JP2000181522A - Robot system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To exchange data with an external device of a different data format without changing software in a robot system. SOLUTION: The positional data of a work received from an image processor a through a serial communication line 11 being a general interface such as RS232C are converted from ASCII codes which are the data format of the image processor 2 into binary codes to be handled by a robot controller 2 and stored in the variable area A of a RAM 10. Besides, a positional data request signal transmitted from the robot controller 2 to the image processor 2 is converted from a binary code into an ASCII code and transmitted to the image processor 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robot device for communicating with an external device via a general-purpose interface such as RS232C.

[0002]

In some cases, a robot device needs to exchange data with external devices such as various sensors, visual devices, and personal computers. The above-described external device usually includes a general-purpose interface such as RS232C as a communication interface. Therefore, the conventional robot device is RS
A general-purpose interface such as H.232C is provided, and communication is possible with an external device via a general-purpose interface such as RS232C.

[0003] However, the data format handled by the external device,
If the data format handled by the robot device is not the same, it will not be possible to analyze the data.If the data format of the robot device is different from the data format of the external device, software must be changed. was there.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a robot apparatus capable of transmitting and receiving data to and from an external apparatus having a different data format without changing software. To provide.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
The conversion means converts the received signal from the external device stored in the communication buffer storage means into a format handled by the robot control means, transfers the signal to the variable storage means, and converts the internal variables stored in the variable storage means to the external device. Is transferred to the communication buffer storage means, even if the data format handled by the external device is different from the data format handled by the robot device, the position required for normal communication and control of the robot body Data and the like can be easily obtained. In this case, it is possible to deal with most external devices by enabling the format conversion between the binary code, the binary-coded decimal code, and the ASCII code as in the second aspect of the present invention. Can be.

The communication between the robot device and the external device is usually performed by a handshake method in which the robot has the initiative and the external device transmits data in response to a data request signal from the robot. Timing and termination code for recognizing the end of data reception must be determined in advance between the robot and the external device, but depending on the external device, the data transmission timing is irregular, Transmission and termination code may not be added.

However, according to the third aspect of the invention,
In the case of the above-described background signal transmitted from an external device, the communication buffer storage unit is accessed at a predetermined time to decode the content thereof, or only a predetermined amount of the signal is subjected to format conversion by the conversion unit. If the content is decoded without performing and the content is a predetermined content, it is determined to represent a predetermined meaning, so that the meaning of the background signal can be correctly decoded.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The robot main body 1 shown in FIG. 2 is, for example, a horizontal articulated robot, and performs a predetermined operation under the control of the robot controller 2. In this embodiment, the robot body 1 performs a palletizing operation in which the workpieces 3 are gripped one by one and stored on the pallet 4.

The work 3 is intermittently conveyed to a work take-out position by the conveyor 5 in a plural number. A camera 6 is provided above the work take-out position, and image information captured by the camera 6 is input to an image processing device 7 as an external device. The image processing device 7 processes the image information input from the camera 6 to detect the position of the work 1 on the conveyor 2 by coordinates in the field of view of the camera 6, and sends the position data to the robot controller 2. It is configured to transmit.

The robot controller 2 operates the robot body 1 on the basis of the position information obtained from the image processing device 7, and repeats the work of holding the works 3 on the conveyor 5 one by one and storing them on the pallet 4. Image processing device 7
Transmits all completion information to the robot controller 2 when all the works 3 at the work take-out position are stored in the pallet 4 and the work taken by the camera 6 disappears. And the robot controller 2
When the completion information is transmitted from the image processing device 7, a transfer command for transferring the next work 3 to the work take-out position is output to a conveyor control device (not shown). Further, when the pallet 4 is full, the robot controller 2 transmits a pallet replacement command to a pallet control device (not shown) in order to replace the pallet with an empty pallet.

As shown in FIG. 1, the robot controller 2 includes a CPU 8 as robot control means, a ROM 9 storing system programs of the entire robot controller 2, a RAM 10 storing operation programs of the robot body 1, and the like. I have. The robot controller 2 has, for example, R
A serial communication circuit 11 including a general-purpose interface such as S232C is provided. This serial communication circuit 11 is connected to a serial communication circuit (not shown) including a general-purpose interface for communication such as RS232C of the image processing apparatus 7 by an RS232C cable. And the like via a communication cable 12. Then, the CPU 8
It functions as communication control means for communicating with an external device via the serial communication circuit 11.

The RAM 10 has a variable area A, a reception buffer storage area B as a communication buffer storage area, and a transmission buffer storage area C in addition to an area for storing an operation program of the robot body 1. ing. Then, when controlling the robot main body 1 based on the operation program, the CPU 8 reads a variable stored in the variable area A of the RAM 10 and sets an operation position and the like.

In this case, the format of data handled by the CPU 8 for controlling the robot body 1 is a binary code (binary code).
Therefore, the data is stored in the variable area A by a binary code. Further, the reception buffer storage area B and the transmission buffer storage area C can be stored in any format such as a binary code, a binary coded decimal code (BDC code), and an ASCII code (ASCII code). Have been.

When communicating with an external device, the CPU 8 operates according to various communication commands described in an operation program. The communication command and the operation will be described below with reference to FIG. 3. In the case where data is transmitted from an external device and stored in the reception buffer area B (arrow in FIG. 3), the command is SINP, the reception buffer area B When the data stored in the variable area A is transferred to the variable area A (the same arrow), the command is SGET, and when the variable stored in the variable area A is stored in the transmission buffer area C (the same arrow), the command is SSET. When the data stored in C is transmitted to the external device (the same arrow), SOU
T.

Here, the data format stored in the reception buffer area B remains the data format of the external device. Also, since the communication protocol differs depending on the external device,
In the data stored in the reception buffer area B, from what bit to what bit data necessary for controlling the robot main body 1 differs depending on the external device. Therefore, when executing the SGET command to transfer the data stored in the reception buffer area B to the variable area A, the position and the number of digits of the data stored in the variable area A, and the format of the data from any format to binary code You need to specify whether to convert.

For this reason, the SGET command includes a data position variable name for indicating the data position to be stored, a digit variable name for indicating the number of digits, and a data format of the external device in the data stored in the reception buffer area B. A parameter such as a data conversion format name for designating and converting this into a binary code is attached.

Similarly, when transmitting data to an external device, the data format must be converted into a format handled by the external device and transmitted. It is necessary to specify where and how many digits are to be placed. Therefore, in the SSET command, a data conversion format name for specifying the data format of the external device and converting the variable stored in the variable area A in binary code to the data format of the external device is specified. Are attached to the data position variable name and the digit variable name which specify where in the data to be transmitted to the external device.

In this embodiment, in the case of an SGET command, the name of the conversion format for converting ASCII codes to binary codes is ASCBIN, the name of the conversion format for converting binary-coded decimal codes to binary codes is BCBIN, and an external device. Is defined as BINARY when the data format is a binary code and is not converted. In the case of the SSET command, the conversion format name for converting a binary code into an ASCII code is BINAS.
C, the conversion format name for converting a binary code into a binary-coded decimal code is defined as BINBCD, and when the data format of the external device is a binary code and no conversion is performed, BINARY is defined.

In this embodiment, the data format handled by the image processing device 7 as an external device is, for example, an ASCII code. For this reason, the SGET command is accompanied by ASCIISCIN which designates conversion from ASCII code to binary code as a conversion format name.
The T command is accompanied by BINASC which designates to convert a binary code into an ASCII code as a conversion format name.

By the way, the external device normally transmits data to the robot controller 2 when there is a transmission request from the robot controller 2. However, for certain data (for example, a background signal), Even if there is no transmission request from the controller 2, data is transmitted to the robot controller 2. In the present embodiment, this corresponds to the case where the work 3 is lost within the field of view of the camera 6 (work take-out position), and the image processing device 7 as an external device is in this case required by the robot controller 2. And send the completion information without waiting.

When such a background signal is transmitted, the CPU 8 determines that the background signal has been transmitted from the external device and the serial communication circuit 11 has started receiving the background signal. It is detected by an interrupt signal. Then, when there is an interrupt signal, the CPU 8 is configured to perform a receiving process described later and store the background signal in the receiving buffer area B (FIG. 3).

The background signal stored in the reception buffer area B is decoded when the CPU 8 executes a command called SINPB. At this time, the CPU 8
The data stored in the reception buffer area B is accessed to read out a predetermined position, for example, the data of the first byte in the data, and when this is data having a preset content, the data is stored in the variable area. A predetermined processing is immediately performed without transferring the data to A (see FIG. 3).

In this embodiment, when the first byte of data of the background signal transmitted from the image processing device 7 is data representing "E", the CPU 8 converts the data into a binary code. Instead of storing the information in the variable area A, it is determined that the information is the completion information, and a transfer command is output to a conveyor control device (not shown).

That is, the image processing device 7 transmits a completion signal in ASCII code, and the content of the leading data is determined to constitute, for example, alphabet "E" code data. The code data of "E" becomes a predetermined value when converted into a binary code.
Reference numeral 10 is configured so that when the head data of the background signal is converted into a binary code, when the predetermined value is reached, completion information indicating that there is no work 3 at the work take-out position is determined. .

Various parameters for executing the above-mentioned communication modes are described in the operation program when the operation program of the robot body 1 is created. Therefore, the operation program created by the program creating unit such as the teaching pendant or the personal computer functions as a data conversion instructing unit that designates a data format to be converted.

Next, the operation of the robot device configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. Now, it is assumed that a plurality of works 3 are conveyed to the work take-out position by the conveyor 5. The camera 6 captures an image of the work 3 conveyed to the work take-out position, and the image processing device 7 detects the position of each work 3 as the position on the reference coordinates of the robot body 1 from the image information of the camera 6.

On the other hand, when the power of the robot apparatus 2 is turned on, the CPU 8 first performs preparatory processing for initializing variables in step S1, and moves the robot body 1 to the standby position in the next step S2. Let it. After that, CPU8
Shifts to step S3, in which a SINPB command is executed to determine whether or not completion information has been transmitted from the image processing apparatus 7.

This judgment is made based on whether or not the reception buffer area B of the RAM 10 is accessed and whether or not the completion information has been transmitted is determined based on whether or not the leading one-byte data is a predetermined value. to decide. Here, since the camera 6 is taking an image of the work 3 at the work take-out position, the completion information is not transmitted from the image processing procedure 7, and accordingly, the CPU 8 determines “NO” in step S3. And the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, the CPU 8 executes an SSET command as a preparation stage for requesting the image processing device 7 to transmit. This SSET command routine is
This is shown in FIG. When the execution of the SSET command starts, the CPU 8 first reads parameters such as a data position variable, a digit variable, and a data conversion format name attached to the SSET command (step SA1). next,
The CPU 8 accesses the variable area A of the RAM 10 to read out the coordinate code request signal (step SA2), and converts the coordinate code request signal according to the data conversion format name (conversion means, step SA3).

Here, the data conversion format name is "BINA".
SC ", the CPU 8 converts the coordinate code request signal described in binary code into an ASCII code. Then, the CPU 8 determines whether or not the data format conversion has been normally performed (step SA4). If the data format conversion has been normally performed (“YES” in step SA4), the converted coordinate code request data is stored in the RAM 10 (step SA4). Transmission buffer area C
(Step SA5).

Thereafter, the CPU 8 determines whether or not the transfer to the transmission buffer area C has been normally performed (step SA6). If the transfer has been normal ("YES" in step SA6), the process returns. Then, the process proceeds to step S5 in FIG. If the conversion of the data format and the transfer to the transmission buffer area C are not performed normally, the CPU 8
Is “NO” in step SA4 and “N” in step SA6.
"O" to sound a buzzer or blink a lamp to notify the error (step SA)
7).

When the routine of the SSET command is normally completed and the process proceeds to step S5 in FIG. 4, the CPU 8 executes the SOUT command and transmits the coordinate data request signal stored in the transmission buffer area C of the RAM 10 to the serial communication circuit. 11 to the image processing device 7. The data in the transmission buffer area C is sent to the serial communication circuit 11 as a parallel signal. The serial communication circuit 11 converts the parallel signal into a serial signal and sends the serial signal to the image processing device 7.

Thereafter, the CPU 8 shifts to step S6 to perform a data receiving process for executing the SINP command. This data reception processing routine is shown in FIG. 6. When the data reception processing routine is started, the CPU 8 first enters a state of monitoring whether or not the serial communication circuit 11 receives a signal within a predetermined time. (Step SB
1 repeats "NO" and step SB2 repeats "NO"). If serial communication circuit 11 does not receive a signal within a predetermined time, CPU 8 determines “YES” in step SB2.
Then, the flow shifts to step SB3 to notify that the communication is abnormal by a notifying means such as a buzzer or a lamp.

Now, since the coordinate data request signal transmitted from the robot control procedure 2 to the image processing device 7 is an ASCII code, the image processing device 7 receives and decodes the coordinate data request signal without permission, and For example, on the coordinates of the field of view of the camera 6, the position data of the work farthest from the center of the coordinates is transmitted to the robot controller 2 in ASCII code.

When the position data signal from the image processing device 7 is received by the serial communication circuit 11 of the robot controller 2, the serial communication circuit 11
And a position information signal transmitted as a serial signal is converted into a parallel signal. The CPU 8 operates the serial communication circuit 1 within the predetermined time.
When the reception notification signal is received from No. 1, "Y" is determined in step SB1.
ES ”, and proceeds to step SB4 to read the data received by the serial communication circuit 11 from the beginning by a predetermined number of bits and store it in the reception buffer area B of the RAM 10 until a line feed code (end code) appears. Continue (“NO” in step SB4, step SB
5, "YES" in step SB6, "NO" in step SB7, and "YES" in step SB1).
When the amount of received data exceeds the capacity of the receiving buffer area B, the CPU 8 determines in step SB4 that “YE
S ", the process proceeds to Step SB3, and the same error notification as described above is performed.

When the line feed code appears, the CPU 8
Determines "YES" in step SB7, and notifies that the receiving process has been completed in the next step SB8, and then returns to step S7 in the flowchart shown in FIG.
Move to 7. The CPU 8 executes an SGET command for storing the position data stored in the reception buffer area B in step S7 as a position variable in the variable area A. The execution routine of the SGET command is shown in FIG.

That is, upon entering the execution of the SGET command, first, the CPU 8 reads parameters such as a data position variable, a digit variable name, and a data conversion format name attached to the SGET command (step SC 1). The data at the position indicated by the data position variable is read from area B (step SC2). And C
The PU 8 determines whether or not the above reading has been performed normally (step SC3). If the reading has been performed normally (“YES” in step SC3), the PU 8 proceeds to step SC4 to convert the data format (converting means). ).

Here, the SGET command includes a conversion format name ASCB for converting an ASCII code into a binary code.
IN is attached, the CPU 8 proceeds to step SC
In 4, read data (described in ASCII code) is 2
Convert to hexadecimal code. Then, after confirming that the format conversion has been normally performed (“YES” in step SC5), the CPU 8 transfers the position data converted into the binary code to the variable area A (step SC6), and returns. Becomes If the reading of data from the reception buffer area B and the conversion of the data format were not performed normally, the CPU 8 gives “NO” in step SC3 and “NO” in step SC5, and issues an error notification similar to the above. And return.

After ending the SGET command routine normally, the CPU 8 proceeds to step S in the flowchart of FIG.
Move to 8. In this step S8, the CPU 8 sets the variable area A of the ROM 10 to grip the next work 3.
Is read out, and the position data indicated by the coordinate position on the visual field of the camera 6 is converted into position data on the reference coordinates of the robot main body 1.

Thereafter, the CPU 8 controls the operation of the robot body 1 based on the position data converted to the position on the reference coordinates, grips the work 3 indicated by the position data (step S9), and again The variable area A is accessed, the position data on the pallet 4 for storing the gripped work 3 is read, and the robot main body 1 is controlled so as to store the work 3 on the pallet 4 (step S10).

Then, the CPU 8 shifts to a step S11 for judging whether or not all the predetermined operations have been completed. If not, the CPU 8 shifts to the next step S12 to determine whether or not the pallet 4 is full. Determine whether or not. CP
If the pallet 4 is not full, step U12 is executed.
Is determined as "NO" and the process returns to step S2.
If the pallet 4 is full, the process shifts to step S13 to replace the empty pallet with an empty pallet, outputs a pallet replacement command to a pallet control device (not shown), and then returns to step S2.

When the work 4 disappears from the field of view of the camera 6, the image processing device 7 transmits a completion signal (background signal) indicating that the work has disappeared to the robot controller 2, and the completion signal is transmitted to the robot controller 2.
Is received by the serial communication circuit 11. When receiving the signal, the serial communication circuit 11 outputs an interrupt signal,
The PU 8 executes the reception processing routine of FIG. 6 based on the interrupt signal.

At the time of execution of this reception processing routine,
After storing the first byte of data in the reception buffer area B in step SB5, the CPU 8 executes the next SINP.
Step SA for determining whether or not a command is being executed
In step 6, the answer is "NO", the reception processing routine is terminated, and the routine returns. Here, when the completion signal is not one byte but a signal of several bytes follows, the CPU 8 determines the above steps SB1, SB4, SB5, and SB based on the interrupt signal of the serial communication circuit 11.
The operation of “NO” in B6 and returning is repeated.

Then, the CPU 8 sets a predetermined time, ie, SIN, for decoding the background signal.
When the process proceeds to step S3 for executing the PB command,
First, the first data stored in the reception buffer area B is read, and it is determined whether or not the read first data is a predetermined value ("E" in ASCII code) without converting the data format. . If the value is the predetermined value, the CPU 8 determines that the work 3 is no longer in the work take-out position, and outputs a transfer command to a conveyor control device (not shown) to transfer the next work 3 into the work take-out position.

For the newly transported work 3,
After performing the above processing, the work 3 is transferred to the pallet 4
To be stored. When all operations are completed, the CPU 8
Determines “YES” in the step S11,
After performing the end processing at 15, the processing ends.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the robot control device 2 includes the serial communication circuit 11 including a general-purpose interface such as RS232C, not only the image processing device 2 but also ordinary external devices Mostly R
Considering that a general-purpose interface such as S232C is provided, it is possible to communicate with most of these external devices.

In this case, the data from the external device received by the robot control device 2 is converted into a data format handled by the robot control device 2, and the data transmitted from the robot control device 2 to the external device is transmitted to the external device. Since the data is converted into the data format of the device and transmitted, even if the data format handled by the external device is different from that of the robot control device 2, the communication can be performed normally without converting the software,
Can be decoded normally.

Usually, a line feed code (end code) is not provided in the background signal in many cases. For this reason, there is a possibility that the data reception processing routine will not end indefinitely.
It is determined whether the INP command is being executed (step SB)
6) When the SINP command is not being executed, data reception is determined to be a background signal, and when a predetermined amount of data (the first byte in this embodiment) has been received, the reception process is terminated. Therefore, even if there is no line feed code (end code), it is possible to effectively prevent a problem that the data reception processing routine does not end forever.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, but can be extended or modified as follows. As the external device, the image processing device 2
However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various sensors, personal computers, and the like may be used. The data format handled by the robot controller 2 is not limited to binary codes, but may be ASCII codes, binary 10
It may be a hexadecimal code or other data format.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a robot control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view for explaining the contents of a robot operation.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a communication form between the robot control device and an external device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing control contents of the entire robot operation.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing control contents of an SSET command.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing control contents of a data reception process;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing control contents of an SGET command.

[Explanation of symbols]

In the figure, 1 is a robot body, 2 is a robot controller,
7 is an image processing device (external device), 8 is a CPU (robot control means, communication control means), 10 is a ROM (communication buffer storage means), and 11 is a serial communication circuit (a general-purpose interface for communication).

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) // G06F 3/03 380 G05B 19/18 Q 9A001 F term (Reference) 3F059 AA02 BA04 BA08 BB02 DA02 DB06 DB09 DE06 FB12 FC07 5B065 BA10 CE14 5B068 AA13 CC12 5H215 BB05 CC07 CX02 CX05 GG02 KK01 5H269 AB23 AB33 BB17 CC09 EE25 GG08 JJ09 JJ20 KK05 KK08 NN08 NN18 PP02 QB20 QD01 QD05 QE37 9A001 BB03 BB04 H07H37H04H

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A robot body, a robot control means for controlling the robot body, a communication control means for transmitting and receiving signals to and from an external device via a general-purpose interface, and a signal for transmitting and receiving signals via the general-purpose interface Communication buffer storage means for storing; variable storage means for storing an internal variable; and reception variable from the external device stored in the communication buffer storage means converted to a format handled by the robot control means and the variable storage. And a conversion unit for transferring the internal variables stored in the variable storage unit to a format handled by the external device and transferring the converted format to the communication buffer storage unit. 2. The conversion means according to claim 1, wherein said conversion means comprises a binary code, a binary code, and a binary code.
2. The robot apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a format can be converted between a hexadecimal code and an ASCII code. 3. The robot control unit accesses the communication buffer storage unit at a predetermined time for a background signal transmitted from the external device at irregular intervals or without adding a transmission end signal, and the content of the background signal is determined. And decrypt
Alternatively, it is determined that only a predetermined amount of the signal is decoded without performing the format conversion by the conversion means, and when this is a predetermined content, it indicates a predetermined meaning. 3. The robot device according to 1 or 2.