JP2745842B2 - Maintenance inspection equipment for body assembly robots - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a maintenance / inspection apparatus for a body assembly robot used for performing inspection / maintenance of a large number of welding robots and positioning robots arranged on each stage constituting an automobile assembly line.

[0002]

Background of the Invention of the automobile body assembly process, as is well known, floor main process, as Meinbote I Engineering, is composed of a metal line process or the like. Freund A main process is a process of assembling the floor panel of the engine compartment and front and rear together, the body side panels and roof panel or the like to the floor main assembled the extent Meinbode I Engineering in the floor main process In the metal line process, the door panel
A hood panel, a trunk lid and the like are assembled. In the current body assembly process, many types of vehicles are assembled on the same production line from the viewpoint of improving productivity, and many types of workpieces are mixed and conveyed to the same production line. Become. Accordingly, in each stage constituting the assembly line of the vehicle body, a welding robot and a work positioning robot corresponding to each vehicle body so as to be able to perform a predetermined operation regardless of the vehicle body. And are arranged. As a result, 1
The number of robots for each operation arranged on one stage is quite large, usually 10 or more, and may exceed 50. Moreover, the robot to be arranged is provided in a narrow space in accordance with the vehicle body.

[0003]

Inspection work is performed on these robots after a lapse of a predetermined time or number of days. For example, a tip dressing operation is performed on an electrode tip provided in a welding robot at predetermined time intervals, and a tip replacement operation is performed when the tip reaches a predetermined wear amount. Furthermore, even for a cable for supplying power and control signals for the welding, consumed level cables have been made periodically inspection, as well as a predetermined period of time can have robots Nitsu for positioning various maintenance work is being carried out for each.

However, as described above, since a large number of robots are arranged in a narrow space,
Maintenance work is not easy, when performing maintenance for one robot, there is the next of the robot becomes an obstacle of work. Therefore, conventionally, when performing tip dressing work or cable check of a certain robot, the robot is operated independently so that the robot is operated to a position where the work can be easily performed.

For this reason, depending on the contents of the work, it is necessary to move the robots one by one and set the position while performing the work. This requires a considerable amount of time, and the workability of maintenance and inspection is not good. There is a problem that it does not.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and can easily perform inspection and maintenance of a robot that performs welding work, positioning work, and the like disposed on a stage constituting an assembly line of an automobile. In this way, it is an object to improve these workability.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a vehicle body used for performing maintenance and inspection of a plurality of work robots such as welding robots which are arranged on stages constituting a body assembly line. a maintenance device assembly robot, the command signal generation means for instructing the start of the maintenance of the working robot, storage means for storing an optimum maintainers Nsu position other than the origin position of the working robot, the A maintenance and inspection device for a body assembling robot, comprising: a positioning control unit that positions the work robot at a maintenance position based on a start signal from a command signal generation unit and positions the work robot at an origin position after maintenance is completed. .

[0008]

In order to perform maintenance of various robots such as a welding robot arranged on a stage in a vehicle body assembly line, a start command is input. As a result, the robot is positioned at a predetermined maintenance position without returning to the origin position in normal work. This position is set in advance to an optimum position for an operator to perform maintenance and inspection of the robot, and since the power of the robot is turned off, the operator can perform maintenance work quickly and safely.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a maintenance and inspection apparatus for a vehicle body assembling robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a body main line of an assembly line for an automobile body. A floor main F previously assembled on the floor main line is carried into the first stage 11. This first stage 1
From 1, the floor main F is transported to the third stage 13 into which the left and right body side panels are carried in via the stage 12, where the body side panel S is placed on the floor main F. At the next fourth stage 14, a roof panel is further placed and transported to the fifth stage 15. In the fifth stage 15, these panels are assembled with each other by a welding robot, and the work is positioned at a predetermined position when an assembling operation is performed. After the temporary fixing welding is performed in this stage 15, the sixth
The work is transferred to the unloading stage 18 via the stage 16 and the seventh stage 17. Thereafter, the workpiece is transported to the additional stage.

FIG. 4 shows details of the fifth stage 15 in the body main line shown in FIG.
A total of 51 robots, 35 robots for positioning the workpiece and 16 robots for the welding work, are arranged on the stage 15, and only a part of them is shown in FIG. I have. As shown in the figure, a vehicle body is carried into a frame 21 forming the main body of the stage 15 by a transfer device 21 including a shuttle bar or the like. A clamp for positioning the work indicated by reference numeral 22 and a welding gun indicated by reference numeral 23 are attached to the frame, and these are operated by the robot 24, respectively. These positioning and welding robots 24 are working robots for assembling the vehicle body.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of a maintenance / inspection device for a vehicle body assembling robot. The operation panel 31 shown in FIG. The push button 32 serves as a command signal generating means for commanding the start of maintenance and inspection of the work robot. The operation panel 31 is connected to a controller 33 having a CPU and the like. Further, the controller 33 is connected to a RAM 34 as storage means. The controller 33 is connected to respective robots 24a to 24n installed on the stage 15 via robot controllers 35a to 35n.
The RAM 34 stores in advance robot maintenance positions for setting the welding gun 23 and the clamp 22 operated by the respective robots to maintenance positions. To store this position, the position is input using another operation button provided on the operation panel 31.

Next, an operation procedure of the above-mentioned apparatus will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

In order to perform maintenance on the robot,
When the push button 32 of the operation panel 31 is pressed down in step S1, all the robots 2 provided on the stage 15
The assembly line including Step 4 stops (Step S2).
There are many types of maintenance and inspections, depending on the location to be inspected. For example, while the operation of tip dressing is performed relatively frequently, the refueling of equipment is performed after a relatively long period of inspection. Therefore, it is possible to input that the inspection is for a specific location by using the push button according to the site to be inspected. As described above, the maintenance positions of all the robots are stored in the storage unit 34 in accordance with each inspection work. In the case shown in the figure, whether to move the robot to the maintenance position according to the already stored program or to move according to the additionally created program is determined in step S3.
Is determined first. When operating according to the additionally created program, the data is manually input in step S4. Done automatically or
Whether the operation is performed manually is set by a push button (not shown) provided on the operation panel 31.

[0015] Thus, according to the setting on the inspection site which is input, the controller 33 reads the data stored in the R A M34, each of the robot controllers 3
Control signals are sent to all robots 24a to 24n via 5a to 35n. Thereby, as shown in step S5, each robot starts moving. If the movement to the predetermined maintenance position is detected in step S7 after step S6, the power is turned off in step S8. As a result, the robot is positioned at a predetermined maintenance position different from the origin position, and maintains a state in which the operation is stopped by turning off the power.

In this state, maintenance work is performed. When this work is performed, the worker enters the frame 21 shown in FIG. 4 and performs a predetermined work. In the work, for example, if the tip dress work is performed, the work is performed. The tip of the welding gun is positioned at the optimum position, and the positioning robot operates to retract the clamp to the outside, so that the worker can safely perform the work in the optimum posture.
After completion of the predetermined maintenance and inspection work, in order to perform an inspection and the like for another part, a push button provided on the operation panel 31 is further operated to input an inspection position change command. When this input is determined in step S6, the process returns to step S4, and it becomes possible to perform an inspection on a predetermined part according to the input inspection part. For example, if the number of robots is so large that it is not possible to perform a refueling check at all locations in one operation, the first time a predetermined number of refueling inspection locations are checked, and then another inspection is performed again. Do it.

When all maintenance is completed, the operator uses the operation panel 31 to input an end. This When detected at step S9, the power on the robot in step S10, to cancel the set menu integrators nonce position at step S11. If it is determined in step S12 that the push button has been operated in this state, all the robots are returned to the origin positions in step S13. Thus, the vehicle body can be assembled again.

[0018] the illustrated case, among the present invention of a vehicle body assembly line, the body main la but in is applied to a robot in the tacking stage constituting the various stages other than the stage and the floor main lines, etc. The present invention can be applied to each stage in other lines.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, when performing maintenance and inspection of a large number of robots provided on a stage for assembling a vehicle body, if the start of maintenance and inspection is instructed, the robots Since it is positioned at the predetermined maintenance position without returning to the original origin position, the operator can perform maintenance safely and quickly at a position where it is easy to perform the work, and the workability of the maintenance work is greatly improved. is what happened.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of a maintenance and inspection device for a body assembly robot according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a side view showing an example of a body main line constituting an automobile assembly line;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view showing one stage shown in FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

11 to 18: stage, 24: robot, 22: clamp, 23: welding gun, 31: operation panel, 32: push button (command signal generation means), 33: controller (control means), 34: storage means.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A maintenance and inspection device for a body assembling robot used when performing maintenance and inspection of a plurality of work robots such as welding robots arranged on stages constituting a body assembly line. Command signal generating means for instructing the start of inspection, and an optimal member other than the home position of the working robot.
Storage means for storing the containers Nsu position, based on the activation signal from the command signal generating means, said working robot causes positioned in the maintenance position, and a positioning control means for positioning the work robot to the origin position after the maintenance ends A maintenance and inspection device for a body assembling robot.