JP2006159332A - Work transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a work transfer device capable of efficiently transferring a work even in the case when the work is loaded intermittently or at random. <P>SOLUTION: A carried article W is drawn out from a work carrier device 2 by gripping it by a gripping hand 16 and transferred to and placed at a specified position to be carried in when a carrying article presence sensor 17 detects that the carried article W is held by an attachment 11 at a delivering position of the work carrier device 2, and the work carrier device 2 is driven by one pitch by one pitch by a handling robot 3 until the carried article W held by the attachment 11 is detected by the carrying article presence sensor 17 when it is not detected that the carried article W is held by the attachment 11 at the delivering position. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a workpiece transfer device that uses an industrial robot to transfer workpieces between a workpiece transfer device and an assembly device or a processing line, and more particularly to a workpiece transfer device suitable for a workpiece transfer device that operates in synchronization. The present invention relates to a mounting device.

  Focusing on the motion function of a flexible industrial robot, there has been proposed a workpiece transfer device that drives a conveyor as a workpiece transfer device by the motion of an industrial robot and reliably links the motion of both (patent) Reference 1).

This includes a conveyor that does not have a drive source and can be driven from the outside, a holder for holding a transported object attached to the conveyor at a certain pitch, and a plurality of the conveyors provided at a certain pitch. The drive engaged means, a predetermined position where the conveyed object should be conveyed and the conveyor have a range of motion, and the conveyor hand moves and conveys the object by a robot hand based on a command from the control system. An industrial robot that repeatedly performs the transport movement of the above, a finger for gripping the object to be transported attached to the robot hand of the industrial robot, and a driver for driving the conveyor by the motion of the industrial robot attached to the robot hand. It consists of a driving engagement means that is detachably engaged with the combination means, and the conveyor can be fed at a constant pitch by the feed movement of the industrial robot, By the conveying motion of the industrial robot between the conveyor and the predetermined position is to be supplied in a positioned state is taken out objects to be conveyed.
No. 6-27350

  However, in the above conventional example, the conveyor is sent by one pitch by the robot before the workpiece is taken out, the workpiece is taken out, the processed workpiece is placed on the carry-out conveyor, and then the carry-out conveyor is sent by one pitch by the robot. Therefore, when the work is loaded on the conveyor at every pitch, it can be transferred efficiently, but when it is loaded intermittently or randomly, it cannot be transferred efficiently.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a workpiece transfer device that can transfer efficiently even when workpieces are loaded intermittently or randomly.

  The present invention is composed of a conveyor having attachments for holding an object to be conveyed at fixed pitches, and has a drive source that can be fed and driven from outside without a drive source, and a plurality of drive shafts, A handling robot that is capable of moving a gripping hand that grips the transported object between the work transporting device and a predetermined position where the transported object is to be transported, and a gripping hand of the handling robot, A transported object presence sensor that detects the presence or absence of a transported object that is held by an attachment at a carry-out position; and a controller that controls the operation of the handling robot. If the detected object is held by the attachment at the unloading position of the workpiece transfer device, If it is not detected that the object to be conveyed is held by the attachment at the unloading position, the object is present. The workpiece transfer device is driven by one pitch by the handling robot until the object to be transferred held by the attachment is detected by the seat sensor.

  Therefore, in the present invention, when the conveyed object occupancy sensor detects that the conveyed object is held by the attachment at the unloading position of the workpiece conveying device, the conveyed object is grasped by the grasping hand. If it is not detected that the object to be conveyed is held in the attachment at the unloading position, it is attached to the attachment by the object to be conveyed presence sensor. Since the workpiece transfer device is driven by one pitch by the handling robot until the held object is detected, the workpiece can be efficiently transferred even when workpieces are loaded intermittently or randomly. Can do.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a workpiece transfer apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an assembly stage to which the workpiece transfer device according to the first embodiment of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a front view showing an operation state of the workpiece transfer device, and FIG. 3 is an operation state of the workpiece transfer device. It is a flowchart which shows.

  The assembly stage shown in FIG. 1 constitutes one assembly stage on the assembly line, sets the workpiece conveyed from the pre-process A of the assembly line to the assembly apparatus 1, is supplied to the component conveyance apparatus 2 and stored. The component W is supplied and set to the workpiece of the assembly apparatus 1 by the handling robot 3, welded and assembled by the welding robot 4, and then conveyed to the next process B of the assembly line. For this reason, adjacent to the assembly apparatus 1, a plurality of welding robots 4, a loading robot 5 for loading and setting workpieces from the assembly line A, a plurality of unloading robots 6 for unloading assembled workpieces to the assembly line B, and a plurality of robots. And a handling robot 3 that grips and supplies the component W of the component transport apparatus 2 to the assembly apparatus 1.

  The assembling apparatus 1 has a function of positioning and clamping and holding a workpiece supplied from a loading robot 5 and a function of holding a component W loaded by the handling robot 3 and set on the workpiece, which are welding robots. Clamping and gripping are continued during the welding operation at 4, and when the welding operation is completed, the workpiece that has been clamped and gripped is released so that it can be discharged by the unloading robot 6.

  The welding robot 4 is activated when the workpiece and the part W are set and clamped in the assembly apparatus 1, and moves the welding gun from the illustrated origin position to the assembly apparatus 1 to weld the workpiece and the part W, When all the welding is completed, the robot leaves the assembly device 1 and returns to the original position and waits. At the time of standby, when it is predicted that the wear of the welding tip of the welding gun exceeds a specified amount, the welding tip is shaped by a tip dresser (not shown).

  As shown in FIG. 2, the component conveying device 2 is composed of, for example, a chain conveyor 10, and includes a plurality of chain attachments 11 at a predetermined pitch and is assembled and supplied to the chain attachments 11 by sublines. W is held on the carry-in side, and each time the chain 10 is driven by the pitch, the empty chain attachment 11 is extended to hold the supply component W. Each chain attachment 11 is transported to the assembly device 1 side by driving the chain 10 at each pitch while holding the component W, and the empty chain attachment 11 is removed when the component W is transported to the assembly device 1 on the carry-out side. The chain 10 is operated so as to return to the carry-in side by conveyance at every pitch. The component conveying device 2 has a function of conveying the parts W stocked in the chain attachment 11 for each pitch, and is composed of an independent driving device and a free conveyor in which the operation limit detecting function is omitted. In addition, the chain attachment 11, the chain 10, or the component W held on the chain attachment 11 is driven from the outside passively in the transport direction following driving in the unloading direction.

  The handling robot 3 is formed of a multi-axis robot (usually 6 axes), and has a hand 16 capable of gripping the component W at the tip of the arm 15, and the origin position shown in FIG. It is operated between the unloading position on the carry-out side of the device 2 and the carry-in position to the assembly device 1. The hand 16 includes a component presence sensor 17 that detects whether or not the component W is held on the chain attachment 11 located at the carry-out position. The handling robot 3 operates to grip and extract the parts W stocked in the parts conveying device 2 on the carry-out side, convey them to the assembling apparatus 1 and set them on the workpiece of the assembling apparatus 1.

  When the handling robot 3 is not in operation, it is at the origin position. When an operation command is issued, the handling robot 3 moves the hand 16 to the carry-out side of the component conveying device 2 and grips the component W on the chain attachment 11 of the conveying device 2. Thus, the part W is operated to be removed from the chain attachment 11. When the part W is not set on the chain attachment 11 at the carry-out position, this is detected by the part presence sensor 17, and the chain attachment 11 at the carry-out position is gripped and driven in the carry-out direction by one pitch. Whether or not the part W is present on the next chain attachment 11 is detected again by the part presence sensor 17 and determined. The operation of driving the chain attachment 11 by itself in the carry-out direction is repeated until the component W is present on the chain attachment 11 that arrives at the carry-out position.

  Therefore, the parts W are not stacked on all the chain attachments 11 between the carry-in position and the carry-out position of the parts transport device 2, and the parts W are intermittently held or the parts W from the parts assembly subline are Even when the carry-in is performed at random, the conveyance component W can be reliably gripped and supplied to the assembling apparatus 1. The gripped component W is driven and conveyed to the carry-out side by one pitch together with the chain attachment 11, and after the next chain attachment 11 arrives at the carry-out position, it is extracted from the preceding chain attachment 11 and conveyed to the assembling apparatus 1. To do. The parts transported to the assembly apparatus 1 are set at a predetermined position of the workpiece clamped by the assembly apparatus 1, and after confirming that the parts W are gripped on the assembly apparatus 1 side, the gripping of the parts W is released. Then, it returns to the home position.

  FIG. 3 is a control flowchart of component transfer by the handling robot 3 executed by the controller 7, which is activated every time a component carry-in command is issued from the assembly device 1. The operation of the handling robot 3 will be described below with reference to FIG.

  When a component transfer command is issued from the assembly apparatus 1 to the handling robot 3, in step S1, the handling robot 3 moves the component gripping hand 16 to the carry-out position of the component transport device 2, and proceeds to step S2.

  In step S2, the component presence sensor 17 installed in the component gripping hand 16 detects the component W of the chain attachment 11 located at the carry-out position, and the process proceeds to step S3.

  In step S3, it is determined whether or not the part W received by the handling robot 3 is present on the chain attachment 11 detected by the part presence sensor 17. If the part W is present, the process proceeds to step S5. If W is not present, the process proceeds to step S4.

  In step S4, since there is no part W to be carried out at the chain attachment 11 at the carry-out position, the part attachment hand 16 of the handling robot 3 drives the chain attachment 11 at the carry-out position by one pitch in the carry-out direction. Then, the component conveying device 2 is driven to move the next chain attachment 11 to the carry-out position, and the process proceeds to Step S1. In step S1, the component gripping hand 16 is moved to the chain attachment 11 located at the unloading position, and in step S2, the presence sensor 17 detects whether the component W to be unloaded is present in the chain attachment 11 at the unloading position. Then, the process proceeds to step S3. In this way, the operations of Step S4, Step S1, and Step S2 are repeated until the part W to be unloaded is present on the chain attachment 11 that arrives at the unloading position.

  In step S5, the component W of the chain attachment 11 that has arrived at the unloading position of the component conveying device 2 is gripped by the component gripping hand 16, driven by one pitch in the unloading direction, and the process proceeds to step S6. By driving in the carry-out direction by this one pitch, the next chain attachment 11 can be made to arrive at the carry-out position in advance.

  In step S6, the part W gripped by the part gripping hand 16 is extracted from the chain attachment 11, transported to the assembling apparatus 1, and the process proceeds to step S7.

  In step S7, the part W gripped by the part gripping hand 16 is positioned and set at a corresponding position of the workpiece clamped in the assembly apparatus 1, and the process proceeds to step S8.

  In step S8, it is confirmed that the assembling apparatus 1 has gripped the component W positioned and set by the component gripping hand 16, and the process proceeds to step S9.

  In step S9, the part W gripped by the part gripping hand 16 is released, and the process proceeds to step S10, where the part gripping hand 16 is detached from the assembling apparatus 1 and returned to the origin position, and a series of parts supply handling is performed. End the operation.

  In the above-described embodiment, after confirming the presence of the component W loaded on the chain attachment 11 located at the unloading position of the component conveying device 2, the component W is gripped and the unloading direction is performed by one pitch. The gripping part W is pulled out from the chain attachment 11 after being driven, but a chain driving hook is attached to the part gripping hand 16 of the handling robot 3 and the hook is engaged with the chain conveyor 10. The hook may be attached to the chain attachment 11 by the robot gripping hand 16, and the hook may be gripped by the component gripping hand 16 to be chain conveyor 10. May be driven in the carry-out direction by one pitch.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of the component gripping hand 16 in the former. An adapter bar 21 is attached to a clamping device 20 as the component gripping hand 16, and the chain 10 of the component transporting device 2 is attached to both ends of the adapter bar 21. Is provided with a hook 22 that engages with. FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of the chain attachment 11 in the latter, in which hooks 23 are provided so as to protrude from the side of the chain attachment 11. In any configuration, the handling robot 3 is controlled on the basis of the control flowchart of the component transfer by the handling robot 3 in FIG. 3, and step S5 after confirming the presence of the component W in steps S1 to 3, and At the time of driving one pitch of the component conveying device 2 in step S4, the component gripping hand 16 is driven while gripping the component W, the chain 10 is driven by the hook 22 of the gripping hand 16, or the chain attachment 11 is Any one of them may be adopted depending on selection of gripping and driving.

  As described above, since the workpiece transfer apparatus according to the present embodiment drives the workpiece transfer device 2 by one pitch by the handling robot 3, the workpiece transfer device 2 itself includes a driving device for transfer. No work transfer device may be used, and a drive device for driving and piping / wiring work are not required, and the work transfer device 2 itself can be manufactured at low cost.

  In addition, the workpiece transfer device determines whether or not the workpiece W is present at the unloading position of the workpiece conveyance device 2, and when the workpiece W is present, grips and pulls out the workpiece W. When the workpiece W is not present, the workpiece conveyance device 2 is driven and conveyed by one pitch until the presence of the workpiece W is detected. Since it is determined whether or not W is seated at the unloading position, even when the workpiece W is intermittently loaded on the workpiece transfer device 2 or randomly loaded, W can be gripped and removed from the carry-out position.

  In addition, the workpiece transfer device 2 is configured to drive and convey the workpiece W by one pitch after confirming the presence of the workpiece at the unloading position, and then grip the workpiece W and extract it from the workpiece conveyance device 2. That is, the presence or absence of a workpiece is confirmed with respect to the attachment 11 one pitch ahead, the workpiece transfer device 2 is driven by one pitch, the workpiece W is gripped and pulled out from the workpiece transfer device 2. After the workpiece W is pulled out, the next attachment 11 is present at the unloading position. Further, as in the prior art, in the case where the workpiece W is extracted after first being driven by one pitch regardless of whether the workpiece is present, the work can be completed when the workpiece W is present. However, when the workpiece W is not present, the workpiece removal operation is not completed and the workpiece transfer operation is stopped, but the presence of the workpiece W is first detected as in this embodiment. If it does, the operation | movement after the drive for the first 1 pitch can be determined automatically, and a workpiece transfer operation | movement can be performed smoothly.

  In the present embodiment, the following effects can be achieved.

  (A) Consists of a conveyor 10 to which attachments 11 for holding the object to be conveyed are attached at fixed pitches, and controls a workpiece conveying device 2 that is not provided with a driving source and can be driven from the outside, and a plurality of driving shafts. A handling robot 3 movably provided with a gripping hand 16 for gripping the transported object W between the workpiece transporting device 2 and a predetermined position where the transported object W should be transported, and a gripping hand of the handling robot 3 16, a transported object presence sensor 17 that detects the presence or absence of a transported object W held by the attachment 11 at the unloading position of the work transport device 2, and a controller 7 that controls the operation of the handling robot 3. The controller 7 is transported to the attachment 11 at the unloading position of the work transport device 2 by the transported object presence sensor 17. When it is detected that W is held, the object to be conveyed W is grasped by the grasping hand 16 and is extracted from the work conveying apparatus 2, transferred to a predetermined position to be conveyed, and attached to the attachment 11 at the unloading position. If it is not possible to detect that the conveyed product W is held, the workpiece conveying device 2 is handled by the handling robot 2 until the conveyed product W held on the attachment 11 is detected by the conveyed object presence sensor 17. 3 to drive one pitch at a time. For this reason, even when the workpieces W are loaded intermittently or randomly, they can be transferred efficiently.

  (A) When the controller 7 detects that the workpiece W is held on the attachment 11 at the unloading position of the workpiece transfer device 2, after the workpiece transfer device 2 is driven by one pitch by the handling robot 3 Since the workpiece W is gripped by the gripping hand 16 and extracted from the workpiece transport device 2 and transferred to a predetermined position to be transported, the next attachment 11 exists at the unloading position after the workpiece is extracted. And if the presence of the workpiece | work W is detected initially, the operation | movement after the drive for the first 1 pitch can be determined automatically, and workpiece | work transfer operation | movement can be performed smoothly.

  (C) The one-pitch driving by the handling robot 3 of the workpiece transfer device 2 is driven by engaging the gripping hand 16 with the attachment 11, so that the workpiece W can be transferred without being damaged.

  (D) The gripping hand 16 is provided with a conveyor component of the workpiece transfer device 2, for example, a hook 22 that can be engaged with the chain 10, and the handling robot 3 of the workpiece transfer device 2 is driven by one pitch. When the hook 22 is engaged with the conveyor constituting member 10 of the workpiece transfer device 2 and driven, the workpiece transfer device 2 can be driven without breaking the holding posture of the holding hand 16, and the workpiece W to be continuously executed can be driven. Grasping can be performed smoothly.

  (E) Driving of one pitch by the handling robot 3 of the work transport device 2 is performed while the object W is held by the gripping hand 16 when the object W is held by the attachment 11. When driven by moving the object W in the unloading direction, the workpiece gripping operation and the driving operation of the workpiece transfer device can be performed without changing the posture of the gripping hand 16.

  In the above-described embodiment, the workpiece transfer target has been described as the component W being transferred from the component conveying device 2 to the component assembling device 1. However, although not illustrated, the components stocked in the component conveying device are described. It may be a case of sequentially transporting to a processing line of the next process or a case of pallet stacking.

The block diagram of the assembly stage to which the workpiece transfer apparatus in one Embodiment of this invention is applied. The front view which similarly shows the operation state in a workpiece transfer apparatus. The flowchart which shows the operation state of a workpiece transfer apparatus. The perspective view which shows an example of a structure of a components gripping hand. The perspective view which shows an example of a chain attachment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Assembling apparatus 2 Parts conveying apparatus 3 Handling robot 4 Welding robot 5, 6 Loading robot, Unloading robot 7 Controller 10 Chain conveyor 11 Chain attachment 15 Robot arm 16 Grasp hand 17 Parts presence sensor 22, 23 Hook

Claims (5)

A work transfer device that is configured with a conveyor to which attachments for holding an object to be transferred are attached at fixed pitches and that is not provided with a drive source and can be driven and driven from the outside,
A handling robot that controls a plurality of drive shafts and that is capable of moving a gripping hand that grips the object to be transported between the workpiece transport device and a predetermined position where the object is to be transported;
A to-be-conveyed object presence sensor for detecting presence / absence of a to-be-conveyed object, which is provided in a gripping hand of the handling robot and is held by an attachment at an unloading position of a work conveying device;
A controller for controlling the operation of the handling robot,
When the controller detects that the object to be conveyed is held by the attachment at the unloading position of the workpiece conveyance device by the object to be conveyed presence sensor, the controller grips the object to be conveyed with a grasping hand. If it is not detected that the object to be conveyed is held on the attachment at the unloading position, it is held on the attachment by the object to be conveyed presence sensor. The workpiece transfer device is characterized in that the workpiece transfer device is driven by one pitch by the handling robot until the object to be transferred is detected.   When the controller detects that the object to be conveyed is held by the attachment at the unloading position of the workpiece conveyance device, the controller drives the workpiece conveyance device by one pitch by the handling robot, and then grips the object to be conveyed. 2. The workpiece transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the workpiece transfer device is pulled out from the workpiece transfer device and transferred to a predetermined position to be transferred.   The workpiece transfer apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the one-pitch drive by the handling robot of the workpiece transfer device is driven by engaging a gripping hand with an attachment. The gripping hand includes a hook that can be engaged with a conveyor constituting member of a work transfer device,
3. The workpiece transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the one-pitch driving by the handling robot of the workpiece transfer device is driven by engaging a hook with a conveyor component of the workpiece transfer device. .   The one-pitch driving by the handling robot of the workpiece transfer device is to move the transferred object in the carry-out direction while holding the transferred object with the gripping hand when the transferred object is held by the attachment. The workpiece transfer device according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the workpiece transfer device is driven.

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