Remote monitoring system solutions for industrial robots

I. Programme background

With the rapid development of the economy and industrial upgrading, modern industrial robots are widely used in flexible processing. The stability and reliability of industrial robots and robotic arms on production lines are of great significance to the stability and economic efficiency of enterprises. The complex mechanisms and high maintenance costs of industrial robots place high demands on the ability of technicians in manufacturing companies. The current state of robot applications in industry places higher demands on the high quality products and services of industrial robot manufacturers. Current IoT technology and TCP/IP protocols send status and alarm information about industrial robots to data monitoring centres for remote data monitoring and troubleshooting to detect problems and resolve them quickly.

II. System components

The industrial robot remote monitoring system consists of four parts: remote monitoring centre, industrial wireless router, control terminal and network VPN gateway router.

The monitoring centre is composed of WEB server, data service and application server. The monitoring platform can uninterruptedly collect real-time data from the site 24 hours a day and dynamically display the change data of each monitoring site. When the robot is abnormal, the application server can directly access the robot control terminal to modify the robot’s running track.

The control terminal includes the robot controller, Ethernet PLC and sensors. The application server can always collect PLC data from the site and remotely control and update PLCs and other devices.

III. Industrial wireless routers

Due to the interface of the collector and the requirements of the working environment of the device, ChenAnIoT F-R100 router is used as the transmission device.F-R100 is a wireless communication router for IoT, which uses the public 3G/4G LTE network to provide users with wireless long-distance data transmission function. F-R100 adopts high-performance industrial-grade 32-bit communication processor and industrial-grade wireless module, with embedded real-time operating system as the software support platform, and provides 1 RS232 or RS485/RS422 port, 4 Ethernet LANs, 1 Ethernet WAN, and 1 WIFI interface.F-R100 can connect to the serial devices, Ethernet devices, and WIFI devices at the same time, and realise transparent data transmission and routing. F-R100 can simultaneously connect serial devices, Ethernet devices and WIFI devices to achieve transparent data transmission and routing.

IV. System topology

The monitoring centre uses ADSL or optical fibre to access the Internet and obtain a fixed public IP address. A VPN server is set up, and the F-R100 router acts as a VPN client to establish a VPN tunnel with the server to communicate with the intranet at both ends. The data acquisition system runs on a database server that can collect Ethernet PLC data and control the industrial robot, thus achieving the goal of collecting and monitoring the operating status of the industrial robot.

V. Programme strengths

1. Stability
Adopting industrial-grade high-performance processor, it can work in harsh environments, ensure smooth communication, provide reliable network connection, and work with device redialing to ensure that the device is always online.

2. Low cost
The use of wireless data transmission terminal and 3G/4G network, so no network wiring. Equipment installation is flexible and not affected by geographical environment. Single-point devices are cheaper, which reduces wiring problems and lowers costs.

3. Flexibility and expandability
Adopting standard communication protocols and interfaces, it is easy to install, debug, operate and maintain. It can collect and control multiple robots at the same time in one workshop.

4. Timeliness
When there is an abnormality in the data, the monitoring terminal can detect and issue commands to control the industrial robots in time.