JP2662864B2 - Industrial robot controller - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an industrial robot controller capable of setting an operation prohibited area in a robot operable area. 2. Description of the Related Art When a position is taught to an industrial robot, or when the taught position is corrected, a malfunction occurs due to a malfunction or an indirect teaching, or a control device receives interference from external noise during automatic operation of the industrial robot. The robot arm may perform an unexpected operation due to a malfunction or the like. For this reason, conventionally, it has been considered that it is not preferable in terms of safety measures for an operator to enter the operable area of the robot arm or to bring an object other than a work target close to the robot arm. Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in general, the robot arm repeats a specific operation, and an area used for this operation is a limited part of the operable area. Therefore, it is desirable that the operable area excluding the area where the above-described specific operation is performed is effectively used even when considering the limited floor area of a factory or the like. Therefore, various peripheral devices other than the object to be worked are arranged in an area where the robot arm or the like does not pass even within the operable range of the robot. In addition, when teaching or modifying a program, it is often necessary for an operator to invade the operable area of the robot arm. Therefore, if the operator makes an error during the teaching operation or the teaching position correction, the robot arm and the worker, or the robot arm and the peripheral device may come into contact with each other, damaging the worker or damaging the robot or the peripheral device. There was a problem to make it. In addition, even when the robot is operating, the robot performs a motion different from the movement taught by external noise, comes into contact with peripheral devices arranged within the operation range, and may damage the robot and the peripheral devices. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an industrial robot control apparatus capable of removing the disadvantages of the conventional technique and setting an operation prohibition area in which the robot cannot enter, in the robot operation area. Means for Solving the Problems FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the means employed by the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems. A prohibited area setting means a for setting an area, a prohibited area storing means b for storing the set operation prohibited coordinate area, and a coordinate position at which the robot moves by the movement command before outputting the movement command during operation of the robot. By providing a movement position calculating means c for calculating and a movement position determining means d for determining whether the calculated coordinate position is included in the operation prohibited coordinate area set in the prohibited area storage means b, When the moving position determining means d determines that the moving position is included in the set prohibited coordinate area, the operation of the robot is stopped to solve the above problem. Action Based on a program or manually issued movement command,
When the robot operates, the movement position calculation means c calculates a coordinate position reached by the robot based on the movement amount commanded this time. The movement position determining means d determines whether the calculated coordinate position is included in the operation prohibited coordinate area stored in the prohibited area storage means b using the prohibited area setting means a in advance, and calculates the calculated coordinates. When it is determined that the position is included in the prohibited coordinate area, the operation of the robot is stopped. Embodiment FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as a CPU), and a bus line 2 connected thereto has a ROM 3 storing a control program of the CPU 1, teaching data to the robot, data of a calculation result of the CPU 1, and data of the robot. RAM for storing data and the like in an operation prohibited area (hereinafter referred to as a prohibited area)
4. Teaching operation panel 5 for inputting various commands during teaching (teaching) work, operation panel 6 used for manual data input, external storage device 10 including a floppy disk, bubble memory, etc., offline programming device 11, etc. Is connected to the external input / output device 7. Reference numeral 8 denotes an axis controller including an interpolator for controlling a plurality of axes of the robot under the control of the CPU 1, and reference numeral 9 denotes a servo circuit for controlling the driving of the servo motor of each axis (only one is shown in the figure). ). FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of a data table T provided in the RAM 4 as a prohibited area storage means employed in this embodiment. The data of the prohibited area is indicated by the values of x, y, and z in the three-dimensional space at addresses 1 to n. For example, address No.
The prohibited area in the data string of 1 is a ≦ x ≦ b, and
This is a region where c ≦ y ≦ d and e ≦ z ≦ f. Note that a,
The symbols b, c, d, e, and f indicate values unique to each data, and there is no correlation between the data. Each data of the prohibited area is input from the operation panel 6 to the data table T developed in the RAM 4 and then stored in the external storage device 10. Or,
When a program for the operation of the robot is created by the offline programming device 11, the movement position of the robot is known in advance, so that a prohibited area may be created on the offline programming device 11. When a robot operation program is created on the control device using the teaching operation panel 5 or the like, a rough prohibited area is set, and after the program is completed, the program is once executed on a trial basis and the program is executed. Therefore, all positions other than the position where the robot operates may be set as the prohibited area. In addition,
Address No. of last input data in data table T
J (hereinafter referred to as a final input address No.), that is, the number j of the set prohibited areas, is inputted and set when all the prohibited areas are set. Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, after turning on the power to the control device, the prohibited area data stored in the external storage device 10 is stored in the RAM 4,
After that, the program is executed to operate the robot. During the operation of the robot, the control device performs a process of determining whether or not the area is a prohibited area described below. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining additional processing for each pulse distribution cycle, which is employed in this embodiment. In addition,
This processing is performed before execution of pulse distribution in each cycle. Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. First, when processing for each pulse distribution cycle starts, CP
U1 adds the amount of pulse distribution for each axis for each pulse distribution cycle, adds the amount of pulse distribution for each axis commanded this time to the register that stores the current position of each axis (step S1), and based on this value, the robot position is determined. That is, the x, y, z coordinates of the position at which the robot arm tip reaches when the pulse distribution is executed in this cycle, that is, the movement position of the arm tip (hereinafter referred to as the movement position), Store them in Rz (Step S
2). Next, 1 is set to a loop counter i used for address designation at the time of data reading (step S3), and the prohibited area data of the data string i is read from the data table T in the RAM 4.
a, b, c, d, e, f are read out (step S4), and the moving position coordinate x calculated in step S2 and stored in the register Rx is a ≦ x ≦
b is determined (step S5). If x <a or x> b, it is determined whether the value of the loop counter i is equal to the final input address No. j (step S8). If they are not equal, 1 is added to the loop counter i (step S
9) Return to step S4. In step S6, the value x stored in the register Rx is a ≦ x ≦ b
If so, it is next determined whether or not the moving position coordinate y calculated in step S2 and stored in the register Ry satisfies c ≦ y ≦ d (step S6), and y <c or y> d If so, the process proceeds to step S8, and if c ≦ y ≦ d in step S6,
Next, it is determined whether or not the movement position coordinate z of the Z coordinate position stored in the register Rz in step S2 satisfies e ≦ z ≦ f in the prohibited area (step S7), and z <e or z> f. If so, the process proceeds to step S8. That is, while incrementing the loop counter i, it is determined in steps S5 to S7 whether or not the robot movement position is within the prohibited area of the address indicated by the counter i, and the value of the loop counter i is set to the final input address No. j. Is reached, and if it is determined that the area is not all the set prohibition areas, the process shifts from step S8 to step S10 to execute pulse distribution in the current cycle. Meanwhile, step S
5, YES at S6, and if e ≦ z ≦ f at step S7,
The moving position indicated by the moving position coordinates x, y, z calculated and stored in step S2 is the address N in the data table.
Since it is included in the prohibited area indicated by oi, the CPU 1 outputs a robot operation stop command (step S11), and ends all processing. According to the present invention, it is possible to set an operation-prohibited area in which a robot cannot enter, within the robot arm operable area. Even when the control device receives external noise interference during driving, the robot tip does not enter the operation prohibited area, ensuring the safety of the operator and increasing the space set as the operation prohibited area. It can be used effectively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the means adopted by the present invention to solve the problems of the prior art, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of adding a pulse distribution period, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a data table. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... CPU, 2 ... bus line, 3 ... ROM, 4 ... RAM, 5 ... teaching operation panel, 6 ... operation panel, 7 ... external input / output device, 8 ... axis controller, 9 ... servo circuit.

Continuation of front page    (56) References JP-A-60-195602 (JP, A)                 JP-A-56-24608 (JP, A)                 JP-A-57-73402 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] Prohibition area setting means for setting an operation prohibition coordinate area of the robot, prohibition area storage means for storing the set operation prohibition coordinate area, and moving the robot by the movement command before outputting the movement command during operation of the robot. Moving position calculating means for calculating the coordinate position, and moving position determining means for determining whether or not the calculated coordinate position is included in the set operation prohibited coordinate area, wherein the calculated coordinate position is set. When it is determined that the movement command is not included in the operation prohibited coordinate area, the movement command is output, and when it is determined that the movement command is included, the output of the movement command is stopped and the operation of the robot is stopped. Robot control device. 2. The moving position calculating means calculates a coordinate position at which the robot moves with the distribution movement command in the distribution cycle before outputting the distribution movement command in each distribution cycle for distributing the movement command to each axis of the robot. 2. The industrial robot control device according to claim 1.