OnRobot launches remote monitoring software for cobots

OnRobot, a maker of end-of-arm tools for industrial robots, has ventured into software with the launch of WebLytics, which the company describes as “a unique production monitoring, device diagnostics, and data analytics solution designed to enhance productivity and minimise downtime”.

The company says WebLytics is capable of monitoring the performance of multiple collaborative applications simultaneously and in real time. It gathers equipment data from both robots and tools and transforms it into easy-to-understand, visualised device and application-level intelligence.

“The launch of WebLytics is an important landmark for OnRobot, our customers and our global integrator network,” said Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot. “WebLytics is the first software solution to provide real-time, application-focused data for collaborative applications across major robot brands. As our first software product, WebLytics marks the beginning of OnRobot’s journey into robot software and completes our vision of providing a one-stop shop for collaborative applications on both the hardware and software side.”

For end users and integrators, WebLytics is said not only to eliminate manual data collection but also to provide actionable insights into how well a collaborative application is performing, offering live device diagnostics, alerts and preventive maintenance measures to keep costly robot cell downtime to a minimum.

Integrating the globally recognised overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) industry standard, WebLytics identifies trends in real time in the robot cell, including patterns, peaks and disturbances in application productivity. OEE measures the percentage of manufacturing time that is truly productive — a score of 100% indicates that the collaborative application is producing only good parts, as fast as possible, with no downtime. Leveraging these OEE measures, WebLytics can determine whether the manufacturing process is running at optimal speed and can monitor and analyse the quality of application cycles — key insights for manufacturers of all sizes.

WebLytics can report on utilisation of the robot arm and OnRobot tools such as grippers, vision cameras and sensors, as well as the number of safety stops initiated and the number of grip cycles performed while an application is running.

When changes are made to a robot cell, such as adjusting the speed of a robot or the settings on a gripper, WebLytics can also automatically report on the impact of those changes on application performance.

If anomalies occur in the collaborative application after deployment, WebLytics enables users to analyse the data collected directly from the robot(s) and tools and report on its findings using customisable dashboards.

OnRobot says that WebLytics is not just a powerful tool for end users; it also creates new revenue opportunities for system integrators, by providing the software required to offer their customers data-backed custom service agreements and engineering services for cell optimisation.

“WebLytics is the perfect addition to our existing product lines and a natural progression of the OnRobot tradition of making advanced tools and technologies — in this case, remote monitoring, device diagnostics and data analytics — affordable and accessible to companies of all sizes,” said Iversen.