Industrial robot arms are often simply the muscle of a robotic system. It’s the accessories and sensors on the industrial robots that make automation so efficient and appealing. Many industrial robot arms employ safety, force, and vision robotic sensors.
Safety Robotic Sensors: Robotic integrators often add various safety sensors to industrial robotic systems and robot arms. Light curtains are composed of two lines of light sensors across from each other. The area in between each set of sensors is the area being monitored. If the plane between the two light curtains is broken, the robotic system shuts down to prevent injury. Zone rings are often used in conjunction with light curtains. Zone rings are attached to the base of the robot arm. When the zone ring is activated, the light curtains on the opposite side are deactivated to allow parts to be loaded and unloaded. If the parts take too long to be loaded or unloaded, the robotic system shuts down until the worker is out of harm’s way.
Robotic Force Sensors: In order to interact and adapt to different parts, industrial robot arms often rely on force sensors to give them information. These sensors send information about size, part orientation, distance, and other measurements to the robot arm. The robot arm uses this information to adjust its movements and orientation to pick, weld, or otherwise manipulate parts.
Robotic Vision Sensors: Vision sensors provide much of the same information to an industrial robot arm that force sensors provide. The difference is that robotic vision sensors do not need to be attached to robot arm. The camera “sees” parts coming down a conveyor belt or approaching the work area and relays information to the robot arm.
FANUC Robotics, Motoman Robotics, and KUKA Robotics all manufacture industrial robot arms and systems that are compatible with robotic sensors. Sensors on industrial robots help companies further improve cycle times and efficiency. To get started integrating an industrial robot system using robotic sensors, call the experts at RobotWorx at 740-251-4312.
