Understanding real-world stresses, methods, and technologies for testing robots and their components
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Robots combine advanced polymers, coatings, composites, electronics, and displays that are exposed to intense environmental stress. Exterior components must withstand full spectrum sunlight (UV, visible, IR), heat, and moisture from dew and rain. These factors can cause yellowing and loss of transparency in optical navigation windows, mechanical weakening of plastics, sealant failure, reduced UV protection and scratch resistance of coatings, and electronics failures due to thermal buildup. Many of these issues occur if individual parts and complete robots are not thoroughly validated.
Rigorous weathering testing - especially realistic xenon arc exposure with controlled irradiance, temperature, humidity, and water - compresses time while revealing failure modes early. Large scale solar stress testing further enables evaluation of entire robots, validating overall performance and the durability of all functions under realistic environmental extremes.
In this Application Guide you learn about:
- How xenon‑arc instruments simulate sunlight
- Key weathering standards for exterior parts
- Testing of electronics and displays against international standards
- Natural and accelerated outdoor testing
- Large scale solar stress testing of entire robots
