JP2020011309A - Manipulator control device, manipulator control method and manipulator control program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a manipulator control device, a manipulator control method and a manipulator control program which allow a plurality of work-pieces arranged on a display stand to be efficiently re-displayed.SOLUTION: A manipulator control device 10 comprises: a determining unit 30 that determines states of a plurality of work-pieces in display positions at which the work-pieces should be re-displayed in a display stand on which the work-pieces are displayed; and a control unit 32 that controls a manipulator holding the work-pieces so that when the determining unit 30 determines that the plurality of work-pieces are present in the display positions, the work-pieces being present in the display positions are moved one by one to a temporary placement area until only one work-piece remains in the display position and then the remaining one work-piece is re-displayed in the display position without moving the work-piece to the temporary placement area and when the determining unit 30 determines that one work-piece is present in the display position, the one work-piece is re-displayed in the display position without moving the work-piece to the temporary placement area.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to a manipulator control device, a manipulator control method, and a manipulator control program.

 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique has been proposed in which components arranged randomly in a component supply unit in a bulk state are arranged on an alignment pallet different from the component supply unit via a temporary placing table (for example, see Patent Document 1).

JP 2012-245602 A

  However, when the technique described in Patent Literature 1 is applied to a technique for redisplaying a plurality of works arranged on a display stand, all the works are once moved to the temporary stand even when there is no need to pass through the temporary stand. However, there is a problem that efficiency is low because of this.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a manipulator control device, a manipulator control method, and a manipulator control program capable of efficiently redisplaying a plurality of works arranged on a display stand. With the goal.

  A manipulator control device according to the present invention includes a determination unit that determines a state of a work in a display place where a plurality of works are to be redisplayed on a display stand on which a plurality of works are displayed, and the determination unit includes a plurality of works in the display place. When it is determined that the work exists, the work existing in the display place is moved to the temporary storage area one by one until one work remains in the display place, and then the remaining one work is Without moving to the temporary storage area, re-displayed at the display location, when the determination unit determines that one work is present at the display location, one existing work, A control unit that controls the manipulator that holds the work so as to be displayed again at the display location without moving to the temporary storage area.

  In addition, the control unit, when the determination unit determines that there is no work in the display place, the work existing in the display place other than the work so as to re-display the display place. The manipulator may be controlled.

  In addition, the control unit may control the manipulator to preferentially re-display the work existing in the temporary storage area to the display place among the works existing in places other than the display place.

  Further, the temporary storage area may be provided in an empty area of the display stand or in a temporary storage stand different from the display stand.

  In the manipulator control method according to the present invention, a computer determines a state of a work in a display place where a plurality of works are to be re-displayed on a display stand on which a plurality of works are displayed; and When it is determined that the work exists, the work existing in the display place is moved one by one to the temporary storage area until one work remains in the display place, and then the remaining work is The work is re-displayed at the display place without moving to the temporary storage area, and when it is determined in the determination step that one work is present at the display place, one existing work is present. Controlling the manipulator holding the work so that the work is redisplayed at the display location without moving to the temporary storage area. .

  The manipulator control program according to the present invention, a computer, a determination unit that determines the state of the work in the display place to display the work of the display stand on which a plurality of works are to be re-displayed, and the determination unit in the display place When it is determined that a plurality of works are present, the work existing in the display place is moved to the temporary storage area one by one until one work remains in the display place, and then the remaining work is moved to the temporary storage area. One work is re-displayed at the display location without moving to the temporary storage area, and when the determination unit determines that one work is present at the display location, the existing one exists. The control unit controls a manipulator that holds the work so that the two works are displayed again at the display location without moving to the temporary storage area. Which is the program.

  According to the present invention, a plurality of works arranged on a display stand can be efficiently re-displayed.

It is a schematic structure figure of a pick and place device. It is a perspective view showing an example of a vertical articulated robot. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a manipulator control device. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of a manipulator control device. It is a flowchart of a manipulator control process. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work. It is a figure for explaining the order of re-display of a work.

  Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same or equivalent components and portions are denoted by the same reference numerals. Further, the dimensional ratios in the drawings may be exaggerated for the sake of explanation, and may differ from the actual ratios.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a pick and place device 1 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the pick-and-place device 1 includes a mobile manipulator MP, image sensors SA and SB, and a manipulator control device 10.

  The movable manipulator MP has a configuration in which a robot RB as an example of a manipulator is attached to a moving body M. The moving body M includes four wheels R that are rotated by a driving force of a motor (not shown), and moves on the floor according to an instruction from the manipulator control device 10.

  The robot RB holds a work (not shown) accommodated in a box 22 provided on the table 20, transports the work to the shelf 24, and places the work on the shelf 24 as an example of a display table.

  In the present embodiment, as an example, a robot hand H is attached as an end effector to the end of the robot arm of the robot RB, and the robot hand H holds the work by holding the work in the box 22. Then, the work is transported to the shelf 24 in a state where the work is held, the work is released, and the work is placed. The member for holding the work is not limited to the robot hand H, but may be a suction pad for sucking the work.

  An image sensor SA is provided above the box 22. The image sensor SA captures a work set, which is a set of works accommodated in the box 22, as a still image.

  An image sensor SB is installed at a position where the shelf 24 can be photographed. The image sensor SB captures a work displayed on the shelf 24 as a still image.

  The manipulator control device 10 generates a path from an arbitrary initial posture of the robot RB to a target posture. Here, the path is a list of postures when the robot RB is operated from the initial posture to the target posture. Specifically, the manipulator control device 10 performs image processing on the captured image acquired from the image sensor SA, and recognizes the position and orientation of the work to be held based on the result of the image processing. Then, the manipulator control device 10 sets the retracted posture in which the robot RB has retracted to the retracted position outside the visual field range of the image sensor SA in order to photograph the work in the box 22 as the initial posture, A first path in which the holding posture for holding is the target posture, a holding posture in which the robot RB holds the work in the box 22 as the initial posture, and a mounting posture in which the robot RB mounts the work on the shelf 24 is the target posture. The initial position is the second path to be set, and the mounting position where the robot RB mounts the work on the shelf 24 is the initial position, and the robot RB is in a retreat position outside the field of view of the image sensor SA in order to photograph the work in the box 22. And a third route having the retreat posture as the target posture. Note that the position where the work is to be placed may be recognized based on the image captured by the image sensor SB. Then, the manipulator control device 10 outputs an operation command value to the robot RB so that the robot RB operates according to the generated route.

  The manipulator control device 10 controls the robot RB so as to display the work displayed on the shelf 24 again, which will be described in detail later. When re-displaying the work, the manipulator control device 10 temporarily places the work on a temporary placement table 26 as an example of a temporary placement area as shown in FIG. The temporary table 26 has an area on which at least one or more works can be placed.

  Next, the robot RB will be described. In the present embodiment, a case where the robot RB is a vertical articulated robot will be described as an example. However, the present invention is also applicable to a horizontal articulated robot (scalar robot), a parallel link robot, and the like.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a robot RB that is a vertical articulated robot. As shown in FIG. 2, the robot RB is a 6-degree-of-freedom 6-axis robot including a base link BL, links L1 to L6, and joints J1 to J6. Note that a joint is a joint that connects links. Hereinafter, the links L1 to L6 and the robot hand H connected to the link L6 are referred to as a robot arm.

  The base link BL and the link L1 are connected via a joint J1 that rotates in the direction of arrow C1 about the vertical axis S1 in FIG. Therefore, the link L1 rotates in the arrow C1 direction about the base link BL.

  The link L1 and the link L2 are connected via a joint J2 that rotates in the direction of arrow C2 about the horizontal axis S2 in FIG. Therefore, the link L2 rotates in the direction of the arrow C2 with the link L1 as a fulcrum.

  The link L2 and the link L3 are connected via a joint J3 that rotates in the direction of arrow C3 about the axis S3 in FIG. Therefore, the link L3 rotates in the direction of the arrow C3 with the link L2 as a fulcrum.

  The link L3 and the link L4 are connected via a joint J4 that rotates in the direction of arrow C4 about the axis S4 in FIG. Therefore, the link L4 rotates in the arrow C4 direction with the link L3 as a fulcrum.

  The link L4 and the link L5 are connected via a joint J5 that rotates in the direction of arrow C5 about the axis S5 in FIG. Therefore, the link L5 rotates in the arrow C5 direction with the link L4 as a fulcrum.

  The link L5 and the link L6 are connected via a joint J6 that rotates in the direction of arrow C6 about the axis S6 in FIG. Therefore, the link L6 rotates in the direction of the arrow C6 with the link L5 as a fulcrum. Although not shown in FIG. 2, the robot hand H is attached to the link L6.

  For the joints J1 to J6, a range of a predetermined rotation angle is set as a movable range.

  The posture of the robot RB is determined by the rotation angles of each of the joints J1 to J6. Therefore, the operation command value for operating the robot RB is the rotation angle of each of the joints J1 to J6 corresponding to the posture to be taken by the robot RB.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the manipulator control device 10 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the manipulator control device 10 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, a storage 14, an input unit 15, a monitor 16, and an optical disk drive. 17 and a communication interface 18. The components are connected to each other via a bus 19 so that they can communicate with each other.

  In the present embodiment, the ROM 12 or the storage 14 stores a manipulator control program for executing a manipulator control process. The CPU 11 is a central processing unit that executes various programs and controls each component. That is, the CPU 11 reads the program from the ROM 12 or the storage 14 and executes the program using the RAM 13 as a work area. The CPU 11 controls the above components and performs various arithmetic processes according to a program recorded in the ROM 12 or the storage 14.

  The ROM 12 stores various programs and various data. The RAM 13 temporarily stores a program or data as a work area. The storage 14 is constituted by an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an SSD (Solid State Drive), and stores various programs including an operating system and various data.

  The input unit 15 includes a keyboard 151 and a pointing device such as a mouse 152, and is used for performing various inputs. The monitor 16 is, for example, a liquid crystal display and displays various information. The monitor 16 may function as the input unit 15 by adopting a touch panel method. The optical disk drive 17 reads data stored in various recording media (such as a CD-ROM or a Blu-ray disc) and writes data to the recording medium.

  The communication interface 18 is an interface for communicating with other devices such as the robot RB, the image sensors SA, SB, and the moving object M, and includes, for example, Ethernet (registered trademark), FDDI, Wi-Fi (registered trademark), and USB. (Universal Serial Bus) and IEEE 1394 standards are used.

  Next, a functional configuration of the manipulator control device 10 will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the manipulator control device 10. As shown in FIG. 4, the manipulator control device 10 includes a determination unit 30, a control unit 32, and a storage unit 34 as functional components. Each functional configuration is realized by the CPU 11 reading the manipulator control program stored in the ROM 12 or the storage 14, developing the program into the RAM 13 and executing the program.

  The determination unit 30 determines the state of the work at the display location where the work on the shelf 24 on which the plurality of works are displayed should be redisplayed. Here, the state of the work at the display place to be re-displayed is, for example, the number of works existing at the display place to be re-displayed. The display place is an area having an area in which one work can be displayed again, for example, an area having substantially the same shape as the planar shape of the work.

  When the determination unit 30 determines that a plurality of works exist in the display place, the control unit 32 temporarily places the works existing in the display place one by one until one work remains in the display place. After being moved to the table 26, the remaining one work is displayed again at the display place without moving to the temporary placing table 26.

  When the determination unit 30 determines that one work exists at the display place, the existing work is re-displayed at the display place without moving to the temporary placing stand 26. To control the robot RB.

  The storage unit 34 stores various information such as a manipulator control program.

  Next, the operation of the manipulator control device 10 will be described. In the following, for simplicity of description, a description will be given assuming that the moving body M does not move and stays at the same place.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of the manipulator control process executed by the CPU 11 of the manipulator control device 10. Hereinafter, a case will be described in which the robot RB displays a plurality of works displayed on the shelf 24 again from a state where all the works in the box 22 are displayed on the shelf 24.

  When the execution of the manipulator control process is instructed by the operator, the CPU 11 reads the manipulator control program from the ROM 12 or the storage 14 and develops and executes the program on the RAM 13 to execute the manipulator control process.

  The CPU 11, as the control unit 32, instructs the image sensor SB to perform photographing, and acquires a photographed image photographed by the image sensor SB (Step S100).

  The CPU 11 determines whether or not the display place is empty as the determination unit 30 as the state of the work at the display place where the work should be re-displayed based on the captured image, that is, there is no work in the display place. It is determined whether or not the situation is present (step S102). Here, when at least a part of the work exists at the display place, it is assumed that the work exists at the display place.

  The display location can be selected as follows. For example, a plurality of display places provided on the shelf 24 are pre-teached, and the storage unit 34 stores the position information of the plurality of taught display places and the display order for re-displaying the work in the plurality of display places. Then, a display place is selected according to the display order. Further, for example, an identification code such as a number indicating the display order may be provided on the shelf 24 in advance, and the identification code may be photographed by the image sensor SB. In this case, the display order may be identified based on the image captured by the image sensor SB, and the display location may be selected according to the identified display order.

  If the display place selected as described above is free (step S102: YES), one work to be redisplayed at the display place is selected (step S104).

  When selecting a work to be redisplayed, the work is selected in the following priority order, for example. For example, when a work exists on the temporary placing table 26, the work existing on the temporary placing table 26 is preferentially selected. As described above, by preferentially selecting the work existing on the temporary placing table 26, the size of the temporary placing table 26 can be reduced.

  When there is no work on the temporary placing table 26, the work is selected from undisplayed works existing in places other than the display place of the shelf 24. Specifically, for example, among the undisplayed works, a work existing at a position closest to the display place is selected. For example, when the display order is set from the right end to the left end of the shelf 24, the work located on the rightmost side among the undisplayed works is selected. Alternatively, a work that is most easily taken out, for example, a work that is present in front of the shelf 24 may be selected. Further, when there are a plurality of types of work, a priority may be set for each type of work.

  The CPU 11, as the control unit 32, redisplays the work selected in step S104 to the display location without moving the work to the temporary placing table 26 (step S106). Specifically, the CPU 11 generates a path from the point at which the robot RB holds the workpiece selected at step S104 to the point at which the robot RB redisplays the workpiece at the display location. A known route planning method can be used for generating the route. Then, the CPU 11 generates an operation command value of the robot RB based on the generated path, and transmits the operation command value to the robot RB. Thereby, the robot RB moves according to the generated route. That is, the robot RB holds the work selected in step 104 and displays it again at the display place.

  On the other hand, when the display place is not empty (step S102: NO), that is, when there is a work in the display place, the CPU 11 determines as the determination unit 30 a plurality of display places based on the image captured in step S100. It is determined whether or not a work exists (step S108). The determination as to whether or not a plurality of works exist at the display location can be made by using a known method such as template matching.

  Then, when there are a plurality of works in the display place (step S108: YES), the CPU 11 controls the control unit 32 to move one of the works present in the display place to the temporary placing table 26. The robot RB is controlled (step S110). Specifically, a path of the robot RB from the holding of a selected work from the plurality of works existing at the display place to the placement on the temporary placing table 26 is generated. Then, an operation command value for the robot RB is generated based on the generated route, and transmitted to the robot RB. Accordingly, the robot RB holds the work selected from the plurality of works existing in the display place and places the work on the temporary placing table 26. In addition, as a criterion for selecting one work from a plurality of works existing in the display place, for example, a work closest to the temporary placing table 26 may be selected, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  On the other hand, when a plurality of works do not exist in the display place (step S108: NO), that is, when one work exists in the display place, the CPU 11 controls the The robot RB is controlled so that the work is re-displayed at the display place without being temporarily placed on the temporary placing table 26 (step S112). Specifically, a path of the robot RB until one work existing in the display place is held and re-displayed in the display place is generated. Then, an operation command value for the robot RB is generated based on the generated route, and transmitted to the robot RB. Thereby, the robot RB holds one work existing in the display place and redisplays it in the display place.

  The CPU 11 as the control unit 32 determines whether or not all the works placed on the shelf 24 have been displayed again (Step S114). Specifically, for example, the number of works already placed on the shelf 24 before executing the present routine is compared with the number of times the work is re-displayed by executing the present routine, and when both of them match, It is determined that all the works have been displayed again. Alternatively, a captured image may be acquired from the image sensor SB, and based on the acquired captured image, it may be determined whether or not all the workpieces are aligned by image processing such as pattern matching.

  If it is determined that all the works have been displayed again (step S114: YES), this routine ends. On the other hand, when it is determined that not all the works are re-displayed (step S114: NO), that is, when there is a work that is not re-displayed, the process returns to step S100 to perform the processing of steps S100 to S114. repeat.

  Next, a specific example of the redisplay of the work will be described.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, when the display place P1 is vacant, the work W1 closest to the display place P1, for example, is selected from the undisplayed works W1 and W2. Then, the selected work W1 is displayed again at the display place P1, as shown in FIG. 6B. Next, as shown in FIG. 6C, the undisplayed work W2 is displayed again at the next display place P2.

  In addition, for example, as shown in FIG. 7A, when one work W1 exists at the display place P1, as shown in FIG. Display. Next, as shown in FIG. 7C, the undisplayed work W2 that has not been redisplayed is redisplayed at the next display place P2.

  8A, when a plurality of works W1 and W2 are placed in the display place P1, for example, the work W1 is selected and moved to the temporary placing table 26 as shown in FIG. 8B. . Next, since the work W2 remains in the display place P1, the work W2 is displayed again in the display place P1 without moving to the temporary placing table 26 as shown in FIG. 8C. Next, as shown in FIG. 8D, the work W1 temporarily placed on the temporary placing stand 26 is displayed again at the next display place P2.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when there is no work in the display place or when one work exists in the display place, the work is re-displayed in the display place without being temporarily placed on the temporary placing table 26. That is, only when there are a plurality of works in the display place, the works are temporarily placed on the temporary placing table 26. For this reason, compared with the case where all the works are temporarily placed on the temporary placing table 26 and then re-displayed, a plurality of works can be efficiently re-displayed.

  The manipulator control device 10 is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. For example, in the present embodiment, the case where the state of the work is determined based on the image captured by the image sensor SB has been described. However, the state of the work may be determined using a laser range finder.

  Further, in the present embodiment, a case has been described in which a temporary storage table 26 different from the shelf 24 is provided as the temporary storage area, but an empty area of the shelf 24 may be used as the temporary storage area.

  When there are a plurality of types of work, the type of work is identified by identifying at least one of the shape and color of the work, and a bar code or the like provided on the work, and the type of work is identified and re-evaluated. It may be displayed.

  In addition, various processors other than the CPU may execute the manipulator control processing that the CPU reads and executes the software (program) in the above embodiments. In this case, as the processor, a PLD (Programmable Logic Device) whose circuit configuration can be changed after the manufacture of an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) or the like, and an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit for executing an Integrated Circuit for executing an Integrated Circuit). A dedicated electric circuit or the like which is a processor having a circuit configuration designed exclusively is exemplified. Further, the manipulator control process may be executed by one of these various processors, or a combination of two or more processors of the same type or different types (for example, a plurality of FPGAs and a combination of a CPU and an FPGA). Etc.). Further, the hardware structure of these various processors is more specifically an electric circuit in which circuit elements such as semiconductor elements are combined.

  In the above embodiments, the manipulator control program is stored (installed) in the storage 14 or the ROM 12 in advance. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The program may be recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Only Memory), a DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disk Read Only Memory), and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory. Further, the program may be downloaded from an external device via a network.

1 Pick and Place Device 10 Manipulator Control Device 22 Box 24 Shelf 26 Temporary Placement Table 30 Judgment Unit 32 Control Unit 34 Storage Unit

Claims (6)

A determining unit that determines a state of a work at a display place where the work on the display stand on which the plurality of works are displayed is to be redisplayed;
When the determination unit determines that a plurality of works exist in the display place, the work existing in the display place is stored in the temporary storage area one by one until one work remains in the display place. After being moved, the remaining one work is re-displayed at the display place without moving to the temporary storage area, and it is determined by the determination unit that one work exists at the display place. In the case, a control unit that controls a manipulator that holds the work, so that one existing work does not move to the temporary storage area and is redisplayed at the display location.
Manipulator control device equipped with The control unit, when it is determined that there is no work in the display place by the determination unit, the manipulator to re-display the work present in the display place other than the display place in the display place. The manipulator control device according to claim 1, which controls. The manipulator control device according to claim 2, wherein the control unit controls the manipulator to preferentially redisplay the work existing in the temporary storage area to the display place among the works existing in places other than the display place. . The manipulator control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the temporary storage area is provided in an empty area of the display stand or in a temporary storage stand different from the display stand. Computer
A determining step of determining a state of a work at a display place where a plurality of works are to be re-displayed on a display stand on which a plurality of works are displayed;
When it is determined in the determination step that a plurality of works exist in the display place, the works existing in the display place are temporarily stored in the temporary storage area one by one until one work remains in the display place. After being moved, the remaining one work is re-displayed at the display place without moving to the temporary storage area, and it is determined in the determination step that one work exists at the display place. In the case, a control step of controlling a manipulator that holds the work, so that one existing work does not move to the temporary storage area and is re-displayed at the display place.
A manipulator control method for executing processing including: Computer
A determination unit that determines a state of a work at a display place where a plurality of works is to be re-displayed on a display stand on which a plurality of works are displayed; and
When the determination unit determines that a plurality of works exist in the display place, the work existing in the display place is stored in the temporary storage area one by one until one work remains in the display place. After being moved, the remaining one work is re-displayed at the display place without moving to the temporary storage area, and it is determined by the determination unit that one work exists at the display place. In the case, a control unit that controls a manipulator that holds the work, such that one existing work does not move to the temporary storage area and is re-displayed at the display place.
Manipulator control program to function as