Remote monitoring of program and IO

Robot Controller
1

I am new to ABB robots and would like to know if it is or how it is possible to monitor the robot I/O and routine status via remote link i.e. intra/internet connection.
The robot controller would be an IRC5 and as yet no communications equipment has been specified as an order is yet to be placed.

Any help would be graciously received,

Thank you

2

The application RobotStuio Online is included with every robot and allows the user to connect a PC to the robot service port and access the type of information you describe.

If you have the PC Interface option on your robot, you can use RobotStudio Online over the controller’s LAN port so that you do not have to be physically standing at the robot to access it.

With the Robot Application Builder product, it is possible to build your own PC application that will allow you to package this type of functionality accoding to your own requirements. You should be a proficient Visual Studio.Net developer to use RAB.

3

Thank you kindly for your reply Russell.

If I were to use the PC interface option, would I then be able to monitor the current program, program pointer and IO conditions in real time via the internet using robot studio online?

I will also look into Visual Studio.Net

4

Hello,

With RS-O you can see the current program and whether it is executing or not, and watch IO signals in real time. You can not monitor the program pointer, though.

Also have a look at the ABB WebWare product, which is intended for production monitoring.

5

If your PC is not on the same physical network as the robot, you would need to try to run RSO remotely from a VPN connection, which might work but I’m not aware that anyone has tried.

6

I have and it works. One problem is if the bandwidth is too low, then RS-O performance is not the best.

7

I have been using RSO occasionaly for some time and there are, in my opinion, 2 features missing that i would find helpful;

  • Being able to see the program pointer when cycle is running. &nbs p;

  • For RSO to display line number. This would be very convenient after changes made in RSO are applied, to see where an error was made.

Something to consider for future versions?

8

The line number is shown now in the bottom RH corner when you have a RAPID module open, starting with 5.09 or 5.09.01 I think.

Showing the PP is not directly available, that would be a nice feature. What you can do is use the Task Window (with write access, right click on RAPID tasks) to see what routine/module is being executed.

9

This is all very helpful.
Thank you all for your input and no doubt, I’ll post again during the course of the project.