Can I remote monitor and/or backup a Fanuc Robot?

Yes, the new FANUC controllers R30iA (Originally RJ3iC until April 2007) are pretty easy to set up as a web page, but don't forget about the older robots.

Ethernet capability goes back a long ways even before RJ2 controllers but not really user friendly for filr management. For the RJ2 controllers, I would probably stick to FANUC's PC File services to send/receive files between the robot and PC. The RJ3iB starting at v6.22 was able to give you the robot as a webpage and I believe the RJ3's v5.30-3 will even give you a good idea of what is going on. The key in the older robots, is the option "PC Interface" (starting in RJ3 controllers)combined with Ethernet CBR (available in RJ2 controllers). There are a cluster of options that get automatically pulled in when the "Ethernet Controller Backup and Restore" gets loaded.

To backup a Fanuc Robotics RJ3, RJ3iB, or R30iA controller, FTP from the Windows command line works pretty well.

1. C:\robotbkp>ftp -i [robot IP address] --"-i" turns off prompting

2. ftp>[username] --assuming the robot is setup with password, ENTER if not

3. ftp>[password]

4. ftp>CD MDB: --this changes to a virtual 'backup' drive

5. ftp>binary --BINARY mode seems to work better than ASCII mode

6. ftp>mget *.* --the files from an "All of the Above" backup begin pouring in

7. ftp>bye --end the FTP session

8. C:\robotbkp>start explorer . --look at your handywork in Windows explorer