Downtime of robot control system

    Dear community,


    I have a question about possible downtime of robot.

    If I do not need to work with robot some time.

    Robot is programmed and made mastering.

    The batteries is OK.

    What the best solution for maximum preservation of robot control system components and robot?

    a)The robot control system is disconnected from the energy

    (How long time the control system can be turned off? If I will use this solution, will I have a problem starting it on after a long downtime?)

    b)The robot control system is work all time


    Control System: Kuka KR C4


    Thanks in advance

    you can have some fruit sitting on your desk (bananas or berries for example). you do not have to eat them but eventually they will perish.


    essentially the same things happen to everything - even machines. only the time scale is different....


    when robot system is powered, components are stressed and slowly wear out... even if robot is doing nothing. an example of this are fans, HDD/SDD (continuous read/write access), PSU (converting and supplying power), servo drives, etc. even non-moving components age due heat produced by components (electronics enemy #1). this is a very slow process of course.


    when robot system is powered off, it is still wearing out. chemicals (lubricants, seals) continue to break down. this is glacier speed as well... but batteries continue supplying power and without recharge will run out in couple of weeks. so if planning to store a robot for some time, make sure batteries are charged and then have them disconnected (X305). should still have them topped off periodically or they will die. this is the most obvious problem and sign of age. with batteries properly conditioned, switched off system can hold for long time.


    see documentation for details


    for example clients complain "why should i do any service on a practically a new robot, it only has 6 hours of run time?" well.. it has low runtime but that is still a 4 year old robot. things wear down and break even if you do not use it.


    pretty sure there is a reason that KUKA recommends on Agilus wrist service every year (incl. changing belts) etc.

    1) read pinned topic: READ FIRST...

    2) if you have an issue with robot, post question in the correct forum section... do NOT contact me directly

    3) read 1 and 2

    Thumbs Up 1

    What do you recommend?

    Leave the control system on and time to time move the robot, or turned off the power of system and disconnect the batteries?

    At the moment need to use the robot once a few week.

    not much info on this from KUKA that i am aware of...


    but they did offer a bit more info for KRC5.


    basically in case of KRC5 they simply moved those same batteries out into a separate enclosure and call it a KRC5micro Battery Pack or UPS (article number 00-337-133). this allows equally or even more cumbersome access to batteries (must remove eight screws to get to them) but one advantage is that this unit can be outside so one does not need to open controller. this could be an improvement for places with strict safety standards.


    and the documentation for this unit does offer some info on recharging schedule. it is not much but it is more than i what was available before.

    Thanks for the information

    The only data point I can add here is that, when KUKA ships KRCs from the factory, they have the internal batteries disconnected. I assume that is to prevent charge leakage.


    That said, even a disconnected battery will self-discharge over time.


    The motherboard coin-cell battery should last several years, but even with the controller off, it is slowly losing power just keeping the BIOS CMOS memory alive.


    If planning to leave a KRC unpowered for a long time, I would definitely consider disconnecting the main batteries, and make sure to leave the controller powered up for several hours to re-charge them once the KRC has power again.


    Removing the coin-cell battery on the motherboard isn't really going to save you anything, unless you expect the KRC to be in storage for years.


    For both types of battery, have some spares available, because after the robot sits for too long, there's no way to guarantee those batteries will be usable.

    As far as I understood, disconnecting the system from the power supply will not be of much use.

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