Olis Remote Monitoring for PLCs: Not Just for Robots Anymore

Remote control is a risky business for industrial automation, but the ability to remotely monitor, asses failures, and clear faults has been expanded from robotics to PLC systems by Olis Robotics.

Olis Robotics, the champion of remote troubleshooting, diagnostics, and fault elimination, has recently expanded the system scope to include PLC-connected I/O devices, in addition to robotic arms, providing exceptional downtime elimination control throughout an entire production system.
 
Remote Monitoring

Robotic cell control and programming is nothing new, even with the advent of collaborative robots (cobots). Similarly, PLC wiring and programming is a well-established field of study. Modern advancements in such systems must now revolve around the elimination of the unknowns: those rare anomalies that cause faults and costly downtime. Identifying and removing these problematic scenarios is an ongoing challenge.


Olis Connect is now available for PLCs. Image used courtesy of Olis Robotics

Olis Robotics is a pioneer in the field of diagnostic fault recovery and elimination, providing a literal view into the process to both diagnose the fault and recover operations to working condition remotely. Until now, this system has been specialized for industrial robotic cells, but recently, the scope of Olis coverage now includes the PLCs that drive the process beyond the robot.
 
PLC Diagnostics

Understanding robot faults has been an excellent first step in Olis' strategy to detect and solve problems. However, the challenges associated with robots alone only present a portion of the true root cause analysis. The PLC is responsible for collecting the I/O signals and sending motion commands to simple conveyance or precise multi-axis systems. It’s critical to understand how each of these systems is operating around the robot before a cause can be firmly established.


Olis hardware consists of processing (IPC), networking (secure industry-standard hardware), and visual verification (camera systems). Image used courtesy of Olis Robotics

In the end, safely jogging the robot and restarting the cycle may be the immediate solution, as identified by Olis in the past, but being able to expand the scope of inspection to the PLC allows much deeper diagnostic analysis.
 
Data From the PLC System

As of now, the Olis system is compatible with PLCs from Rockwell Automation, a leader in the North American PLC market, but upcoming plans predict expansion to many other brands. In the beginning, a similar strategy progressed Olis beyond the initial robot product offering to allow compatibility with Universal Robots, FANUC, and Kawasaki brands.


Olis Connect is now able to diagnose faults in both robotic and PLC systems. Image used courtesy of Olis Robotics

In true PLC form, the data visibility can provide insights from local and field I/O, motor/motion control tags, and memory registers, creating a comprehensive look into virtually any important data point within the PLC system. Any data point that might indicate a fault or alert can trigger a response from a remote engineer and return the system to faster operation, saving countless dollars of costly downtime.

As with the robotic solutions, the goal is primarily to remove faults and restore working condition, not necessarily to provide an easy ‘remote control’ access. Remote access introduces security risks for the safety of the process and Olis has taken extreme measures to ensure that any jogging or cycle starting from any motion platform (including robots) is only performed under verified safe conditions.

Similarly, with cyber security, the Olis team takes measures to update and deploy measures to prevent unauthorized access, as would be desired with any network connection to an industrial automation cell.