Quick health assessment for industrial robot health degradation and the supporting advanced sensing development

Robotic technologies are becoming more integrated with complex manufacturing environments. The addition of greater complexity leads to more sources of faults and failures that impact a robot system's reliability. Industrial robot health degradation needs to be assessed and monitored to minimize unexpected shutdowns, improve maintenance techniques, and optimize control strategies. A quick health assessment methodology is developed at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to quickly assess a robot's tool center position and orientation accuracy degradation. An advanced sensing development approach to support the quick health assessment methodology is also presented in this paper. The advanced sensing development approach includes a seven-dimensional (7-D) measurement instrument (time, X, Y, Z, roll, pitch, and yaw) and a smart target to facilitate the quick measurement of a robot's tool center accuracy.