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Olis’ PLC system alerts customers to what went unsuitable when a robotic stops working. | Supply: Olis Robotics
Finish customers flip to automation as a result of it guarantees constant work with minimal downtime. When one thing goes unsuitable, the robotic should cease working and look forward to a human operator to step in and work out the issue. Throughout this era, firms are dropping out on beneficial time and productiveness. Olis Robotics stated it hopes to deal with this concern with its distant diagnostics system for industrial automation cells.
The Seattle-based firm gives video and telemetry-based diagnostics for workcells. This permits technicians to diagnose the foundation explanation for downtime occasions, like a robotic failure.
By giving customers rapid entry to diagnostic information, Olis stated they’ll rapidly and remotely debug robotic cells. This has the potential to slash producer downtime whereas empowering integrators to tackle extra enterprise.
Olis added that it has expanded its capabilities to total industrial cells, from the programmable logic controller (PLC) to the fingertips of the robotic gripper, in addition to conveyors and different {hardware}. Utilizing the software program, customers can monitor and set alerts for pre-defined runtime parameters by means of the PLC, together with I/Os, registers, and customized tags.
Olis gives key efficiency indicators
Widespread makes use of for PLC tags embody measuring total gear effectiveness (OEE), monitoring cycle instances, and fault detection.
“The PLC usually incorporates necessary diagnostic information required to grasp the causes of unplanned downtime,” said Fredrik Ryden, CEO of Olis Robotics. “Olis’ new PLC capabilities allow real-time entry to that information, successfully closing the loop on video-based diagnostics for industrial automation programs.”
Olis will launch the brand new product at IMTS 2024 in Chicago from Sept. 9 to 14. Based in 2013 as a spinout from the College of Washington’s Utilized Physics Lab, Olis stated it has constructed on over a decade of telerobotics analysis and growth performed with the U.S. Navy and NASA.
When robots fail, the firm claimed that its flagship Olis system delivers the info wanted for distant monitoring, management, and troubleshooting.
New PLC makes integrators ‘unstoppable’
The PLC orchestrates all the robots and manages all the logic for a complete cell. For integrators, the brand new PLC capabilities improve their capability to debug a system earlier than transport.
They’ll additionally use it to efficiently monitor the system after deployment and remotely monitor and debug total industrial cells.
“Diagnosing the reason for failure in fashionable automation cells is notoriously tough and requires appreciable experience,” stated Steve Solack, controls engineering supervisor at Michigan-based integrator Mission Design & Automation. “That is as a result of complexity and number of parts concerned.”
“With probably the most essential diagnostic info usually being present in PLC tags and robotic information, having the ability to rapidly entry such information through Olis’ easy-to-use interface reduces the time and ability set required to grasp the issue, making us extra environment friendly and lowering downtime prices for our prospects,” he stated.
Along with lowering downtime, Olis stated its instruments can enhance visibility for integrators and operators.
“Generally, when a failure happens, the robots might not even know that there’s an issue,” stated Invoice Ordakowski, gross sales engineer at Olis Robotics.
“Integrators have instructed me that they are going to be ‘unstoppable’ with this new know-how,” he added. “It’s not simply the radically lowered downtime that they respect, however the additional breadth and management PLC entry brings to distant monitoring and diagnostics.”
Olis stated this new performance may even be used to keep up and enhance requirements in manufacturing throughput. For instance, in an utility involving a robotic inserting bolts into a component, customers may create an alert that signifies when the feeder is operating low on bolts. The PLC can then ship Olis an alert informing the operator that it’s time to refill the feeder.
Controllers construct confidence in robotics
“Kaitech expects to deploy a lot of robotic cells to quite a lot of prospects, together with a significant warehouse membership retailer, within the coming years,” stated Kilen Multop, IT director at Idaho-based integrator Kaitech Automation.
“To help this speedy development, we have to be certain that robots are deployed rapidly and with out issues,” he added. “We can even want to trace cell efficiency for a few years to come back. Olis allows Kaitech to scale with added confidence by serving to with these key parts of automation deployment and administration.”
Olis’ new PLC options are particular to Rockwell Automation’s Allen Bradley PLCs. Robotic arms appropriate with Olis embody these of Common Robots, Kawasaki, and FANUC. The corporate plans so as to add compatibility with extra manufacturers.
The corporate partnered with Kawasaki in February to collectively provide robots and controls to allow prospects to restart manufacturing sooner, scale back troubleshooting and downtime prices by as much as 90%, and acquire entry to knowledgeable help extra rapidly.