CN113043321A

CN113043321A - Robot arm and carrying device

Info

Publication number: CN113043321A
Application number: CN201911382908.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐常恺
Original assignee: Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-27
Filing date: 2019-12-27
Publication date: 2021-06-29

Abstract

The invention discloses a mechanical arm and a carrying device. The mechanical arm comprises a first wrist joint, a mechanical fork and a transfer block; the first wrist joint is connected with the mechanical fork through the transfer block, and when the plane where the mechanical fork is located is parallel to the horizontal plane, the shaft of the first wrist joint and the plane where the mechanical fork is located form an angle. When the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axis of the first wrist joint and the horizontal plane form a certain included angle. In the mechanical arm carrying process, a shaft of the first wrist joint and a horizontal plane always have a certain included angle. And the second wrist joint keeps parallel with the plane of arm base place, and second wrist joint is parallel with the horizontal plane promptly, therefore first wrist joint and second wrist joint have certain contained angle all the time to can avoid second wrist joint and first wrist joint parallel to produce the wrist singular point, prevent that the third wrist joint of arm from appearing unpredictable's motion, thereby improve the reliability of arm.

Description

Robot arm and carrying device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of mechanical carrying, in particular to a mechanical arm and a carrying device.

Background

The singular points of the 6-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm are mainly divided into elbow singular points and wrist singular points, and the elbow singular points cannot be triggered in the normal carrying process, so that the mechanical arm singular points referred by the people refer to the wrist singular points in particular. When the singularity of the 6-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm occurs when the shaft 4 and the shaft 6 are parallel, the shaft 5 generates sudden changes of speed and posture, so that the tail end posture is uncontrollable (a chip box is broken) and the mechanical arm is even damaged.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a robot arm and a carrying device, which are used for avoiding a wrist singular point of the robot arm so as to improve the reliability of the robot arm.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a robot arm, including a first wrist joint, a mechanical fork, and a transfer block; the first wrist joint is connected with the mechanical fork through the switching block, and when the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal plane, the shaft of the first wrist joint and the plane of the mechanical fork form an angle.

Optionally, the adapter block includes a first end surface and a second end surface, the first end surface is connected to the first wrist joint, the second end surface is connected to the mechanical fork, and the first end surface intersects with the second end surface.

Optionally, the adapter block is wedge-shaped.

Optionally, when the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal plane, an angle between the axis of the first wrist joint and the plane of the mechanical fork is 10 °.

Optionally, the transfer block is connected with the first wrist joint and the mechanical fork by bolts.

Optionally, the arm still includes base, seat of circling round, big arm, elbow joint, forearm, second wrist joint and third wrist joint, the seat of circling round is installed on the base, big arm is installed on the seat of circling round, elbow joint installs on big arm, the one end of forearm is installed on the elbow joint, the other end of forearm with second wrist joint connects, third wrist joint is installed on the second wrist joint, first wrist joint is installed on the third wrist joint.

In a second aspect, the embodiment of the present invention further provides a handling apparatus, including the robot arm provided in any embodiment of the present invention.

Optionally, the handling device further comprises an automatic navigation trolley and a carrying frame erected on the automatic navigation trolley; the mechanical arm is arranged on the carrying frame.

Optionally, the carrying device further comprises a cassette placing mechanism arranged on the carrying frame, and a plane where the cassette placing mechanism is located is parallel to the horizontal plane.

According to the technical scheme, the mechanical arm comprises a first wrist joint, a transfer block and a mechanical fork, the first wrist joint is connected with the mechanical fork through the transfer block, and when the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axis of the first wrist joint and the plane of the mechanical fork form an angle. When the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axis of the first wrist joint and the horizontal plane form a certain included angle. During the handling of the robot arm, the robot fork needs to be kept horizontal. At the moment, the shaft of the first wrist joint and the horizontal plane always have a certain included angle. And the second wrist joint keeps parallel with the plane of arm base place, and second wrist joint is parallel with the horizontal plane promptly, therefore first wrist joint and second wrist joint have certain contained angle all the time to can avoid second wrist joint and first wrist joint parallel to produce the wrist singular point, prevent that the third wrist joint of arm from appearing unpredictable's motion, thereby improve the reliability of arm.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a prior art 6-degree-of-freedom robot arm;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a wrist joint of a robot arm according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an adapter block according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrying device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conveying position of a conveying device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It is to be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not limiting of the invention. It should be further noted that, for the convenience of description, only some of the structures related to the present invention are shown in the drawings, not all of the structures.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a conventional 6-degree-of-freedom robot arm. As shown in fig. 1, the robot arm includes 6 shafts and a robot fork 21, a first shaft 11, a second shaft 12, a third shaft 13, a fourth shaft 14, a fifth shaft 15 and a sixth shaft 16, respectively. The fourth, fifth and

sixth axes

14, 15, 16 constitute the wrist joint of the robot arm. The mechanical fork is laterally mounted at the end of the sixth shaft 16, and the working space of the mechanical arm is relatively large compared to a mechanical fork vertically mounted at the end of the sixth shaft 16. In order to ensure that the roll angle and the pitch angle are unchanged during the operation of the robot arm, the sixth axis 16 remains unchanged. And along with the rotation of the fifth shaft 15, the probability that the fourth shaft 14 and the sixth shaft 16 are parallel is higher, at this time, a wrist singular point is generated on the mechanical arm, and the fifth shaft 15 generates sudden changes of speed and posture, so that the posture of the tail end of the sixth shaft 16 is uncontrollable (a wafer box is broken), and even the mechanical arm is damaged.

In view of the above technical problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a robot arm. Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a wrist joint of a robot arm according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 2, the robot arm includes a first wrist joint 110, a robot fork 120, and an adaptor block 130; the first wrist joint 110 is connected to the mechanical fork 120 through the adapter 130, and when the plane of the mechanical fork 120 is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axis of the first wrist joint 110 and the plane of the mechanical fork 120 are disposed at an angle.

In particular, the robot arm further comprises a second wrist joint 140 and a third wrist joint 150. When the second wrist joint 140 and the first wrist joint 110 are parallel, the robot arm may create a wrist singularity. As shown in fig. 2, the axis of the first wrist joint 110 is disposed at an angle to the plane of the mechanical fork 120, and when the plane of the mechanical fork 120 is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axis of the first wrist joint 110 forms an included angle a with the horizontal plane. The robotic forks 120 need to be held horizontal during robotic arm handling. At this time, the axis of the first wrist joint 110 always forms a certain angle a with the horizontal plane. The second wrist joint 140 is parallel to the plane of the robot arm base, i.e. the second wrist joint 140 is parallel to the horizontal plane, so that the first wrist joint 110 and the second wrist joint 140 always have a certain included angle a, thereby avoiding the generation of a wrist singular point due to the parallel connection of the second wrist joint 140 and the first wrist joint 110, preventing the unpredictable movement of the third wrist joint 150 of the robot arm, and improving the reliability of the robot arm.

With continued reference to fig. 2, the adapter block 130 includes a first end surface 131 and a second end surface 132, the first end surface 131 is connected to the first wrist joint 110, the second end surface 132 is connected to the mechanical fork 120, and the first end surface 131 intersects the second end surface 132.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 2, the first end surface 131 is perpendicular to the axis of the first wrist joint 110, the second end surface 132 is perpendicular to the plane of the mechanical fork 120, and when the first end surface 131 intersects the second end surface 132, the axis of the first wrist joint 110 and the plane of the mechanical fork 120 form a certain included angle a. When the plane of the mechanical fork 120 is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axis of the first wrist joint 110 forms an angle a with the horizontal plane. Therefore, the first wrist joint 110 and the second wrist joint 140 always have a certain included angle a, the wrist singular point generated by the second wrist joint 140 and the first wrist joint 110 in parallel is avoided, the third wrist joint 150 of the mechanical arm is prevented from unexpected movement, and the reliability of the mechanical arm is improved.

It should be noted that the included angle a between the first wrist joint 110 and the second wrist joint 140 can be adjusted by the included angle between the first end face 131 and the second end face 132 of the junction block 130.

With continued reference to fig. 2, the adapter block 130 may be wedge-shaped.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 2, when the adapter block 130 is wedge-shaped, the axial direction of the adapter block 130 is parallel to the horizontal plane. That is, when the plane of the mechanical fork 120 is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axial direction of the adapter block 130 is parallel to the plane of the mechanical fork 120. The two surfaces forming the wedge shape at this time are the first end surface 131 and the second end surface 132, respectively, so that the first wrist joint 110 and the second wrist joint 140 always have a certain included angle.

It should be noted that fig. 2 is merely an exemplary illustration of a wedge shape of the transition block 130. In other embodiments, the adapter block 130 may have other wedge shapes. Fig. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional structure diagram of a transfer block according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 3, the first end surface 131 and the second end surface 132 of the adapter block 130 have a certain angle, so that when the plane of the mechanical fork 120 is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axis of the first wrist joint 110 has a certain angle with the horizontal plane.

Optionally, with continued reference to fig. 2, an adapter block 130 is connected with the first wrist joint 110 and the mechanical fork 120 by bolts. The bolts are arranged on the first end face 131 and the second end face 132 of the adapter block 130, the adapter block 130 is connected with the first wrist joint 110 and the mechanical fork 120 through the bolts, on the basis of ensuring the fixed connection of the adapter block 130, the change of an included angle caused when the adapter block 130 is connected with the first wrist joint 110 and the mechanical fork 120 can be reduced as much as possible, when the plane where the mechanical fork 120 is located is parallel to the horizontal plane, the axial direction of the adapter block 130 and the angle of the mechanical fork 120 are equal to the angles of the first end face 131 and the second end face 132, and therefore the axial direction of the adapter block 130 and the angle of the mechanical fork 120 are easy to control.

Optionally, when the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal plane, the angle between the axis of the first wrist joint and the plane of the mechanical fork is 10 °.

Specifically, the arm can be used for carrying the spool box, and when the arm was used for carrying 8 cun spool boxes, there was the special operating mode that spool box and horizontal plane had 10 contained angles, and the axle that sets up first wrist joint this moment is 10 with the planar angle that machinery fork belongs to, can realize that machinery fork belongs to plane and spool box parallel to realize carrying 8 cun spool boxes.

Optionally, the robot arm further includes a base, a swivel base, a large arm, an elbow joint, a small arm, a second wrist joint, and a third wrist joint, the swivel base is installed on the base, the large arm is installed on the swivel base, the elbow joint is installed on the large arm, one end of the small arm is installed on the elbow joint, the other end of the small arm is connected with the second wrist joint, the third wrist joint is installed on the second wrist joint, and the first wrist joint is installed on the third wrist joint.

In particular, the robotic arm may be a 6 degree of freedom robotic arm. The big arm comprises a first shaft, the elbow joint comprises a second shaft, the small arm comprises a third shaft, the second wrist joint comprises a fourth shaft, the third wrist joint comprises a fifth shaft, and the first wrist joint comprises a sixth shaft. The 6-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm can meet 6 degrees of freedom of a three-dimensional space, so that the movement of the mechanical arm in the three-dimensional space is realized.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a carrying device. Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrying device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 4, the carrying device includes the robot arm 300 according to any embodiment of the present invention, so that the same advantages as those of the robot arm according to any embodiment of the present invention are achieved, and further description thereof is omitted.

With continued reference to fig. 4, the handling apparatus further includes a self-propelled measuring cart 100 and a carrying frame 200 mounted on the self-propelled measuring cart 100; the robot arm 300 is disposed on the carrying frame 200. The device further comprises a wafer box placing mechanism 400 arranged on the carrying frame 200, and the plane of the wafer box placing mechanism 400 is parallel to the horizontal plane.

Specifically, the base of the robot arm 300 is flange-mounted on the carrying frame 200 such that the height of the connection position of the robot arm 300 and the carrying frame 200 with respect to the floor is higher than the height of the top of the cassette storage section with respect to the floor. Robot 300 is positioned near the head or tail of the car 100 so that the robot 300 may only rotate in one direction to transport the cassette 500 to the cassette placement mechanism 400. The cassette placement mechanism 400 may be a tray for carrying the transported cassette 500.

When the cassette 500 is taken out by the fork 350 of the robot 300, the swing base 320 of the robot 300 is perpendicular to the base 310. Since the mechanical fork 350 is installed in a side-mounted manner, when the mechanical fork 350 of the mechanical arm 300 forks the wafer cassette 500, the swivel base 320 is installed on one side, the large arm 330 on the swivel base 320 is parallel to the horizontal plane, the small arm 340 is vertical to the horizontal plane and faces downwards, and since the mechanical arm 300 is installed at a position higher than the material top relative to the ground, the small arm 340 hangs down, and the mechanical fork 350 connected with the small arm 340 can work on the wafer cassette 500 at a deeper or lower station. The mechanical fork 350 only needs to enter the lower cassette storage station to fork the cassette 500 to return to a position parallel to the cassette placing mechanism 400, and the mechanical fork 350 places the cassette 500 on the cassette placing mechanism 400. Compare in prior art's formal dress mounting means, this embodiment working space is great, can satisfy the transport of darker or lower station to, the interference of arm 300 and self station can be avoided at the arm 300 of this embodiment in handling, need not waste a large amount of motion trails of arm 300, has increased the efficiency of transport.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conveying position of a conveying device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 5, when the transport apparatus transfers a cassette 500 to the cassette storage area 600, the head of the car 100 (i.e., the side of the car where the robot 300 is disposed) faces the cassette storage area 600, so that the robot 300 approaches the cassette storage area 600, the cassette 500 in the cassette storage area 600 is located at one side of the robot 300, and the cassette placement mechanism 400 is located at the other side of the robot 300. When the automatic navigation cart 100 forks the magazine 500 into the magazine storage area 300, the automatic navigation cart 100 only needs to rotate in one direction to place the magazine 500 on the magazine placing mechanism 400, and for the case that the magazine placing mechanism 400 is placed at the front and rear positions of the robot arm 300 and the robot arm 300 rotates in the front and rear directions to place the magazine 500 on the magazine placing mechanism 400, the present embodiment can reduce the rotation direction of one robot arm 300, facilitate finding out the position of the robot arm 300 where the wrist singular point occurs, and reduce the rotation trajectory of the robot arm 300.

Further, a sonar sensor is installed on the mechanical fork and used for detecting whether the wafer box 500 is in the wafer box storage area 600. The sonar sensor detects whether a film cassette 500 is on the film cassette storage area 600 through the sonar, if the film cassette 500 is on, the film cassette 500 is forked, and if the film cassette 500 is not on, the next station is operated.

Further, still install the camera on the mechanical fork, the camera is used for acquireing preset position and shoots. When the automatic navigation car 100 reaches the preset position to fork the film cassette 500, the camera can photograph the position reached by the automatic navigation car 100 to judge whether the preset position is reached.

It is to be noted that the foregoing is only illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the technical principles employed. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of various obvious changes, rearrangements and substitutions as will now become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, although the present invention has been described in greater detail by the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and may include other equivalent embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is determined by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A mechanical arm is characterized by comprising a first wrist joint, a mechanical fork and a transfer block; the first wrist joint is connected with the mechanical fork through the switching block, and when the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal plane, the shaft of the first wrist joint and the plane of the mechanical fork form an angle.

2. A robotic arm as claimed in claim 1, in which the transfer block comprises a first end face and a second end face, the first end face being connected to the first wrist joint, the second end face being connected to the mechanical fork, the first end face intersecting the second end face.

3. A robotic arm as claimed in claim 1, in which the junction block is wedge-shaped.

4. A robotic arm as claimed in claim 1, in which the axis of the first wrist joint is at an angle of 10 ° to the plane of the mechanical fork when the plane of the mechanical fork is parallel to the horizontal.

5. A robotic arm as claimed in claim 1, in which the junction block is connected to the first wrist joint and the mechanical fork by bolts.

6. A robotic arm as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a base, a swivel base mounted on the base, a large arm mounted on the swivel base, an elbow joint mounted on the large arm, a small arm mounted on the large arm, one end of the small arm mounted on the elbow joint, the other end of the small arm connected to the second wrist joint, a third wrist joint mounted on the second wrist joint, and a third wrist joint mounted on the third wrist joint.

7. Handling device, characterized in that it comprises a robot arm according to any of claims 1-6.

8. The handling device of claim 7, further comprising an automated guided vehicle and a carrying frame mounted on the automated guided vehicle; the mechanical arm is arranged on the carrying frame.

9. The handling device of claim 8, further comprising a cassette placement mechanism disposed on the carrier frame, wherein a plane of the cassette placement mechanism is parallel to a horizontal plane.