Industrial robot hacking
3,541 views · Published 21 August 2011 · 1:27 · Indexed 9 October 2026
Channel: aonomus · 2011 · Science & Technology
What better way to spend a late Saturday night than with friends reverse engineering an industrial robot arm? This is just a random clip video of stuff from a night of hacking on a old robot. One of the first models of mass manufactured industrial electric drive robot arms by Asea (the A of ABB), this thing is an ancient relic of history. The through hole components, the 68000 processor, the rats nest of internal wiring, all of it shows the construction style from a time long ago. The internal hour counter showed 75000 hours of cumulative run time, which works out to several years of continuous on time, or about 25 years of 8 hour work days 5 days a week. The robot is old, has no manual, and yet we managed to determine most of the signals and the control scheme in a night. Some of the motor axes need some overhauling and repair work, but the mechanics are in reasonable condition. Stay tuned because this robot will be modernized and revitalized for epic science! Music Credit: Malva (instrumental) by Digi G'Alessio - licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivatives
