ABB Robotics has expanded its robot programming and operator interface portfolio with a compact safety interface that allows end users to operate, program and monitor OmniCore™-powered industrial robots and cobots from compatible tablets and PCs. Known commercially as E-Device, the hardware connects a customer-supplied Windows device to the OmniCore User Interface while retaining dedicated physical safety controls for manual robot interaction. The arrangement extends ABB’s existing software environment beyond the conventional teach pendant, giving engineers and operators a consistent interface across their own computing devices and ABB’s FlexPendant while maintaining the safety connection at the robot controller. 

The same environment can follow an application from offline engineering through commissioning and production. RobotStudio® supports offline programming, simulation and virtual commissioning, while AppStudio provides a no-code environment for developing application-specific operator screens. Engineers can build and simulate a robot program away from the production line, then use the same tablet or PC at the robot through E-Device during deployment and commissioning. In facilities with multiple OmniCore-controlled robots, the mobile device can also move among supported installations, allowing engineering teams to work within a familiar programming and operating environment rather than maintaining a separate general-purpose interface at every cell.

Operator using a tablet connected through the ABB Robotics E-Device safety interface beside an OmniCore-powered industrial robot, Industrial Automation Monthly.

ABB Robotics is extending its OmniCore programming and operator environment to compatible tablets and PCs, creating a continuous workflow from offline engineering and simulation through commissioning and production while retaining dedicated physical safety controls for manual robot operation.

E-Device incorporates the physical controls required for manual robot operation, including an emergency-stop button and three-position enabling switch. ABB’s OmniCore UI documentation also identifies reset and external-control functions within the safety interface. ABB lists E-Device as compliant with ISO 10218:2025 and as CE and UL certified. ISO 10218-1:2025 defines safety requirements for industrial robots, while ISO 10218-2:2025 addresses the integration, commissioning, operation and maintenance of complete industrial robot applications and cells. Compliance of the finished application remains dependent on appropriate system integration, risk assessment, verification and validation.

“Making robots more accessible and easy to use is at the core of our journey to more autonomous and versatile robotics (AVR™),” said Marc Segura, President, ABB Robotics. “Customers are looking for ways to quickly and easily customize and build solutions that can be readily adapted and scaled as their needs change, without the need to spend time learning how to use new interfaces or programming. E-Device gives them the freedom to interact with the robots using their own tablets or computers. With a consistent user experience across OmniCore-powered robots and cobots, customers can reduce training, simplify deployment, and accelerate production ramp-up.”

The customer tablet or PC remains the software and general computing interface, while E-Device provides the dedicated safety hardware connected to the OmniCore controller. ABB positions E-Device and FlexPendant as complementary options that use the same OmniCore User Interface, with either interface selected according to the installation, device requirements, operating procedures and risk assessment. The two cannot be connected to the same controller simultaneously. Using a customer device also brings familiar computing functions into the robot workflow, including internet access to current documentation and built-in cameras that can capture troubleshooting images and save them directly to the robot backup folder.

E-Device extends ABB’s wider OmniCore architecture further into the engineering and operator layer. ABB introduced OmniCore in 2024 following more than $170 million in development investment, establishing a common modular control architecture across its robotics hardware and software portfolio. The platform integrates motion and safety control with connectivity, sensors, vision, cloud and edge computing capabilities, while RobotStudio, AppStudio and the OmniCore UI provide the surrounding software environment. Extending that interface to compatible customer devices gives programmers and integrators a more continuous path between simulation, application development, commissioning and operation without changing the underlying controller architecture.

For system integrators and manufacturing engineering teams, that continuity also reduces the number of transitions between development tools and production-floor interfaces. A robot application can be modeled and programmed in RobotStudio, application-specific screens can be configured through AppStudio, and the same Windows device can then connect through E-Device at the cell. In multi-robot environments, the engineer can carry that device between supported installations while the robot-specific safety connection remains within ABB’s industrial control architecture. The result is a more flexible engineering interface built around the same OmniCore environment used across ABB’s industrial robot and cobot portfolio.

About ABB Robotics

ABB Robotics traces its industrial robot development to 1974, when ASEA, one of ABB’s predecessor companies, introduced the IRB 6, the first commercially available all-electric, microprocessor-controlled industrial robot. The system replaced the hydraulic architecture then common in industrial robotics with electric drives and microprocessor control, establishing a technical foundation for the articulated industrial robots that followed. Today, ABB Robotics develops industrial robots, collaborative robots, autonomous mobile robots, controllers, software, application solutions and services for manufacturing and logistics. Its portfolio supports material handling, machine tending, welding, assembly, testing, inspection, dispensing, grinding, polishing, intralogistics and other automated production processes. The business employs approximately 7,000 people.

ABB introduced the current OmniCore architecture in 2024 after investing more than $170 million in the platform. Designed as a common control architecture across the company’s robotics hardware and software portfolio, OmniCore integrates motion and safety control with connectivity, sensors, vision, cloud and edge computing capabilities. ABB continues to extend that architecture across industrial robots, cobots, engineering software and increasingly software-defined automation workflows. For more information, please click here. 

Source/Photo Credit: ABB Robotics

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Molly Bakewell Chamberlin
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