Patent Filed for Robot System and Method for Predicting Life of Regenerative Resistor

A recently published patent describes a robot system and method for predicting the life of a regenerative resistor, a crucial component in robotic systems. The invention, filed by Jun Kanzaki and colleagues on July 28, 2021, was published online on May 6, 2025. The patent aims to solve the problem of determining the timing of maintenance or inspection of a regenerative resistor in conventional robots. The inventors provide a detailed explanation of the background art, citing Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-105605, which discloses a robot controller that detects power consumption and regenerative power values but fails to predict the life of the regenerative resistor.

Key Takeaways:

• The patented robot system includes a robot with a joint, a motor, a regenerative resistor, and a controller that predicts the life of the regenerative resistor based on the period of time during which it consumes heat.
• The controller acquires the period of time during which the regenerative resistor consumes heat within one operational cycle of the robot, determines the proportion of time the regenerative resistor is consuming heat, and compares this proportion to stored life values in a database to determine the remaining life of the regenerative resistor.
• The robot system can be equipped with a display to show the determined remaining life of the regenerative resistor and a cooler to cool the regenerative resistor, allowing the controller to detect a failure of the cooler based on the determined proportion and temperature of the regenerative resistor.
• The method for predicting the life of the regenerative resistor involves acquiring the period of time during which the regenerative resistor consumes heat, determining the proportion of time the regenerative resistor is consuming heat, comparing this proportion to stored life values in a database, and outputting the determined remaining life of the regenerative resistor.
• The patented system addresses the oversight in conventional robots, which do not provide a direct method for predicting the life of the regenerative resistor, leading to potential damage or disconnection of the regenerative resistor.

Statistics:

• The patent, U.S. Patent Number 12290935, was filed on July 28, 2021, and published online on May 6, 2025.
• The robot system and method predicted the life of the regenerative resistor based on the period of time during which the regenerative resistor consumes heat within one operational cycle of the robot.

Sources:

• Kanzaki, J., Oyama, Y., & Santo, Y. (2021). Robot system and method for predicting life of regenerative resistor. U.S. Patent Number 12290935.
• Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-105605.