Black and white photo of a woman at a console and a man at a cabinet of an early IBM computer

Operators at an IBM 704 computer at NASA, 1957. Photo: NASA via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Storage was the first part to get robots. By the 1990s tape libraries like StorageTek's used a robot arm to fetch cartridges on its own. Servers went the other way: today's data centers hold thousands of racks, and technicians still walk the aisles to reseat drives and restart stuck machines.

Robotic tape handler inside a dark tape library lined with cartridges
Robotic tape handler inside a dark tape library lined with cartridges

The robot arm inside a StorageTek tape library at NERSC. Photo: Derrick Coetzee / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

That work is now being tested with robots. Ars Technica reported this month, citing current and former workers, that Meta is trialling robot arms from ABB, Kinova and Watney Robotics in its data centers. The arms are being tried on swapping network cables, restarting servers and cycling power. Meta declined to comment, and the trials are still at an early stage.

Open black server racks in rows on a raised white floor
Open black server racks in rows on a raised white floor

Rows of server racks in a data center. Photo: Carl Lender / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

It makes sense that ABB is on that list. Its robots already handle servers at the other end of their life: in Molg's robotic microfactories, ABB arms take apart old data center hardware so the parts and materials can be reused. Plugging a cable in is a smaller version of the same careful handling.

Two white ABB robot arms disassembling a circuit board on a dark workbench
Two white ABB robot arms disassembling a circuit board on a dark workbench

ABB robots taking apart server hardware in a Molg microfactory. Photo: ABB

Cable work also needs a light touch. ABB's YuMi was designed for small-part assembly, with padded arms and collision detection, and it can seat small parts gently. ABB also sells power and electrical equipment for data centers, so it knows these buildings from the wiring side too.

Two ABB robot arms mounted on a row of grey cabinet modules
Two ABB robot arms mounted on a row of grey cabinet modules

Two ABB robots on top of a Molg robotic microfactory for data center e-waste. Photo: ABB

I expect the first robot technicians to take the night shift, fixing simple faults while people handle anything unusual. Most of us never see a data center, but every photo backup and AI chat runs through one, so fewer outages there means fewer frozen apps at home.

Two-armed ABB YuMi robot working at a bench in a lab with a person behind
Two-armed ABB YuMi robot working at a bench in a lab with a person behind

ABB's YuMi, designed for delicate small-part work next to people. Photo: ABB

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