TeachPendant

Teach pendant is a handheld human–machine interface used to program, teach, and monitor an industrial robot. Connected to the robot controller, the pendant provides direct access to the robot’s motion commands, I/O, and tooling data, allowing operators to prepare robot programs without a separate workstation. A typical pendant includes a display, keypad or touchscreen, and input devices such as jog wheels or joysticks, along with function keys for start, stop, and emergency stop.

Operation usually begins with guiding the robot through a sequence of target positions by using jog controls, then recording those positions as waypoints. The operator can arrange the program steps, edit coordinates, switch between coordinate systems and tool frames, and set parameters such as speed, precision, and blending. Programs created on the pendant can often be stored on the robot controller, edited incrementally, and executed in simulation or real time. Some pendants also support offline programming workflows or integration with external computer-based programming tools.

Teach pendants vary by vendor, but most are either wired to the controller or offered in a wireless variant. They are common across major industrial robot brands and may expose proprietary programming languages or structured programming environments that map to the vendor’s controllers.

Safety and training: use of a teach pendant is subject to the cell’s safety requirements, with features such as safeguarded jog, deadman switches, and emergency stops to prevent unintended motion.