JP3151900B2 - Parts supply device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component supply device, and more particularly to a component supply device for supplying a bulk component to a production line or the like using an intelligent robot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the development of automation of production processes, it is desired to establish automatic supply of parts having various shapes. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-7 / 1986
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 6291, there is a method in which an intelligent robot equipped with a visual sensor or the like is used to grasp a bulk component and supply it to a production line or the like.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, a bulk-stacked part is used for a shape in which a robot hand such as a rod-shaped part or a crankshaft is relatively easy to grasp and only one part can be easily grasped. Although it can be supplied to a production line, in the case of a linear soft part or a bracket with a complicated shape, another part may be entangled with the part held by the robot hand. However, there is a problem that the positioning may be disturbed, or a plurality of pieces may be supplied at the same time.

[0004] The present invention includes a supply even to accurately production lines, etc. When supplying prone parts entanglement occurs co
It is another object of the present invention to provide a component supply device capable of facilitating the handling of various types as much as possible.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for grasping a part by a robot hand having a visual sensor.
In a component supply device that supplies the gripped component to a predetermined position, an imaging unit that captures an image of a component gripping state of the hand , and at least a virtual scanning line based on imaging information of the component gripping state captured by the imaging unit. And the parts
Detecting means for detecting the number of intersections with
Determining means for determining whether or not a entangled state exists with respect to the component held by the hand based on the detection result ;
It is to employ a component supply device according to claim Rukoto equipped with.

[0006]

According to the above arrangement, the detecting means is provided by the imaging means.
At least based on the imaging information of the gripped state of the captured component
Also detects the number of intersections between the virtual scanning line and the part,
Was grasped by the hand based on the detection result by the detection means
It is determined whether a entanglement state exists for a part.
You. Therefore, the gripping state of the parts regardless of the weight of the parts
Based on the imaging information, the number of intersections between the virtual scanning line and the part
Entanglement state is generated based on the detection result depending on the part shape
It can be determined whether or not it has been generated.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. In this embodiment, a case will be described in which the present invention is applied to a component supply apparatus that supplies linear soft parts stacked in bulk to a predetermined supply position on a production line.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a component supply device according to the present embodiment includes a workpiece recognition camera 2 for visually recognizing a gripping target (hereinafter, referred to as a workpiece) 1 stored in a case 12.
3. A camera 4 (corresponding to an image pickup means) for detecting entanglement of the work 1, illumination devices 5 and 6 for illuminating the periphery of the work 1 and the pallet 9, and a robot 7 having a robot hand 8 for gripping the work 1. A visual device 10 for recognizing and processing the position of the workpiece and the state of the workpiece 1 gripped by the robot hand 8 based on the imaging information captured by the various cameras described above, and driving control of the robot 7 in accordance with a signal from the visual device 10 Robot controller 11
It consists of. The work recognition cameras 2 and 3 are arranged so as to image the work 1 housed in the case 12 at different angles.
Are arranged in the horizontal direction.

Next, the overall operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG.
In step 110, each device is first initialized, and then a signal from a sequencer (not shown) is input to proceed to step 120.

In step 120, the work 1 to be gripped, that is, the work 1 to be supplied to the production line
Are captured by the work recognition cameras 2 and 3 under the illumination device 5, and the three-dimensional position of the work 1 is measured based on the captured image information. The three-dimensional position measurement is calculated by the visual device 10.
The measuring method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09202 may be used.

In step 130, a control signal is output to the robot controller 11 in order to move (approach) the robot 7 to the three-dimensional position of the work 1 recognized by the three-dimensional position measurement. Then, in step 140, the work 1 is held by the robot hand 8. Then, the robot hand 8 holding the workpiece 1 is raised to a predetermined height, that is, the robot hand 8 is pulled up to a position where the workpiece recognition camera 4 can image the workpiece gripping state of the robot hand 8, and temporarily stopped at the above position. .

Subsequently, in step 150, the entanglement detection camera 4 captures an image of the workpiece gripping state of the robot hand 8 under the illumination device 6, and the robot hand 8 grips the visual device 10 based on the captured image information. It is determined whether the entangled state occurs in the work 1 to be performed. Note that step 150 and step 170 described later correspond to a determination unit. The method of determining the entangled state will be described later.

If it is determined in step 150 that there is a entangled state, a loosening operation is performed in step 160 corresponding to the canceling means. As shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b), the loosening operation includes a left and right reciprocating operation (FIG. 4 (a)) and a back and forth reciprocating operation (FIG. 4 (b)) with the work 1 held. ) Is performed twice by the robot 7 to eliminate the entangled state of the work 1.

After completion of the loosening operation in step 160, in step 170, the entanglement detection camera 4 captures an image of the gripping state of the work of the robot hand 8 again, and determines whether or not the entanglement state has occurred again. Then, the entanglement is eliminated by the picking operation, and if it is determined that there is no entangled state, the process proceeds to step 190. If it is determined that the entangled state still exists even after the untangling operation, the robot hand 8 holds the entangled state. The work 1 is once released, and a control signal is output to the robot controller 11 in order to perform the processing after step 110 again.

Step 190 and step 2 to be described later
At 00, various types of information for performing accurate component supply are detected. That is, in step 190, the tip of the robot hand 8 is set as a starting point A, and scanning is performed with a semicircle having a predetermined radius a around the starting point A, as shown in FIG. When the scanning line reaches the work 1, the above scanning is performed around the intersection B with the work 1,
The above scanning is repeated until the intersection with the work 1 disappears.

When the point of intersection with the workpiece has disappeared (the number of repetitions is n), it is determined that the tip of the workpiece 1 is close, and the radius of the semicircle, which is the scanning line, is reduced. (The radius of the semicircle at this time is assumed to be b) is detected as the tip of the work 1. Here, when the tip is obtained by the above method, the distance from the starting point A to the intersection C is a semicircle radius a ×
It can be obtained by the number of times n + the final semicircular radius b. In addition, as for the scanning line, other than the above-described semicircle, an optimal shape of the scanning line may be reset for each work.

Subsequently, in step 200, a circular window is set around the tip obtained in step 190, as shown in FIGS. 5B and 5C, in order to determine the direction of the workpiece 1. The area occupied by the work in the circular window is obtained on both the left and right sides, and the direction of the work 1 is determined by comparing which of the left and right ends is larger.

After this determination, the workpiece 1 gripped by the robot hand 8 is supplied to the production line based on the component supply program, and the component supply device returns to the standby state of step 110.

When the entangled state is generated in the work 1 held by the robot hand 8 in this manner, the entangled state is eliminated and the parts are supplied. Next, in step 150, the robot hand 8 A method for determining whether or not a entangled state has occurred in the work 1 to be gripped will be described with reference to FIG.

The forms of entanglement that occur when the robot hand 8 grips the work 1 include entanglement with the work,
There are three types of entanglement with the hand, the work and the entanglement of the hand, and imaging information (an image captured by the entanglement detection camera 4) and entanglement information (described later) corresponding to the following forms are shown in FIG. .

Here, the entanglement information is obtained based on the image pickup information, and the detection is obtained by the total length of the work or the number of intersections of the work on the circular scanning line.
That is, in the case of entanglement with the work, another work is hooked on the work held by the robot hand 8, and in this case, the total length becomes L1 + L2,
The total length is longer than in a state where there is no entanglement (full length = L1).

In the case of entanglement with the hand, there is a case where another work is caught by the robot hand 8 together with the work held by the robot hand 8, and when a circular scanning line having a predetermined radius is considered, the circular scanning is performed. The number of intersections of the workpieces on the line is 4 and there is no entanglement (the number of intersections =
The number of intersections is larger than in 2).

Further, the entanglement between the workpiece and the hand is a case where the robot hand 8 holds the workpiece in a state where the workpieces are entangled. Also in this case, when a circular scanning line having a predetermined radius is considered, the circular scanning is performed. The number of intersections of the work on the line is 3 and there is no entanglement (number of intersections = 2)
The number of intersections is larger than that.

That is, the determination of the entangled state in the present embodiment is performed when the total length is equal to or more than the predetermined length or when the number of intersections of the workpieces on the circular scanning line is three or more. It is determined that the entanglement state has occurred in 1.

As described above, in this embodiment, the loosening operation is performed when it is determined that the work 1 gripped by the robot hand 8 is entangled by the above-described entanglement determination. The entangled work can be surely separated and one work can be accurately supplied, and highly reliable component supply can be performed.

Steps 190 and 20
With 0, the direction of the work held by the robot hand and the distance from the robot hand to the tip of the work can be accurately obtained from the imaging information, so that even when supplying parts, the work held at the correct position is supplied. be able to.

Next, another embodiment will be described. In the above embodiment, the method of determining whether or not the entangled state occurs in the work 1 gripped by the robot hand 8 is determined by the total length of the work and the number of intersections of the work on the circular scanning line. The area value of the gripped work itself may be obtained, and the entangled state may be determined by comparing the area values.

[0028]

In the present invention as described above, according to the present invention, parts
Based on the imaging information of the component gripping state, regardless of the weight of the part.
The number of intersections between the virtual scanning line and the part.
Whether a entangled state has occurred based on the existing detection results.
Since it can be determined, if similar parts
Accurately judge entangled state without changing algorithm
And it is easy to handle various types
Has an excellent effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an overall operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a method of determining whether or not a entangled state has occurred;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a loosening operation in the above flowchart.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for describing detection of a leading end position and determination of a direction in the above flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Work 4 Entanglement detection camera 10 Visual device Step 150, 170 Judgment means Step 160 Elimination means

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-59-146789 (JP, A) JP-A-1-139436 (JP, A) JP-A-62-289701 (JP, A) JP-A-61-205781 (JP, A) , U) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B25J 13/08 B25J 19/04

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An image pickup means for picking up a part holding state of a hand of a robot having a visual sensor by gripping a part by a hand of the robot and supplying the held part to a predetermined position. At least a virtual scan line and the component are determined based on the captured image information of the component gripping state .
Detecting means for detecting the number of intersections based on the detection result by the detection means, a determining means for determining whether or not entangled condition exists with respect to the gripped part on the hand, characterized Rukoto provided with Parts supply equipment. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting means is configured to determine the number of intersections
Also detects the length of the part and / or the area of the part
The determination means uses all of these detected results.
And there is no entangled state for the parts held by the hand.
2. The component supply device according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether the component is present.