JPH08161025A - Teaching device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To perform safe and efficient teaching operation by taking a reference coordinate system out of storage areas of a manual key correspondence reference coordinate system storage part corresponding to a moving axis and finding a target pause when the moving axis is specified by a teaching box, and moving the moving axis to the target pause is obtained. CONSTITUTION: Definition data consisting of moving axis data and reference coordinate system data are outputted from the teaching box 1 to a teaching box control part 4. The teaching box control part 4 is connected to a manual key correspondence reference coordinate system storage part 5 and a target pause calculation part 6. Then when the moving axis is specified by the teaching box 1, the reference coordinate system is taken out of storage areas 5a-5f of the manual key correspondence reference coordinate system storage part 5 and the target pause based upon the reference coordinate system is found by a target pause calculation part 6. The found target pause data are outputted to a manipulator control part 9 and based on the data, a manipulator 10 is moved. The time required for teaching can, therefore, be shortened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a teaching device used for teaching a teaching playback type industrial robot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a teaching playback type robot, a teaching process is performed in which a desired position is stored while moving the hand of the robot before actually operating the robot. In recent years, various proposals have been made as teaching processing methods so as to improve workability during the above teaching processing.
For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 57-83390, manual keys are provided on the teaching box in each axial direction in a Cartesian coordinate system, and the hands of the robot are moved to desired positions by operating these manual keys. Methods of teaching by positioning have been proposed. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-240284
In the gazette, a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system arbitrarily set by the teaching operator is defined, each axis direction in this coordinate system is assigned to the manual keys of the teaching box, and the robot is moved to a predetermined position by operating these manual keys. Methods have been proposed for teaching by moving to and positioning.

As shown in FIG. 9, a teaching device for performing teaching processing by the above-described method conventionally has a teaching box 51 provided with a manual key used for movement of an operating axis and definition of a reference coordinate system, A teaching box control unit 52 that transmits and receives data to and from the teaching box 51, a manual reference coordinate system storage unit 53 that stores a defined reference coordinate system, a current pose storage unit 56 that indicates the current position of the manipulator 58, A target pose calculator 54 that indicates a destination in the reference coordinate system, and a target pose calculator 54
And a manipulator control unit 55 that operates the manipulator 58 based on the calculation result of 1. The reference coordinate system is defined by the teaching box 51, and the teaching process is performed by moving the manipulator 58 in the reference coordinate system. Has become.

Specifically, when defining a reference coordinate system,
As shown in FIG. 10, the reference coordinate system data setting process is executed, and a desired reference coordinate system is defined on the manual reference coordinate system definition screen on the teaching box 51 (S51).
After the definition is completed, the reference coordinate system data is stored in the teaching box control unit 52.
(S52) and is stored in the manual reference coordinate system storage unit 53 (S53).

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 11, the robot moving process is executed, and the manual key of the teaching box 51 is pressed (S61), whereby the operation data is transmitted through the teaching box control section 52. And is transferred to the target pose calculator 54 (S62 and S63). Then, the target pose calculation unit 54 calculates the target pose based on the operation data and the reference coordinate system data stored in the manual reference coordinate system storage unit 53 (S64 to S66), and the target pose is manipulator-controlled. The manipulator 58 is moved by being output to the section 55 (S67).
-S68). Next, when continuously moving the other axis of the manipulator 58 in the same reference coordinate system, the above-mentioned S6
1 to S68 are re-executed (S69). On the other hand, when moving the other axis of the manipulator 58 in a different reference coordinate system, the above-mentioned reference coordinate system data setting process is executed to newly set the reference coordinate system, and then S61 to
S68 will be re-executed (S70 to S71).

As described above, the conventional teaching apparatus uses the manipulator 5 in the reference coordinate system defined by the teaching operator.
Since 8 is moved, it is possible to match the sense of the teaching operator with the moving direction of the manipulator 58, and as a result, the workability during teaching processing is improved. .

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional teaching device, the Z-axis manual key of the teaching box 51 is made to correspond to the tool coordinate system, and the X of the teaching box 51 is made to correspond to, for example, the teaching of the oblique insertion work. If you try to teach the manual keys for the A and Y axes while making them correspond to the base coordinate system, it is necessary to switch between the tool coordinate system and the base coordinate system when moving the Z axis and when moving the X axis and Y axis. However, since the teaching work cannot be continuously performed, there is a problem that it takes a lot of time for teaching. In addition, if the coordinate system is incorrectly switched, the manipulator 58 moves in a direction that the teaching operator does not expect, which causes a problem in safety.

Therefore, the present invention is intended to provide a teaching apparatus capable of performing teaching work safely and efficiently.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned object, a teaching device for teaching by moving a plurality of moving axes of a robot based on a desired reference coordinate system defined in advance. It has features.

That is, the teaching device can define a reference coordinate system for each of the above-mentioned moving axes, a teaching box in which a moving axis to be moved can be designated, and each moving axis defined by the teaching box. And a reference coordinate system corresponding to the manual key corresponding to the movement axis when the movement axis is designated by the teaching box. A reference coordinate system is extracted from the storage area of the storage unit, and a target pose calculation unit that obtains a target pose based on the reference coordinate system, and a movement control unit that moves the movement axis to achieve the target pose are provided. It is characterized by being.

[0011]

According to the above construction, the reference coordinate system for each moving axis is stored in advance in the reference coordinate system storage section corresponding to the manual key, so that each moving axis can be selected without switching the reference coordinate system. It becomes possible to move in the reference coordinate system of. As a result, it becomes possible to continuously perform the teaching work for each moving axis, and as a result, the time required for teaching can be shortened and
It is possible to prevent an error in switching the reference coordinate system, which is a factor of reducing safety.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, the teaching apparatus according to the present embodiment has a teaching box 1 for moving a manipulator 8 of a robot having 6 degrees of freedom and defining a reference coordinate system. The teaching box 1 is provided with a manual key composed of a plurality of switches for designating a moving direction of the manipulator 8. The manual key is provided for each moving axis (X axis, Y axis, Z axis, α axis, β axis, γ axis)
Arranged and assigned so that the forward and reverse directions can be specified with respect to the moving direction of. Specifically, FIG.
As shown in, the positive (+) direction switch is assigned to the upper byte in one word that composes the manual key data so that the forward direction and the reverse direction can be specified with respect to the moving direction of each moving axis. A switch in the negative (-) direction is assigned to the byte.

The Z-axis is an axis acting in the vertical direction in the reference coordinate system, and the X-axis and the Y-axis are the left-right direction (X) and the front-back direction (Y) orthogonal to the vertical direction (Z). Is the axis that acts on. Further, the α-axis is an axis acting on the rotation angle of the Z-axis, the β-axis is an axis acting on the rotation angle of the Y-axis,
The γ axis is an axis that acts on the rotation angle of the X axis.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the teaching box 1 includes
A display unit such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is also provided, and the display unit can display a "manual key-corresponding reference coordinate system definition screen" as shown in FIG. In this definition screen, "indirect coordinate system", "world coordinate system",
Reference coordinate system candidates consisting of "base coordinate system", "tool coordinate system" and "user defined coordinate system", numerical values (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) corresponding to each reference coordinate system, and each movement Areas for displaying axes (X axis, Y axis, Z axis, α axis, β axis, γ axis) and numerical values corresponding to the reference coordinate system defined for each moving axis are provided.

The moving axis and reference coordinate system of the above definition screen are output from the teaching box 1 to the teaching box control section 4 as definition data consisting of moving axis data and reference coordinate system data. The teaching box control unit 4 is connected to the manual key corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 5 and the target pose calculation unit 6, and the manual key corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 5 stores the storage areas 5a to 5f corresponding to the respective moving axes. have. And
The teaching box control unit 4 stores the reference coordinate system data in the storage areas 5a to 5f corresponding to the moving axis data when the definition data including the reference coordinate system data and the moving axis data is input from the teaching box 1. It is like this.
The manual key data described above is also input to the teaching box control unit 4 from the teaching box 1, and the manual key data is output to the target pose calculation unit 6 via the teaching box control unit 4. It has become so.

In addition to the teaching box control unit 4, the target pose calculation unit 6 also includes the manual key-corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 5 described above.
And a storage area 7a storing element data (tool component, base component, user component) of FIGS. 8A to 8C, for example.
The coordinate conversion element data storage unit 7 having the elements 7c to 7c is connected to the current pose storage unit 8 that stores the current pose data of the manipulator 10 in FIG. 8D, for example. When the manual key data is input, the target pose calculation unit 6 retrieves the current pose data from the current pose storage unit 8 and also stores the storage area 5 corresponding to the manual key data.
The reference coordinate system data is extracted from a to 5f, element data is further extracted from the coordinate conversion element data storage unit 7 as needed, and based on these data, for example, FIG.
The target pose data of (e) is calculated and output to the manipulator control unit 9. The manipulator control unit 9 is currently connected to the pose storage unit 8 and the manipulator 10, and stores the current pose data in the current pose storage unit 8 while moving the manipulator 10 based on the target pose data. ing.

The operation of the teaching device having the above structure will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the reference coordinate system data setting process is executed to define the reference coordinate system for each moving axis. That is, the reference coordinate system is defined by the movement of the cursor when the manual key is pressed on the manual reference coordinate system definition screen on the teaching box 1. For example, "X axis = 2", "Y axis = 2" in FIG. "Z axis = 2",
Like "α axis = 3", "β axis = 3", "γ axis = 3",
Numerical values indicating the type of the reference coordinate system (base coordinate system, tool coordinate system) are displayed in the vicinity of the area displaying each moving axis (S1).

When the definitions for all the moving axes are completed, for example, "X = BASE" and "Y = BASE" in FIG.
E ”,“ Z = TOOL ”,“ α = TOOL ”,“ β = T ”
Definition data composed of reference coordinate system data and movement axis data, such as "OOL" and "γ = TOOL", is output to the teaching box control section 4 (S2), and these definition data are input. The teaching box control unit 4 stores the reference coordinate system data in the storage areas 5a to 5f of the manual key corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 5 corresponding to the movement axis data. According to the data, as shown in FIG. 7, the reference coordinate system data “BASE” indicating the base coordinate system is stored in the storage areas 5a and 5b for the X axis and the Y axis, respectively.
The reference coordinate system data “TOOL” indicating the tool coordinate system is stored in the α-axis, β-axis, and γ-axis storage areas 5c to 5f, respectively.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the manipulator 10 operates based on the reference coordinate system of each moving axis by executing the robot moving process. That is, when the manual key of the teaching box 1 indicating the desired direction of movement, such as the positive direction of the X axis, is pressed (S11), the manual key data of FIG. 2 is output to the teaching box control unit 4. (S12). The teaching box control unit 4 passes the manual key data to the target pose calculation unit 6 (S13), and the target pose calculation unit 6 uses the reference coordinate system from the storage areas 5a to 5f corresponding to the moving axis of the manual key data. After taking out the data (S14) and taking out the present pose data from the present pose storage section 8 (S15), the element data is taken out from the coordinate conversion element data storage section 7 as necessary, and the reference coordinates corresponding to the manual key data are obtained. The target pose is calculated by regarding the movement on the system as the movement on the reference coordinate system of the robot. Specifically, the reference coordinate system data "BASE" is extracted from the X-axis storage area 5a of FIG. 1, the current pose data of FIG. 8D is extracted from the current pose storage unit 8, and the coordinate conversion element data storage unit 7 is extracted. The base component data of FIG. 8 (b) is extracted from FIG. 8 (e) using these data.
The target pose data of is calculated (S16).

After that, the target pose calculation section 6 outputs the calculated target pose data to the manipulator control section 9 (S17), and the manipulator control section 9
The data of the current pose of the manipulator 10 is stored in the current pose storage unit 8 while controlling the movement of the manipulator 10 so as to obtain the pose of the input target pose data (S18).

After this, the teaching box control unit 4 for the manual key data
By confirming whether or not there is an input to the moving axis, it is judged whether or not the teaching operator wants to continuously move the moving axis. If manual key data is input, the moving axis To move S11 continuously as described above.
It will be re-executed from. On the other hand, when the manual key data is not input, the movement of the movement axis is stopped (S19).

As described above, the teaching apparatus of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in, the reference coordinate system for each moving axis can be defined, and the teaching box 1 that can specify the moving axis to be moved, and the reference coordinates for each moving axis defined by the teaching box 1. Storage area 5a for storing each system
A manual key-corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 5 having 5 f and a storage area 5a of the manual key-corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 5 corresponding to the moving axis when the teaching box 1 specifies the moving axis.
A target pose calculation unit 6 for obtaining a target pose based on the reference coordinate system and a movement control unit (manipulator control unit 9) for moving the movement axis so as to obtain the target pose. By having
The plurality of movement axes of the robot are moved based on a desired reference coordinate system defined in advance.

As a result, for example, as in the case of the oblique insertion instruction, the Z-axis manual key of the teaching box 1 is made to correspond to the tool coordinate system, and the X-axis and Y-axis manual keys are made to correspond to the base coordinate system. In such a case, the reference coordinate systems for the above-mentioned moving axes are stored in advance in the manual key-corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 5, so that the Z-axis movement and the X-axis and Y-axis movement can be performed. It is possible to eliminate the need to switch the reference coordinate system (tool coordinate system, base coordinate system). Therefore, it is possible to continuously perform the teaching work for each moving axis, and as a result, it is possible to shorten the time required for teaching, and the reference coordinate system, which is a factor that reduces safety. It is possible to prevent mistakes in switching.

In this embodiment, the indirect coordinate system ",
The case where the "world coordinate system", the "base coordinate system", the "tool coordinate system", and the "user-defined coordinate system" are used as reference coordinate systems has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this and two or more Any coordinate system will do. Further, it is not limited to the movement axis having 6 degrees of freedom, and any movement axis having two or more degrees of freedom may be used. Further, in this embodiment, the teaching box 1
The predetermined movement axis is designed to move continuously while the manual key is pressed, but the invention is not limited to this, and the predetermined movement axis is moved each time the manual key is pressed. You may be able to move by the amount.

[0026]

As described above, the present invention teaches by moving a plurality of moving axes of a robot based on a desired reference coordinate system defined in advance. A manual box having a teaching box in which the reference coordinate system can be defined and a moving axis to be moved can be designated, and a storage area for storing the reference coordinate system for each moving axis defined by the teaching box. When a moving axis is designated by the key-corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit and the teaching box, the reference coordinate system is extracted from the storage area of the manual key-corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit corresponding to the moving axis, and the reference coordinate system is extracted. It is configured to have a target pose calculation unit that obtains a target pose based on the system, and a movement control unit that moves the movement axis so that the target pose is obtained.

Thus, the reference coordinate system for each moving axis is stored in advance in the reference coordinate system storage section corresponding to the manual key, so that each moving axis can be set to a desired reference coordinate system without performing a switching operation of the reference coordinate system. Since it is possible to move with, it is possible to continuously perform the teaching work for each moving axis, and as a result, it is possible to shorten the time required for teaching and to reduce the safety factor. It is possible to prevent an erroneous switching of the reference coordinate system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a teaching device.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of manual key data.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a reference coordinate system definition screen corresponding to a manual key.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of reference coordinate system data setting processing.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of robot movement processing.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of definition data.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing data contents stored in a storage area of a reference coordinate system storage unit corresponding to a manual key.

8A and 8B are explanatory diagrams showing data contents processed by the teaching device, wherein FIG. 8A is tool component data, FIG. 8B is base component data, FIG. 8C is user component data, and FIG. , (E) are target pose data.

FIG. 9 illustrates a conventional example and is a block diagram of a teaching device.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a conventional reference coordinate system data setting process.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a conventional robot movement process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Teaching box 4 Teaching box control unit 5 Manual key corresponding reference coordinate system storage unit 6 Purpose pose calculation unit 7 Coordinate conversion element data storage unit 8 Current pose storage unit 9 Manipulator control unit 10 Manipulator

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a teaching device for teaching by moving a plurality of moving axes of a robot based on a desired reference coordinate system defined in advance, a reference coordinate system for each moving axis can be defined. Along with, a teaching box in which a moving axis to be moved can be designated, a reference coordinate system storage unit corresponding to a manual key having a storage area for storing a reference coordinate system for each moving axis defined by the teaching box, When a moving axis is designated by the teaching box, a reference coordinate system is extracted from the storage area of the reference coordinate system storage unit corresponding to the manual key corresponding to the moving axis, and a purpose pose is obtained based on the reference coordinate system. A teaching device comprising: a pose calculation unit; and a movement control unit that moves the movement axis so as to achieve the target pose.