Can industrial robots be connected with each other? Open and networked industrial robots

The paper reports on the current status of the standardization activities for open and networked industrial robots in Japan. First, the historical and technical background for the standardization of the programming interface for industrial robots is described. Second, the requirements of a PC based approach for networking are discussed and the design philosophy is explained. Lastly, the current situation of the implementation and technical issues remaining are shown with the prospective plan to the international standard and the de-facto standard.