JP2658492B2 - Robot work teaching method - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method of teaching a work of a robot, and more particularly to a method of teaching a work of a robot having a plurality of grippers.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in order to teach the work contents to a work robot, a method in which an operator carries a teaching box, enters a movement range of the robot, and teaches while manually operating the actual robot is common. . However, in such a method, there is a great economical problem that it is necessary to suspend the operable robot for a long time for teaching, and furthermore, long hours of work in a dangerous place for the teacher are physical. It was a heavy burden, both mentally and mentally.

Therefore, on the computer, build a robot or workpiece model independent of the actual robot controller,
Using the model, a method for conducting placement studies and teaching was developed. The basic one of such a system is disclosed in
No. 5779 and JP-A-59-229619.

However, the range of application of these prior arts is that the robot has only a single gripper, so that a complicated work teaching of a robot having a plurality of grippers cannot be performed. there were.

Therefore, there is also a problem that the posture of each gripper among the plurality of grippers is not taken into consideration, and accurate and easy operation teaching of the robot cannot be performed.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and can easily perform complicated work teaching of a robot having a plurality of grippers, and can take a posture required for work. It is an object of the present invention to accurately and accurately display a possible range so that the arrangement of a work can be easily and accurately determined, and to maximize the operation range of the robot.

[Means for solving the problem]

The present invention has the following means to achieve the above object.

That is, in a robot having a plurality of grippers, the gripper is defined as a model on a computer, a reachable range in a posture to be taken by the gripper is displayed as a workable area, and Generate a simulation command for the gripper,
A table in which the model and an opening / closing drive device corresponding to the gripper are stored in advance, and the simulation command is converted into a desired robot language program by referring to the table, and the robot language program is converted. The teaching method for operating the robot is performed by operating the robot according to the following method. Alternatively, a posture to be taken by the gripper, a range to check whether the gripper is effective or not, and 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: inputting a check density of the robot and checking whether or not all of the points to be determined are reachable. Is what you do.

[Action]

In a robot having a plurality of grippers, a gripper is defined as a model for simulation on a computer, and a table corresponding to the model and an opening / closing drive device on the robot is stored and stored in advance, so that a screen can be displayed. The above simulation and conversion to a robot language program can be easily performed.

Also, given the posture that the gripper attached to the robot should take, the range that can be reached by the gripper is checked one by one, and the more densely the setting of each point, the more accurate the setting The workable area can be determined.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a robot operation teaching method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The method of the present invention is a method of teaching the operation of the robot without using the actual robot. The system for implementing this method comprises nine parts as shown in the block diagram of the off-line programming device of FIG. 2, namely, CPU 21, RAM 22, ROM 23, graphic display 24, mouse 25, keyboard 26, hard disk 27, robot controller 28, It consists of a robot 29. FIG. 2A shows an arm of a robot having a plurality of grippers 10, 10,. FIG. 2 (b) shows a workable area indicated by a dot 30 as an image on a graphic display when a work is performed with one gripper directed directly below. In FIG. 2 (b), the upper left corresponds to a front view, the upper right corresponds to a side view, the lower left corresponds to a plan view, and the lower right corresponds to a perspective view.

Next, the configuration of the software of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The robot operation teaching method of the present invention is the first method.
In the work teaching flow of the robot shown in the figure, the feature is that a work effective range is displayed 17, a plurality of grippers are defined and input 18, a plurality of grippers are taught 19, and a plurality of gripper command conversions 20 are performed. The basic flow of this flow is to define and input data relating to the robot, peripheral devices, and work (step 11), display the data on a graphic display, and furthermore, create a program for the robot, peripheral devices, and work using a program created by the operator. The operation is simulated (steps 12 and 13), and the simulation program used for the simulation is converted into a robot program in accordance with the grammar of a desired robot language (step 14). This is to operate the actual machine.

In such a robot work teaching method, the work effective range display 17 which is the first feature of the present invention is described in the third place.
This will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, in step 31 of inputting the tool posture, the posture to be taken by the tool (or gripper) when the robot performs the work, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. Input. Next, in a check range / check density input step 32, first, a range in which it is desired to check whether the posture is realizable by a robot or whether the robot is reachable in the posture is effective. To enter. In this case, it is of course possible to check the entire range that can be reached when the robot arm and tool are extended to the maximum, but in order to reduce the calculation time, the range to be checked is locally determined. It is provided in consideration of the fact that there are cases where the number is limited.

Subsequently, the density of the points to be checked when performing the check is input. This check density is considered, for example, in some cases where it is desired to perform the check density at a pitch of 1 mm, and in other cases it is desired to perform the check density at a pitch of 5 mm. The calculation time is naturally shortened by inputting a coarse pitch. Next, check start step
At 33, a check is started for all the points specified in the step 32 for inputting the check range / check density.

In the check, using the tool posture input in the tool posture input in step 31, the joint angle of the robot is calculated by converting the tool posture into the joint angle of the robot in step. This joint angle is input to the checking means of step 35, "Is the joint angle effective?", And it is checked whether the joint angle is effective based on the possible limit of the joint angle. If it is determined that the tool is valid, a dot is displayed at the point of application of the tool as a valid display in step 36. If invalid, display nothing and move to the next checkpoint.

By repeating the processing from step 34 of converting the tool posture to the joint angle of the robot to step 36 of displaying the validity, the check at all points within the check range 37 is completed. As a result, a set of valid dots is displayed. FIG. 2 (b) shows an example of these effective displays, which are shown as a set of dots 30.

Next, the definition and input 18 (FIG. 1) of a plurality of grippers, which are the second feature of the present invention, will be described with reference to FIG.
The gripper unit (1) 42 attached to the last link 41 of the robot is a representative name of an assembly equipped with a plurality of grippers that can be opened and closed. The gripper is defined as a model on a computer as follows.

The gripper (1) 43, the gripper (2) 44, or the gripper (3) 45 is a representative name of an individual gripper, for example, given the names of gripper (1), gripper (2), and gripper (3). Each individual gripper also has a flag to identify the gripper to be controlled and a TCT to indicate where the gripper works when teaching the robot work.
(Tool Center Point) data is added.

The gripper unit (2) 46 shows a structure in the case where a plurality of the above gripper units exist.

When specifying the gripper for which opening / closing control is desired, the flag of the desired gripper is turned ON. By adopting such a structure, it is possible to specify only one gripper provided on the robot, and the operator can perform an operation similar to the operation of a conventional robot equipped with a single gripper. .

Next, a description will be given of a teaching 19 of a plurality of grippers (FIG. 1) which is a third feature of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for generating a simulation command of the plurality of grippers. Hereinafter, the simulation command generation method will be described with reference to the flow of FIG.

The operator uses the mouse to specify an arbitrary gripper model as an operation instruction target among the plurality of gripper models displayed on the graphic display (step 51). Subsequently, the gripper is moved to the operation target position (step 52). When the open / close command displayed on the screen is instructed by a mouse, the gripper model name to be subjected to the operation simulation is automatically obtained in the computer, and this is entered in the argument for inputting the operation target model name (step 53). ). This generates a command (step 5
4), this command is used in the simulation program 1
Store as a step in RAM in the computer (Step 5
Five). The simulation program is completed by repeating steps 51 to 55.

Next, a command conversion 20 (FIG. 1) for a plurality of grippers, which is a fourth feature of the present invention, will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for generating a robot command of the plurality of grippers. Hereinafter, the robot command generation method will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The operator executes a simulation command for an arbitrary gripper model among the plurality of gripper models displayed on the graphic display (step 61). It is determined whether or not the gripper model name that is the target of the executed simulation command is registered in the computer. If not, an error is displayed on the display and the process ends. (Steps 62 and 64). If registered, a plurality of gripper model names are made and stored in advance in advance of the gripper model name and the number of the opening / closing drive device corresponding to the number of the opening / closing drive device such as the opening / closing valve corresponding to the gripper of the actual robot. The retrieved data table is searched (step 63), and the number of the opening / closing drive device such as a valve corresponding to the gripper model name is extracted (step 65). The obtained number data of the open / close drive device is placed in the position specified by the number of the open / close drive device in the gripper open / close command of the actual robot, and an open / close command of an arbitrary gripper is generated (step 66).

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, in the robot operation teaching method of the present invention, in a robot having a plurality of grippers, the gripper is defined as a model on a computer, and a reachable range in a posture to be taken by the gripper is defined. While displaying as a workable area, a simulation command for the gripper in the workable area is generated, and a table in which the model and an open / close drive device corresponding to the gripper are previously stored and stored, and the table is stored. By converting the simulation command into a program in a desired robot language with reference to teaching the operation of the actual robot by the program in the robot language, complicated work teaching of a robot having a plurality of grippers can be easily performed. Work can be performed quickly and accurately. The determination of the arrangement with easily and accurately performed in which the operating range of the robot can be made to capitalize on the full.

Also, input the posture to be taken by the gripper, the range to be checked for validity and the check density within the range, and check whether all of the points to be determined from now on are reachable. The area obtained by the robot can be displayed as a workable area, and a range in which a posture required for the work can be taken can be displayed. .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a flow of software processing in a robot work teaching method according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 (a) is an embodiment of a robot work teaching system according to the present invention. FIG. 2 (b) is a perspective view showing an example of a robot arm provided with a plurality of grippers, FIG. 2 (b) is a screen view showing an embodiment of a graphic display of the present invention, FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a flow of processing for displaying a work effective range in the present invention, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a method for defining a plurality of grippers in the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method of generating a simulation command, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method of generating a robot command of a plurality of grippers in the present invention. 10 ... gripper, 29 ... robot

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-61-253510 (JP, A) JP-A-59-229619 (JP, A) JP-A-64-5779 (JP, A) JP-A-61-273605 (JP) , A) JP-A-60-99591 (JP, A) JP-A-63-280308 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] In a robot having a plurality of grippers, said gripper is defined as a model on a computer,
The reachable range in the posture to be taken by the gripper is displayed as a workable area, a simulation command for the gripper in the workable area is generated, and the opening / closing drive corresponding to the model and the gripper is corresponded in advance. Storing the stored table, referring to the table, converting the simulation command into a program in a desired robot language, and teaching the operation of the actual robot by the robot language program. Work teaching method. 2. A posture to be taken by the gripper, a range in which validity is to be checked, and a check density within the range are inputted. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein an area obtained by checking is set as a workable area.