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Robotics & Automation vocabulary · Maintenance and Troubleshooting

Alarm

Meaning in robotics & automation, with examples

/əˈlɑːrm/nounCore term

In robotics & automation, alarm means: A message, light or sound from a control system that tells the operator something is wrong or needs attention, often with a number and a short text.

In Turkish: alarm, uyarı

How it is used

Used on HMIs, robot pendants and SCADA systems. An alarm is raised, comes up or is active; operators acknowledge (ACK) and then reset or clear it. Engineers keep an alarm list and an alarm history to help troubleshooting.

Example sentences

  1. The robot stopped with a collision alarm; acknowledge it and check the gripper before restarting.

  2. Check the alarm history; the same air pressure alarm came up three times last night.

Common collocations

  • acknowledge an alarm
  • alarm list
  • alarm history
  • reset the alarm
  • active alarm
  • faultAn abnormal condition in a machine or system that stops it from working correctly, for example a broken wire, a failed sensor or an overloaded motor.
  • HMIShort for human-machine interface: the touch screen or panel operators use to see a machine's status, start and stop it, change settings and read alarms.
  • troubleshootTo find the cause of a problem in a machine or system step by step and fix it, for example by checking signals, alarms, wiring and settings.
  • SCADAShort for supervisory control and data acquisition: software that collects data from PLCs and devices across a plant, shows it on screens and lets operators monitor and control the process.
  • collision detectionA function in the robot controller that compares expected and actual motor torques and stops the robot quickly if it hits something unexpected.

More terms: Maintenance and Troubleshooting

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