Glossary · System coordination, integration and orchestration
Robot coordination
German: Roboterkoordination
In robotics and automation, robot coordination is the alignment of a robot's motions and tasks with other equipment, such as conveyors, machines, other robots or people, through signals, shared zones, synchronized motion and task scheduling.
- System integration
In one sentence
Robot coordination aligns a robot's motions and tasks with conveyors, machines, other robots or people through signals, zones and scheduling.
Example
A pick-and-place robot uses conveyor tracking to pick moving products and exchanges handshake signals with the case packer before placing each layer.
How it applies
- Engineering: Robot coordination covers signal exchange with PLCs, conveyor tracking, interference zones and, in collaborative applications, coordination with people. Decide early whether the PLC or the robot controller leads the cell.
- Commissioning: Test coordination in all modes, including manual reduced-speed mode used for teaching, and after stops inside shared areas.
- Safety: Coordination logic avoids collisions with equipment. Protection of people relies on safeguards and safety functions designed according to the robot safety standards; coordination signals alone are not a safeguard.
- Documentation: Document the signals between robot and cell controller, zone definitions and recovery procedures. Robot manuals usually cover the robot itself; the integrator's documentation must describe the coordinated cell.
Robot coordination vs. multi-robot coordination
Robot coordination is the general term. Multi-robot coordination is the specific case of several robots coordinating with each other in shared space.