JP2606505B2 - Parts supply device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component supply device,
More specifically, the present invention relates to a component supply device that takes out a component sent to a component transport truck of a bowl feeder by an industrial robot and supplies the component to a position suitable for component assembly and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a parts supply apparatus for performing automatic assembly, one part supplied in a bulk state is used.
A bowl feeder is generally used for separating the components one by one, recognizing them by an image processing apparatus, and taking out and supplying appropriate parts. Since the bowl feeder separates and aligns components only by applying vibration, good separation and alignment of components can be achieved by providing an optimum vibration amplitude according to the type of component to be separated and aligned.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a bowl feeder of a component supply apparatus having such an image processing apparatus.
A component transport track 73 is provided on the inner surface of the first side plate 72, and the terminal transport side of the component transport track 73 is directed inward such that the terminal end 74 of the component transport track 73 faces substantially the center of the bowl 71. It is curved (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-4358). FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing a component supply system incorporating the component supply device having the configuration shown in FIG. 7, in which the industrial robot 81 is arranged in a predetermined relative positional relationship with the bowl feeder 70, and The image detection unit 82 is arranged so that the predetermined range of the transport track 73 is included in the field of view. Reference numeral 83 denotes a robot controller, reference numeral 84 denotes a vision device, and reference numeral 85 denotes a bowl feeder controller.

[0004] If the component supply system having the above-described configuration is adopted, the component feed truck can be provided by applying a predetermined vibration amplitude to the bowl feeder 70 by the bowl feeder controller 85 in a state where many components are put into the bowl 71 in a bulk state. At 73, part separation and alignment can be achieved. Then, the image of the component transported to a predetermined range of the component transport track 73 is captured by the image detection unit 82,
By performing a predetermined process in the vision device 84, the type of the component is identified. As a result of the identification by the vision device 84, if the component is to be applied to component assembling or the like, the data indicating the position of the component or the like is supplied to the robot controller 83 to control the industrial robot 81 so that the bowl feeder 70 is controlled. Remove parts from Also,
If the component cannot be applied to component assembling or the like, it is transported as it is to the end of the component transport truck 73, then falls naturally onto the bowl 71, and is again subjected to the above series of processing.

Therefore, even if a component is identified as a component that cannot be applied to component assembling or the like due to insufficient separation, the component naturally falls from the end of the component transport truck 73 by a sufficient amount. Since the separation can be achieved, and then the parts are supplied again through the parts transport truck 73, the ratio of the parts taken out by the industrial robot 81 to the amount of parts put into the bowl 71 can be increased.

[0006]

However, in the component supply device shown in FIG. 7, since the components are dropped directly from the end of the spiral component transport track 73 to the bowl 71, a drop is inevitable. There is a disadvantage that one or both parts may be damaged due to the collision between the falling part and the part inside the bowl 71. In addition, if the amount of components inside the bowl 71 is reduced, the possibility that the components collide with each other is reduced, and the inconvenience that the components are damaged is reduced. Therefore, there is a new inconvenience that the coating or the like applied to the bowl 71 is partially and greatly damaged at an early stage.

[0007] In order to eliminate such inconvenience, the inventors of the present invention have proposed, as shown in FIG.
A component conveying track 93 is provided outside the component conveying track 93, and a component falling step 94 and a component return path 95 for guiding the dropped component to the bowl 91 are provided at the end of the component transport track 93. A component feeder having a configuration in which the component is returned to the bowl 91 by providing an opening 97 at a position corresponding to the side plate 92 and at a position lower than the component transport path 96 inside the component. In addition, 98 is a translucent plate,
By being positioned within the field of view of an image detection unit (not shown), one or both of the silhouette image and the reflection image of the component is used to increase the component identification accuracy.

If this configuration is adopted, the parts are
The drop when dropping is extremely small,
Damage to the bowl 91 can be greatly reduced. Further, since the component transport track is provided outside the side plate 92, the shape of the component transport track can be set so as to enhance the effect of separating and aligning components. However, since components returned to the bowl 91 from the component return path 95 must pass through the opening 97, for example, when various types of components are mixed and charged into the bowl 91, depending on the components, the opening 97 A new inconvenience of clogging occurs. Then, once such inconvenience occurs, even a component that can smoothly pass through the opening 97 will be jammed due to the jamming of the preceding component. Furthermore, even if a component has a size that can sufficiently pass through the opening 97 when used alone, there is a disadvantage that if the separation is insufficient, components that have not been separated may become jammed.

Also, in any of the component supply apparatuses, since the components cannot be taken out by the industrial robot until the components are once returned to the bowl and then transported to the predetermined position of the component transport truck again, the components cannot be removed. When the amount of components stored in the storage device is reduced, there is a disadvantage that the component supply speed is significantly reduced.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has a large impact upon returning unsuitable parts typified by insufficiently separated parts for recirculation. And reduce the time required for the returned parts to recirculate and reach the field of view of the image detection unit, significantly improving the component supply speed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a new component supply device that can be used.

[0011]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component supply device, wherein an image detecting means is disposed at a predetermined position of a component transport truck disposed at a predetermined position outside a bowl, and is located at a predetermined position outside the visual field of the image detecting means of the component transport track. The predetermined range on the upstream side is formed to be wide, and the downstream side of the field of view of the image detecting means of the component transport truck is communicated with the wide portion of the component transport truck. Is provided.

[0013]

[Action]

[0014]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the image detecting means facing the predetermined position of the component transport track disposed at a predetermined position outside the bowl is disposed, the shape of the component transport track is determined by the size of the bowl. It can be set freely without any restrictions due to the image detection means, and the parts to be taken out can be raised by the image detection means with the effect of separating and aligning the parts by the step provided upstream of the field of view of the image detection means. Can be detected with probability. Then, the parts which are not to be taken out can be separated, inverted, etc. by the step portion, then guided to the wide portion of the component transport truck and circulated again. Therefore, the drop for recirculating the component is only the drop due to the step portion, and the impact when the component is returned to the wide portion can be significantly reduced. In addition, since the parts that are not to be taken out are returned to the wide portion, it is possible to prevent the disadvantage that the separation and alignment effects are reduced due to the returned parts. Further, the time required for the components to pass through the step portion and reach the visual field of the image detecting means can be greatly reduced, and the component supply efficiency can be improved even when the amount of components inside the bowl is small.

[0016]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing an assembling system incorporating the component supply device of the present invention, and includes a bowl feeder 1 as a component supply device, a lighting device, and a CC.
An image detection unit 3a including a D camera or the like;
And an assembly robot 4 and a conveyor line 5.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a component supply apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part, which is a spiral component along an inner surface of a side plate 1b of a bowl 1a for storing components. It has a transport path 1c and a component transport track 1d that communicates with the component transport path 1c along the outer surface of the side plate 1b. This component transport truck 1d
The side communicating with the component transport path 1c has a narrow width,
The width is gradually increased as the distance from the component transport path 1c increases, and furthermore, the width is formed in a horizontal plane in the radial direction. The remaining portion of the component transport track 1d is formed on a wide and substantially flat surface, and a translucent plate 1e is provided so as to cover an opening formed at a predetermined position in the center. Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 1, the component transport path 1c is formed on a tapered surface which descends outward in the radial direction. Further, a somewhat steep slope 1f and a bowl 1 in the radial direction are provided downstream of the plate 1e.
A component return path 1g formed so that the a side becomes lower is integrally formed in this order. Further, the side plate 1b is opened over a predetermined range at a predetermined position of a portion located above the component transport path 1c to form a component passing portion 1h, and an inner end of the component return path 1g is connected to the component passing portion 1g. It communicates with 1h. 1j is a vibration source that applies vibration to the bowl 1a. Therefore, if the component transported from the bowl 1a to the translucent plate 1e through the component transport path 1c and the component transport track 1d is suitable for assembly work, it can be taken out by the assembly robot 4. On the other hand, if the parts are in an inappropriate state such as overlapping parts, the parts are reversed while passing through the inclined surface 1f and returned to the middle of the parts transport path 1c through the parts return path 1g and the parts passing part 1h. Because
The components can be recirculated toward the translucent plate 1e. The required recirculation time in this case is greatly reduced as compared with the case where the parts are returned to the bowl 1a.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the translucent plate 1e, the illumination device and the image detecting section 3a. The illumination device 2 illuminates the entire range of the translucent plate 1e from above. The entire range of the light-transmitting plate 1e is illuminated from below by a lighting device (not shown), and the light is transmitted by the lighting device 2 that passes through the light-transmitting plate 1e and is located on the light-transmitting plate 1e. Light reflected by a component and reflected by a lighting device (not shown) is received by the image detection unit 3a.

The operation of the component supply device having the above configuration is as follows. When vibration is applied to the component supply device by the vibration source 1j while a large number of components are put into the bowl 1a, the components are separated and sent out in the component transport path 1c and the component transport track 1d, and the plate 1e having translucency is provided. Conveyed toward. However, the component sent to the component transport truck 1d is not always separated from other components, and such a component is recognized by the vision device 3 as a component that cannot be taken out by the assembly robot 4. In this case, an image detection signal from the image detection unit 3a is supplied to the vision device 3, and based on the image detection signal, recognition is performed as to whether or not the component can be taken out by a method such as feature value extraction. Further, since the transmitted light from the illumination device 2 or the reflected light from the illumination device (not shown) is incident on the image detection unit 3a, the light is transmitted through components having no distinction between the front and back sides and components having no influence on the surface state. You only need to take in the light,
The transmitted light and the reflected light only need to be sequentially captured for a component whose surface condition is affected. By supplying an image detection signal corresponding to the captured light to the vision device 3, the component can be recognized with high accuracy.

For the parts recognized by the vision device 3 as parts that can be removed, an operation command may be given to a robot controller (not shown), and the assembly robot 4 responds to the operation command. The corresponding parts are taken out from the translucent plate 1e by operation and a predetermined assembling operation is performed. Conversely, no operation command is given to the robot controller for parts that are recognized as parts that should not be taken out (parts that are not separated, parts that are turned upside down, parts of different types, etc.). Therefore, the light is transmitted from the light-transmitting plate 1e to the steep slope 1f, and the parts are separated on the slope 1f. After that, the component naturally falls to a predetermined position on the component transport path 1c through the component return path 1g and the component passing section 1h, so that the component is turned over. In this case, the drop position of the component is limited to a predetermined range, but the drop can be made much smaller than in the case where it falls directly on the bowl 1a. And the damage to the components, the damage to the component transport path 1c, and the like can be greatly reduced. The naturally dropped parts may fall further to the bowl 1a depending on the amount of the parts already existing on the parts conveying path 1c and the amount of the parts which fall naturally. However, the parts may fall from the parts conveying path 1c to the bowl 1a. The drop in the case of dropping is made very small, so the impact in this case can also be greatly reduced, and damage to parts,
Damage to the component transport path 1c can be greatly reduced.

Also, since the component returned by the component return path 1g is returned to a predetermined position in the component transport path 1c, the time required for the component to be transported to the translucent plate 1e after returning. Can be greatly reduced. Therefore, even when the amount of the components stored in the bowl 1a is reduced, the components can be sequentially conveyed onto the translucent plate 1e in a relatively short time, and the components overlap with each other.
Since the inverted state of the front and back can be eliminated with a considerably high probability, the efficiency of taking out parts by the assembly robot 4 can be significantly increased.

[0022]

Embodiment 2 FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part showing another embodiment of the component supply apparatus of the present invention. The difference from the embodiment of FIG. 2 is that the component passing portion 1h provided on the side plate 1b is provided. Are omitted, and only the point that the terminal end of the component return path 1g is located at the upper end edge of the side plate 1b. Therefore, in the case of this embodiment, the drop from the component return path 1g to the component transport path 1c is slightly large, but the drop can be made sufficiently small as compared with the case where the component is directly dropped on the bowl 1a. There is no inconvenience, and there is an advantage that the operation for fabricating the component supply device can be simplified as the component passing portion 1h becomes unnecessary.

[0023]

Embodiment 3 FIG. 5 is a plan view showing still another embodiment of the component supply apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part.
The difference from the embodiment of FIG. 1 and FIG.
d is formed wider on the upstream side than the translucent plate 1e, and at the most upstream end of the wide portion 1dw, the most downstream end of the component transport path 1c and the translucent portion. Board 1
e, the inclined surface 1f communicating with the most downstream end of the component return path 1g for guiding the components passing along the component transport path 1c.
Is formed integrally. The predetermined position close to the inclined surface 1f on the outer surface of the component transport truck 1d is:
It is formed to be removable so as to form a window for discharging components. Describing in more detail, the component conveying path 1c is formed on a tapered surface whose outside becomes lower in the radial direction.
Since the component return path 1g is formed in a horizontal plane, a step is interposed between the two, and the component conveyed through the component transport path 1c is changed to the component returned through the component return path 1g. The inconvenience of mixing can be solved. The inclined surface 1f has such a shape that the side communicating with the component conveying path 1c is gentle and the side communicating with the component returning path 1g is steep. The parts are introduced almost along the inside, and the parts guided through the parts return path 1g are transferred to the parts transport truck 1d.
Introduced almost along the outside of.

The operation of the component supply device having the above configuration is as follows. Components guided through the component transport path 1c are introduced into the component transport truck 1d through the inclined surface 1f as in the above-described embodiment. After that, the assembly robot 4 guides the light to the translucent plate 1e through the component transport truck 1d, and picks out only the components suitable for the assembly work. If the parts are in an inappropriate state such as overlapping parts, the corresponding parts are guided through the part return path 1g. Then, the component is reversed and separated while passing through the steep portion of the inclined surface 1f, and the component transport truck 1d
And is recirculated toward the translucent plate 1e. Therefore, the time required for recirculation can be reduced as compared with the above embodiment. Furthermore, the inclined surface 1 is set so that the introduction direction of the component guided through the component conveyance path 1c and the introduction direction of the component guided through the component return path 1g are away from each other.
Since the shape of f is set, the component transport path 1
The components introduced from c and the components introduced from the component return path 1g can be reliably prevented from being mixed, and a high separation and alignment effect can be achieved. Can be increased.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, the configuration can be simplified by using only one of the lighting devices in correspondence with components that do not need to recognize the front and back. In addition to the above, it is possible to adopt a bowl feeder using a cylindrical bowl, a stepped bowl, or the like. In addition, various design changes can be made without changing the gist of the present invention. Can be applied.

[0026]

【The invention's effect】

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the head for recirculating the component cannot be limited to the head due to the stepped portion, the impact when the component is returned to the wide portion is significantly reduced.
Not only can the damage to the parts transport truck be significantly reduced, but also the parts that were not taken out are returned to the wide part of the parts transport truck instead of the bowl. When the amount of parts inside the bowl is small, it is possible to prevent the disadvantage that the effect is reduced, and to significantly reduce the time required for the parts to pass through the step and reach the visual field of the image detecting means. Even in this case, there is an effect that the component supply efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing one embodiment of a component supply device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing an assembly system incorporating the component supply device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part showing another embodiment of the component supply device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing still another embodiment of the component supply device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a bowl feeder of a conventional component supply device with an image processing device.

8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a component supply system incorporating the component supply device having the configuration illustrated in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a component supply device considered by the present inventors.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a Bowl 1b Side plate 1c Component transport path 1d Component transport truck 1dw Wide part 1f
Inclined surface 1g Parts return path 3a Image detector

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An image detecting means (3a) is disposed at a predetermined position of a component transport truck (1d) disposed at a predetermined position outside a bowl (1a), and an image detecting means (3a) of the component transport truck is provided. ), The predetermined range on the upstream side of the field of view is formed to be wide, and the downstream side of the field of view of the image detecting means (3a) of the component transport truck (1d) is widened (1dw) of the component transport track (1d). ), And a component reversing step (1f) is provided at the most upstream side of the wide portion (1dw).