US Patent 11413772 Industrial robot system with supervision sensor

An industrial robot system includes a manipulator with a drive chain including a motor unit. A controller in the industrial robot system is electrically connected to the drive chain by a set of power transmission lines and is operable to transmit electrical power on the set of power transmission lines so as to impart a controlled movement of the manipulator. A supervision sensor is arranged in the manipulator and configured to sense a property of the manipulator. The supervision sensor is electrically connected to at least a subset of the power transmission lines for transmission of sensor data representing the property to the controller.