Remote monitoring and inspection of robotic manufacturing cells

A monitoring and inspecting tool for robotic manufacturing setups is presented and explored. The objective is to define a set of system events that could bring to users attention when they actually happen. For that purpose there is the need for a kind of warning mechanism, and a program or server responsible for monitoring the installation and sending the requested events. It was decided to use electronic mail protocols (SMTP and POP3) to send warnings and reports to the users, using regular e-mail messages, and SMS messages to mobile phones and beepers. The idea can be extended very easily to other type of equipment, besides robot manipulators, providing that some rules are followed. We discuss the application to robot manipulators in a general way, so that an extension to other equipment becomes evident. Finally, the idea is extended to use with regular maintenance of the system