How ABB Robots Tell You When They Need Service

Robots used to be serviced every 20,000 hours. ABB's condition-based maintenance ranks the most worn robots first, a habit home robots will need too.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/23/20261 min read

Factory machines used to get fixed on a calendar, or after they broke. Mechanics kept engines and presses running by schedule and by ear. When something failed early, the whole line waited while someone tracked down the fault and then the spare part.

Young woman mechanic in a cap working on a large engine
Young woman mechanic in a cap working on a large engine

Mechanic Mary Josephine Farley working on an aircraft engine, 1942. Photo: Howard R. Hollem / Library of Congress (public domain)

Early industrial robots, like the orange ASEA and ABB arms now standing in museums, inherited that habit. The usual rule was to service every robot once a year or every 20,000 operating hours, whether it had worked flat out or barely moved.

Row of orange vintage ASEA and ABB robot arms in a museum
Row of orange vintage ASEA and ABB robot arms in a museum

Early ASEA and ABB industrial robots on display. Photo: Dependability / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

A big plant can run hundreds of robots, and they wear at different rates. A September 7 piece in Robotics & Automation News pointed out that a palletizer near its rated payload wears its wrist gearbox much faster than an identical arm doing light pick and place. It also warned that a flood of false alarms teaches maintenance teams to ignore the warning light.

Dozens of orange industrial robots working on car bodies in a factory
Dozens of orange industrial robots working on car bodies in a factory

A large fleet of robots in the BMW Leipzig body shop. Photo: BMW Werk Leipzig / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0 de)

ABB has collected movement data from its installed robots since 2002. Its Condition-Based Maintenance service reads torque, acceleration and idle time for each axis from the controller. From that it ranks the most stressed robots in a line, such as a heavily loaded IRB 660 palletizer, so those get serviced first.

ABB IRB 660 robot stacking boxes onto a pallet
ABB IRB 660 robot stacking boxes onto a pallet

An ABB IRB 660 palletizer, the kind of hard-working robot that wears fastest. Photo: ABB

OmniCore controllers connect to ABB's Connected Services, which add remote condition monitoring and diagnostics. ABB says customers can see up to 25 percent fewer incidents and 60 percent faster response. The technician shows up already knowing which part to bring.

Two engineers at a desk beside an OmniCore controller cabinet and an ABB robot cell
Two engineers at a desk beside an OmniCore controller cabinet and an ABB robot cell

Engineers with an ABB OmniCore controller and robot cell. Photo: ABB

Robot vacuums already go back to their dock to recharge, and some empty their own bins. A home arm or humanoid will need to go further and spot a worn joint before it fails. I'd like it to tell me which part to order, the way ABB's service data already tells a plant which robot to check.

Black round robot vacuum sitting on its charging dock on a wooden floor
Black round robot vacuum sitting on its charging dock on a wooden floor

A robot vacuum back on its charging dock. Photo: Piperpet / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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