Energy efficient use of robotics in the automobile industry

This paper summarizes various methods of the energy efficient use of medium and high payload industrial robots. Approaches and according savings potential are evaluated for methods like intelligent brake management - release time and power reduction, the temporal storage of the robot´s kinetic energy with capacitive energy buffer of controller´s DC-Bus, the energy exchange among robot controllers is proposed. Strategic usage alternatives like robot choice, shutdown during the production-free time and setting into a particular standby mode are compared. The energy saving potentials per each method are estimated according to real body-shop production characteristics.