JP2005118967A - Robot system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a robot system which ensures the safety of the operator without damaging the operability thereof when an instruction is issued thereto, can avoid breakage of a robot, and shortens a recovery time after an emergency stop, by employing a simple configuration involving minimum relay contacts. <P>SOLUTION: The robot system is comprised of a robot control device 102 for controlling the robot 101, a control panel 103 having a function of making an emergency stop of the robot, and a plurality of connecting sections for connecting between the robot control device 102 and the control panel 103. According to the robot system, the connecting sections have identification numbers allotted thereto, respectively, and they are connected to each other in series. Further the control panel 103 has a setting means for changing operational conditions of the robot depending on the identification number of the connecting section. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a robot system having a function of urgently stopping the operation of a robot in an emergency.

Conventionally, as a means for teaching a robot to operate, there is a method in which an operator actually moves the robot using an operation panel connected to the robot control device to store the position. In general, this operation panel is provided with an emergency stop switch for urgently stopping the operation of the robot so as to protect the operator and the robot itself from the harm caused by the operation of the robot during the teaching operation. The operation panel is detachable from the robot control device, and the robot does not stop operation even when the operation panel is detached from the robot control device, and a plurality of connection ports between the operation panel and the robot control device are provided. An emergency stop device for a robot intended to improve workability has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

This will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 1001 denotes a robot, 1002 denotes a robot control apparatus that controls the robot 1001, and 1003 denotes an operation panel that teaches the operation of the robot 1001 and has an emergency stop function of the robot 1001. Reference numerals 1004a to 1004c denote ports connected to the robot controller 1002 via cables. In FIG. 6, only the circuits related to the emergency stop switch on the operation panel are extracted and described. The ports 1004a to 1004c have the same structure, and include detachable switches 1005a to 1005c and a plurality of connectors. The operation panel 1003 has a structure that can be attached to and detached from the ports 1004a to 1004c via connectors. The operation panel 1003 is provided with an emergency stop switch 1101 and a deadman switch 1102. The robot control device 1002 is provided with a relay R3 between the power supply Vcc of the robot control device and the grounding part of the operation panel 1003. A relay R4 is provided between the power supply Vcc of the robot control device and the attach / detach switch 1005a, and a make contact r4a of the relay R4 and a break contact of the relay R3 are provided between the attach / detach switch 1005a and the grounding portion of the robot control device. Connect a series circuit with r3a. The other end of the detachable switch 1005a is grounded in the port 1004a. Further, a make contact r3b of the relay R3 is disposed between the power supply Vcc of the robot control device and the emergency stop switch 1101, and a relay R5 is provided between the deadman switch 1102 and the grounding portion of the robot control device. Further, a parallel circuit including a make contact r5 of the relay R5 and a make contact r4b of the relay R4 is connected to the power source Vcc of the robot controller, and a relay R6 is further connected between the parallel circuit and the grounding portion. The make contact r6 of the relay R6 is provided between the brake power supply 1103 and the brake release circuit 1104, and the brake release circuit 1104 is connected to a brake (not shown) in the robot 1001.

The operation of the emergency stop circuit of the operation panel configured as described above will be described. First, at the time of teaching operation, the operation panel 1003 is connected to the port 1004a of the robot control device 1002, and the relay R3 operates to close the make contact r3b. Therefore, the emergency stop switch 1101 of the operation panel 1003 is in the normal state (closed state). ) And the deadman switch 1102 is pressed, the relay R5 operates to close the make contact r5, and the relay R6 operates to close the make contact r6. Electric power is supplied from 1103 and the robot 1001 enters an operating state.
Next, when the operation panel 1003 is removed from the port 1004a during the automatic operation of the robot 1001 after the teaching is completed, the attachment / detachment switch 1005a is first turned on. As a result, the relay R4 operates and the make contacts r4a and r4b are closed. If the teaching operation panel 1003 is removed from the port 1004a with the detachable switch 1005a turned on, the relay R3 stops operating, thereby closing the break contact r3a and opening the make contact r3b. As a result, the relay R5 stops operating and the make contact r5 is opened, but the make contact r4b is closed by pressing the attachment / detachment switch 1005a, so that the robot 1001 can continue operating while the relay R6 continues to operate. . Even if the detachment switch 1005a is turned off after the operation panel 1003 is removed, the make contact r4a and the break contact r3a are closed, so that the relay R4 continues to operate, and therefore the make contact r4b is closed. R6 continues to operate and the robot 1001 continues to operate.
Next, when the operation panel 1003 is attached to the port 1004a, the operation panel 1003 is attached to the port 1004a with the attachment / detachment switch 1005a turned on. With this attachment, the relay R3 is operated and the break contact r3a is opened. However, since the detachable switch 1005a is turned on, the relay R4 continues to operate. Since make contact r3b is closed, when emergency stop switch 1101 of operation panel 1003 is in a normal state (closed state) and deadman switch 1102 is pressed, relay R5 is operated and make contact r5 is closed. Subsequently, when the attachment / detachment switch 1005a is turned off, the relay R4 stops operating and thus the make contact r4b is opened. However, since the make contact r5 is already closed, the relay R6 continues to operate and the robot 1001 continues to operate.

As described above, if the operation panel 1003 is removed from the port 1004a and attached while the attachment / detachment switch 1005a is pressed, the operation can be continued without stopping the robot 1001. As a result, the operation panel can be freely detached from the robot controller during automatic operation, so that it is not necessary to provide one operation panel for each robot controller, and the operation panel can be shared. In addition, it is possible to provide ports for connecting the operation panel at multiple positions such as near the robot or near the robot controller, and if necessary, move the operation panel between these ports to improve workability. It can be improved. Furthermore, since the length of the cable connecting the operation panel and the port can be minimized, the risk of hooking the cable on the foot is reduced, and workability can be improved.

Japanese Patent No. 2672417

However, in the above conventional example, it is necessary to add many relay contacts for the function of attaching and detaching the operation panel, and the configuration becomes complicated. In addition, since each port is connected in parallel to the emergency stop circuit of the robot controller, if two or more ports are connected to the operation panel, press the emergency stop switch on one operation panel. However, there is a problem that the robot does not stop urgently unless the emergency stop switch is pushed on another operation panel.
When the operator operates within the robot movement range, it is desirable from the viewpoint of efficiency and safety to operate the robot at a lower speed than when operating outside the movement range. Has set the operation speed manually, and there was a risk that the robot could operate at an unexpected speed due to a setting error.
In the conventional example, the wiring of the emergency stop circuit is limited to the operation panel and the robot control device.
Furthermore, in an environment where an emergency stop switch is connected to a plurality of ports, there is a problem that it is not easy to know which port is pressed.
The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and with a simple configuration with a minimum number of relay contacts, operator safety is ensured without impairing workability during teaching, and robot damage is prevented. An object of the present invention is to provide a robot system that can avoid and shorten the return time after an emergency stop.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as follows.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a robot system including a robot control device that controls a robot, an operation panel having a function of urgently stopping the robot, and a connection unit that connects the robot control device and the operation panel. A plurality of the connecting portions, each of which is assigned an identification number and connected in series, and the operation panel has setting means for changing the operating condition of the robot in accordance with the identification number of the connecting portion. It is characterized by.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the operation panel is connected to the connection portion provided within the operation range of the robot, the operation speed of the robot is set to the robot control device by the setting means. It is characterized by being suppressed.
The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the operation panel includes contact detection means capable of detecting contact with another object, and is connected to the plurality of connection portions provided on the robot. To do.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the connection unit includes a communication unit with the robot control device, and specifies a connection unit that has commanded an emergency stop by communicating with the robot control device during an emergency stop. It is characterized by.

The robot system of the present invention has the following effects.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is not necessary to manually set the operation condition of the robot according to the place where the operator performs the teaching work, so that the operability is improved.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to improve the safety when the operator teaches in the vicinity of the robot movement range.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to detect that the robot has come into contact with another object during the operation and quickly stop it, so that the safety of the operator can be ensured and the robot can be prevented from being damaged. . Moreover, since the said contact detection means is detachable, the position of a contact detection means can be changed flexibly with a use application.
According to invention of Claim 4, since the connection part which instruct | commanded the emergency stop can be specified among several connection parts, recovery work can be made quicker.

Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

A robot system according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, only circuits related to emergency stop are extracted and described.
1 and 2, reference numeral 101 denotes a robot, 102 denotes a robot control device that controls the robot 101, and 103 denotes an operation panel that teaches the robot 101 of an operation and has a function of urgently stopping the operation of the robot 101. .
104a to 104c are ports connected to the robot control apparatus 102 via cables. The ports 104a to 104c have the same structure, and include switching means 105a to 105c and a plurality of connectors, respectively. The operation panel 103 has a structure that can be attached to and detached from the ports 104a to 104c via connectors.

The operation panel 103 is provided with an emergency stop switch 201 and a deadman switch 202. The emergency stop switch 201 is a normally closed type push button switch for urgently stopping the operation of the robot 101 regardless of other switches, and the deadman switch 202 is provided on the back surface of the operation panel 103. In order to ensure safety, the robot 101 is a normally open type push button switch that urgently stops when the operation panel 103 is released and the button is released.
The switching means 105a to 105c for the ports 104a to 104c are switches that hold the closed state when twisted to the right and hold the open state when twisted to the left. The power supply Vcc of the robot controller 102 is connected to one end of the switching means 105a of the port 104a. Further, the opposite end of the switching means 105a is connected to one end of the switching means 105b of the port 104b, and the opposite end of the switching means 105b is connected to one end of the switching means 105c of the port 104c. The opposite end of the switching means 105c is connected to the grounding part via the relay R1 in the robot control apparatus 102. In this way, the switching means 105a to 105c are directly connected between the power supply Vcc of the control device 102 and the relay R1. The make contact r1 of the relay R1 is provided between the brake power supply 203 and the brake release circuit 204, and the brake release circuit 204 is connected to a brake (not shown) in the robot 101.

The operation of the emergency stop circuit of the operation panel configured as described above will be described. First, the switching means 105a to 105c for all the ports 104a to 104c are set in a closed state in advance. When the robot is operated, the operation panel 103 is connected to the port 104a, and the switching means 105a is switched to the open side. As a result, the power supply Vcc of the robot control apparatus 102, the emergency stop switch 201, the deadman switch 202, the switching means 105b, the switching means 105c, the relay R1 in the robot control apparatus 102 and the grounding unit constitute a circuit. When the emergency stop switch 201 is in the normal state (closed state) and the deadman switch 202 is pressed, the relay R1 operates and the make contact r1 is closed, so that power is supplied to the brake release circuit 204 from the brake power source 203. When supplied, the robot 101 enters an operating state.

When the operation panel 103 is removed from the port 104a during the operation of the robot 101, the changeover switch 105a is first set to the closed side. Even if the operation panel 103 is removed from the port 104a in this state, the current from the power supply Vcc of the robot controller 102 passes through the switching means 105a, so that the robot 101 can continue to operate while the relay R1 continues to operate.
Conversely, when the operation panel 103 is attached to the port 104a, the operation panel 103 is attached to the port 104a while the attachment / detachment switch 105a is closed, and then the attachment / detachment switch 105a is opened. When the emergency stop switch 201 of the operation panel 103 is in a normal state (closed state) and the deadman switch 202 is pressed, the relay R1 continues to operate and power is supplied to the brake release circuit 204 from the brake power supply 203. When supplied, the robot 101 continues to operate.

Further, the ports 104a to 104c include storage units 501a to 501c. The storage units 501a to 501c are, for example, readable / writable ID tags, and store identification numbers for identifying the ports 104a to 104c. The operation panel 103 includes storage reading means 502 connected to the storage means 501a and operation condition setting means 503. The storage reading unit 502 reads the identification number from the connected storage unit 501 a and notifies the operation condition setting unit 503 of the identification number. The operation condition setting means 503 sets the correspondence between the identification numbers of the ports 104a to 104c and the positional relationship with the robot in advance, and determines whether or not the connected port is within the robot operation range. If it is within the operation range, the operator panel 103 causes the robot controller 102 to automatically set the operation speed of the robot 101 to be reduced in consideration of the safety of the operator. Thereby, since it is not necessary for the operator to manually set the operation speed according to the place to operate, the operability is improved and the safety is also improved.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which a plurality of operation panels are connected to a port in the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the operation panel 103 is connected to the port 104a and the operation panel 301 is simultaneously connected to the port 104b.
In the present embodiment, when a plurality of switches are connected, an emergency stop is performed by their OR. For example, even if the operator A does not press the emergency stop switch 201 of the operation panel 103, the operator B However, if the emergency stop switch 302 of the operation panel 301 is pressed, the robot is stopped urgently, and multiple safety can be maintained.
In the above-described embodiment, the operator needs to manually operate the changeover switch 105 before and after the operation panel 103 is attached to and detached from the port 104, but the changeover switch is opened by attaching the operation panel 103 to the port 104. The switch 105 may be set to the closed side by removing the operation panel 103 from the port 104.
Further, in the case of the two-person work of the worker A and the worker B as already described, the worker B who monitors safety outside the operation range of the robot operates only an emergency stop. There is no need to use an expensive operation panel 301 having various functions, and an emergency stop panel 304 having only an emergency stop switch 305 can be used. Thereby, a plurality of emergency stop functions can be configured at low cost.
If a port is to be installed at another location, the wiring of the emergency stop circuit can be easily added / extended by attaching a branch unit as shown in 306.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation status based on the present embodiment. Ports 401 a to 401 e are connected to the robot control apparatus 102. Among these, the ports 401 b and 401 c are installed within the operation range of the robot 101. When the operator A performs teaching work within the operation range of the robot 101, the operation panel 301 is connected to the nearby port 401b. Further, in order to ensure safety during work, the emergency stop switch 402a is connected to the port 401a outside the operating range of the robot 101, for example, and the operator B has this. Further, the emergency stop switch 402b is connected to the port 401e, and the operator C has this.
According to the above configuration, when one of the operators A, B, and C presses the emergency stop switch, the robot 101 surely makes an emergency stop, so that safety during teaching work is maintained and teaching work is maintained. Even if the operation panel 103 is removed after completion, an emergency stop by the emergency stop switch 402a or 402b is possible.

A robot system according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4A is an overall view of a robot equipped with an emergency stop circuit. In the figure, reference numeral 601 denotes a robot, and reference numerals 602 a to 602 i denote ports provided on the robot 601. The wiring connecting the ports in series is housed in the robot 601. An enlarged view of the port is shown in FIG. The port 602 has a changeover switch 603 similar to the above-described 105, and a small contact detection switch 604 is connected thereto. The contact detection switch 604 has the same structure as the emergency stop panel 304 described above, and when it comes into contact with another object, the contact detection switch 604 is opened and the robot 601 stops urgently.
According to the above configuration, since the contact detection switch 604 attached on the robot 601 comes to an emergency stop immediately when it touches the operator or a surrounding object during the operation of the robot 601, the safety of the operator is ensured. In addition, the robot 601 can be prevented from being damaged. Moreover, since the contact detection switch 604 is detachable, the attachment position can be flexibly changed according to the usage.

A robot system according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The ports 104a to 104c have communication means 701a to 701c, and the communication means is connected to the switching means 105a to 105c. On the other hand, the robot control apparatus 102 includes a communication unit 702 and a voltage detection unit 703, and the communication unit 702 and the voltage detection unit 703 can communicate with each other. The communication means 702 is connected to the wiring from the port 104c. On the other hand, the voltage detection means 703 is connected to the brake release circuit 204 and can determine whether or not electric power is supplied from the brake power supply 203 to the brake release circuit 204. When the emergency stop switch is not pressed and the robot 101 is in an operating state, the voltage detection unit 703 determines that power is supplied to the brake release circuit 204 and sends no signal to the communication unit 702.

Here, when the emergency stop switch is pressed and the robot 101 stops urgently, the voltage detection unit 703 determines that power is no longer supplied to the brake release circuit 204 and notifies the communication unit 702 of the fact. Receiving the notification, the communication unit 702 attempts serial communication with the communication units 701a to 701c via the emergency stop circuit. The communication units 701a to 701c are supplied with power by a method not shown, and can transmit their own identification numbers to the communication unit 702. However, for example, when the emergency stop device connected to the port 104b is pressed, the communication unit 702 can communicate with the communication unit 701c and the communication unit 701b, but cannot communicate with the communication unit 701a. In this way, it is possible to identify which emergency stop device has been pushed by performing communication using the interrupted emergency stop circuit and examining the other party that cannot communicate. According to the above configuration, it is effective when the robot 101 performs a return operation after an emergency stop due to contact with the outside environment.

  The present invention can be used for applications such as ensuring the safety of a robot and shortening the return time during an emergency stop.

Schematic showing the first embodiment of the present invention Detailed internal view of a plurality of teaching operation panels connected to the first embodiment of the present invention The figure which shows the operation condition based on the 1st Embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the 2nd Embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the 3rd Embodiment of this invention Schematic diagram showing a conventional example

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Robot 102 Robot controller 103 Operation panel 104 Port 105 Switching means 201 Emergency stop switch 202 Deadman switch 203 Brake power supply 204 Brake release circuit 301 Operation panel 304 Simple emergency stop device 305 Emergency stop switch 306 Branch unit 501 Storage means 502 Storage reading means 503 Operating condition setting means 602 Port 603 Changeover switch 604 Contact detection switch 701 Communication means 702 Communication means 703 Voltage detection means 1001 Robot 1002 Robot controller 1003 Operation panel 1004 Port 1005 Detachment switch 1101 Emergency stop switch 1102 Deadman switch 1103 Brake power supply 1104 Brake Release circuit

Claims (4)

In a robot system comprising a robot control device for controlling a robot, an operation panel having a function of urgently stopping the robot, and a connecting portion for connecting the robot control device and the operation panel.
There are a plurality of the connecting portions, each of which is assigned an identification number and connected in series, and the operation panel has setting means for changing the operating condition of the robot according to the identification number of the connecting portion. Characteristic robot system.   The operation panel, when connected to the connection portion provided within an operation range of the robot, causes the robot control device to suppress the operation speed of the robot by the setting means. The robot system according to 1. 3. The robot according to claim 1, wherein the operation panel includes contact detection means capable of detecting contact with another object, and is connected to the plurality of connection portions provided on the robot. system. The said connection part has a communication means with the said robot control apparatus, and specifies the connection part which commanded emergency stop by communicating with the said robot control apparatus at the time of an emergency stop. The robot system described.

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