The Review of Reliability Factors Related to Industrial Robo

Abstract

Although, the problem of industrial robot reliability is closely related to machine reliability and is well known and described in the literature, it is also more complex and connected with safety requirements and specific robot related problems (near failure situations, human errors, software failures, calibration, singularity, etc.).Compared to the first robot generation, the modern robots are more advanced, functional and reliable. Some robot’s producers declare very high robot working time without failures, but there are fewer publications about the real robot reliability and about occurring failures. Some surveys show that not every robot user has monitoring and collects data about robot failures. The practice show, that the most unreliable components are in the robot’s equipment, including grippers, tools, sensors, wiring, which are often custom made for different purposes. The lifecycle of a typical industrial robot is about 10-15 years, because the key mechanical components (e.g. drives, gears, bearings) are wearing out. The key factor is the periodical maintenance following the manufacturer’s recommendations. After that time, a refurbishment of the robot is possible, and it can work further, but there are also new and better robots from modern generation.