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ABB industrial robots, cobots and controllers

How an ABB robot could start a Tallyfy procedure

Section titled “How an ABB robot could start a Tallyfy procedure”

ABB Robotics makes industrial and collaborative robots, controllers and software ↗[1]. Its controllers answer to Robot Web Services ↗[2], a published API1 that lets other software start a robot program, read the controller’s state and hear about changes as they happen. So when a robot stops with an error, your own software could start a written procedure in Tallyfy, with an owner and a deadline for each step.

Tallyfy doesn’t sell that connection. Your team or your integrator would have to build it.

What ABB Robotics makes today

Section titled “What ABB Robotics makes today”

As of October 2026:

Who owns ABB Robotics

Section titled “Who owns ABB Robotics”

On October 8, 2025, ABB agreed to sell its Robotics division to SoftBank Group ↗[9]. In July 2026, ABB still expected the sale to close in the second half of 2026 ↗[10]. SoftBank’s press releases ↗[11] show no completion as of October 14, 2026.

What outside software can ask a robot to do

Section titled “What outside software can ask a robot to do”

As of October 2026, ABB’s Robot Web Services 2.0 reference ↗[12] lets a program written in any language:

  • Load a robot program, set the values it uses, then start, stop or reset it.
  • Read whether the program is running, along with the controller’s state and operating mode.
  • Read the controller’s event log.
  • Switch an input or output signal on or off.
  • Subscribe to changes. The controller sends each change at once, within 200 milliseconds, or within 5 seconds, depending on the priority the program picks. Only signals and saved program values (persistent RAPID variables) can use the fastest setting.

To start a robot program, your software has to log in with a user account set up on the controller and hold what ABB calls mastership ↗[13], the right to change what the controller is doing.

Factories that already use OPC UA2 can reach the same controllers through ABB’s IoT Gateway ↗[14]. It works with both IRC5 and OmniCore controllers.

What outside software can’t do

Section titled “What outside software can’t do”

All four limits are as of October 2026.

  • Robot Web Services ↗[15] has no call for a whole fleet. Each call goes to one controller and works with the robot programs on it.
  • Version 2.0 comes with RobotWare 7, which ships on OmniCore controllers, says ABB’s developer centre ↗[16]. Older RobotWare versions use version 1.0, which ABB marks as deprecated in RobotWare 7.
  • ABB’s older OPC server isn’t recommended for new projects. The developer centre ↗[17] points to the IoT Gateway instead.
  • None of the eight tools on ABB’s developer centre ↗[18] is for ROS3. Other groups publish open-source drivers.

Ask ABB or your integrator what your controller needs before you plan a connection.

Where a written procedure in Tallyfy fits

Section titled “Where a written procedure in Tallyfy fits”

A robot can report that it stopped. People still have to find the cause, fix it and sign off before it runs again. A Tallyfy template is the written procedure for that work: the steps, who does each one, and by when.

As a concept, a small connector your team writes would subscribe to the controller’s events. When the controller logs an error, the connector would call Tallyfy’s API to launch the matching process and copy the error into its kick-off form. Tallyfy would then assign the repair to named people. The last step can be an approve/reject task, so a supervisor decides whether the cell runs again. When it’s approved, a Tallyfy webhook (a message Tallyfy sends to another system when something happens) could tell the connector. Whether software may restart a robot at all is a decision for your safety review.

You don’t need a connector to begin. A person can type what the controller shows into a Tallyfy form field.

For developers

Section titled “For developers”

(Skip this unless you’re setting up the technical side.)

Section titled “Related articles”

Integrations > Robotics

Tallyfy has no integration or partnership with any robot maker. This concept section shows how a…

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

  1. A published way for one program to talk to another and swap data, with nobody at a screen. ↩

  2. An industry standard that lets machines and software from different makers share data securely. ↩

  3. ROS (Robot Operating System) is open-source software that many robot developers build on. ↩

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