Teleoperated industrial robots

A system for teleoperating an industrial robot having a maximum allowable speed of operation to perform a predetermined process having a maximum allowable speed comprising:

• a station for an operator remotely located from a robot station at which both said robot and said predetermined process are located, said operator station comprising an input device for said operator to send signals to a computing device located at said robot station for controlling said robot to perform said predetermined process;
• a communication link between said operator station and said robot station for transferring signals to and from said operator station and said robot station;
• said computing device,
• a. determining if said robot is in a teleoperation mode of operation;
• b. determining if a watchdog signal has been received by said robot station from said operator station;
• c. measuring the rate of transmission of data from said operator station to said robot station to determine if said data transmission rate does not exceed a minimum rate of data transmission or if a maximum time for transmission of said data from said operator station to said robot station is exceeded;
• and
• d. undertaking one or more corrective measures when said data transmission rate does not exceed said minimum rate of data transmission and/or when said maximum time of data transmission from said operator station to said robot station is exceeded, said one or more corrective measures comprising:
• 1. reducing said maximum allowable speed of operation of said robot and said maximum allowable speed of said process when said data transmission rate does not exceed said minimum rate of data transmission;
• 2. stopping said robot motion and putting said predetermined process in a safe state;
• or
• 3. transmitting a priority list of signals between said robot station and said operator station.