The FANUC teach pendant is a hand-held device used to interact, program, and problem solve the robot and, in most cases, an essential part of a robot system. While there are other ways to program a robot, the teach pendant allows the operator to move around and watch the robot movement more closely and not have to be at a fixed terminal. 
The teach pendant provides the operator access to robot information such as process information, faults, and alarms on a user-friendly interface.
The FANUC Teach Pendant has 4 main parts
- Display Screen – Contains the menus and allows you to interact with the robot. The newer teach pendants have better graphics to use for programming.
- Emergency Stop Button – The emergency stop button is available for the operator to stop the robot movement while teaching so not to run into any fixtures.
- Input Pad – The teach pendant keypad is for navigating menus and programming. The newer teach pendants also have touchscreens to make navigating more user-friendly.
- USB Port – Available on the iPendant – this allows easier access to controller backup and file storage.
The FANUC teach pendant is designed to be lightweight and ergonomic for ease of operator use. The interface is continually being updated to match current technologies; each iteration being more user-friendly. The current version, iPendant, added a touchscreen to speed up navigation, problem-solving, and programming for both programmers and on-site operators.
FANUC Offers 3 Types of Teach Pendants
Legacy FANUC Teach Pendant
The legacy pendant is still available for systems that are using the R-J2, R-J3, R-J3iB, R-J3iC, and R30iA controllers. This teach pendant is probably the most widely in use currently but does not have many of the newer capabilities.
FANUC iPendant – Standard with R30iB or R30iB Plus controller models
The latest model of teach pendant implemented many features to make the interface more user-friendly, especially for the on-site operator.
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- The color, touchscreen interface for the new teach pendant is much-improved offering robot, tooling, parts, and process data on 3D graphics displays.
- The increased capabilites speed up troubleshooting and programming.
- A touchscreen is available for quicker navigation and allows for touch programming.
- Availablitly of remote access to teach pendant when robot is in auto mode
- The teach pendant has special functionality for setting up or updating FANUC’s Dual Check Safety zones.
- The operator can access the internet or their company’s intranet through the teach pendant.
- The ability to read web pages means that HTML can be used to develop customized screens specific to the operation.
Overall the new iPendant is a huge upgrade for the entire robot system.
Haptic iPendant
FANUC offers a Haptic iPendant which vibrates when there are warnings, conditions or events – this allows you to concentrate more on the programming and be quickly alerted when certain states occur. The user can select the states for which the iPendant vibrates. The Haptic iPendant also has all the features of the iPendant.
If you are currently using the legacy teach pendant and have an R30iB controller, you can ask about getting an upgrade to the more user-friendly and faster iPendant model. This will make training new operators much easier.
