OnRobot makes software debut with the WebLytics solution

OnRobot, the maker of plug-and-produce robotics tools for collaborative applications, has launched the WebLytics software solution to enhance productivity and minimise downtime.

WebLytics is a production monitoring, device diagnostics, and data analytics solution that gathers equipment data from robots and tools and transforms it into easy-to-understand visualised device and application-level intelligence.

"The launch of WebLytics is an important landmark for OnRobot, our customers, and our global integrator network," says OnRobot CEO, Enrico Krog Iversen.

"WebLytics is the first software solution to provide real-time, application-focused data for collaborative applications across major robot brands. As our first software product, WebLytics marks the beginning of OnRobot's journey into robot software and completes our vision of providing a one-stop-shop for collaborative applications on both the hardware and software side."

WebLytics eliminates manual data collection for end-users and integrators and provides actionable insights into how well a collaborative application is performing, offering live device diagnostics, alerts, and preventive maintenance measures to keep costly robot cell downtime to a minimum.

Integrating the globally recognised overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) industry standard, WebLytics identifies trends in real-time in the robot cell, including patterns, peaks, and disturbances in application productivity. OEE measures the percentage of truly productive manufacturing time. A score of 100% indicates the collaborative application is producing only good parts, as fast as possible, and with no downtime. Leveraging these OEE measures, WebLytics can determine whether the manufacturing process is running at optimal speed and can monitor and analyse the quality of application cycles - critical insights for manufacturers of all sizes.

The new solution can report on the utilisation of the robot arm and OnRobot tools such as grippers, vision cameras, and sensors, the number of safety stops initiated, and the number of grip cycles performed while an application is running.

When changes are made to a robot cell, such as adjusting the speed of a robot or the settings on a gripper, WebLytics can also automatically report on the impact of those changes on application performance. Suppose anomalies occur in the collaborative application after deployment. In that case, WebLytics enables users to analyse the data collected directly from the robot (or robots) and tools and report on its findings using customisable dashboards.

Laszlo Papp, product manager and sales engineer at Wamatec Hungary, tested WebLytics on machine tending, pick - place, and palletising applications.

"In this fast-paced world, time is everything. When cycle time is crucial, WebLytics helps you identify the small mistakes that cause time wastage," Papp says.

"WebLytics can also save a lot of time for the company and the production line by making it easy to schedule all maintenance and product changes. My favourite function was the dashboard; I liked how WebLytics allowed me to monitor all my applications, my cobots/robots, and my end-of-arm tools using one platform that provides real-time monitoring, data collection and line charting."

Compatible with all leading collaborative robot and lightweight industrial robot arms and with all OnRobot tools, WebLytics is readily expandable, futureproofing it as new robots and tools become available. Access to WebLytics' is provided through a secure, intuitive browser-based user interface that displays OEE measures and user-defined KPIs through customisable dashboards that provide an immediate and transparent view into real-time and historical application performance.

The WebLytics server can be deployed on a shop floor's local network or added to a virtual network that connects to the robot cell. Collected data is stored locally on the WebLytics server. 
 
"WebLytics is the perfect addition to our existing product lines and a natural progression of the OnRobot tradition of making advanced tools and technologies," says Iversen. "In this case, remote monitoring, device diagnostics and data analytics - affordable and accessible to companies of all sizes."