ABB Robots and the Race for Longer Battery Life

A robot dog ran a full marathon on one charge. From GE's hydraulic walking truck to KAIST's RAIBO2, and how ABB OmniCore and PoWa cut robot energy use.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/26/20261 min read

In the 1960s General Electric built a four-legged "walking truck" for the US Army. It was hydraulic, and a driver worked each leg with hand and foot controls while a large engine kept the hydraulics running. It could walk, but it could not do much else without a lot of fuel and a tired operator.

Large orange four-legged hydraulic walking machine on display in a hangar
Large orange four-legged hydraulic walking machine on display in a hangar

General Electric's 1960s walking truck at the US Army Transportation Museum. Photo: Larry Pieniazek / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Boston Dynamics' BigDog, tested with the US Marines from the mid-2000s, ran on a petrol engine that was loud enough to give away a patrol. Newer electric quadrupeds such as Spot are quiet, but high-performance legged robots typically drain their batteries in under an hour.

Two four-legged BigDog robots walking on a paved lot with a soldier behind them
Two four-legged BigDog robots walking on a paved lot with a soldier behind them

BigDog robots on test with the US Marine Corps. Photo: US Marine Corps / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

This week Nature published a KAIST paper on RAIBO2, a quadruped that ran the full 42 km Sangju Dried Persimmon Marathon in 4 hours, 19 minutes and 52 seconds without a recharge or battery swap. The team tuned the actuators, motor drivers, electronics and walking control together, and the robot used about 1,280 Wh. Raion Robotics, a KAIST spin-off, plans to build it for inspection and disaster work.

Blue four-legged Spot robot with a sensor pack standing on asphalt
Blue four-legged Spot robot with a sensor pack standing on asphalt

A Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped in LKAB colours, Almedalen, Sweden, 2023. Photo: Tore Danielsson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Factory robots have the same problem at a bigger scale, because thousands of arms run for two or three shifts a day. ABB says its OmniCore controller uses up to 20% less energy than the previous generation, and its robots can be set to switch their motors off during long pauses.

Several white ABB robot arms working in a clean factory production line
Several white ABB robot arms working in a clean factory production line

ABB robots at work in ABB's robotics factory in Shanghai. Photo: ABB

Picking the right size of arm matters as well. ABB's PoWa cobots are built to carry 7 to 30 kg at industrial speeds, and larger models such as the IRB 5710 move heavy EV battery parts. At its Shanghai factory, ABB uses its own robots to build new ones.

Man guiding a tall white ABB PoWa cobot arm in a blue-lit factory
Man guiding a tall white ABB PoWa cobot arm in a blue-lit factory

An engineer guiding an ABB PoWa cobot by hand. Photo: ABB

At home, nobody wants a helper that needs a nap every hour. If a four-legged robot can run a marathon on one charge, a home robot that folds laundry all afternoon starts to look realistic. I'd like the next benchmark to be a full day of housework on one battery.

Two engineers standing next to a large white ABB IRB 5710 robot with a gripper
Two engineers standing next to a large white ABB IRB 5710 robot with a gripper

Engineers with an ABB IRB 5710 robot built for heavy EV battery handling. Photo: ABB

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