RESEARCH ON CONDITION MONITORING OF SPEED REDUCER OF INDUSTRIAL ROBOT WITH ACOUSTIC EMISSION

Articulated industrial robots are widely used for factory automation, e.g., the car manufacture industry. As other machines, the transmission system of industrial robot is prone to fail after long term operation. Speed reducer is the key component of the transmission system, and it is important to detect its incipient faults to avoid breaking down. However, until now, few techniques have been proposed to diagnose the reducer without disassembly. Our research on monitoring and diagnosing the speed reducer of industrial robot is reported in this paper. The technique combines inspection method of acoustic emission and signal processing of vibration signal. The characteristics of acoustic emission signal and their connections with mechanical parts of robot reducer have been studied. A defect in the rolling bearing was detected on a welding robot by this technique and confirmed in disassembly.