Cost-based maintenance of industrial robot

The industrial robot plays an increasingly important role in industrial and social activities, and its performance has a great effect on the entire automatic production line. Most studies have analyzed the reliability of industrial robot systems, while the research on preventive maintenance considering multiple costs is limited. This paper proposes two different preventive maintenance strategies for industrial robot systems. Firstly, a preventive maintenance importance measure (PMIM) is proposed by taking into account component maintenance costs, system losses, and component preventive maintenance costs. Subsequently, preventive maintenance strategies are suggested and optimized based on whether the failed component is critical or part of a cut set, in order to determine the priority and optimal number of components for preventive maintenance. Lastly, a welding robot is taken as an example to verify the feasibility of the proposed preventive maintenance strategies.