ABB Robot Question

Hi there,

The company that I work for has project that involves two 6-axis ABB robots. I am asked to work on this project, but have no clue about ABB robots. I have to setup/program, look after safety (electrical/risk assessment), etc. Electircal design is done by another engineer.

What can you tell me about the things that I need to look for? Safety, risk assessment, guarding, etc. In terms of programming the robot what am I looking for. Please get me started to ask the right questions from the vendor.

Are you using a PLC with these robots? I assume the robots will be together in some type of cell. Get the manuals for the robots they should have example's of how the safety is setup. I have not worked with ABB but most robots program the same way. You will teach points. Each point is made up of 6 positions of each axis. Sometimes these are encoder counts and sometimes they are x-y-z etc. You will then have a program that will move the robots between these points. Because this is a squence top to bottom type program most robots will have another "PLC" type program that runs in the back ground. I use this program to reset latches and monitor inputs from external devices.

If you have a network or a plc I would talk to the vender about how to do the coms. See if they have example code for these interfaces. Tell them your idea of what the robots will be doing. They should be able to give you some hints. Ask if anyone else in your area is programming these robots. Getting in touch with someone that is using them can be a wealth of knowledge.

Do you have any Robot experience? If you dont,i suggest either getting in some support or at least going on a basic programming course and ask the instructor alot of questions!

Have the Robots been spec'd yet?
What Tool or Tools will be bolted onto the wrist?
What sort of distance will there be between the Robot and work object?

What is this cell going to be doing?

ABB has an exceptionally good field support system for these machines. If you are in Chicago, I would contact their Industrial Automation Division in Auburn Hills MI at 800.803.4169.

As you can well imagine, the Detroit area is well populated with these machines and thorough technical support is always available.

DickDV said:

As you can well imagine, the Detroit area is well populated with these machines and thorough technical support is always available.

Click to expand...

Presumably this refers to the automotive industry's use of robots.

If your support people can assist, try to get a good conceptual plan to do the "safety" phase of this project using what the automotive industry already practices. For example, locking out the robotic cells for service and maintenance, guarding, etc.

Nobody knows this better than the automotive industry...

I don't know about ABB's newer products but ten years ago (S3 days) there were instructions oriented toward different functions, ie. welding, gluing, assembly and so forth. Not all instructions were included depending on the firmware you ordered. If you're going to do welding, for instance, make sure you get an instruction set which includes welding commands. There are also robots specifically oriented toward painting.

As a follow on to DickDV and STL???, they have, or had, a training facility at Auburn Hills offering three or four different courses, depending on your need.

For safety, get a copy of:

ANSI/RIA R15.06-1999

American National Standard
for Industrial Robots and Robot Systems - Safety Requirements

can be purchased online at ANSI store.

I have a copy of RIA 15.06. What programming sotware is used for ABB robot? This robot is interfaced with AB CLX5K.

Hi,
If we are talking S4/IRC5 then the language is called rapid code, S3 used a language called Arla.

programming(Teaching)is done via a Teach pendant which is included with your Robot, You can of course program offline with any Text editor but you must watch your syntax! The IRC5 now includes an Editor called Robot studio online which amongest other things allows programming over Ethernet. On the S4's i use ultraedit with an ABB Add-on.

There are additional packages as previously mentioned, to aid program creation.

See my post in this thread for some support links:http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=24699&highlight=ABB