Yaskawa robots with regenerative braking

Energy-efficient robots.

Yaskawa offers a technical solution for the recovery of robot braking energy into the power grid – as a standard and without additional hardware. All larger Motoman robot series with a payload upwards of approx. 50 kg and the latest YRC1000 robot controls are able to convert kinetic energy from down and sideways movements directly into 400 V AC at 50 Hz and feed it back into the net. Depending on its movement pattern, the robot’s energy requirements are therewith significantly reduced.

In their very diverse tasks – such as handling, palletizing, joining and processing – industrial robots make many down or sideways movements, during which the servomotors dissipate energy and potentially generate electricity. Up until now, in older or other robot models on the market, the resulting energy has been converted to waste heat by control technology through electrical resistance and lost to the environment.

In the Yaskawa solution, the electric energy is fed back into the operator network without additional hardware and reused. The extent of savings in each case depends essentially on the task and the individual robot’s movement patterns. Savings in the 8% to 25% range can be anticipated. This may well result in annual feed-ins of about 2,800 kWh, with savings of about 1,600 kg CO2 and € 1,200.