BRAND.00 / IRC5 + OMNICORE · RAPID

ABB RAPID

The structured, Pascal-influenced language that runs every ABB industrial robot.

RAPID was introduced by ABB in 1994 with the S4 controller and is still the language of the current IRC5 and OmniCore controllers. It is structured, strongly typed, and modular — closer to Pascal or Ada than to BASIC. Programs live in modules, execution starts at a main routine, and the language separates data declarations from procedural code.

First all-electric IRB

1974

IRB-6 — ABB (then ASEA) shipped the first electrically driven 6-axis industrial robot.

RAPID introduced

1994

S4 controller debuted the RAPID language. Still binary-compatible with today's OmniCore programs.

Current platform

OmniCore

Successor to IRC5. Tighter motion control, native digital connectivity, lower energy draw.

Sim environment

RobotStudio

Free-to-use offline programming + virtual controller. Same RAPID runtime as the real cell.

ABB is one of the "Big Four" industrial robot vendors (with FANUC, KUKA and Yaskawa). Its identity is the long IRB lineage, RobotStudio as a free first-class simulator, and a tight integration between the language (RAPID), the controller (IRC5 / OmniCore) and the safety stack (SafeMove).

Heritage

Half a century of IRBs

The IRB family stretches from the 1974 IRB-6 to today's IRB 1010 and OmniCore-era cells. Programs written in RAPID on an old S4 still read the same in OmniCore.

Controller

IRC5 to OmniCore

IRC5 (2004) remains supported on millions of installed robots. OmniCore is the current platform — same language, more motion bandwidth, native digital connectivity.

Tooling

RobotStudio + RobotWare

RobotStudio is the offline programming and simulation environment. It ships a virtual controller running the exact RobotWare image that runs on real hardware.

CLASSIC IRB · 6-axis articulatedenclosed cells · fenced

IRB 1200

payload

5 – 7 kg

reach

703 – 901 mm

Compact pick-and-place, machine tending

IRB 1600

payload

6 – 10 kg

reach

1.20 – 1.45 m

Arc welding, material handling

IRB 2600

payload

12 – 20 kg

reach

1.65 – 1.85 m

Welding, dispensing, assembly

IRB 4600

payload

20 – 60 kg

reach

2.05 – 2.55 m

Handling, palletising, machine tending

IRB 6700

payload

150 – 300 kg

reach

2.60 – 3.20 m

Heavy-payload spot weld + handling

IRB 7600

payload

150 – 500 kg

reach

2.55 – 3.50 m

Heaviest payloads — automotive body-in-white

COLLABORATIVE · works alongside peoplePFL-safe per ISO/TS 15066

YuMi · IRB 14000

payload

0.5 kg / arm

reach

0.56 m

Dual-arm small parts assembly

14 DOF · 38 kg total · IP30

Single-arm YuMi · IRB 14050

payload

0.5 kg

reach

0.56 m

Bench-top precision assembly

7 DOF · 9.6 kg · 0.02 mm repeatability

GoFa · CRB 15000

payload

5 / 10 / 12 kg

reach

0.95 – 1.62 m

Cobot for material handling + machine tending

IP54 · ISO/TS 15066 PFL safe

SWIFTI · CRB 1100

payload

4 kg

reach

475 / 580 mm

Fast cobot — bridges cobot and industrial speed

Up to 5 m/s TCP · 0.02 mm repeatability

Payloads and reaches are the values ABB publishes on its product pages and datasheets. The actual configurable workspace is always smaller than the max-reach envelope — there are dead zones near the base and at full stretch.

Feature	IRC5 (legacy fleet)	OmniCore (current)
Generation	Launched 2004 · long-standing workhorse	Current platform · successor to IRC5
Cabinet form factor	Single + dual cabinet, panel-mount variants	E10 (compact), C30 (standard), C90XT (heavy), V250XT (XL)
Motion control	TrueMove + QuickMove (path accuracy + cycle time)	Refined TrueMove/QuickMove · 8× motion bandwidth uplift
Safety	SafeMove2 (Cat 3/PL d, SIL 2)	SafeMove (Cat 3/PL d, SIL 2) · safety fieldbus native
Connectivity	Add-on industrial buses + EtherNet/IP	Built-in OPC UA, MQTT, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET
Programming surface	RAPID · FlexPendant	RAPID · FlexPendant or Wizard block editor (cobots)
Simulation	RobotStudio (RobotWare 5.x runtime)	RobotStudio (RobotWare 7.x runtime)

Same RAPID source runs on both — no rewrite, only retargeting in RobotStudio.

Every classic IRB shares the same articulated 6-axis form. RAPID names the joints J1 through J6 from base to flange, and the right-handed world frame with +Z up follows ISO 9787:2013. Hover or click each part to see what it does.

TCP

Tool Centre Point. The actual point the robot is positioning — typically the tip of the gripper, not the flange.

Modules and routines

MODULE/ENDMODULE wrap everything. PROC declares a procedure, FUNC returns a value, TRAP handles interrupts. Programs always start at a main routine.

MODULE M
  PROC Main()
    ! ...
  ENDPROC
ENDMODULE

Motion types

MoveJ is joint-interpolated and fastest (path not guaranteed). MoveL is linear in Cartesian space. MoveC is circular through a via point. MoveAbsJ moves to absolute joint angles.

MoveJ p1, v1000, fine, tool0;
MoveL p2, v500,  fine, tool0;

Coordinate systems

Base frame, tool frame (tooldata), work object (wobjdata), and user frame. All motion is relative to a chosen tool and work object.

MoveL p, v500, fine, tGrip\WObj:=wPallet;

Data types

robtarget = Cartesian pose + orientation + config + external axes. jointtarget = joint angles. tooldata, wobjdata, speeddata (v100…v5000), zonedata (fine, z1…z200).

CONST robtarget p:=[[800,0,300,0],...];

I/O handling

SetDO / ResetDO drive digital outputs. WaitDI blocks on a digital input. PulseDO emits a pulse. GetGroupOutput reads grouped signals.

SetDO doGripper, 1;
WaitDI diReady, 1;

Program flow

IF/ELSEIF/ELSE, FOR…TO…DO, WHILE, TEST/CASE. Interrupts are declared with CONNECT and handled in TRAP routines.

FOR i FROM 1 TO 5 DO
  MoveL p{i}, v500, fine, tool0;
ENDFOR

RAPID is Pascal in a hard hat

PROC instead of procedure, VAR/CONST instead of var/const, ENDFOR instead of end, and a colon after a type instead of before — but the shape of the program is the same. Anyone fluent in Pascal can read RAPID at sight.

Pascal · 1970

procedure Cycle;
var i: integer;
begin
  for i := 1 to 5 do
    WriteLn('step ', i);
end;

RAPID · 1994

PROC Cycle()
  VAR num i;
  FOR i FROM 1 TO 5 DO
    TPWrite "step " + ValToStr(i);
  ENDFOR
ENDPROC

The two motion types you'll write 90% of the time. Same start point, same end point — the visible path is different because the controller interpolates in joint space (MoveJ) versus Cartesian space (MoveL). Toggle below and watch the TCP trace.

MoveJ — curved TCP path, smooth joint motion

MoveL — straight TCP line, joint speeds vary

When to use MoveJ

Air moves between work pieces, any time the path doesn't matter, anywhere the robot is far from obstacles. Fastest and easiest on the joints.

When to use MoveL

Anywhere the tool tip must follow a straight line — welding seams, glue beads, picking through a narrow opening. Joint speeds will vary as the IK changes.

In RAPID, the third argument to a Move instruction is its zonedata. fine means "stop dead at the point". z1…z200 means "you may cut the corner within N mm". The bigger the zone, the smoother — and faster — the path.

Blend radius

z40

Taught path (fine — full stop at corner)

Executed path with blend radius 40 mm

ABB

z

z40

KUKA

$APO.CDIS

C_DIS=40

FANUC

CNT / FINE

CNT25

UR

blend_radius

0.040 m

Every vendor has the same concept: ABB calls it zonedata (z1…z200 mm), KUKA calls it $APO.CDIS, FANUC calls it CNT (0…100), UR calls it blend_radius in metres. The geometry is the same circular arc tangent to both legs.

When you write MoveAbsJ [j1, j2, j3, j4, j5, j6], ..., the controller runs forward kinematics — it walks the chain from base to flange and works out where the TCP will end up. Here's a 3-link planar simplification of that. Slide the joint sliders and watch the TCP pose update.

J145°

-160°0°160°

J2-60°

-120°0°120°

J3-30°

-150°0°150°

TCP pose

X321.7 mm

Y39.0 mm

φ(tool pitch about Z)-45.0°

d(distance from base)324.0 mm

Instruction	Category	Purpose	Example
MoveJ	Motion	Joint-interpolated move to a target	MoveJ pHome, v1000, fine, tool0;
MoveL	Motion	Linear move in Cartesian space	MoveL pPick, v500, fine, tool0;
MoveC	Motion	Circular move through a via point	MoveC pMid, pEnd, v500, z10, tool0;
MoveAbsJ	Motion	Move to absolute joint angles	MoveAbsJ jHome, v1000, fine, tool0;
SetDO	I/O	Set digital output high	SetDO doGripper, 1;
ResetDO	I/O	Set digital output low	ResetDO doGripper;
PulseDO	I/O	Pulse a digital output	PulseDO doBuzzer;
WaitDI	Wait	Wait for digital input value	WaitDI diPartReady, 1;
WaitTime	Wait	Wait for seconds	WaitTime 0.5;
IF	Flow	Conditional	IF nCount > 10 THEN ... ENDIF
FOR	Flow	Counted loop	FOR i FROM 1 TO 5 DO ... ENDFOR
WHILE	Flow	Conditional loop	WHILE bRun DO ... ENDWHILE
TEST	Flow	Switch / case	TEST nMode CASE 1: ... ENDTEST
PROC	Structure	Declare procedure	PROC Main() ... ENDPROC
FUNC	Structure	Declare function	FUNC num Add(num a, num b) ... ENDFUNC
TRAP	Structure	Interrupt handler	TRAP tEmergency ... ENDTRAP
CONNECT	System	Bind interrupt to trap	CONNECT iStop WITH tEmergency;
ConfL	System	Toggle config monitoring (linear)	ConfL\On;
VelSet	System	Override speed globally	VelSet 50, 1000;
AccSet	System	Override acceleration globally	AccSet 50, 50;

Example:

RAPID.EDITORPROC Main()

NOW:— idle —

NEXT:MoveJ pHome, v1000, fine, tool0;

XY.WORKSPACE3 targets · grid 100mm

SIM TIME

00:00.00

TCP [X,Y,Z]

600, 0, 800

SPEED

0 mm/s

DIGITAL OUT

doGripper

DIGITAL IN

(none)

FOR, IF, WHILE, TEST/CASE, REPEAT, PROC + RETURN, INOUT, FUNC, assignment, Offs() / RelTool() (nested), local VAR, and warnings supported.

00:00.00STATE: idle00:04.56