JP2001300885A - Robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the cost of piping in a robot for supplying compressed air to an air actuator used for a hand. SOLUTION: A manifold 21 has integrally a plate part 23 secured to a housing 19 of a twist arm 16, and a main part 22 mounted with a solenoid valve 24, and thereby dispenses with conventional piping for connecting a plate and a manifold and conventional joints for connecting the piping to reduce the cost accordingly. Air piping 37 for exhausting exhaust air from an air actuator to the outside leads the exhaust outside the housing 19 via a check valve 38, so that despite the exhaust to the vicinity of the arm tip, liquid and dust can be prevented from flowing back via the check valve 38 and the exhaust air piping 37 can be shortened.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robot to which a hand or the like having an air actuator as an operation source is attached at the tip of an arm, and more particularly to a robot having a solenoid valve for controlling supply of compressed air to an air actuator. .

[0002]

In a robot, usually,
A hand for gripping the work is attached to the tip of the arm. Since the hand often employs a structure in which a pawl is opened and closed by an air actuator, the robot is provided in advance with a solenoid valve for controlling the supply of compressed air to the air actuator.

A plurality of solenoid valves are provided in consideration of a case where a plurality of claws are provided in one hand, but conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a plurality of solenoid valves are provided. Solenoid valve 1 (FIG. 6)
(Only one is shown) is attached to the manifold 2 and arranged inside the arm 3. The manifold 2 is connected to a total of three air pipes including an air pipe 4a for supplying compressed air and two air pipes 4b for exhaust.

On another arm 6 near the arm tip 5, a plate 8 to which a plurality of joints 7 are attached is provided.
The joint 7 of the plate 8 and an air passage (not shown) of the manifold 2 are connected by a plurality of pipes 9.
The air actuator of the hand attached to the arm tip 5 and the joint 7 of the plate 8 are connected by an air pipe, and the supply of compressed air to the air actuator is controlled by the solenoid valve 1.

However, in this conventional configuration, since the manifold 2 for controlling the supply of compressed air and the plate 8 for piping to the air actuator for controlling the compressed air are separate bodies, the air for connecting the two is connected. In addition to the need for the pipe 9, the joint 8 for connecting the air pipe 9 and the air actuator to the plate 8 must be provided, which causes a problem that the manufacturing cost is increased.

An air pipe 4 is provided in the manifold 2 to allow air discharged from the air actuator to escape to the outside.
b must be connected, but the air pipe 4b is extended to the base 10 of the robot and connected to a silencer (not shown). The reason for extending the exhaust air pipe 4b to the robot base 10 in this manner is that when the robot is applied to the work of attaching and detaching a workpiece to be machined, the work of removing burrs generated at the time of plastic or die-cast molding, etc. This is because liquid such as cutting oil or dust generated at the time of deburring is applied. In such a case, liquid or dust is prevented from entering the air pipe 4b. However, the exhaust air pipe 4b extends to the robot base 10 and is long and useless.

Incidentally, it may seem that the air returned from the air actuator should be exhausted into the housing. However, since the housing is sealed so that liquid and dust do not enter the interior, the air is exhausted into the housing. Then, the internal air pressure increases, and as a result, the back pressure of the air actuator increases, and the smoothness of the operation is lost. Therefore, the exhaust into the housing should be avoided.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a robot capable of reducing the cost for a piping configuration for controlling the supply of compressed air to an air actuator. .

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the manifold integrally has a mounting portion to be mounted on the arm housing and a main portion for mounting the solenoid valve, as shown in the conventional configuration of FIG. In addition, the air pipe 9 for connecting the plate 8 to the manifold 2 and the joint 7 are not required, and the cost can be reduced accordingly. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the exhaust air pipe for exhausting the air exhausted from the air actuator to the outside of the housing has a check valve. The check valve can prevent liquid, dust and the like from flowing back to the manifold side. Claim 3
According to the invention, air returned from one port and the other port of the air actuator to the solenoid valve and discharged from separate ports of the solenoid valve can be exhausted to the outside of the housing by one air pipe.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. The overall configuration of the robot is shown in FIG. The robot 11 is configured as a vertical articulated type, and includes a main part 12, a shoulder part 13 that is provided on the main part 12 so as to be able to turn in the horizontal direction, and is provided on the shoulder part 13 so as to be able to turn in the vertical direction. Lower arm 14
And an upper arm 15 provided on the lower arm 14 so as to be pivotable in the vertical direction; a torsion arm 16 provided on the upper arm 15 so as to be able to rotate torsion; The wrist 17 is provided with a torsionally rotatable flange 18 at the distal end. Although not shown, the hand is attached to a flange 18 as an arm tip.

As shown in FIG. 1, a mounting hole 20 is formed in a housing 19 forming an outer shell of the torsion arm 16 near the flange 18.
0 is provided with a manifold 21 according to the present invention. The manifold 21 is made of, for example, an aluminum die-cast, and as shown in FIG.
2 is provided with a plate portion 23 as an attachment portion integrally formed. The plate portion 23 of the manifold 21 is attached to the housing 19 by screwing so as to cover the attachment hole 20, and in this attached state, the main portion 22
Is located in the housing 19.

The main part 22 of the manifold 21 is provided with a plurality of, for example, three solenoid valves 24. As shown in FIG. 4, the solenoid valve 24 has solenoids S1 and S2 on both sides and has five ports P, A, B, EA, and EB. When one solenoid S1 is energized, the ports PA and B and EB communicate with each other, and when the other solenoid S2 is energized, the ports PB and A and EA communicate with each other. Will be done.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the manifold 21 has three air passages 25 to 27 and 3
A pair of passages 28, 29 are formed. Of the three air passages 25 to 27, the air passage 25 supplies compressed air to the solenoid valve 24, and the port P of each solenoid valve 24 is connected to the air passage 25 via a branch passage 25a. ing. The air passages 26 and 27 are connected to the solenoid valve 2 from the air actuator.
4 through which the air exhausted passes.
Port EA of each solenoid valve 24
a, and the port EB of each solenoid valve 24 is connected to the air passage 27 via a branch passage 27a.

The inlet 25b of the air passage 25 for supplying compressed air and the outlet 26 of the air passages 26 and 27 for exhaust air.
b and 27b are surfaces located in the housing 19,
That is, it is opened on the side surface of the main part 22. An air pipe 30 is connected to an inlet 25b of an air passage 25 for supplying compressed air via a joint 31. The air pipe 30 passes through the inside of the robot and is led out of the base 12 to the outside. It is connected to a not-shown compressor. The outlets 26b, 27b of the air passages 26, 27 for exhaust are connected to the joints 32, 3 shown in FIGS.
3 is connected, and an air pipe 34 is provided between the joints 32 and 33.
Connected by A branch 35 of the air passage 26 is formed in the main portion 22 of the manifold 21, a joint 36 is connected to an outlet 35 a of the branch 35, and an air pipe 37 for exhaust is connected to the joint 36. The tip of the air pipe 37 has a check valve 3 facing the outside of the housing 19.
8 is connected.

The three pairs of air passages 28, 2
9 has ports A and A of each solenoid valve 24, respectively.
B is connected. The entrances and exits 28a and 29a of the air passages 28 and 29 are opened on a surface located outside the housing 19, that is, the outer surface of the plate portion 23. The entrances and exits 28a and 29a are provided with air pipes extending from a pair of ports of an air actuator. Connected. Note that FIG.
In the figure, a hole 39 of the plate portion 23 is a mounting hole for a socket (not shown) to which a power cord of the solenoid of the solenoid valve 24 is connected.

Next, in the above configuration, as shown in FIG. 4, the hand is provided with three air cylinders 40 as air actuators, and a pair of ports 4 of each air cylinder 40 is provided.
The operation will be described assuming that the air pipes 41 and 42 connected to the air passages 0a and 40b are connected to the entrances 28a and 29a of the pair of air passages 28 and 29. When one of the solenoids S1 of the solenoid valve 24 is energized, the state between the ports PA and the ports B and EB is in communication with each other, so that compressed air flows from the air passage 25 to the ports PA, the air passage 28,
The air is supplied to one port 40 a of the air cylinder 40 through the air pipe 41 in order. Then, the piston 40c moves upward in the drawing, and accordingly, the air in the air cylinder 40 is discharged from the other port 40b. Port 4
0b is discharged from the air pipe 42 to the air passage 2
9, between port B and EB, branch path 27a, air path 27,
Air piping 34, air passage 26, branch passage 35, air piping 3
7, the gas is discharged from the check valve 38 to the outside of the housing 19. When the piston 40c moves upward in the figure, for example, the pawl of the hand opens.

When the other solenoid S2 of the solenoid valve 24 is energized, between the ports P and B and between the ports A and EA.
The compressed air flows into the air passage 2
The air is supplied to the other port 40b of the air cylinder 40 from the port 5 through the port P-B, the air passage 29, and the air pipe 42 in this order. Then, the piston 40c moves downward in the figure, and accordingly, the air in the air cylinder 40 is discharged from the one port 40a. The air discharged from the port 40a flows from the air pipe 38 to the air passage 28 and the port A.
-EA, branch path 26a, air path 26, branch path 35,
The air from the check valve 38 to the housing 1
9 is discharged outside. Then, the claw of the hand is closed by the downward movement of the piston 40c in the figure.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the manifold 21 is connected to the main part 2 for connecting the air pipe 30 for supplying compressed air.
2 and the plate portion 23 for connecting the air pipes 41 and 42 on the air actuator side, the joint 7 and the air pipe 9 for connecting the conventional manifold 2 and the plate 6 are provided. This is unnecessary, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

Further, since the conventional air pipe 9 is not required, the number of connection points which cause air leakage can be reduced. In addition, since the space occupied by the manifold 21 is reduced, the manifold 21 can be disposed in the torsion arm 16 having a relatively small space. For this reason,
The manifold 21 can be positioned near the hand, and the length of the air pipes 38 and 39 for connecting the manifold 21 and the air actuator can be reduced.

Further, an air pipe 37 for discharging the air discharged from the air actuator to the outside of the housing 19.
Is provided with a check valve 38, so that even if liquid or dust is applied by a hand operation, the liquid or dust, etc.
Does not flow back to the manifold 21 side. Therefore,
The check valve 38 has no bearing even near the manifold 21, and the air pipe 37 can be shortened. Further, since the two air passages 41 and 42 for exhaust are combined into one air pipe 37, the number of air pipes 37 for exhaust can be reduced, and the cost can be further reduced. it can.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, but can be extended or modified as follows. It is not limited to a vertical articulated robot. The air passages 26 and 27 for exhaust are combined into one air passage in the manifold 21 and the outlets 2 of the air passages 26 and 27 are combined.
The air pipe 34 for connecting 6b and 27b may be eliminated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a manifold.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a manifold.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a pipeline centering on a manifold and a solenoid valve.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the entire robot.

FIG. 6 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional configuration.

FIG. 7 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 5;

[Explanation of symbols]

In the figure, 11 is a robot, 12 is a base, 13 is a shoulder portion, 14 is a lower arm, 15 is an upper arm, 16 is a torsion arm, 17 is a wrist, 18 is a flange (arm tip), 19
Is a housing, 20 is a mounting hole, 21 is a manifold, 22
Is a main portion, 23 is a plate portion (mounting portion), 24 is a solenoid valve, 25 to 29 are air passages, 34 and 37 are air pipes, 38 is a check valve, 37 is an air cylinder (air actuator), 41 and 42. Is an air pipe.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hidekazu Wakita 1-1-1 Showa-cho, Kariya-shi, Aichi F-term in DENSO Corporation (reference) 3F060 DA10 EB13 EC13 HA03 HA05

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A robot in which a hand or the like using an air actuator as an operation source is attached to a tip end of an arm, wherein a mounting hole formed in a housing forming an outer shell of the arm to which the hand or the like is attached; And a mounting portion formed integrally with the main portion,
A manifold attached to the housing such that the attachment portion closes the attachment hole so that the main portion is located in the housing; and a port attached to the main portion of the manifold, and a port formed in the manifold. A solenoid valve connected to an air passage for controlling the supply of compressed air to the air actuator; and an air passage for supplying compressed air from the supply source to the solenoid valve in an air passage formed in the manifold. A passage is opened to a surface located in the housing, connected to the compressed air supply source by an air pipe, and the compressed air is supplied to the air actuator from the solenoid valve and the air discharged from the air actuator is discharged to the air actuator. An air passage for returning to the solenoid valve is located outside the housing. Robot comprising is opened to the surface. 2. An air passage formed in the surface of the housing, wherein an air passage through which air returned from the air actuator to the solenoid valve and exhausted from the solenoid valve is formed in the air passage formed in the manifold. The air pipe having a check valve is connected to the opening, and the air discharged to the air pipe is discharged to the outside of the housing through the check valve. Robot. 3. Two air passages formed in the manifold, through which air discharged from one port and the other port of the air actuator to the solenoid valve and discharged from separate ports of the solenoid valve passes. 3. The robot according to claim 1, wherein the air passage is connected to one air pipe.