JP3196704B2 - Industrial robot - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an industrial robot to which a control program required for controlling a robot arm can be transferred from outside.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the flexibility of production lines has been improved,
In order to strengthen the ability to cope with multi-product production, joint work by multiple robots has been heavily used, and robot work applications have changed frequently due to changes in the production system configuration. . Conventionally, industrial robots require different functions and performance depending on the application, such as welding, handling, or painting.Therefore, control programs differ according to each application. It is stored in a semiconductor element and mounted or mounted on a control circuit board of a robot controller.

In managing the production of a robot controller, a technique of transferring data indicating the configuration of the robot after the controller is manufactured and determining the specifications of the controller corresponding to different types of robots is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-265524.
No. 6,086,045. This technology includes a connection unit for connecting a semiconductor device that stores a robot control program related to robot operation control and / or data indicating the structure of the robot, and a robot parameter that stores a reference value for grasping the structure of the robot. A robot controller having a storage unit, wherein when a semiconductor element in which a robot control program or data indicating the structure of the robot is recorded is connected to the connection unit, data indicating the structure of the robot among the storage information of the semiconductor element. Is read and transferred to the robot parameter storage unit, so that the specifications of the controller corresponding to different types of robots can be determined even after the robot controller is manufactured.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional robot, a control program is stored by using a programmable read-only memory (hereinafter, referred to as a PROM) which is generally a semiconductor element. When the purpose of the robot is changed, or when the control program is changed or added, it is necessary to replace the PROM. When replacing the PROM, the teaching data stored in the controller and various system Work to backup data etc. is required. In addition, the replacement of the PROM itself is a work that requires careful attention, and the occurrence of operation failure due to careless work, incorrect mounting of the PROM,
There was a possibility that the ROM was damaged. In addition, even if it is a partial change or addition, it is necessary to always replace the PROM,
There was a problem that it was difficult to quickly change applications and maintain control programs.

In the case of a change of use after the installation of the robot, it is necessary to transfer not only data indicating the structure of the robot but also a control program of the robot. On the other hand, it is necessary to use various languages for the display data on the display device depending on the country / region to be used, and to change the language to be displayed, it is necessary to exchange the PROM storing the display data. .

[0006] Further, even when a partial change is made in response to a version upgrade of the control program, it is necessary for a change operator to judge and change the changed portion according to the version of the control program of the robot before the change. And the change workers required specialized knowledge. Further, it is necessary to accurately understand that a change in a peripheral device (for example, a teaching tool used for teaching a robot) is required in accordance with a change in the control program. When the amount of change in the control program is large, there is also a problem that the working time becomes long because the amount of change data is large.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned various problems, is highly versatile enough to cope with a change in the use of the robot, and can easily and quickly change the control program when the control program is changed. To provide an industrial robot.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, an industrial robot according to the present invention comprises a robot arm and a controller for controlling the robot arm, wherein the controller stores a control program for the robot arm. When the control program is changed, at least a part of the control program of the robot arm is transferred to the storage means from an external terminal provided outside the controller, and a necessary program in the control program transferred from the external terminal is required. It has a configuration in which the contents of the peripheral devices that need to be changed and the parts to be changed are automatically selected by the program import management means. Further, the imported control program has a configuration in which data is compressed and transferred.

According to this configuration, when a use of the robot arm is changed or a control program is changed or added, a necessary control program is automatically selected and transferred to the robot controller. The robot can easily cope with the change of the application, and can easily perform the change of the control program and the change / addition work of the control program at the time of addition without requiring advanced technical knowledge. Further, since the transferred control program is transferred after being compressed, the transfer of the control program can be performed in a short time.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a robot arm (hereinafter referred to as a robot), and 12 denotes a storage means 14 for storing a control program for controlling the robot 11.
A CPU 15 for generating an operation command for causing the robot 11 to execute a desired operation by a control program;
A controller having control signal output means 16 for operating the robot 11 based on an operation command from the PU 15;
Reference numeral 3 denotes an external terminal which is provided with a program transfer management means 17 which is connected to the controller 12 and automatically determines a portion which needs to be transferred from a control program stored in accordance with the state of the robot 11. Reference numeral 12 stores the control program transferred from the connected external terminal 13 in the storage means 14.

Operation control of a general teaching playback type industrial robot will be described with reference to FIG. Operation data of the robot 11 (not shown) is stored in advance in the teaching data storage means 21 as teaching data. The CPU 15 uses the teaching data in the teaching data storage means 21 based on the trajectory calculation processing algorithm in the control program stored in the storage means 14 to indicate the operation amount of each of the robot driving motors attached to the robot 11. Create a directive. The created operation command is transferred to the control signal output means 16. The control signal output means 16 outputs a motor control signal for controlling the motor 22, receives a position signal from a rotational position detecting device (encoder) 23 attached to the motor 22,
The motor control signal is controlled so that the motor 22 operates according to the operation command created by U15.

Next, transfer of a control program necessary for controlling the operation of the robot 11 will be described. In FIG.
Reference numeral 31 denotes a boot program storage unit that stores an initialization program necessary for activation of the CPU 15 and a communication control program that controls communication with the external terminal 13. Reference numeral 33 denotes a management data storage unit that stores management information of the control program. .

When a control program for controlling the robot 11 is changed or added, the external terminal 13 is connected to the controller 12. When the transfer of the control program is necessary, the CPU 15 in the controller 12 initializes peripheral devices and starts communication with the external terminal 13 based on the initialization program stored in the boot program storage means 31. When the communication line is established, the external terminal 13 acquires the robot information (for example, version information of the control program) via the communication means 32, and the program import management means 17 automatically controls the part of the control program which needs to be imported. Then, transmission of the necessary control program portion is started. The transferred control program is stored in the storage means 14. At this time, the external terminal 13 and the CPU
15 checks and verifies the control program as necessary, confirms that the transfer of the control program has been completed normally, and stores the checksum data of the control program and the ID of the control program in the management data storage unit 33. It is stored as management data, and the communication line is released to complete the work of importing the control program.

When the robot is started again after the transfer operation of the control program is completed, the content of the control program stored in the storage means 14 must match the content stored in the management data storage means 33. After confirming, the robot is started up in an operable state. At this time, if the stored management data and the content of the control program are different, the peripheral device is initialized based on the initialization program stored in the boot program storage means 31 and the communication with the external terminal 13 is performed. Is started, and the control program is transferred again.

By including an initialization program necessary for starting the CPU 15 and a communication control program for controlling communication with the external terminal 13 in the control program imported and stored in the storage means 14, After the transfer operation is completed, the boot program storage unit 31 can be made unnecessary.

Next, the automatic selection of the control program by the program transfer management means 17 will be described.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 41 denotes a control program management table (hereinafter referred to as a management table) required for automatic selection of a control program, and reference numeral 42 denotes a robot information management storage unit for managing information on the robot 11.

The CPU 15 is a robot information management storage unit 4.
If it is determined that the version of the control program, the message display language information, and the content stored in the management data storage 33 stored in the control program 2 are different from the content of the control program, the communication module 32 determines the difference. Via the external terminal 13. Program import management means 1
7 selects a control program to be transferred using the management table 41 based on the transmitted robot information, and transmits the control program via the communication means 32. The management table 41 stores the version of the robot control program and control program change information. An example of the management table 41 is shown in (Table 1).

[0020]

[Table 1]

This management table 41 shows the blocks of the control program whose contents need to be changed when the version of the control program is upgraded from the previous version. Is displayed, and 0 is displayed when no change is necessary. As described above, the change of the control program has been described.

In the example shown in Table 1, the control program is composed of 10 blocks, and the controller 1
It is assumed that the version transmitted from 2 is A and the control program is upgraded to version D.

In this case, the program import management means 17
Refers to information on the management table 41 from version D to the next version of version A, that is, version B. As for block 1, all the information from B to D is 0, so that block 1 does not need to be changed. As for block 2, the information of the location of version C is 1, and it is determined that import is necessary for this change. In this way, by making the determination for all the blocks, the blocks that need to be imported can be automatically selected as 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Similarly, with regard to the peripheral devices, the peripheral devices that need to be changed are determined by referring to the management table 41 for each version, and displayed on the external terminal 13 to notify the operator of the peripheral devices that need to be changed. (Table 1)
Shows a teaching device and an input / output device as examples of peripheral devices.

As described above, in the management table 41 shown in (Table 1), the necessity of the change for each block from the version A to the version D is indicated for each version sequentially. Is omitted, for example, directly from version A to version C
Even if the management table 41 in which the change information is described is used, the same effect can be obtained by automatically selecting the change items.

Also, for the display message, the message data is managed for each version in the same manner as the control program data, and the types of languages used, such as Japanese, English, and French, are assigned to each block in Table 1 so that the program can be programmed. Since the import management means 17 performs the import operation by selecting the necessary version and the language block to be used, it is possible to easily change the version of the display message and change the robot to the desired language specification.

As described above, since the external terminal 13 can automatically determine a part of the control program to be changed and transfer only the control program that needs to be changed, the control program blocks that do not need to be changed can be transferred. The work is omitted, and the work time required for changing the control program can be greatly reduced. At the same time, information about the peripheral devices that need to be changed is also displayed on the external terminal 13, so that the operation of changing the peripheral devices in accordance with the control program change can be performed accurately and easily. Further, even when the message display language is changed, the robot can be easily changed to a robot having a desired language specification by exchanging the changed message data without replacing the storage unit.

Even if the transfer of the control program is interrupted due to an external factor such as a power failure and the transfer is not completed normally, if the robot is started again, the communication between the CPU 15 and the program transfer management means 17 causes The operation of importing the control program can be executed normally.

(Embodiment 2) In FIG. 5, reference numeral 51 denotes data restoring means for restoring compressed data to data before compression. When changing the control program of the robot, the external terminal 13 is connected to the controller 12.
When the transfer of the control program is necessary, the CPU 15 in the controller 12 initializes the peripheral device based on the initialization program stored in the boot program storage means 31 and starts communication with the external terminal 13. When the communication line is established, the external terminal 13 acquires the robot information (for example, the version information of the control program) via the communication means 32 and automatically determines the control program which needs to be transferred by the program transfer management means 17. Then, transmission of a control program (hereinafter, referred to as a compression program) which has been compressed in advance is started. When receiving the compressed data, the CPU 15 converts the received compressed data into data decompression means 5.
Output to 1. The data decompression means 51 performs data decompression processing of the compressed program, and stores the decompressed control program in the storage means 14. At this time, the external terminal 13 and the CPU
15 checks and checks the control program as necessary to confirm that the transfer of the control program has been completed normally, and then manages the checksum data of the control program and the ID of the control program in the management data storage unit 33. The data is stored in the management data storage unit 33, the communication line is released, and the import operation is completed.

When the robot is started for the first time after the transfer of the control program, it is checked that the contents of the control program match the contents stored in the management data storage means 33, and then the robot is brought into a operable state. to start.
At this time, if the stored management data and the content of the control program are different, the peripheral device is initialized based on the initialization program stored in the boot program storage means 31, and communication with the external terminal 13 is performed. Start,
Transfer the control program again.

For example, when the external terminal 13 and the controller 12 are connected by using a simple network such as the Ethernet such as the Internet as the communication means 32, the communication speed is about 10 Mbps at the maximum. Approximately 1 to transmit 1 [byte] data
A communication time of [μse] is required. On the other hand, CPU1
5 stores the data of 1 [byte] of the control program in the storage means 14 from 1/2 to 1/10 of the communication time.
It is about. That is, the main factor that determines the work time of the transfer work of the control program is the communication time of the control program. Therefore, by transmitting the data-compressed control program from the external terminal 13, the communication data amount is reduced, Since the communication time required for transmitting the control program can be reduced, the total time required for importing the control program can be reduced.

As described above, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, since the control program can be transferred in a data-compressed state, a simple communication means such as Ethernet which can be easily used can be used. In this case, the operation of changing the control program can be performed in a short time.

[0032]

As is apparent from the above description, the industrial robot of the present invention includes a robot arm and a controller for controlling the robot arm, and the controller includes a storage unit for storing a control program for the robot arm. Having, at least one of the controller and the external terminal, a program transfer management means for performing transfer control of the control program, when changing the control program with a change in use of the robot, or when changing the version of the control program, Since the configuration is such that at least a part of the program for controlling the robot can be transferred to the storage means from an external terminal provided outside the controller, the control program can be easily changed, and the control program can be easily changed. Use was limited and it was difficult to change The comparison with the robot, the versatility of the robot becomes easy to change the robot usages can be significantly expanded.

Further, the program transfer management means can automatically determine a portion where the control program needs to be transferred when the control program is changed, so that the change of the control program can be accurately performed without requiring specialized knowledge. In addition, since the control program can be easily transferred and the control program is transferred in a data compressed state, the transfer time of the control program is reduced, and the maintainability of the control program such as control program change is remarkably improved.

Further, since the control program can include display data to be displayed on the display device, it is possible to easily switch the language to be used, and to cope with various countries and regions.
It is easy to easily change the destination.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control method of a teaching playback robot.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control program import method according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control program import method by the robot information management means.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a control program import method according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Robot arm 12 Controller 13 External terminal 14 Storage means 15 CPU 16 Control signal output means 17 Program transfer management means 21 Teaching data storage means 22 Motor 23 Encoder 31 Boot program storage means 32 Communication means 33 Management data storage means 41 Control program management table 42 robot information management storage means 51 data restoration means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-7-319531 (JP, A) JP-A-8-137529 (JP, A) JP-A-6-119030 (JP, A) JP-A-63- 271608 (JP, A) JP-A-11-99492 (JP, A) JP-A-8-241114 (JP, A) JP-A-11-110028 (JP, A) JP-A-6-37902 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G05B 19/18-19/46 B25J 3/00-3/10 B25J 9/10-9/22 B25J 13/00-13/08 B25J 19 / 02-19/06

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] And a controller for controlling the robot arm , wherein the controller controls the robot arm.
Storage means for storing control programs in the controller
The robot arm is installed when the control program is changed.
At least part of the control program of the controller
A professional who imports the storage means from an external terminal provided outside
Gram import management means, the controller and the external
Provided in at least one of the terminals to manage the program import
The means is used when changing the control program of the robot arm.
Import from the control program stored in the terminal
Automatically determine which parts need to be changed and require changes
An industrial robot characterized by determining the contents of peripheral devices . 2. The industrial robot according to claim 1, wherein the transferred robot arm control program includes display data on a display device attached to the robot. 3. A controller for controlling a robot arm.
Management data storage means for storing program management data
The industrial robot according to claim 1, further comprising: 4. The control program to be imported is a data compression program.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data is transferred in a state where the data is transmitted.
3. The industrial robot according to any one of 3 . 5. The controller according to claim 1, wherein said controller is a data compression control program.
Request with data restoration means for restoring program
Item 4. The industrial robot according to item 4 .