Robot Service: Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You

Don’t call us, we’ll call you. That’s a brief encapsulation of what ABB is offering with its new Connected Services for robots, which the company recently demonstrated for the first time here in Singapore at The Digital Future, an event organized by and held at the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) , a government and private-sector funded entity engaged in applied research and development across several areas of manufacturing technology.

Connected Services, which ABB frames as part of its Internet of Things, Services and People (IoTSP) ecosystem, enables customers to get better, faster response in cases of operating faults and downtime incidents by connecting in-facility robot units to the internet and thereby accessing an array of services aimed at boosting uptime and optimizing performance.

While some form of this capability has been available since 2007 when ABB launched Remote Services for robots, Connected Services represents a considerable enhancement in terms of both service breadth and connection capability, both facilitated by the evolution of Industrial IoT technology.

In fact, as service sales engineer Kelvin Tong informed ARC Advisory Group after the ARTC demonstration, all robots newly supplied by ABB in Singapore now come complete with the requisite communications and processing hardware integrated in the robot body, i.e. no separate unit is required to connect a robot to the internet, as was previously the case. (For the existing installed base the necessary hardware can be retrofitted.) ABB Singapore is looking to complete 11 Connected Services installations for its customers by the end of 2016.



Condition Monitoring & Diagnostics, which is the first tier level of Connected Services and bundled in with ABB Basic Care, the Robot Care service package included as part of the robot product sale, provides remote, real-time indication of the robot operating performance and system health, with status and alarm information displayed on the MyRobot web browser.

Critical alarm notifications are sent via email or text message to individuals at the customer facility, and with the online connection to the ABB service center, field technicians can be dispatched to the site with the right repair parts and, importantly, ready knowledge of what they are likely to encounter once they get there. For less serious cases, ABB can advise the customer as to the corrective action required, based on the remote diagnostics data delivered by Connected Services.

Higher levels of ABB involvement and services sophistication come with the four other Connected Services offerings, which are available under more premium ABB Robot Care service packages, such as ABB Express Care and ABB Extended Care:

• Backup Management provides reassurance that robot programs can be rapidly restored in cases of file corruption or deletion, and automatic backups to the cloud (or any server) can be scheduled.


• Remote Access allows ABB experts to (under secure conditions) access the robot controller remotely in order to investigate more closely any performance and maintenance issues.


• Fleet Management is intended for multi-unit robot installations and enables utilization assessment and, if necessary, balancing of robot utilization levels.


• And finally, Asset Optimization targets customers operating in continuous improvement and operational excellence environments, with ABB providing regular Performance Improvement Advisory Reports, based on remote analysis of the robot behavior, and recommending service interventions that could prevent equipment failure.

As we increasingly see with other industrial equipment manufacturers embracing IIoT to develop new service models, Connected Services allows ABB to upgrade its post product-sale interaction with customers. Beyond scheduled maintenance trips or a call from a customer alerting the service center about a sudden problem, the company can, armed with real-time information, proactively engage with its users to diagnose immediate problems as well as track longer term asset trend behavior. When service trips are needed, the engagement is likely to be far more productive. And I would expect services revenues to get a boost as customers gravitate to more premium service packages that include the new Connected Services elements.