Industrial Robot Operator Station Options

An oper­a­tor sta­tion or ​“ops sta­tion” is an exter­nal con­trol pan­el for a robot­ic sys­tem that runs the entire work­cell. The robot­ic oper­a­tor sta­tion is an essen­tial part of any robot or work­cell, giv­ing staff sim­pli­fied push but­ton con­trol of a com­plex robot­ic sys­tem, reduc­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty for errors. Once the robot is pro­grammed with the teach pen­dant, the oper­a­tor sta­tion can be used to call up spe­cif­ic jobs or stop the sys­tem in an emer­gency.

Run­ning a robot­ic sys­tem may seem like a com­plex task, how­ev­er oper­a­tor sta­tions pro­vide user-friend­ly inter­faces that enable com­pa­nies to train their employ­ees in a mat­ter of days, and some­times hours, on an entire work­cell, even if the employ­ees have no pri­or expe­ri­ence with robotics.

The design on the ops sta­tion can vary but gen­er­al­ly will fea­ture 6 to 9 but­tons that will start the cycle, hold the cycle, turn the ser­vo motors on or off, select the job to run, reset the safe­ty faults, and stop the sys­tem in an emer­gency. Dif­fer­ent oper­a­tor sta­tions are used for dif­fer­ent sys­tems and robots. Some are stan­dard push-but­ton types, while oth­er oper­a­tor sta­tions include more com­pli­cat­ed inter­faces and mon­i­tor-like screens.

Robots​.com pro­vides oper­a­tor sta­tions for Fanuc, Motoman, and ABB robot­ic sys­tems. Each oper­a­tor sta­tion can be job spe­cif­ic, but for a stan­dard, they are still robot specific. 

For a Fanuc robot sys­tem, the 6 and 9 but­ton oper­a­tor sta­tions have 4 stan­dard but­tons, regard­less of the cell. The oth­er two can be spec­i­fied by the cus­tomer or left blank. The stan­dard 4 but­tons con­sist of:

(1) Emer­gency Stop- Kills all pow­er to the cell, includ­ing the robot

(2) Fault Reset- An alarm press­es that the robot sees, tied in cir­cuit to the teach pen­dant and will reset the fault

(3) Hold But­ton- Will hold the robot in a non-emer­gency sit­u­a­tion, will bring robot to a nice slow coast to a stop

(4) Cycle Start- Starts the Robot Program

If there is any safe­ty on the sys­tem, then the 5^th but­ton will be a manda­to­ry Safe­ty Reset. 

(5) Safe­ty Reset- Per­tains to all safe­ty, any time safe­ty is vio­lat­ed, light will come on and the but­ton needs to be pressed when safe­ty has been cor­rect­ed, allow­ing the robot to con­tin­ue to run

For a Motoman robot sys­tem, there are also 6 and 9 but­ton ops sta­tion to choose from, and a 5 stan­dard but­tons, regard­less of cell. The stan­dard 5 but­tons that are includ­ed with the Motoman ops sta­tion are (1) Emer­gency Stop, (2) Reset, 3) Hold, 4) Cycle Start, and 5) Ser­vo On. The last but­ton is cus­tomer spe­cif­ic or left blank.

There are a vari­ety of oper­a­tor sta­tions to choose from, all in which make run­ning a robot­ic work­cell as sim­ple as push­ing a but­ton. Robots​.com pro­vides solu­tions from sev­er­al dif­fer­ent robot­ics com­pa­nies, includ­ing Fanuc, Motoman, KUKA, and ABB. Our staff will work with you to help you build and design the per­fect work cell for your facil­i­ty and bud­get. For more infor­ma­tion about addi­tion­al oper­a­tor sta­tions and/​or indus­tri­al robots, con­tact Robots​.com online or at 877−762−6881.