JP7322099B2 - Information processing method, information processing device, robot device, program, and computer-readable recording medium - Google Patents

Description

The present invention provides an information processing method, an information processing apparatus, and a robot apparatus for editing a plurality of position/orientation data specifying the position or orientation of each part of a robot apparatus, and for displaying the state of the robot specified by the position/orientation data. , an article manufacturing method, an information processing program, and a computer-readable recording medium.

In recent years, for example, the development of automated production systems that perform assembly that imitates human movements using industrial robot devices is progressing, and similar to human movements, weave through obstacles placed in the surrounding environment. It has become necessary to program (teach) to operate. For programming (teaching) of a robot device, a device called a so-called teaching pendant, which accumulates and records the position and orientation data that causes the robot to actually perform the motion in its placement environment, is sometimes used. .

For programming (teaching) of the robot apparatus, an information processing apparatus having a hardware configuration substantially similar to that of a PC (personal computer) may be used. An information processing device for such a robot device program (teaching) is composed of hardware such as a display device, a computer, a keyboard, and a pointing device. A device of this type is configured to be able to program (teach) robot motions in the form of a program language for robot control or in the form of numerical values of position and orientation data. The information processing device for programming (teaching) the robot device can also be used in an off-line environment where it is not actually connected to the robot device.

On the other hand, as described above, if a robot device is to perform an assembly operation that mimics human motion while considering interference with the surrounding environment as described above, the teaching operation becomes extremely complicated and the number of man-hours required for teaching increases. Mistakes tend to occur. In particular, using an information processing device for programming (teaching) of a robot device as described above, teaching work performed in an off-line environment in which the actual operation of the robot cannot be checked is accompanied by difficulties, resulting in an increase in man-hours and Problems such as teaching errors tend to occur.

Here, as an example of a complicated robot operation, there are a plurality of partitions in a box, and workpieces (parts) stored one by one in each of the different partitions are acquired (or further Consider the operation of a palletizing process that moves to another location. Such a palletizing operation actually requires a total of two teaching points, the acquisition position and the pre-acquisition position in the sky, for each workpiece accommodated at different positions. This teaching point is described in a format such as position/orientation data of a predetermined reference portion of the tip of the robot arm. If a plurality of works are to be processed, it is necessary to teach at least the above two teaching points for each work. If all these teaching points were to be taught by manual teaching operations, the larger the number of workpieces, the greater the number of teaching man-hours and the more complicated the work would be.

Therefore, as means for simplifying teaching, there is a teaching method in which the amount of relative movement from one reference teaching point to the next teaching point is obtained from a design value or the like, and the relative value is set as an offset. According to this method, in the case of the above palletizing operation, after teaching the reference teaching points corresponding to one reference workpiece, the teaching points corresponding to the other workpieces are taught only by setting the offset. become able to.

Patent Documents 1 and 2 below disclose techniques for setting relative values in different coordinate system directions as offsets using means for setting relative values as offsets of the reference teaching point. Patent Literature 1 describes a method of setting an offset from a teaching point that serves as a reference in the direction of a robot's base coordinate system using an offset variable in a motion program, and moving the robot to the position and orientation of the offset destination by calculating a trajectory. there is The advantage of this offset is that the robot can be easily moved up and down, back and forth, and left and right. However, in the case of performing an offset that uses an oblique direction or a lot of translation and rotation, it is necessary to perform matrix calculation according to the direction and angle, and there is a problem that calculation and setting errors are likely to occur.

On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-200011, an offset variable in the motion program is used to set an offset in the direction of the tool coordinate system defined at the tool tip of the robot from the teaching point serving as a reference, and the trajectory is calculated. It discloses how to move to This tool coordinate system is, for example, a coordinate system whose origin is a TCP (tool center point) that can be arbitrarily set by the operator. According to this method, for example, when the reference portion is moved in an oblique direction, the TCP is set so that the oblique direction and one direction of the tool coordinate system are on the same straight line, and a relative value that is the amount of movement in one direction is set. , the desired oblique movement can be realized.

As in Patent Document 2, by using a coordinate system other than the base coordinate system that is easy for the operator to grasp, such as the tool coordinate system described above, the task of setting teaching points by, for example, entering numerical values becomes easier, and setting errors are reduced. can be reduced. For example, by using the above tool coordinate system, it is possible to input or edit teaching points based on relative value information in a coordinate system that is easy for the operator to imagine, such as the hand direction with respect to the current posture of the robot. This facilitates data manipulation such as calculating relative value information from design values, for example, and reduces teaching man-hours and work errors. In the case of a palletizing process, one of the workpiece acquisition positions is set as a reference teaching point, and the remaining workpiece acquisition positions and pre-acquisition positions are set at relatively equal intervals, for example, as offsets of the base coordinate system. You can teach by

Here, there are advantages and disadvantages between teaching while operating an actual robot using a teaching pendant or the like at the installation site and teaching off-line using the above-described information processing device. For example, in the case of the above palletizing process, if the position and orientation after the set offset are confirmed by an actual robot, there is a possibility that the box partitions will interfere during confirmation. On the other hand, an information processing apparatus used off-line can be provided with a variety of teaching point input methods using the above-described offset or the like. In addition, since it is possible to program without actually operating the robot, there is an advantage that the operation can be confirmed without causing interference with the placement environment.

Therefore, in recent years, a configuration has been proposed in which an information processing apparatus that is used offline can be taught and checked operations offline. For example, instead of using the created teaching data to operate the actual machine, trajectory calculation and 3D model rendering based on the teaching data are performed, and the virtual display robot is operated on the display screen to check the operation. The following patent document 3 creates teaching points in a virtual environment, creates a motion program using the created teaching points, and reproduces the motion trajectory of the robot in the virtual environment, thereby interfering with the motion and interference of the robot. A display device for confirming the state and a teaching point creation method are disclosed.

JP-A-8-328637 JP 2010-188485 A JP 2014-117781 A

If the motion trajectories created in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are reproduced in the virtual environment of Patent Document 3, it is believed that complex position and orientation states can be confirmed without using a real robot.

However, there are some technical problems with the method of teaching (programming) a robot using such a virtual environment.

For example, in the above-described offset calculation or information processing using a plurality of different robot coordinate systems, the post-offset position and orientation are obtained by trajectory calculation. In this case, if the position and orientation after the offset are within the movable range due to hardware restrictions of the robot arm, there is no problem even if the robot is actually moved. However, due to a mistake in creating the operation program, there are cases where the robot is out of the movable range in the middle of the trajectory. Further, when a trajectory calculation error occurs, further confirmation display cannot be performed unless the error that has occurred is resolved. Further, in the palletizing process, if the reference teaching point is corrected, the position and orientation after the offset also change, and the position and orientation after the offset may be out of the movable range.

However, in the conventional technology, there is a problem that error processing cannot be sufficiently performed when position and orientation data are changed or newly generated by offset input. For example, in conventional information processing related to robot control data (teaching data), for example, position and orientation data is stored in a storage device as a simple flat data list arranged along the time series for moving the reference parts of the robot one after another. It is often done. However, in actual robot control data (teaching data), a change in the position/orientation data of a specific teaching point may affect the position/orientation data of one or more other teaching points. . For example, the relationship between a reference teaching point for palletizing and another teaching point related via an offset is one example.

In the prior art, position and orientation data is often stored as a simple flat data list, so it is necessary to specify from where to where other position and orientation data are affected by a change in the position and orientation data of a specific teaching point. is not easy. Therefore, in the conventional information processing related to robot control data (teaching data), even if the position and orientation data of a specific teaching point is changed, the trajectory calculation and the checking process of whether or not the motion is within the movable range are performed. It was not easy to specify the extent to which For this reason, even if the position and orientation data of a specific teaching point is input, edited, or corrected, conventionally, it has not been possible to immediately or sufficiently display the operation confirmation regarding the change.

Also, regarding the error check of the trajectory calculation, according to the storage format of the teaching points (position and posture data) as described above, for example, the calculation cannot be performed unless the user specifies the range of the stored teaching points for which the trajectory should be calculated. there is a possibility. Conventionally, it is possible to determine whether or not a trajectory calculation error (for example, the position and orientation of a specific part is out of the movable range) occurs after the trajectory calculation is performed for this specified range. For this reason, even if a specific teaching point is input, edited, or corrected, it is not possible to immediately check for trajectory calculation errors. It was not possible to check for calculation errors, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to immediately identify a range of position and orientation data that has an effect when position and orientation data of a robot apparatus is input, edited, or corrected, and to determine a position within that range. Enable error checking including trajectory calculation of attitude data. In the process of inputting, editing, and correcting position/orientation data related to teaching points, the process of inputting, editing, and correcting being executed can be checked in real time according to the operation, for example, through virtual display output and numerical display. to In inputting, editing, and correcting the position and orientation data, the position and orientation data can be designated by relative values that are offset, and a robot coordinate system that can be easily grasped from a plurality of robot coordinate systems can be arbitrarily used. Also, the data structure for storing the position and orientation data of the robot apparatus is improved.

One aspect of the present invention is an information processing device for setting the position or orientation of a predetermined part of a virtual robot, wherein a first coordinate system is designated from among a plurality of coordinate systems used for the virtual robot. and a control section, wherein the control section displays, on the display section, first coordinate values relating to the position or posture of the predetermined part corresponding to the movement of the predetermined part in the first coordinate system. a second coordinate value related to the position or orientation of the predetermined part corresponding to the first coordinate value in a second coordinate system other than the first coordinate system, and inputting the first coordinate value; An input unit and a second input unit for inputting the second coordinate value are displayed, and when the first coordinate value is input in the first input unit, the display of the second coordinate value is displayed as the input unit. When the display is updated to correspond to the first coordinate value and the second coordinate value is input in the second input unit, the display of the first coordinate value is updated to the display corresponding to the input second coordinate value. do,
An information processing apparatus characterized by:

Another aspect of the present invention is an information processing method for setting the position or orientation of a predetermined part of a virtual robot, wherein coordinate system designating means selects a coordinate system from among a plurality of coordinate systems used for the virtual robot. a receiving step of receiving designation of a first coordinate system by, displaying a first coordinate value relating to the position or orientation of the predetermined part corresponding to the movement of the predetermined part in the first coordinate system, and displaying a first coordinate value other than the first coordinate system displaying a second coordinate value related to the position or orientation of the predetermined part corresponding to the first coordinate value in the second coordinate system of the display step, wherein the displayed first input unit , the display of the second coordinate value is updated to display corresponding to the input first coordinate value, and the second coordinate value is input to the displayed second input unit. The information processing method is characterized in that, when input, the display of the first coordinate value is updated to display corresponding to the input second coordinate value.

According to the above configuration, when the position and orientation data of the robot device is input, edited, corrected, etc., the range of the position and orientation data affected can be specified immediately, and the trajectory calculation of the position and orientation data within that range can be performed. You will be able to perform error checking including In addition, in the process of inputting, editing, and correcting position/orientation data related to teaching points, the progress of inputting, editing, and correcting being executed can be checked in real time according to the operation through virtual display output and numerical display. It is possible to reduce the work man-hours. In addition, by storing a plurality of position and orientation data of the robot apparatus as hierarchical structure data, it is possible to appropriately and automatically edit the relevant position and orientation data in response to input, edit, and correction operations, and to visualize the results. It can be appropriately reflected in the display output and numerical display.

1 is an explanatory diagram showing a display device according to Example 1 of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an offline teaching system according to Example 1 of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram showing creation of an offset teaching point according to the first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a virtual environment screen according to Example 1 of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a parameter setting screen according to Example 1 of the present invention; FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a different parameter setting screen according to the first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a management screen according to Example 1 of the present invention; FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of an error screen according to the first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a flow chart diagram showing editing processing of an offset teaching point according to the first embodiment of the present invention; It is the flowchart figure which showed the different parameter setting screen concerning Example 1 of this invention. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a node management screen according to Example 2 of the present invention; FIG. 10 is a flow chart diagram showing editing processing of an offset teaching point according to the second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 10 is a flow chart diagram showing work placement change processing according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a virtual environment screen according to Example 2 of the present invention; FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a virtual environment screen according to Example 2 of the present invention; FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a parameter setting screen according to Example 2 of the present invention; FIG. 11 is a flow chart diagram showing editing processing of an offset teaching point according to the third embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a virtual environment screen according to Example 3 of the present invention; FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a parameter setting screen according to Example 3 of the present invention; FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a parameter setting screen according to Example 3 of the present invention; FIG. 11 is a flow chart diagram showing editing processing of an offset teaching point according to Example 4 of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a virtual environment screen according to Example 4 of the present invention; FIG. 11 is a flow chart diagram showing editing processing of an offset teaching point according to Example 5 of the present invention. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a virtual environment screen according to Example 5 of the present invention; FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a parameter setting screen according to Example 5 of the present invention;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiments for carrying out the present invention will now be described with reference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the embodiment shown below is merely an example, and, for example, details of the configuration can be changed as appropriate by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. Further, the numerical values taken up in the present embodiment are merely examples of reference numerical values.

An embodiment of an information processing apparatus and information processing method for teaching (programming) a robot apparatus employing the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 10. FIG.

1 and 2 show the configuration of an information processing apparatus A according to this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus A of this embodiment can be configured by attaching a display device C and an operation input unit D as a user interface to a personal computer (PC) B, for example. For the operation input unit D, a mouse, a trackpad, other pointing devices, and a keyboard, etc., can be used.

The display device C is configured by a display device such as an LCD (or a display device using another display method). The display device C can also be configured by laminating a so-called touch panel on its display surface. In that case, the touch panel can be used to perform input operations equivalent to those of the pointing device of the operation input unit D or an operation device such as a keyboard, and depending on the situation, the operation input unit D can be omitted.

The information processing apparatus A of this embodiment can be used mainly in an off-line environment for inputting, editing, and changing teaching data of the robot apparatus, rather than an on-line environment in which the robot apparatus is actually connected and operated. configured to allow The information processing apparatus A of this embodiment is configured so that input, edit, and change operations of teaching data for the robot apparatus can be performed by an operation input unit D, and the display device C includes, for example, an off-line teaching system as shown in FIG. can be displayed.

The display screen E of FIG. 1 includes at least a virtual environment screen 10, a parameter setting screen 20, and a management screen 40. FIG.

The virtual environment screen 10, the parameter setting screen 20, and the management screen 40 can be configured as a graphic user interface (GUI). In that case, a pointing device such as a mouse (or the above-mentioned touch panel) of the operation input unit D can be used to operate the display objects (menus, input fields for numerical values and characters, virtual display of the robot arm, etc.) that make up the display screen E. Configured. Since details of such a GUI environment implementation technique are generally known, detailed description thereof is omitted here.

A virtual environment screen 10 (virtual environment display unit) displays a virtual environment that reproduces a layout environment equivalent to that of a real robot device programmed (teached) by this device. For example, the virtual environment screen 10 virtually displays the state of the robot 101 specified by the position/orientation data in a 3D model representation such as a 3D CAD model. In this case, a 3D image of the robot 101 in a position and orientation specified by the position and orientation data in a virtual space simulating the working environment of the robot 101 is displayed by a display control function for controlling the display device C of the CPU (33), which will be described later. Render the image for a virtual display. Since the (image) display control for virtually displaying the robot 101 from the position and orientation data by 3D CAD model representation or the like is well known, a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

In the case of FIG. 1, on the virtual environment screen 10, a robot 101 corresponding to a real robot device to be programmed (teached) by this device, a tool 102 attached to the tip of the robot 101, and a workpiece 103 are arranged and displayed. In this embodiment, when a user (operator) inputs or edits a robot program or teaching data (position/orientation data), the display of the virtual environment on the virtual environment screen 10 is updated according to the change. As a result, the user (operator) can easily confirm the contents of input and editing through the display of the virtual environment on the virtual environment screen 10 .

Many robot devices use coordinate data to express position and orientation data. Coordinate data in several different coordinate systems are used to express this coordinate data. For example, in a robot 101 handled by this apparatus, a base coordinate system 104 (absolute coordinate system 100) and a tool coordinate system 105 are used. In this embodiment, the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 is arranged at a position coinciding with the absolute coordinate system 100 of the virtual environment. A tool coordinate system 105 exists at the tip of the tool 102 . These coordinate systems are three-dimensional coordinate systems, and in the virtual environment screen 10, three coordinate axes (X, Y, Z) can be displayed as shown in the drawing as needed.

In the virtual environment screen 10 illustrated in FIG. 1, a reference teaching point 106 is displayed above the workpiece 103 . This teaching point 106 is, for example, an already input teaching point. Consider, for example, the operation of lowering the tool 102 from the teaching point 106 to approach the workpiece 103 .

In this case, for example, a technique is used in which an offset teaching point 107 set using a relative value offset from a reference teaching point 106 is taught on the upper surface of the workpiece 103 . In this case, the relative value of the offset used for the teaching point 106 is represented by a numerical value such as the amount of movement (distance) in the Z-axis direction. Note that in the virtual environment screen 10 of FIG. 1, the position and orientation of the robot 101 is the position and orientation when its predetermined part (for example, the gripping center of the tool 102, the center of the tool mounting surface, etc.) coincides with the teaching point 106 serving as a reference. is displayed.

Furthermore, in the display screen E of the display device C, a parameter setting screen 20 is displayed. In this embodiment, the parameter setting screen 20 has both the function of a parameter display section for numerically displaying position and orientation data and the function of a parameter setting section for setting the values by GUI operation. On this parameter setting screen 20, parameters representing the current position and orientation of the robot 101 are displayed at respective display positions in the form of numerical expressions. The display position of the numerical value corresponding to each parameter on the parameter setting screen 20 is configured, for example, as a so-called input box for inputting numerical values (characters). Numerical values (or characters) in the input boxes for these parameters are configured so that they can be newly input or can be changed from values that have already been input by operating the operation input unit D. FIG. Details of hardware and software for realizing a user interface using such an input box are well known, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

Teaching data for controlling the robot device (robot 101) (entities of teaching points and position/orientation data numerical data) and model information for modeling or rendering in the virtual environment screen 10 by 3D model representation etc. are in the form of hierarchical data. stored and managed by

The RAM 35b of the storage device 35 and the external storage device 35c are used as storage means for storing a plurality of position and orientation data. For example, if different parts of the robot 101 have specific dependencies specified by the structure of the robot apparatus, a plurality of position/orientation data corresponding to the different parts are stored in the storage device 35 as hierarchical structure data.

The structure and contents of this hierarchical structure data will be understood, for example, through the following description of the management screen 40 (management display section).

That is, in this embodiment, the display screen E of the display device C displays a management screen 40 (management display section) for displaying the data structure of teaching data (teaching points and position/orientation data) and model information. . On the management screen 40, the model information and teaching point information displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 are collectively node-managed, and the state thereof is displayed in the form of a so-called tree diagram.

In node management related to teaching data and model information in this embodiment, the model information of the top root is set to the absolute coordinate system 100 (ROOT), and from the absolute coordinate system (100), branches and hierarchical structures are used to associate a plurality of model information. Use a data structure that indicates In the data structure of the position and orientation data of this embodiment, a model close to the root is called a parent model, and a model close to the leaf is called a child model.

It is assumed that the information managed as an association holds the relationship between the parent and child model information and the relative value information that is the position and orientation of the model from the parent to the child. However, information managed by node management related to teaching data and model information in this embodiment is not limited to relative value information. For example, absolute value information corresponding to the position and orientation of the model from the root to the child may be stored.

In the data storage format of (hierarchical) node format for managing teaching data and model information in this embodiment, the data of each node are associated with each other via address pointers, for example, and then stored in memory. You can use the linked list format. Alternatively, when storing teaching data and model information in a file system on an external storage device such as an HDD or SSD, data storage formats in various relational database systems may be used.

Throughout this specification, the display of the management screen 40 is treated as a visual display of a hierarchical tree structure composed of nodes of teaching data (position and orientation data) stored on the storage device 35 . At the same time, the illustration of the management screen 40 may be considered as a memory map display of the tree-structured teaching data (position and orientation data) stored on the storage device 35 .

According to the node management described above, when the relative value information that is the position and orientation of the parent model is changed, the child model retains the relative value information that corresponds to the position and orientation of the models from the parent to the child. Therefore, it can follow the parent's model.

In the data structure displayed on the management screen 40 of FIG. 1, the robot 101 (ROBOT) and the work 103 (Work) are positioned below the child model information of the absolute coordinate system 100 (ROOT). Furthermore, in the child model information of the robot 101, a tool 102 (Tool) and a tool coordinate system 105 (TCP) are located. Further, a child model of robot 101 is associated with a teaching point. For example, one child model of the robot 101 is associated with the reference teaching point 106 (P001). Further, the child model of the teaching point 106 serving as a reference is associated with the offset teaching point 107 (P100).

Next, FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the control system constituted by the personal computer (PC) B of the information processing apparatus A shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the personal computer B that constitutes the information processing apparatus A of FIG. 1 includes, in terms of hardware, a CPU 33, a storage device 35 comprising a ROM 35a, a RAM 35b, an external storage device 35c, and the like. Further, the personal computer B includes an interface 32a for connecting to the operation input unit D, an interface 32b for connecting to the display device C, and an interface 36 for transmitting and receiving data in the form of a file F, for example, with an external device. These interfaces are composed of, for example, various serial buses, parallel buses, network interfaces, and the like.

Although FIG. 2 shows the calculation unit 34 together with the CPU 33, the calculation unit 34 is actually implemented by the CPU 33 executing a control program for performing control calculations, which will be described later. The display device C displays a GUI format display screen E including the virtual environment screen 10, the parameter setting screen 20, the management screen 40, and the like. The operation input unit D constitutes a GUI (graphical user interface) together with the display screen E of the display device C, and receives GUI operations by the user using the pointing device of the operation input unit D or the keyboard.

The CPU 33 performs system control of the information processing apparatus A as a whole. The CPU 33 performs control calculations for the calculation unit 34 based on the input and editing operations performed by the operation input unit D. FIG. Display control information for updating the display of the display device C is generated by the control calculation of the calculation unit 34, and teaching data and model information stored in the storage device 35 are updated.

The storage device 35 stores 3D CAD model information, layout environment information, teaching data, and the like displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 . In particular, teaching data and model information are stored in the above (hierarchical) node format. Various data stored in the storage device 35 are output in response to requests from the CPU 33 and updated in response to requests from the CPU 33 .

In addition, the CPU 33 can transmit various data stored in the storage device 35 in the form of a file F from the interface 36 in response to a request from an external device or a specific operation on the operation input unit D. Also, the file F can be read from outside via the interface 36 as required. For example, when the information processing apparatus A is started or during restoration processing, the file F output in the past is read from an external device (for example, an external storage device such as an external HDD, SDD, or NAS), and the storage device 35 is updated. , can reproduce the state of the previous memory.

In this embodiment, the storage area of the storage device 35 for storing teaching data and model information of the robot 101 is arbitrary. A storage area can be used.

An example of the overall configuration of the information processing apparatus A has been described above. In the above description, the hardware configuration of the personal computer B has been exemplified as an example of a system suitable for off-line teaching. However, the information processing device A is not limited to the offline teaching system, and may be a hardware configuration such as a teaching pendant installed on site together with the robot device. In that case, if the display device of the teaching pendant is configured to display a virtual environment screen equivalent to that described above, a configuration equivalent to that of this embodiment can be implemented.

Next, as an example of creation and editing processing in this embodiment, creation and editing processing of the offset teaching point 107 in the above configuration will be described. Regarding the creation/editing processing of the offset teaching point 107, different processing and display are performed according to the operation performed on the GUI of the operation input unit D and the display device C. FIG.

For example, the information processing apparatus A of this type must be capable of inputting or editing position and orientation data using coordinate values in different coordinate systems with respect to the offset teaching point 107 in FIG. In addition, it is necessary to be able to cope with a case where the user switches the coordinate system used for parameter display after once inputting the position and orientation data, or a case where the user edits the position and orientation data of the teaching point 106 which is the original reference. There is

Therefore, below, the following four cases will be described for the creation/editing process of the offset teaching point 107 . These are the creation/editing of "when the tool coordinate system 105 is selected", "when the base coordinate system 104 is selected", "when the coordinate system is switched", and "when the reference teaching point 106 is edited". processing.

(Creation of offset teaching point using tool coordinate system)
First, the procedure and processing for selecting the tool coordinate system 105 and creating the offset teaching point 107 in the first case will be described with reference to FIGS. In this example, an offset teaching point 107 that is offset by 30 mm in the Z-axis direction from a reference teaching point 106 is created.

FIG. 3 shows the flow of the control procedure executed by the CPU 33 when the offset teaching point 107 is newly created. The illustrated procedure can be stored in the form of a program executable by the CPU 33, for example, in the ROM 35a of the storage device 35 or the external storage device 35c. This point also applies to control procedures shown in other flowcharts to be described later.

The ROM 35a corresponds to a computer (CPU 33)-readable recording medium for storing an information processing program described later. The CPU 33 executes robot control including torque control as described later by executing an information processing program stored in the ROM 35a, for example. A part of the ROM 35a can be composed of a rewritable non-volatile area such as an E(E)PROM. In that case, the non-volatile area can be composed of a computer-readable memory device (recording medium) such as a flash memory or an optical disk (not shown). For example, by replacing the memory device, the information processing program can be installed or updated. It is possible. Also, an information processing program obtained via a network or the like can be newly installed in the rewritable nonvolatile area. The information processing program stored in the rewritable non-volatile area can also be updated by data acquired via the computer-readable recording medium or a network.

FIGS. 4A to 4D show display states on the virtual environment screen 10 of the robot 101 related to the creation/editing process of the offset teaching point 107. FIG. Although FIG. 1 shows a perspective view from the front, the display of the virtual environment screen 10 shown in FIGS. .

FIG. 4A shows the initial posture of the robot 101, which is the position and posture at the start of processing for creating the offset teaching point 107 in FIG. Note that the reference teaching point 106 is, for example, a teaching point represented by a relative value from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101, and is assumed to have already been created here.

5(a) to (d) (similarly to FIGS. 6(a) to (d) described later) show the GUI during the creation/editing process of the offset teaching point 107, especially the input and display on the parameter setting screen 20. state.

In the processing procedure of FIG. 3, at step S0, a predetermined operation is performed on the operation input unit D to designate processing for creating a new offset teaching point 107. In the processing procedure shown in FIG. A parameter setting screen 20 as shown in FIGS. 5(a) to 5(d) is used to create the offset teaching point (107).

5A to 5D, the parameter setting screen 20 displays an absolute value setting section 201, a relative value setting section 202, a teaching point setting section 203, and a coordinate system selection section 204. FIG. In the initial state of FIG. 5(a), the operation of creating a new offset teaching point has not yet been performed, and no parameters have been input yet.

The absolute value setting unit 201 is used, for example, to input absolute coordinate values in an absolute coordinate system (for example, the base coordinate system 104). Also, the relative value setting unit 202 is used, for example, to input relative coordinate values in a relative coordinate system (for example, the tool coordinate system 105). The coordinate system selection unit 204 is coordinate system specification means for specifying one of the different coordinate systems used for the robot 101 as the coordinate system used when displaying the coordinate values corresponding to the position and orientation data on the parameter setting screen 20 . Configure.

In creating a new offset teaching point, it is necessary to set a teaching point (106) that serves as a reference. When setting the teaching point 106 to be the reference (teaching point setting means, step S1 in FIG. 3), the setting operation of the teaching point 106 to be the reference is performed as shown in FIG. 5(a).

For example, the user clicks the teaching point setting section 203 in FIG. In response, the CPU 33 controls the display device C to display a selectable teaching point list 206 using the teaching point setting section 203 of the parameter setting screen 20 like a pull-down menu, for example. A user (operator) can select a reference taught point 106 from the taught point list 206 by clicking a mouse or the like.

When the selection of the reference taught point 106 is completed in this manner, the CPU 33 reads the parameters of the selected taught point "P001" recorded in the storage device 35, and displays the display screen E of the display device C based on the read parameters. Update. Specifically, the display of "reference" in the teaching point list 206 is switched to the display corresponding to the teaching point "P001" as shown in FIG. 5(b).

At this time, the display of the virtual environment screen 10 on the display device C can also be updated at the same time, for example, as shown in FIG. 4(b). FIG. 4B shows the position and orientation of the robot 101 displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 of the display device C after updating from the side. The virtual environment screen 10 of FIG. 4B displays a position and orientation in which the reference portion of the arm of the robot 101 coincides with the (reference) teaching point 106 .

In this embodiment, any coordinate system can be selected for inputting the new offset teaching point 107 (coordinate system selection means, step S2).

For example, the user clicks the coordinate system selection section 204 with the cursor 205 of the mouse, as shown in FIG. 5(b). In response, the CPU 33 controls the display device C to display a selectable coordinate system list 207 using the coordinate system selection section 204 of the parameter setting screen 20 like a pull-down menu, for example. A user (operator) can select a coordinate system from a coordinate system list 207 displayed in the coordinate system selection section 204 . Here, the user selects, for example, the tool coordinate system 105 from the coordinate system list 207 .

As shown in FIGS. 5A to 5D, an absolute value setting section 201 and a relative value setting section 202 are displayed on (the left side of) the parameter setting screen 20. FIG. The user can use the absolute value setting unit 201 and the relative value setting unit 202 to numerically input the position and orientation data in the designated coordinate system for the teaching points designated as described above. As the position and orientation data, the absolute value setting unit 201 and the relative value setting unit 202 specify, for example, three-dimensional coordinate values and rotation angles around axes as indicated by X, Y, Z, α, β, and γ. can be done. Among them, the unit of coordinate values is, for example, mm, and the rotation angle around the axis is expressed by, for example, Euler angles ZYX (αβγ).

At this stage, the user can set a relative value to be the offset of the new offset teaching point 107 (parameter setting means, step S3).

Above the absolute value setting section 201 and the relative value setting section 202 is a teaching point name setting section 212 for inputting and displaying the names of teaching points to be created. Here, the user inputs a desired teaching point name (for example, “P100” in the example of FIG. 5) to the teaching point name setting section 212 . Further, at this stage, the taught point name setting section 212 may display the taught point names automatically generated by the CPU 33 in the input state.

In addition, when the new offset teaching point 107 is input, the initial state of all the fields of the relative value setting unit 202 is 0 (FIG. 5(b)). The same value (copy) as the position and orientation data of the teaching point 106 can be displayed.

Also, at this stage, as described above, the reference portion of the arm coincides with the (reference) teaching point 106 as shown in FIG. can use the tool coordinate system 105, for example. Therefore, here, using the tool coordinate system 105 (designated as described above), the offset teaching point 107 to be offset by "30 mm" in the Z-axis direction is designated and created.

For example, as shown in FIG. Enter a value of "30" and press the [Enter] key on the same keyboard.

The CPU 33 updates the contents of the memory area corresponding to the relative value setting section 202 arranged in the RAM of the storage device 35 according to the numerical value input to the relative value setting section 202 . That is, when an operation input for changing part of the position and orientation data is performed on the operation input unit D, the part of the position and orientation data is changed according to the content of the operation input (first calculation step).

When the [Enter] key is pressed on the keyboard of the operation input section D, the position and orientation calculation of the calculation section 34 configured by the software of the CPU 33 is started (attitude calculation means).

Here, first, it is determined whether the coordinate system selected for the offset teaching point 107 is the tool coordinate system 105 (step S4 in FIG. 3). If the coordinate system selected here is the tool coordinate system 105, the process advances to step S5 to execute posture calculation processing for the tool coordinate system 105 (joint value calculation processing, step S5).

Here, the joint value is represented by a bending (rotating) angle of a certain joint of the robot 101, and is joint data specifying the position (or posture) of the joint. In the present embodiment, such joint data is used in the middle of calculations for purposes such as constraint error checking, which will be described later. An example of doing so will be described in Example 5 below.

Here, the calculation when the tool coordinate system 105 is selected is performed as in the following formula (1) (coordinate transformation). Here, the relative values from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 to the offset teaching point 107 are obtained from the product of the posture matrix _T1 of the relative values of the teaching point 106 serving as the reference and the posture matrix _T2 of the relative values serving as the offset. Compute the pose matrix _T3 .

Here, the posture matrix T is a matrix of 4 rows and 4 columns as shown in the following equation (2), the parameters from the 1st row and 1st column to the 3rd row and 3rd column are the rotation matrix R, and the 4 columns from the 1st row to the 3rd row are 0 matrix from the 4th row/1st column to the 4th row/3rd column, and 1s at the 4th row/4th column.

Then, inverse kinematics calculation is performed from the calculation result of equation (1) to calculate the joint values of each axis of the robot 101 . That is, in step S5 (or S6 to be described later), the CPU 33 calculates the position or orientation of each part of the robot apparatus based on the partial position/orientation data (of the offset teaching points 107) changed in the first calculation step. Position and orientation calculations are performed to specify each of the . New position and orientation data (for example, joint values) are obtained based on the result of this position and orientation calculation (second calculation step).

Furthermore, the CPU 33 updates the display on the display screen E of the display device C based on the result of the inverse kinematics calculation (steps S7 to S9 in FIG. 3). That is, the CPU 33 updates the display on the display screen E of the display device C based on the partial position/orientation data changed in the first calculation step and the new position/orientation data calculated in the second calculation step. (display update step).

In updating the display of the display screen E of the display device C, for example, the management screen 40 of the display device C, the virtual display of the virtual environment screen 10, or the numerical value display of the parameter setting screen 20 are updated. Prior to updating the display screen E of the display device C, it is determined whether or not each joint value corresponding to the position and orientation data calculated in the second calculation process is within the constraints determined by the hardware specifications of the actual robot 101 or the like. An error check is performed (step S7 below).

In step S7, it is determined whether each joint value of the offset teaching point 107 is within the constraints determined by the hardware specifications (or operational rules) of the actual robot 101 (constraint determination processing). For example, in an actual robot device, the range of possible rotation angles of a certain joint may be restricted to a specific range. judge. It is assumed that such restrictive conditions such as the movable range of the robot 101 are stored in advance in the ROM 35a, the RAM 35b, the external storage device 35c, or the like in an appropriate storage format.

If the result of determination in step S7 is within the constraints, the CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C (normal system display processing, S9). Here, the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 and the contents of the parameter setting screen 20 are updated. Here, the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 matches the absolute coordinate system 100 as described above. Therefore, the contents of the update are the relative values from the base coordinate system 104 to the offset teaching point 107 to the absolute value setting unit 201, and the calculation results of the joint values of each axis of the robot 101 by inverse kinematics calculation to the virtual environment screen 10. Update to reflect.

Furthermore, in updating the display screen E of the display device C, the entire GUI (virtual environment screen 10, parameter setting screen 20, or management screen 40) including changed parts and unchanged parts is updated. As a result, for example, the parameter setting screen 20 is updated as shown in FIG. 4(c).

FIG. 4C shows the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 of the display device C after updating. As is clear from comparison with FIG. 4B, in FIG. 4C, the display of the robot 101 is changed to a position and orientation in which the reference portion of the arm is positioned at the offset teaching point 107. FIG. In FIG. 4(c), what is shown as d30 is the offset amount of 30 mm.

FIG. 5D shows the display of the parameter setting screen 20 of the display screen E of the display device C after updating. If no error has occurred in step S7, the parameters of the offset teaching point 107 are updated as shown in FIG.

As described above, when an input is made to the relative value setting unit 202 using the operation input unit D, the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 and the display on the parameter setting screen 20 are immediately updated, and a new offset teaching point is added. The pose and parameters at 107 can be confirmed.

Therefore, even if the robot device is not actually connected to the information processing device A, or the actual robot device is not operated, the user (operator) can simply view the display screen E of the display device C. Validity of input (edit) operation can be checked. As a result, it is possible to reduce the number of man-hours required for confirming the validity of input (editing) operations, which was conventionally required.

On the other hand, in step S7, as a result of the position/orientation calculation, for example, if any of the joint values is out of hardware constraints, the CPU 33 causes the display device C to display an error indicating that the orientation cannot be taken (abnormal display processing). , S8). For example, the error screen 50 to be displayed at this time may be as shown in FIG. The error screen 50 in FIG. 8 indicates that the arrival attitude is outside the limits and that an error has occurred using a character string and graphic symbols.

When displaying this screen, the CPU 33 clears the numerical value of the offset teaching point 107 on the parameter setting screen 20 and restores the state before inputting the relative value (for example, FIG. 5(a) or (b)). After that, in the case of the control of FIG. 3, the process returns to the editing (input) operation of the relative value in step S3, so work such as changing the input value of the offset teaching point 107 can be performed in the same manner as described above.

That is, the CPU 33 determines whether or not the position/orientation data obtained as a result of the calculation in the second calculation step is within the limits of the mechanical constraints of the robot 101 . If the relevant position/orientation data exceeds the limits of the mechanism of the robot device, error information (for example, an error screen 50) is generated to report an editing error.

Subsequently, the user who visually recognizes the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 and the display of the parameter setting screen 20 performs an operation to confirm whether or not the desired reaching posture is achieved (step S10). In step S10, when the offset teaching point 107 is in the desired reaching posture, the OK button 209 is selected with the mouse cursor and a confirmation operation is performed by clicking. This confirmation operation completes the creation of the offset teaching point 107 . As a result, the CPU 33 stores information on the determined offset teaching point 107 in the storage device 35 .

Thus, the creation of the new offset teaching point 107 is completed (recording means, step S11 in FIG. 3). As information to be recorded in the storage device 35, for example, information on the teaching point 106 serving as a reference, information on the selected coordinate system, and offset information are set as information (relating to) the offset teaching point 107, and this information is recorded in the storage device 35 . Alternatively, this teaching point information may be stored in the storage device 35 including tag information relating to a data class indicating that it is relative "offset" information. According to such a storage format, it is possible to specify that the offset teaching point 107 is defined with reference to the teaching point 106 , that is, that the teaching point 107 is data subordinate to the teaching point 106 .

Regarding the creation of the new offset teaching point 107 , the display of the management screen 40 can also be updated under the control of the CPU 33 . Here, FIGS. 7A and 7B show the display state of the management screen 40 before creation of the offset teaching point 107 and after completion of creation of the offset teaching point 107, respectively. In FIG. 7A, the tree of the robot 101 is hierarchized with the nodes of the teaching points 106 of P001, P010, and P020, and the nodes of TCP (105) and Tool (102).

Then, when the new offset teaching point 107 is normally created as described above, a node of the new offset teaching point 107 is newly created below the taught point 106 serving as the reference on the node management screen 40 . In this way, the node of the new offset teaching point 107 is displayed below the teaching point 106 serving as the reference. As a result, the user can very clearly recognize that the offset taught point 107 is a (offset) taught point having a subordinate relation as a child to the node of the parent taught point 106 .

Note that each node on the management screen 40 of FIG. 7 can be used as a button (or icon) on the GUI for selecting the node in question. For example, when each node on the management screen 40 is clicked using a mouse or the like, the CPU 33 determines that an edit operation of the (position and orientation) data of that node has been designated. For example, when editing the offset teaching point 107, the user can start (re)editing the same teaching point by clicking the offset teaching point 107 on the management screen 40 with the mouse cursor.

The position/orientation data stored in the storage device 35 is stored in the interface 36 in the form of a file F in units of the entire tree (for example, the entire tree in FIG. 7) or a specific portion designated by the operation input unit D. can be output to an external device via (input/output means).

The file F output in this manner can be read by the interface 36 at a later date. As a result, when the entire tree (for example, the entire tree in FIG. 7) is read from file F, the state of the system when the position and orientation data of file F was created can be restored. For example, when the file F is read, the CPU 33 displays the management screen 40 shown in FIG. 7(b), and selects the offset teaching point 107 therefrom, thereby changing the states shown in FIGS. 4(c) and 5(d). Reproducible.

Also, the file F can be prepared (converted) into a format shared by the controller of the actual robot device and output from the interface 36 . As a result, the teaching data created by the information processing apparatus A can be directly input to the actual robot apparatus.

Here, for example, the interface of the controller of the actual robot device may consist of an operation program and an offset variable. In such a case, the CPU 33 outputs the information of the reference taught point 106 as taught point information and the information of the offset taught point 107 as offset editing information of the operation program. form is conceivable.

Also, a configuration is conceivable in which the interface of the teaching point information of the controller of the actual robot apparatus uses only the relative value information from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot. In such a case, the CPU 33 calculates the product of the offset teaching point 107 and the reference teaching point 106, converts all the teaching point information into relative values from the robot base coordinate system 104, and then saves the file F. can be output via

As described above, when inputting/outputting data to/from an external device, especially an actual robot device, through the interface 36 and the file F, various actual robot devices (or controllers) can be used by performing necessary format conversions. can correspond to

To stop creating the offset teaching point 107, click the cancel button 210 on the upper right portion of the parameter setting screen 20 in FIGS. When the cancel button 210 is clicked, the CPU 33 deletes the information about the offset taught point 107 and updates the display screen E of the display device C to the state before the offset taught point 107 was created.

As described above, a new offset teaching point 107 can be created.

(Creation of offset teaching points using base coordinate system)
Next, in the second case, the base coordinate system 104 is selected from the reference teaching point 106, and the creation procedure and processing of the offset teaching point 107 that offsets "-30 mm" in the Z-axis direction is shown in FIG. 6(a). This will be described using (d). FIGS. 6(a) to (d) show transition of the GUI of the parameter setting screen 20 in the same manner as FIGS. 5(a) to (d). Note that the control procedure when using the base coordinate system 104 is described in part of FIG. 3 above.

FIG. 6A shows an operation for setting the reference taught point 106. The reference taught point 106 is selected by using the taught point setting unit 203, for example, as a pull-down menu in the same manner as in FIG. 5A. (teaching point setting means, step S1 in FIG. 3).

Next, the base coordinate system 104 is selected (coordinate system selection means, step S2). FIG. 6(b) shows a selection operation of the coordinate system. Here, the base coordinate system 104 is selected by using the coordinate system selection section 204 like a pull-down menu, similar to FIG. 5(b) described above. (Coordinate system selection means, step S2).

In this way, the selection of the reference teaching point 106 and the selection of the coordinate system (base coordinate system 104) used for input are completed, and preparations necessary for setting the offset relative value of the offset teaching point 107 are completed. .

Next, a relative value to be an offset is set (parameter setting means, S3). FIG. 6(c) shows the setting in the setting column 208 of the relative value setting unit 202. As shown in FIG. Here, the Z-axis setting field 208 of the relative value setting section 202 is clicked with the mouse cursor. A numerical value of "-30" is input in the Z-axis setting field 208 of the relative value setting unit 202 using the keyboard operated by the operation input unit D, and the [Enter] key is pressed.

This offset input value is equivalent to the example of the offset input of 30 mm below using the tool coordinate system described above. The difference in the sign of the offset "30" is because the coordinate system used for input is the tool coordinate system in the above example and the base coordinate system in this example. That is, the reason why a positive value such as 30 (mm) is input in the above example is that in the above tool coordinate system, the front of the tool is normally taken in the positive direction of the Z axis. Also, in this example, -30 (mm) and a negative value are entered because in the base coordinate system, the positive direction of the Z-axis (upper in FIG. 4) means that the downward offset is a negative value. It is for the sake of becoming.

The CPU 33 updates the contents of the memory area corresponding to the relative value setting section 202 arranged in the RAM of the storage device 35 according to the numerical value input to the relative value setting section 202 . That is, when an operation input for changing part of the position and orientation data is performed on the operation input unit D, the part of the position and orientation data is changed according to the content of the operation input (first calculation step).

Subsequently, when the user presses the [Enter] key on the keyboard of the operation input unit D, the CPU 33 executes the position/orientation calculation by the function of the calculation unit 34 (attitude calculation means).

Here, first, it is determined whether the selected coordinate system is the tool coordinate system 105 (step S4 in FIG. 3). In this example, the base coordinate system 104 is selected, so the process proceeds from step S4 to step S6, and the position and orientation of the base coordinate system 104 are calculated (step S6).

For example, in the case of calculating the position and orientation of the base coordinate system 104, calculation is performed by dividing the orientation matrix into a position matrix and a rotation matrix, and finally calculating the product of the calculation results.

First, the sum of the posture matrix _T1 of the relative values from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 to the teaching point 106 serving as the reference and the position matrix of the posture matrix _T2 of the relative values serving as the offset of the offset teaching point 107 is calculated. , pose matrix T _tmp1 (equation (3) below). Note that the rotation matrix _{R_tmp1} at this time is set to 0.

Next, an attitude matrix T_tmp2 with the position matrix _P2 set to 0 is created from the attitude matrix _{T_2} of the relative values that are the offsets of the offset teaching point 107 (equation (4) below).

Next, from the attitude matrix _T1 of the relative values from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 to the reference teaching point 106, an attitude matrix _Ttmp3 with the position matrix P1 set to 0 is created (equation (5) below). .

Next, from the product of equations (3), (4), and (5), a posture matrix _T3 of relative values from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 to the offset teaching point 107 is calculated (equation (6) below ).

Further, inverse kinematics calculation is performed from the calculation result of equation (6) to calculate the joint values of each axis of the robot 101 . That is, in step S6, the CPU 33 determines the position and orientation of each part of the robot device based on the partial position and orientation data (of the offset teaching points 107) changed in the first calculation step. perform calculations. New position and orientation data (for example, joint values) are obtained based on the result of this position and orientation calculation (second calculation step).

With the position and orientation calculations described above, the offset teaching point 107 when the base coordinate system 104 is selected can be obtained.

In the control of FIG. 3, determination of whether or not it is within the restricted range in subsequent steps S7 to S11 is performed in the same manner as in the case of inputting the offset teaching point 107 using the tool coordinate system 105 described above. Error processing (for example, message display in FIG. 8: step S8) regarding determination of whether or not it is within the restricted range can be performed in the same manner as described above.

After calculating the position and orientation in the base coordinate system (step S6), if no error has occurred, in step S9 of FIG. Refresh the display. The situation at this time is the same as that shown in FIGS. 4(b) to 4(c), 5(c), 7(a) and 7(b), etc., when the tool coordinate system is used. Further, the confirmation by the user in step S10 and the confirmation operation in S11 are the same as in the case of using the tool coordinate system described above (FIG. 5(d)).

That is, the CPU 33 updates the display on the display screen E of the display device C based on the partial position/orientation data changed in the first calculation step and the new position/orientation data calculated in the second calculation step. (display update step).

As described above, the offset teaching point 107 can be created by selecting the base coordinate system 104 . At the same time when the offset teaching point 107 is created, the display of the virtual environment screen 10, the parameter setting screen 20, or the management screen 40 of the display device C is updated. can.

Therefore, even if the robot device is not actually connected to the information processing device A, or the actual robot device is not operated, the user (operator) can simply view the display screen E of the display device C. Validity of input (edit) operation can be checked. As a result, it is possible to reduce the number of man-hours required for confirming the validity of input (editing) operations, which was conventionally required.

(Editing the offset teaching point 107 and switching the coordinate system)
Next, the third case, control when the created offset teaching point 107 is edited and the coordinate system is switched, will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 shows a control procedure when the coordinate system of the offset teaching point 107 that has already been input is switched.

In the past, when it was necessary to switch the coordinate system, the operator (user) performed matrix calculations and calculated the parameters. rice field. Therefore, as shown in this example, according to the configuration for automatically calculating the relative value parameter in the direction of the coordinate system that is switched when the coordinate system is switched, such human calculation errors can be reduced. . A case where the base coordinate system 104 and the tool coordinate system 105 are respectively switched will be described below. Here, first consider the processing when the tool coordinate system 105 is switched to the base coordinate system 104 .

The start of editing the offset teaching point 107 (step S12 in FIG. 9) is, for example, the offset teaching point 107 (P100 ).

Next, the tool coordinate system 105 is switched to the base coordinate system 104 (coordinate system selection means, step S13). For example, when the coordinate system selection section 204 of the parameter setting screen 20 of FIG. 5B (FIG. 6B) is clicked using the mouse of the operation input section D, a coordinate system list 207 is displayed. Here, this coordinate system list 207 is used to switch the tool coordinate system 105 to the base coordinate system 104 .

When the coordinate system selection unit 204 of the parameter setting screen 20 switches to the base coordinate system 104 (step S13 in FIG. 9), the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 performs position and orientation calculations accompanied by coordinate system conversion as follows. (Posture calculation means: S15 in this example).

First, it is determined whether the selected coordinate system is the tool coordinate system 105 (step S4), and if the base coordinate system 104 is selected here, the process proceeds from step S4 to S15, and the relative value calculation of the base coordinate system 104 is executed. (Relative value calculation process, step S15).

In the calculation of the relative values of the base coordinate system 104, first, the orientation matrix _T3 of the relative values from the base coordinate system 104 to the offset teaching point 107 is calculated from equation (1). Next, from equation (5), an attitude matrix _Ttmp3 is calculated by setting the position matrix P1 of the attitude matrix _T1 of the relative values from the base coordinate system 104 to the reference taught point 106 to 0.

Subsequently, the product of the formula (1) and the inverse matrix of the formula (5) is calculated to calculate the attitude matrix T _tmp4 (the following formula (7)).

Subsequently, the posture matrix T _tmp5 is calculated by setting the position matrix P _tmp4 of the posture matrix T _tmp4 calculated by the formula (7) to 0 (formula (8) below).

Subsequently, the product of the inverse matrix of the attitude matrix T _tmp4 calculated by equation (7) and the inverse matrix of the attitude matrix T _tmp5 calculated by equation (8) is calculated to calculate the attitude matrix T _tmp6 (equation (9) below ).

Subsequently, relative value rotation components (α, β, γ) that are offset in the direction of the base coordinate system 104 are calculated from the rotation matrix _{R_tmp4} of Equation (7). Then, from the translation component P _tmp6 of equation (9), the difference between the position matrix P1 of the attitude matrix _T1 of the relative values from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 to the teaching point 106 serving as the reference is calculated. Calculate the translational components (X, Y, Z) of the relative values that are the offsets of .

The CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C based on the relative values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) that are the offsets in the direction of the base coordinate system 104 output as a result of the above calculation (display means ). As in this case, when the coordinate system (only) is changed, the position and orientation of the robot 101 do not change. S9).

When changing (only) the coordinate system, it is of course not necessary to change the display of the position and orientation of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 .

Here, for example, in the position and orientation of the robot 101 displayed after teaching the offset teaching point 107 in FIG. It is a posture that becomes a coordinate system.

Therefore, before the coordinate system is switched from the tool coordinate system to the base coordinate system, the display of the relative value setting section 202 of the parameter setting screen 20 is changed from the display shown in FIG. is switched to the display of FIG. 6(d). That is, the offset amount of Z-axis "30 mm" in the tool coordinate system 105 shown in FIG. The offset amount is "-30 mm".

When the user visually confirms the display screen E of the display device C switched as described above, editing of the offset teaching point 107 ends in step S16.

As described above, according to this example, the user (operator) can confirm the relative value parameter of the automatically switched coordinate system direction at the same time when the coordinate system is switched. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to manually perform matrix calculations associated with coordinate system conversion as in the conventional art, and it is possible to reduce man-hours and human errors.

Also, the control for switching from the base coordinate system 104 to the tool coordinate system 105 causes a transition from step S4 to step S14 in FIG. 9 (the rest of the control is the same as above).

When switching from the base coordinate system 104 to the tool coordinate system 105, the coordinate system selection section 204 of the parameter setting screen 20 is used to switch the base coordinate system 104 to the tool coordinate system 105 in step S13 of FIG. coordinate system selection means).

In step S4 of FIG. 9, it is determined whether the selected coordinate system is the tool coordinate system 105, and the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 performs position and orientation calculation (posture calculation means: S14) is performed.

In this relative value calculation in the tool coordinate system 105, a posture matrix _T2 of relative values to be the offset of the offset teaching point 107 is calculated (equation (10) below). Here, the posture matrix T2 is the product of the posture matrix _T3 , which is the calculation result of Equation (6), and the inverse matrix of the posture matrix _T1 of the relative values of the teaching point 106 serving as the reference in the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 _. Ask for

Euler angle transformation is performed from the calculation result of equation (10), and the relative values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) that are the offset of the offset teaching point 107 in the direction of the tool coordinate system 105 are calculated.

The CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C (display means, step S9) based on the offset relative values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) output from the above calculation results, and offsets Editing of the teaching point 107 is finished (step S16).

Naturally, in this display update, the parameter setting screen 20 is switched from the display of FIG. 6D to the display of FIG. 5D, which is the reverse of the conversion to the base coordinate system. That is, as a result of the coordinate system calculation by switching the coordinate system, the offset amount of Z-axis "-30 mm" in the base coordinate system 104 shown in FIG. It becomes the offset amount of the axis "30 mm". When changing (only) the coordinate system, it is of course not necessary to change the display of the position and orientation of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 .

As described above, even when switching from the base coordinate system to the tool coordinate system, the user can immediately check the relative value parameter of the automatically switched coordinate system direction at the same time as the coordinate system is switched as described above. can. For this reason, the operator does not need to manually perform the matrix calculation, and it is possible to reduce man-hours and human error.

(Editing teaching point 106 as a reference)
Finally, the processing of the offset teaching point 107 when the teaching point 106 serving as the reference is edited will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 shows a control procedure for changing the taught point 106 corresponding to the upper node of the offset taught point 107 that has already been input.

It is assumed that the parameter setting screen 20 for editing the reference taught point 106 displays an absolute value setting section 201 and a relative value setting section 202 (for example, FIGS. 5A to 5D or 6(a)-(d)). As shown in the management screen 40 of FIG. 7B, the offset teaching point 107 holds the child model relationship of the teaching point 106 serving as the reference (parent).

Therefore, in such hierarchically structured data, when the reference teaching point 106 is edited, the CPU 33 must also change the offset teaching point 107 while maintaining the relative value relationship.

First, to start editing the teaching point 106 that serves as a reference on the management screen 40 (step S17 in FIG. 10), for example, the teaching point 106 (P001) that serves as a reference is operated and input on the management screen 40 (FIG. 7A). Designation is performed by clicking with the mouse in part D or the like.

As a result, the CPU 33 switches the display of the taught point name setting section 212 of the parameter setting screen 20 to "P001" corresponding to the taught point 106, reads the position/orientation data of the taught point 106, and displays it in the absolute value setting section 201. do.

At this stage, the user corrects the position of the reference taught point 106 by changing the numerical value of the absolute value setting section 201 using the keyboard of the operation input section D (step S18 in FIG. 10). When the teaching point 106 serving as a reference is edited, the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 performs position and orientation calculation for the teaching point 106 serving as a reference.

Further, in this embodiment, as described above, the reference teaching point 106 and the offset teaching point 107 are stored in the storage device 35 in a hierarchical node structure. For this reason, the CPU 33 determines that the taught point 106 is a parent node and the offset taught point 107 is stored as a node that is affected by the teaching point 106 through the storage format and data contents of the position and orientation data as described above. recognize that there are

Therefore, when the teaching point 106 serving as the reference is edited, the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 also performs the position and orientation calculation for the offset teaching point 107 (joint value calculation processing: S4 and S5 or S6 in FIG. 10). ).

Here, first, it is determined whether or not the coordinate system used in the description format of the offset teaching point 107, which is in a child model relationship with respect to the reference teaching point 106, is the tool coordinate system 105 (step 10 in FIG. 10). S4). As described above, with respect to the offset teaching point 107, data indicating the coordinate system describing the teaching point is stored in the storage device 35, and the determination in step S4 is performed by referring to this coordinate system data. It can be carried out.

In step S4, if the coordinate system describing the offset teaching point 107 is the tool coordinate system 105, the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, the position and orientation of the offset teaching point 107 in the tool coordinate system 105 are calculated (step S5) based on the result of correction of the reference teaching point 106 (step S18).

On the other hand, if the coordinate system describing the offset teaching point 107 is the base coordinate system 104 in step S4, the process proceeds to step S6. In step S6, the position and orientation of the offset teaching point 107 in the base coordinate system 104 are calculated (step S6) based on the result of correction of the reference teaching point 106 (step S18).

Note that in step S5 or S6, joint value calculation processing for each joint of the robot 101 is also performed. do the math.

Subsequently, the CPU 33 determines whether or not each joint value of the robot 101 for realizing the offset teaching point 107 calculated in step S5 or S6 is within the aforementioned hardware and specification restrictions (constraint determination processing, step S7).

In step S7, when each joint value of the robot 101 is within the above restrictions, in step S9, the CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C (normal system display processing). At the same time, the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 can be changed immediately (or when the teaching point is specified on the management screen 40) to the position and orientation corresponding to the teaching point.

On the other hand, if each joint value of the robot 101 exceeds the above constraint in step S7, the CPU 33 uses the display screen E of the display device C to display an error in step S19. As an example of this error display, for example, as shown in FIG. x mark) is displayed (abnormal display processing).

In this case, only the taught point 107 (P100) is a child node of the taught point 106 serving as the reference. can be inspected. Therefore, if there are other teaching points that have a child node relationship and one of them is determined to be a teaching point outside the movable range, the CPU 33 also determines that teaching point as shown in FIG. A mark 108 is displayed in the same manner as . With such a display, the user can immediately recognize the validity (or problem) of the change of the teaching point 106 that is now executed as a reference.

After confirming the display of the management screen 40, the user can confirm the edited content of the reference teaching point 106 by clicking the confirmation button 209 (FIGS. 5 and 6) with the mouse (step S20). . The CPU 33 reflects the changed content in the teaching data on the storage device 35 . Alternatively, the teaching data reflecting the changed contents can be transmitted to the external device in a file F format. To cancel the editing of the teaching point 106 that serves as the reference, click the cancel button 210 (FIGS. 5 and 6). When this cancel operation is performed, the CPU 33 discards the changed content and restores the display on the display device C to the state before editing.

For example, when a specific teaching point is selected on the management screen 40 after editing, the CPU 33 can change the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 to the position and orientation corresponding to the teaching point. Further, when the teaching point is selected while the mark 108 indicating that the movement is impossible is displayed on the management screen 40, the CPU 33 displays an error screen 50 (FIG. 8) on the display device C, for example. to inform the user of the error. In this case, it is not necessary to perform display control to change the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 by the CPU 33 to the position and orientation corresponding to the teaching point.

As described above, the reference teaching point 106 can be edited and corrected.
As described above, in this embodiment, for example, the offset teaching point 107 is stored in a hierarchical node format in a node having a child relationship with respect to the teaching point 106 serving as a reference. Therefore, when the taught point 106 is changed, the CPU 33 can immediately and automatically execute the position/orientation calculation for the taught point 107 and reflect the result on the display screen E. FIG.

As a result, the user can confirm the influence of the position and orientation of the related offset teaching point 107 in real time during the course of editing by simply editing the reference teaching point 106, thereby reducing the number of man-hours.

As described above, according to this embodiment, in inputting or editing the position and orientation data of the robot device in the information processing device A, the operator can easily create, edit, and coordinate the offset taught point 107 and the reference taught point 106 . System switching and the like can be performed. In this embodiment, the position and orientation calculations for the robot device are automatically executed based on the editing result. Then, the result is immediately reflected on the display screen E of the display device C, the numerical display of the parameter setting screen 20 , the position/orientation display of the virtual environment screen 10 , and the management display of the management screen 40 . Therefore, the user can check the validity of the input or editing of the position and orientation data of the robot apparatus that has just been executed through the display screen E of the display apparatus C without performing troublesome manual calculations. It is possible to reduce man-hours and reduce human errors.

In this embodiment, a data structure is adopted in which nodes of position and orientation data as robot control data (teaching data) are stored in the storage device 35 in a hierarchical tree structure.
For example, instead of storing data in a parent-child relationship such as an offset teaching point and its reference teaching point as a simple flat data structure as in the past, a hierarchical node structure is stored in the storage device. store in As a result, when position/orientation data is input, edited, or modified, the range of position/orientation data that will be affected can be identified immediately, and error checks including trajectory calculations for position/orientation data within that range can be performed. be able to.

Further, according to the present embodiment, a tree structure storage format in which nodes of position and orientation data are hierarchically arranged is employed. Therefore, in the process of inputting, editing, and correcting the position/orientation data related to the teaching points, it is possible to quickly and reliably specify the portion to be updated among, for example, virtual display output, numerical display, and management display. Virtual display output, numerical display, management display, etc. can be updated so that the progress of inputting, editing, and correction during execution can be confirmed in real time according to the operation.

Further, according to the present embodiment, in inputting, editing, and correcting position/orientation data, position/orientation data can be designated by relative values that serve as offsets, or a robot coordinate system that can be easily grasped from a plurality of robot coordinate systems can be arbitrarily used. be able to. When position and orientation data are input and edited using relative values by offset, the storage format of the hierarchical node structure described above is used to perform position and orientation calculations according to the input and editing, for example, virtual display output and numerical display. , management display, etc. can be updated quickly and reliably.

In the above description, the base coordinate system 104 and the tool coordinate system 105 are shown as the coordinate systems that can be selected. is sometimes used. In that case, the coordinate system options can include coordinate systems other than the base coordinate system 104 and the tool coordinate system 105 described above. For example, when there are two robots 101 and the two robots 101 perform a cooperative operation, the base coordinate system 104 and tool coordinate system 105 of the other robot 101 can be selected to match the operation of the other robot 101. can be considered to be Further, when there is a work coordinate system having the origin of the work 103 as a coordinate system, the GUI of the display screen E can be designed so that the work coordinate system can be selected. Modified examples regarding these coordinate systems can be implemented in the same manner in each embodiment described later.

Several different embodiments of the information processing apparatus and information processing method of the present invention are shown below. Below, the same reference numerals will be used for the same constituent members, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. Also, in the control procedure shown in the flow charts described later, the same step numbers are used for steps that are the same as those in FIG. 3 described above, for example. The relationship between the step numbers in each flow chart to be described later and the above-described, for example, the first calculation process, the second calculation process, and the display update process is the same as that in FIG. 3 described above.

An information processing apparatus and an information processing method according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 11 to 16. FIG. In the following description, it is assumed that the basic parts of the hardware configuration, the configuration of the display screen, etc. are the same as those of the first embodiment described above, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, in the following embodiments, the same reference numerals are used for the same or corresponding members, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the first embodiment, the reference taught point 106 is a taught point described by a relative value from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101, for example. In this case, for example, when the position and orientation of the work 103 are changed, it is necessary to change the position and orientation of the work 103 in the virtual environment and to edit the position and orientation of the teaching point 106 that serves as a reference. Therefore, it would be convenient if the position and orientation of the reference taught point 106 could be automatically edited according to the change in the position and orientation of the workpiece 103 .

Therefore, in the present embodiment, a method of managing the reference taught point 109 and the offset taught point 110 (FIGS. 11A and 11B) related to the workpiece 103 by model information management using the management screen 40 will be exemplified. . In this embodiment, for example, when the position and orientation of the workpiece 103 are edited, the related teaching points can be automatically edited collectively.

As for the edit processing of the offset teaching point 110 related to the work 103, different processing and display are performed depending on the selection procedure of the GUI on the display screen E of the display device C. FIG. For example, editing of the teaching point information related to the work 103 will be described below for two cases of "editing the offset teaching point 110" and "editing the work 103".

It should be noted that the same processing as in the first embodiment is performed for the processing "when the coordinate system is switched" and "when the reference taught point 106 is edited" described in the first embodiment.

(Editing processing of offset teaching point 110 related to work 103)
First, the editing procedure and processing of the offset teaching point 110 related to the workpiece 103 in the first case will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. FIG. FIG. 11(a) displayed on the display screen E of the display device C of the information processing device A shows the configuration of the management screen 40. FIG. In other parts of the display screen E, the virtual environment screen 10 and the parameter setting screen 20 can be arranged as shown in FIG. 1, for example.

In the teaching data corresponding to the management screen 40 of FIG. 11(a), each teaching data node of the robot 101 (ROBOT) and the work 103 (Work) is stored under the ROOT (100) node in a hierarchical node configuration. ing. Each node of the robot 101 is a reference teaching point 106 (P001) and its child nodes, the offset teaching point 107, TCP (105) and Tool (102).

As shown in FIG. 11(a), in this embodiment, nodes of the teaching point 109 and the offset teaching point 110, which serve as the child model of the model information of the workpiece 103, are hierarchized and stored in the storage device 35. there is The CPU 33 (FIG. 2) can use such a data structure to manage the position and orientation data of each of these associated (stringed) nodes.

Here, the teaching point 109 serving as the reference of the workpiece 103 is position and orientation data of a specific part such as a gripping position of the workpiece 103 by the robot 101 . Also, the offset teaching point 110 has a position and orientation expressed by a relative value of the offset with respect to the position and orientation of the teaching point 109 serving as a reference.

The reference teaching point 109 and the offset teaching point 110 are stored in the storage device 35 in a hierarchical node structure, like the reference teaching point 106 and the offset teaching point 107 in the above embodiment. Therefore, it is possible to perform the same editing as in the case of the reference teaching point 106 and the offset teaching point 107 in the above embodiment, and the display control related to the editing.

Editing of the offset teaching point 110 can be performed in the following procedure. FIG. 12 shows the control procedure executed by the CPU 33 when editing the offset teaching point 110 .

At step S12 in FIG. 12, the offset teaching point 110 (P110) on the management screen 40 is selected to start editing (S12). This teaching point selection can be performed by clicking the offset teaching point 110 (P110) on the management screen 40 with the mouse of the operation input unit D, as described above.

As shown in FIG. 1, the parameter setting screen 20 is prepared together with the management screen 40 on the display screen E of the display device C. FIG. When the offset teaching point 110 (P110) is selected on the management screen 40, the CPU 33 switches the display of the teaching point name setting section 212 to "P110" corresponding to the teaching point 110 in the same manner as described above.

Next, using the relative value setting section 202 of the parameter setting screen 20, the relative value to be the offset of the offset teaching point 110 can be edited (parameter setting means, step S3). When the user uses the relative value setting unit 202 to input or edit the relative value that will be the offset of the offset teaching point 110, the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 performs position/orientation calculation accompanied by coordinate system conversion.

First, in step S21, the CPU 33 determines whether the teaching point is related to the workpiece 103 (model determination processing, step S21). This determination is made by searching the teaching point data of the hierarchical node structure as shown in FIG. It corresponds to the process of identifying whether it belongs to As a specific method, for example, the model information of the parent of the teaching point 110 itself is searched up to the absolute coordinate system 100 as the model information of the root. Judged as a teaching point.

In this example, it is determined in step S21 that the taught point 110 is a taught point related to the workpiece 103, and step S22 is executed. In step S22, a relative value from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 to the reference teaching point 109 is calculated (base relative value calculation processing).

Here, as shown in the following equation (11), from the product of the attitude matrix _T4 of absolute values from the absolute coordinate system to the work 103 and the attitude matrix _T5 of relative values from the work 103 to the reference teaching point 109, A posture matrix _{T_tmp7} of the absolute values of the taught point 109 serving as a reference is calculated from the absolute coordinate system.

Next, as shown in the following equation (12), the base coordinate system of the robot 101 is obtained from the product of the calculation result of the equation (11) and the inverse matrix of the absolute value posture matrix _T6 from the absolute coordinate system to the base of the robot 101. A posture matrix _T1 of relative values from 104 to a reference teaching point 109 is calculated.

Following step S22, or when the teaching point to be processed is a teaching point related to the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 in step S21, the processing of step S4 is executed. In this step S4, the CPU 33 determines whether or not the coordinate system selected in the coordinate system selection section 204 (for example, FIG. 5B) of the parameter setting screen 20 is the tool coordinate system 105 (step S4).

If the coordinate system selected in step S4 is the tool coordinate system 105, the process advances to step S5 to execute the position/orientation calculation for each joint of the robot 101 in the tool coordinate system 105 (joint value Calculation processing: step S5).

On the other hand, if the coordinate system selected in step S4 is the base coordinate system 104, the process advances to step S6 to execute the position/orientation calculation for each joint of the robot 101 in the base coordinate system 104 as in the first embodiment ( Joint value calculation processing: step S6).

Next, in step S7 and after, the display of the display screen E is updated according to the result of the position/orientation calculation in step S5 or S6 (display means).

First, in step S7, the CPU 33 determines that each joint value of the robot 101 required to move the reference part to the offset teaching point 110 is within the constraints determined by the hardware, specifications, conventions, etc., as in the first embodiment described above. or not (restriction determination process: step S7).

If the joint values of the robot 101 are within the above constraints in step S7, the process proceeds to step S9, and the CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C according to the result of position/orientation calculation (normal system display processing). At the same time, the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 can be immediately changed to the position and orientation corresponding to the teaching point 110 .

On the other hand, if the joint values of the robot 101 exceed the above constraints in step S7, the process proceeds to step S8, and the error screen 50 of FIG. 8 is displayed to indicate that the robot 101 cannot take a posture. (abnormal table processing) and return to the state before editing.

After that, the user who visually recognizes the display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 and the display of the parameter setting screen 20 clicks the confirmation button 209 (FIGS. 5 and 6) with a mouse to set the reference teaching point 110. Edited contents can be confirmed (step S16). If the user wishes to cancel the editing of the teaching point 110, he/she clicks the cancel button 210 (FIGS. 5 and 6). When this cancel operation is performed, the CPU 33 discards the changed content and restores the display on the display device C to the state before editing.

As described above, when the user edits the offset teaching point 110 related to the workpiece 103, the user can immediately check the position and orientation of the robot 101 and the parameters of the teaching point. As a result, it is possible to reduce human error and man-hours.

(Arrangement change of workpiece 103)
Next, the second case, editing processing for changing the layout of the workpiece 103, and an example of control by the CPU 33 related thereto will be described with reference to FIGS. 13 to 16. FIG.

As for the management screen 40, the displays shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B are used. At the same time, with respect to the workpiece 103 to be rearranged, it is assumed that nodes of the teaching point 109 serving as a reference and its child offset teaching point 110 have already been defined in the same manner as in the examples of FIGS. 11 and 12 above. .

The nodes of these reference teaching point 109 and its child offset teaching point 110 store position and orientation data corresponding to the position and orientation of the reference portion of the robot 101 when handling such as gripping of the workpiece 103, for example. there is In this example, the nodes of the taught points 109 and 110 are stored in the hierarchy of the work 103. Therefore, if the position of the work 103 is changed, the CPU 33 automatically restores the nodes of the taught points 109 and 110 affected as follows. can be edited (changed).

The position and orientation data for controlling the robot apparatus in this specification are stored in the storage device 35 in a hierarchical node configuration. For example, related teaching points (for example, reference teaching points and offset teaching points) are hierarchically linked and stored as nodes. Therefore, when an edit is made to a particular node, it is possible to immediately identify other nodes within the scope of the edit and to calculate the new value of that node according to the edited node.

Further, an object other than the robot 101, for example (the position and orientation data of the work 103) can also be stored in the hierarchical data structure in the storage device 35 as one node. As a result, when the node (position/orientation data of) of the workpiece 103 handled by the robot 101 is edited, the position/orientation of the robot 101 is calculated in the same manner as described above, and the relationship with the hardware, specifications, and restrictions on regulations is determined. can be checked. Then, if no error has occurred, the display of the parameter setting screen 20 and the virtual environment screen 10 in the display screen E can be updated.

FIG. 13 shows a control procedure for editing the position and orientation of the work 103. As shown in FIG. Below, the control of the offset teaching point 110 when the position and orientation of the work 103 are edited will be described.

14A to 14C show how the display of the virtual environment screen 10 is updated when the position and orientation of the work 103 are edited. FIG. 14A shows the relationship between the position and orientation of the robot 101 and the placement of the work 103 at the reference teaching point 109 related to the work 103 .

In the hierarchical data storage on the storage device 35 regarding the workpiece 103, the reference teaching point 109 and the offset teaching point 110 are related (for example, FIG. 11(a)).

In step S23 of FIG. 13, first, the work 103 to be edited is selected from the management screen 40, and the start of editing of the placement of the work 103 is designated. The GUI is configured so that the user can perform this operation by clicking the node of the work 103 on the management screen 40 of FIG. 11(a) with the mouse.

16A to 16C show the display state of the parameter setting screen 20 used for editing the node of the work 103 of this example. In the example of FIGS. 16A to 16C, the node of work 103 has already been selected, and no input field (box) is displayed on the right side of parameter setting screen 20. FIG.

When the node of the work 103 is clicked and selected on the management screen 40 in step S23, the CPU 33 switches the parameter setting screen 20, for example, as shown in FIG. 16(a). The parameter setting screen 20 of FIG. 16(a) shows the state before the placement of the work 103 is changed.

If the work 103 has already been placed at this stage, the X, Y, and Z coordinate values of the work 103 placed in the absolute value setting section 201 are displayed as shown in FIG. 16(a). Also, in this GUI configuration, the same X, Y, and Z coordinate values are displayed in the relative value setting unit 202 . As for the workpiece 103, the base coordinate system is used as the coordinate system.

Subsequently, in step S24 of FIG. 13, the user can use the parameter setting screen 20 to change the layout of the work 103. FIG.

In the GUI example of FIG. 16, the relative value setting unit 202 is used to change the layout. For example, as shown in FIG. 16A, the user clicks the X coordinate setting field 208 of the relative value setting section 202 with the mouse cursor 205 (pointer) of the operation input section D to select this input field.

Next, enter a numerical value of “300” (mm) in the X-axis setting field 208 of the relative value setting unit 202 using the operation input unit D keyboard, and press the [Enter] key on the same keyboard (the numerical value before input is "400"). When the [Enter] key on the keyboard is pressed here, in the case of editing the node of the work 103, the CPU 33 copies the input of the relative value setting section 202 to the absolute value setting section 201 and displays it as shown in FIG. 16(b). Let

Here, the change in the placement of the work 103 by specifying the numerical values is an operation of moving the work 103 from the position shown in FIG. 14A to the right position in the virtual environment screen 10 shown in FIG. 14B. and

As described above, when an input is made in one of the input fields of a node and the [Enter] key is pressed, the CPU 33 changes the position and orientation data of the node in accordance with the content of editing, and Compute the new poses of the taught points of the affected nodes.

When the workpiece 103 and the teaching points 109 (P010) and 110 (P110) are stored in the node structure as shown in FIG. 11A, the positions and orientations of these teaching points 109 and 110 are calculated.

First, in step S21 of FIG. 13, it is determined whether or not the editing that has been performed is the teaching point editing related to the Work tree (model determination processing). If step S21 is affirmative, step S22 is executed before proceeding to step S4, and if negative, the process proceeds directly to step S4.

For example, in the case of the reference taught point 109 and the offset taught point 110, since they are stored in the lower nodes of the workpiece 103, step S22 is executed. In this step S22, a relative value from the robot 101 to the reference teaching point 109 is calculated in the base coordinate system (104) (base relative value calculation processing, S22).

The following steps S4 to S6 are coordinate system determination processes related to data representation of the teaching points to be processed, which are similar to those described with reference to FIGS.

First, in step S4, it is determined whether or not the coordinate system indicated by the coordinate system data stored together with the position/orientation data of the teaching point is the tool coordinate system 105 or not.

If the determination result in step S4 is the tool coordinate system 105, the process advances to step S5 to execute posture calculation of the tool coordinate system 105 (joint value calculation processing) in the same manner as described with reference to FIG. 3 (or FIG. 12).

If the determination result in step S4 is the base coordinate system 104, the process advances to step S6 to execute posture calculation of the base coordinate system 104 (joint value calculation processing) in the same manner as described with reference to FIG. 3 (or FIG. 12). ).

Subsequently, the display of the display screen E of the display device C is updated based on the result of the position/orientation calculation (display means). In step S7, it is determined whether or not each joint value required to move the reference portion of the robot 101 to the reference teaching point 109 or the offset teaching point 110 is within the constraints determined by the hardware, specifications, and regulations ( constraint judgment processing).

If it is determined in step S7 that the position and orientation (state of each joint value) of the robot 101 are within the constraints, the process proceeds to step S9, and the CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C according to the result of the position and orientation calculation (normally system display processing).

FIG. 14(b) shows the display state of the workpiece 103 after the layout editing of the workpiece 103 is confirmed, the teaching point 109 serving as the reference, and the offset teaching point 110 on the virtual environment screen 10. FIG. If it is determined in step S7 that the position and orientation (state of each joint value) of the robot 101 are within the constraints, the CPU 33 updates the display of the virtual environment screen 10 from the state shown in FIG. 14(b) to the state shown in FIG. 14(c). do.

When the user visually confirms the display screen E of the display device C switched as described above, the user clicks the confirmation button 209 on the parameter setting screen 20 with the mouse of the operation input unit D. FIG. In response to this, the CPU 33 ends the editing of the teaching points 109 and 110 in step S25. Further, when the cancel button 210 of the parameter setting screen 20 is clicked with the mouse of the operation input section D, the CPU 33 discards the edited content and returns the virtual environment screen 10 to the state shown in FIG. 14(a).

In addition, after completing the editing related to the layout change of the work 103, the teaching point 109, which is the reference related to the work 103 on the management screen 40, can be selected by clicking the mouse or the like. In response to the instruction point 109 selection operation, the CPU 33 can display the position and orientation of the robot 101 moved to the reference taught point 109 on the virtual environment screen 10 .

As described above, according to this embodiment, since the teaching data of the robot is stored in a tree structure in which nodes are stored hierarchically, the teaching points 109 and 110 are stored under the node of the workpiece 103. be able to. Therefore, when the position and orientation of the node of the workpiece 103 are changed, the CPU 33 automatically calculates the position and orientation data of the teaching points 109 and 110 of the associated lower nodes, and the position and orientation of the robot 101 (or each enabling it). joint values) can be automatically calculated. Furthermore, the CPU 33 can determine whether or not the position and orientation of the robot 101 (or each joint value that enables it) are within the constraints determined by the hardware, specifications, and conventions.

A case where the position and orientation of the robot 101 cannot be taken at the teaching points 109 to 110 after the placement of the workpiece 103 is changed will be described.

For example, FIG. 16C shows another operation related to changing the layout of the work 103 on the parameter setting screen 20. FIG. In FIG. 16(c), the numerical value "500" is input in the X-axis setting field 208 of the relative value setting section 202 using the keyboard of the operation input section D, and the [Enter] key is pressed. This operation is processed by step S24 in FIG.

This change in position of the workpiece 103 by "500" (mm) in the X-axis direction is a movement of a greater distance than the case of "300" (mm) in FIG. 16B. Here, if the position and orientation calculation is performed according to the position change of the workpiece 103 by "500" (mm) in the X-axis direction, one of the joint values is determined by the hardware, specifications, rules, etc. of the robot 101. Scope shall be exceeded.

Therefore, when the position of the workpiece 103 is changed by "500" (mm) in the X-axis direction, a transition occurs from step S7 (restriction judgment processing) in FIG. 13 to step S19 (abnormal system display processing). Then, in step S9 (abnormal system display processing), the CPU 33 uses the display screen E of the display device C to display an error. As an example of this error display, for example, as shown in FIG. mark 108 (eg, an x as shown). The subsequent editing end processing (step S25) is performed in the same manner as described above.

It is conceivable to update the virtual environment screen 10 as shown in FIGS. FIG. 15(a) is equivalent to FIG. 14(a) and shows the virtual environment screen 10 before the editing process for changing the layout of the work 103 is performed.

15(a), when the editing process for changing the layout of the work 103 is performed, for example, the CPU 33 moves the work 103 by a designated movement amount as shown in FIG. The virtual environment screen 10 is updated to the state where 103 has been moved. In addition, in FIG. 15(b), the moving direction of the work 103 is opposite to that in FIGS. 14(b) and 14(c) for easy understanding.

Then, when the position/orientation calculation related to the editing operation is finished and the restriction range is determined, a transition from step S7 (restriction determination processing) in FIG. 13 to step S19 (abnormal system display processing) occurs. In this case, the CPU 33 updates the management screen 40 as shown in FIG. 8(b), and changes the display state of the virtual environment screen 10 from FIG. 15(b) to the state shown in FIG. 15(a). bring back. At that time, a warning expression such as blinking (flash) the entire virtual environment screen 10 or part thereof may be used together.

As described above, a data structure is employed in which nodes of position and orientation data as robot control data (teaching data) of this embodiment are stored in the storage device 35 in a hierarchical tree structure. According to this structure, not only the position and orientation data related to the robot device but also the position and orientation data related to the workpiece 103 can be stored in the same tree structure as described above. Therefore, when the work 103 is edited, if there are other related teaching data (for example, the teaching point 109 of the work 103 and its offset teaching point 110) in the teaching data of the tree structure, those teaching data are automatically changed. Related teaching data can be recalculated. Furthermore, the position and orientation of the robot 101 can be calculated in accordance with the editing of the workpiece 103, and validity checks can be automatically performed regarding constraints determined by hardware, specifications, rules, and the like.

Then, if there is no problem as a result of the recalculation of the teaching data and the position and orientation of the robot 101, the display screen composed of the virtual environment screen 10, the parameter setting screen 20, the management screen 40, etc. of the display device C is immediately edited. can be automatically updated according to As a result, the user (operator) can confirm the edited content or the result related to the work 103 in real time, thereby reducing human errors and man-hours.

In addition, below the node of the robot 101 (ROBOT) in FIG. 11A, a taught point 106 serving as a reference and an offset taught point 107 are stored. The teaching point 106 (P001) should correspond to the teaching point 109 (P010) corresponding to the specific position of the workpiece 103, and the offset teaching point 107 (P100) should correspond to the offset teaching point 110 (P110). can be considered. In this way, it is preferable that a set of reference teaching points and their offset teaching points be stored in both the ROBOT tree and the Work tree as the same entity storage. It is believed that this will allow the user to easily grasp the structure of the entire robot control data.

In that case, it would be convenient if the teaching points 106 and 109 and the teaching points 107 and 110 corresponding to each other are automatically edited in the same way when one of them is edited. . As a method for enabling such handling, for example, the entities of corresponding taught points 106 and 109 (or taught points 107 and 110) are stored in the same single memory cell on storage device 35 . Then, the address pointer of this one memory cell is stored in the ROBOT and Work trees as nodes P001 and P100 (or P010 and P110). According to such a structure, it is possible to edit the substance data stored in the same memory cell by instructing either editing via the pointer of either of the nodes P001 and P100 (or P010 and P110).

Using a structure in which the entity of the same memory data is accessed through multiple different pointers (or names) in this way allows nodes with aliases to be added to different locations in the tree structure that stores the teaching data as needed. can be prepared. This allows the user to easily grasp the structure of the entire robot control data, reach the same piece of data from a plurality of different positions in the tree structure, and reliably edit the content.

Note that the configuration for accessing the same entity of data via a plurality of different names is not limited to the above address pointer. For example, "link" mechanisms such as junctions, symbolic links, and hard links used in various file systems may be used. In that case, the particular node is stored as one file in the file system located on the storage device 35, and its link is placed as another node in another location on the tree of the data structure.

An information processing apparatus and an information processing method according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 17 to 20. FIG. In the following description, it is assumed that the basic parts of the hardware configuration, the configuration of the display screen, etc. are the same as those of the first embodiment described above, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, in the following embodiments, the same reference numerals are used for the same or corresponding members, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the first and second embodiments described above, the processing in the case of editing the relative values that are the model information from the parent to the child on the node-managed work space has been described. However, editing does not always set relative values.

For example, when teaching a complicated operation while selecting the tool coordinate system and creating the offset teaching point 107, depending on the situation, set the absolute value of the absolute coordinate system (for example, the base coordinate system) on the work space. There are cases where you have to.

Therefore, a process of operating the offset teaching point 107 and the offset teaching point 110 by operating the absolute value setting section 201 of the parameter setting screen 20 with absolute values using the absolute coordinate system on the working space will be described.

As for editing processing by operating the absolute value setting unit 201, it is necessary to perform different processing and display depending on the type of target teaching point. For this reason, three cases will be described below: "In the case of the offset teaching point 107 with the tool coordinate system 105 selected," "In the case of the offset teaching point 107 with the base coordinate system selected," and "In the case of the offset teaching point 110." .

(Absolute value editing of offset teaching point 107 with tool coordinate system 105 selected)
First, the first case, the procedure and control of absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 107 in which the tool coordinate system 105 is selected, will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 17 to 19. FIG.

FIG. 17 shows a control procedure for absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 107 .

In step S12 of FIG. 17, the offset teaching point 107 on the management screen 40 (FIG. 11(a)) is selected to start editing. The selection method is the same as described above, and is performed by clicking the node of the teaching point 107 (P100) on the management screen 40 with the mouse of the operation input unit D or the like.

18A and 18B show the position and orientation of the robot 101 displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 when absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 107 is performed in this embodiment. At the start of editing, the offset teaching point 107 is defined with respect to the reference teaching point 106 as shown in FIG. 18(a), for example. The offset (relative distance) at this time is, for example, such a distance that the tool 102 reaches the workpiece 103 as shown. Therefore, on the virtual environment screen 10, the robot 101 is displayed in such a position and orientation that the tool 102 reaches the workpiece 103 as shown.

19(a) to 19(c) are displayed on the display screen E of the display device C for use in setting numerical values of the parameters.

At step S26 in FIG. 17, the user edits the absolute value of the offset teaching point 107 (parameter setting means). FIG. 19A shows an operation for accessing the setting column 208 of the absolute value setting section 201 of the parameter setting screen 20 at this time. That is, as shown in the figure, the X-axis setting field 208 of the absolute value setting section 201 is clicked with the mouse cursor 205 of the operation input section D. FIG.

19A, the display of the teaching point name setting section 212 has been switched to "P100" corresponding to the teaching point 107. As shown in FIG. Also, the value of the taught point setting unit 203 is switched to "P001" corresponding to the taught point 106 that serves as the reference. Further, as displayed in the coordinate system selection section 204, the tool coordinate system is selected as the coordinate system.

Subsequently, the user changes the contents of the X-axis setting column 208 of the absolute value setting section 201 from "400" to "300" as shown in FIG. 19(b). Here, a numerical value of "300" is entered in the X-axis setting field 208 of the absolute value setting unit 201 using the keyboard of the operation input unit D, and the [Enter] key is pressed. Before inputting "300", the value "400" which has already been input should be selected with the mouse or deleted with the delete key of the keyboard. When the [Enter] key on the keyboard is pressed and the input is confirmed, position and orientation calculation is performed by the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 (attitude calculation means).

First, at step S21 in FIG. 17, it is determined whether the node to be operated is a teaching point related to the workpiece 103 (model determination processing). In this example, the node being operated is the teaching point 107, which is related to the robot 101, so step S22 is bypassed and the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, it is determined whether or not the coordinate system selected for the teaching point (107) is the tool coordinate system 105 (S4). If the coordinate system selected here is the tool coordinate system 105 as shown in FIG. 19A, the process advances to step S14 to execute the relative value calculation of the tool coordinate system 105 described in the first embodiment (relative value calculation process). As a result of this relative value calculation, Euler angle transformation is performed, and relative values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) to be offsets of the tool coordinate system 105 are calculated.

Subsequently, in step S5, position and orientation calculation in the tool coordinate system 105 is performed (joint value calculation processing) in the same manner as described with reference to FIG. 3 of the first embodiment. Then, based on the calculation result, the display on the display screen E of the display device C is updated (display means).

Here, first, in step S7, it is determined whether each joint value of the offset teaching point 107 is within the constraints determined by the hardware, specifications, conventions, etc. (constraint judgment processing). If the constraint is satisfied in step S7, the process proceeds to step S9, and the CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C based on the posture calculation result (normal system display processing).

The contents of the update are the relative values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) that are the offsets in the direction of the tool coordinate system 105 to the relative value setting unit 202, and the joints of each axis of the robot 101 by inverse kinematics calculation. The calculation result of the value is reflected on the virtual environment screen 10 to update the display.

If the restriction is not met in step S7, the process proceeds to step S8 to display the error screen 50 shown in FIG. return to state.

FIG. 18B shows how the position and orientation of the robot 101 at the offset teaching point 107 displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 by the CPU 33 are updated after the above editing.

FIG. 19(c) shows parameters of the offset teaching point 107 after editing.
19A and 19B, the absolute value setting unit 201 changes the X coordinate value from "400" to "300". At this time, the display of the relative value setting unit 202, which is the offset in the direction of the tool coordinate system 105, has the X coordinate value changed from "0" to "100" based on the above relative value calculation.

The use of the confirm button 209 and cancel button 210 on the parameter setting screen 20 at the end of editing in step S16 of FIG. 17 is the same as in the above-described embodiment.

As described above, even when the absolute value parameters of the offset teaching point 107 with the base coordinate system selected are changed, the operator can immediately check the position/orientation and relative value parameters while editing the absolute values. , the man-hours required for confirmation can be reduced. In other words, when the offset teaching point 107 is edited in this system in conjunction with the first embodiment, the offset teaching point 107 is edited using either the relative value or the absolute value, and the display screen E is displayed based on the editing. Updates can be performed properly.

(Absolute value editing of offset teaching point 107 with base coordinate system 104 selected)
Next, the second case, the absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 107 with the base coordinate system 104 selected, will be described with reference to FIGS. 11, 17, 18 and 20. FIG. Below, the same FIG. 17 as above will be referred to for the control procedure. As for the parameter setting screen 20, the display screens shown in FIGS. 20(a) to 20(c) are used.

First, the offset teaching point 107 on the management screen 40 (FIG. 11(a)) is selected to start editing (S12). This selection method is performed by clicking the node of the teaching point 107 (P100) on the management screen 40 with the mouse of the operation input unit D, as described above.

The absolute value editing operation performed in this example is equivalent to the absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 107 in which the tool coordinate system is selected. Therefore, as for the virtual environment screen 10, the displays shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B are also applicable to this example.

In this example, parameter setting screens 20 as shown in FIGS.

At step S26 in FIG. 17, the user edits the absolute value of the offset teaching point 107 (parameter setting means). FIG. 20A shows an operation for accessing the setting column 208 of the absolute value setting section 201 of the parameter setting screen 20 at this time. That is, as shown in the figure, the X-axis setting field 208 of the absolute value setting section 201 is clicked with the mouse cursor 205 of the operation input section D. FIG.

20A, the display of the teaching point name setting section 212 has been switched to "P100" corresponding to the teaching point 107. As shown in FIG. Also, the value of the taught point setting unit 203 is switched to "P001" corresponding to the taught point 106 that serves as the reference. Further, as displayed in the coordinate system selection section 204, the base coordinate system is selected as the coordinate system.

Subsequently, the user changes the contents of the X coordinate value setting column 208 of the absolute value setting section 201 from "400" to "300" as shown in FIG. 20(b). Here, a numerical value of "300" is entered in the X-axis setting field 208 of the absolute value setting unit 201 using the keyboard of the operation input unit D, and the [Enter] key is pressed. Before inputting "300", the value "400" which has already been input should be selected with the mouse or deleted with the delete key of the keyboard. When the [Enter] key on the keyboard is pressed and the input is confirmed, position and orientation calculation is performed by the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 (attitude calculation means).

First, at step S21 in FIG. 17, it is determined whether the node to be operated is a teaching point related to the workpiece 103 (model determination processing). In this example, the node being operated is the teaching point 107, which is related to the robot 101, so step S22 is bypassed and the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, it is determined whether or not the coordinate system selected for the teaching point (107) is the tool coordinate system 105 (S4). If the coordinate system selected here is the base coordinate system 104 as shown in FIG. 20A, the process advances to step S15 to execute the relative value calculation of the base coordinate system 104 described in the first embodiment (relative value calculation process). As a result of this relative value calculation, Euler angle transformation is performed, and relative values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) to be offsets in the base coordinate system 104 are calculated.

Subsequently, in step S6, position and orientation calculation in the base coordinate system 104 is performed (joint value calculation processing) in the same manner as described with reference to FIG. 3 of the first embodiment. Then, based on the calculation result, the display on the display screen E of the display device C is updated (display means). If the tool coordinate system is selected in step S4, the relative values of the tool coordinate system are calculated in step S14 in the same manner as described above, and the attitude of the tool coordinate system is calculated in step S5.

Subsequently, in step S7, it is determined whether each joint value of the offset teaching point 107 is within the constraints determined by the hardware, specifications, regulations, etc. (restriction determination processing). If the constraint is satisfied in step S7, the process proceeds to step S9, and the CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C based on the posture calculation result (normal system display processing).

The updated contents are the offsets (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) in the direction of the base coordinate system 104 to the relative value setting unit 202, and the joint values of each axis of the robot 101 by inverse kinematics calculation. The calculation result is reflected on the virtual environment screen 10 to update the display.

If the restriction is not met in step S7, the process proceeds to step S8 to display the error screen 50 shown in FIG. return to state.

FIG. 18B shows how the position and orientation of the robot 101 at the offset teaching point 107 displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 by the CPU 33 are updated after the above editing.

FIG. 20(c) shows parameters of the offset teaching point 107 after editing.
20A and 20B, the absolute value setting unit 201 changes the X coordinate value from "400" to "300". The display of the relative value setting unit 202, which is the offset in the direction of the base coordinate system 104 at this time, has the X coordinate value changed from "0" to "-100" based on the above relative value calculation. Here, unlike the case of absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 107 in which the tool coordinate system is selected, the X coordinate value of the relative value setting unit 202 is a negative value. This is because the base coordinate system 104 and the tool coordinate system 105 are oriented such that the positive directions of the Z-axis face each other in the postures of the robot 101 shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B.

The use of the confirm button 209 and cancel button 210 on the parameter setting screen 20 at the end of editing in step S16 of FIG. 17 is the same as in the above-described embodiment.

As described above, even when the absolute value parameters of the offset teaching point 107 with the base coordinate system selected are changed, the operator can immediately check the position/orientation and relative value parameters while editing the absolute values. , the man-hours required for confirmation can be reduced. In view of the previous example, in this system, when editing the offset teaching point 107, the teaching data can be edited extremely easily by the equivalent operation of the offset teaching point 107 regardless of whether the representation is in the tool coordinate system or the base coordinate system. . Then, based on the editing operation, the display screen E can be updated appropriately immediately based on the editing content.

(Absolute value editing of offset teaching point 110 related to work 103)
Next, the last case regarding absolute value editing, absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 110 related to the workpiece 103 will be described. Since the absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 110 is basically the same as the absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 107, the differences from the above two absolute value editing will be mainly described.

The control procedure of FIG. 17 can be used for controlling the absolute value editing of the offset teaching point 110 related to the work 103 . For the management screen 40, for example, the display of FIG. 11(a) corresponds. Also, normally, the values of the base coordinate system are used for the offset teaching point 110 related to the workpiece 103 . Therefore, for numerical input of parameters, the display of the setting screen 20 equivalent to that shown in FIGS.

First, the offset teaching point 110 on the management screen 40 (FIG. 11(a)) is selected and editing is started (step S12 in FIG. 17), as in the above example. As a result, the display of the teaching point name setting section 212 of the parameter setting screen 20 (for example, FIG. 20(a)) is switched to "P110" corresponding to the teaching point 110. FIG. Also, the value of the taught point setting unit 203 is switched to "P010" corresponding to the taught point 109 serving as the reference. It is also assumed that the base coordinate system is selected as the coordinate system for the nodes below the workpiece 103 .

Here, for example, the reference teaching point 109 and the offset teaching point 110 are assumed to be equivalent to the reference teaching point 106 and the offset teaching point 107 of the node on the robot side in the above-described embodiment. In that case, the sequence of numerical values in the absolute value setting section 201 shown in FIGS.

In step S26 of FIG. 17, the user edits the absolute value of the offset teaching point 110 on the parameter setting screen 20 (parameter setting means) by the same operation as described in the editing of the absolute value of the offset teaching point 107 above. Here, it is assumed that the user's operation is to change the content of the X coordinate value setting column 208 of the absolute value setting unit 201 from "400" to "300" as in the above example. When the keyboard of the operation input unit D is used to change the X coordinate value of the absolute value setting unit 201 and the [Enter] key of the keyboard is pressed, position and orientation calculation is performed by the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 (attitude calculation means ).

Subsequently, in step S21 of FIG. 17, it is determined whether the offset teaching point 110 is a teaching point related to the workpiece 103 (model determination processing). In this example, the taught point 109, which is the upper reference of the offset taught point 110, is a taught point related to the workpiece 103, so the process proceeds to step S22. In step S22, the relative value of the robot 101 from the base coordinate system 104 is calculated (relative value calculation of the base coordinate system).

Control of transition to relative value calculation of the base coordinate system in step S22 proceeds in the same manner as the example of absolute value editing regarding the offset teaching point 107 described above.

As described above, according to this system, the parameter of the absolute value of the offset teaching point 110 related to the workpiece 103 can be changed in the same manner as the offset teaching point 107 in the node tree of the robot 101 . In this case also, the operator can immediately check the position/orientation and relative value parameters at the same time as the absolute value editing work, thereby reducing the man-hours required for checking.

Considering this together with the previous example, in this system, the offset teaching point 110 in the node tree of the workpiece 103 and the offset teaching point 107 in the node tree of the robot 101 can be handled very easily with the same operation. Teaching data can be edited. Then, based on the editing operation, the display screen E can be updated appropriately immediately based on the editing content.

An information processing apparatus and an information processing method according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 21 and 22. FIG.

Embodiments 1 to 3 show an operation method in which position and orientation data of teaching points as robot control data (teaching data) are edited by numerically inputting relative values and absolute values on the parameter setting screen 20 .

As another operation method for inputting or editing position/orientation data, a GUI for changing the position/orientation of the robot 101 displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 in relation to the operation input unit D (or the virtual environment screen 10) is used. A configuration in which an operation means is provided is conceivable. In this case, the virtual display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 is updated in accordance with the change in the position and orientation of the robot apparatus performed by the operation means of the operation input unit D, and the contents of the numerical display on the parameter setting screen 20 are updated. can be updated.

As such an operation means, as shown in FIGS. 22A and 22B, an operation handle 111 that can be operated with a cursor 205 of a pointing device (for example, a mouse) of the operation input unit D is provided on the virtual environment screen 10. A GUI configuration to be displayed is conceivable.

21, 22(a), 22(b), 25, and the implementation of the configuration and control for inputting or editing the position and orientation data using the operation handle 111 as described above in the information processing apparatus A will be described below. This will be described with reference to FIG. 11 of Example 2. FIG. In the following description, editing the offset teaching point 107 by operating the virtual display of the robot 101 with the operating handle 111 will be described. It can be carried out.

FIG. 21 shows a control procedure when the operation handle 111 is used to input or edit teaching points.

In this embodiment, the offset teaching point 107 is edited by operating the virtual display of the robot 101 with the operating handle 111 . Therefore, in step S12 of FIG. 21, the user first selects the offset teaching point 107 on the management screen 40 (FIG. 11(a)) to designate the start of editing. As an operation method at this time, a method of clicking the offset teaching point 107 on the management screen 40 (FIG. 11(a)) with the cursor (pointer) of the mouse of the operation input unit D can be used as described above.

Subsequently, in step S27, the user operates the operation handle 111 with the mouse cursor (pointer) of the operation input unit D to change the position and orientation of the robot 101. FIG. The operating handle 111 is superimposed on the tip of the robot 101 as shown in FIG. 22(a), for example. The operating handle 111 can be, for example, a display object displayed as a wire frame above the tool 102 at the tip of the robot 101 as shown.

The display object of the operating handle 111 can be, for example, a ring-shaped object that is graphically configured to display the coordinate system direction of the currently set offset teaching point 107 .

Further, the operation handle 111 can be configured so that the cursor (pointer) of the mouse of the operation input unit D can be clicked and dragged on the screen substantially linearly, for example. In the case of this click and drag operation, for example, the reference portion set at the center of the flange surface on which the tool 102 at the tip of the robot 101 is arranged is moved to any position in the 3D space in the virtual environment screen 10 .

Further, when the offset teaching point 107 is operated by the operation handle 111 as in the present embodiment, the reference portion of the robot 101 is associated with the offset teaching point 107, for example. In this case, when the offset teaching point 107 is operated, the reference portion of the robot 101 associated with the offset teaching point 107 moves, and the CPU 33 controls the position and orientation of the robot 101 to change in synchronism with this movement. conduct.

When the offset teaching point (107) is operated by the operating handle 111 as in this embodiment, the movement (amount) designated by the operating handle 111 is associated with either an absolute value or a relative value. and convenient. Here, the "relative value" is a coordinate value (position/orientation data) in a relative coordinate system such as the tool coordinate system 105, for example. Also, the “absolute value” is a coordinate value (position/orientation data) in an absolute coordinate system such as the base coordinate system 104 .

For example, if a relative value (or absolute value) has already been assigned to the selected teaching point when the procedure of FIG. Further, it may be possible to specify whether the amount of movement input by operating the operation handle 111 is a relative value (or an absolute value) by a specific operation of the operation input unit D. FIG.

Hereinafter, for the sake of convenience, the operation handle 111 controlled to input a relative value as described above will be referred to as a "relative value handle", and the operation handle 111 controlled to input an absolute value as described above will be referred to as an "absolute value handle". ”.

Then, when a movement operation is performed by the operation handle 111, the CPU 33 performs position/orientation calculation for changing the angle of each joint of the robot 101 in accordance with the position of the movement destination of the offset teaching point 107 (reference portion). The CPU 33 changes the position and orientation of the robot 101 displayed on the virtual environment screen 10 according to the result of this position and orientation calculation. Since the details of the GUI using the operation handle 111 as described above are well-known techniques, detailed description above will be omitted here.

In FIGS. 22A and 22B, the operating handle 111 is clicked and dragged to the right. FIG. 22(a) shows how the robot 101 changes its position and orientation from the solid line in FIG. 22(a) and the broken line in FIG. 22(b) to the solid line in FIG. 22(b). . During the mouse drag operation, continuous movement is specified, and the end of the movement is specified by releasing the mouse button.

Note that the operating handle 111 may be always displayed in the virtual environment screen 10, or may be displayed according to the setting operation of the operation input unit D (for example, specifying an operation mode such as a virtual environment operation mode or a 3D operation mode). may be displayed only at necessary timing.

In step S27, the user can change the position and orientation of the robot 101 displayed in the virtual environment screen 10 using the operating handle 111 as described above. At this time, the CPU 33 performs position/orientation calculation according to the movement operation according to the movement operation using the operation handle 111, and changes the position/orientation of the robot 101 according to the calculation result.

In order to change the position and orientation of the robot 101 according to the position and orientation calculation results, a method of updating the screen for each minute operation of the operating handle 111, for example, is conceivable. Alternatively, during the movement operation, only the mouse cursor (pointer) and the operation handle 111, which can be displayed in a small screen area, are moved, and the position and orientation of the entire robot 101 are drawn according to the mouse release operation. method may be used.

In step S27, the CPU 33 performs the movement operation, the position and orientation calculation (orientation calculation means), and the drawing update of the virtual environment screen 10 for at least the part corresponding to the minute operation of the operation handle 111 described above.

It should be noted that the control procedure of FIG. 21 is described in a manner similar to that of FIG. 17 described above for easy understanding. For this reason, FIG. 21 has a step arrangement that corresponds to the method of drawing the position and orientation of the entire robot 101 according to the mouse release operation. However, if, for example, the control system around the CPU 33 has sufficient processing power, the processing from step S28 to S9 at the end of the figure may be repeatedly executed for each minute operation of the operating handle 111 in step S27. You can configure the software to

In step S28, the CPU 33 determines whether the current operating handle 111 is a relative value handle (absolute value handle). In step S28, if the operating handle 111 displays a vector in the direction of the tool coordinate system 105, that is, if it is a relative value handle, the process proceeds to step S29. In step S29, the CPU 33 adds the amount of movement in the direction of the vector selected with the mouse to the relative value from the reference taught point 106 to the offset taught point 107, and calculates the relative value after the movement.

On the other hand, if the operation handle 111 displays an absolute value handle in the direction of the absolute coordinate system (for example, the base coordinate system 104) in step S28, the process proceeds to step S30. In step S30, the CPU 33 adds the amount of movement in the direction of the vector selected with the mouse to the absolute value from the absolute coordinate system to the offset teaching point 107, and calculates the absolute value after the movement.

As described above, the value (relative value or absolute value) of the offset teaching point 107 after movement is input. Following step S29 or S30, in step S21, it is determined whether or not the teaching point is a teaching point associated with a work. Then, when step S21 is affirmative, in step S22, a calculation for performing relative value conversion to the base coordinate system of the robot is executed. In FIG. 21, the processing after step S4 is the same as the processing after step S4 in FIG. 17 described above. After step S4, the position and orientation of the robot 101 are calculated depending on whether the teaching point is expressed in the tool coordinate system (base coordinate system) (steps S14, S5, steps S15, S6). Subsequently, it is determined whether or not it is within the constraints determined by the hardware, specifications, rules, etc., and error processing is performed as necessary (steps S7 and S8).

Then, if there is no constraint error, the (final) display screen E of the display device C is updated according to the calculation result. That is, the virtual display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 is (finally) updated according to the change in the position and orientation of the robot 101 performed by the operation handle 111, and the contents of the numerical display on the parameter setting screen 20 are updated. to update. The position and orientation of the robot 101 indicated by solid lines in FIG. Further, of course, the contents of the numerical display on the parameter setting screen 20 are updated according to the editing operation (using the operation handle 111) of the offset teaching point 107 (step S9), as described above (for example, FIGS. 5 and 6). . Thus, the offset teaching point editing process of FIG. 21 ends (step S16).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, as another operation method for inputting or editing position/orientation data, the robot 101 that is virtually displayed in relation to the operation input unit D (or the virtual environment screen 10) is displayed. A GUI operation means for changing the position and orientation of is provided. Then, the user can perform input and editing operations to change the position (orientation) of the robot 101 (or teaching points associated with it) by very intuitive operations on the virtual environment screen 10 using the operation handle 111. can be done. The results of the input and editing operations on the virtual environment screen 10 are synchronously reflected in the virtual display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 and reflected in the contents of the numerical values displayed on the parameter setting screen 20 . Therefore, the user (operator) can immediately check the position and orientation and parameters at the same time as operating the operating handle 111, for example, and can reduce the number of man-hours required for checking.

In Embodiments 1 to 4 described above, if the position and orientation data are represented by, for example, three-dimensional coordinates (or angles around the axis) in a specific coordinate system corresponding to the working space, their relative values and absolute values I explained the input and editing process to change the contents expressed in .

However, editing the position and orientation data directly changes the joint values in the joint space of the robot 101, not through the relative and absolute values of the position and orientation data (three-dimensional coordinates or angles around the axis) as described above. You may want to do this via an interface like

For example, for a user (operator), it is intuitive that the robot 101 is in a specific posture, and the action of rotating a specific joint (or a plurality of joints) from that posture for the purpose of avoiding an obstacle, for example. can be intuitive and easy to understand.

In this case, as shown below, for example, as shown in FIGS. Section 211 is arranged to allow the joint value of the desired joint to be changed. Even when joint values are numerically set using such a joint value setting unit 211, the position and orientation of the robot 101 can be calculated according to the result of editing the joint values in the same manner as described above. On the other hand, it is possible to determine whether or not there is a constraint error as described above. In addition, the display in the other parameter setting screen 20 can be updated and the virtual display of the robot 101 in the virtual environment screen 10 can be updated according to the editing result of the joint values.

The control for inputting and editing the offset teaching point 107 using the joint value setting section 211 provided in the parameter setting screen 20 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 11 and 23 to 25. FIG. In the following, a case of editing the offset teaching point 107 will be described, but other teaching points such as the offset teaching point 110 can be edited in the same way.

FIG. 23 shows a control procedure for inputting and editing taught points through joint value editing.

First, in step S12 of FIG. 23, the user selects the offset teaching point 107 on the management screen 40 (FIG. 11(a)) and designates the start of editing. As an operation method at this time, a method of clicking the offset teaching point 107 on the management screen 40 (FIG. 11(a)) with the cursor (pointer) of the mouse of the operation input unit D can be used as described above.

FIG. 24A shows the position and orientation of the robot 101 in which the offset teaching point 107 being edited, which is virtually displayed in the virtual environment screen 10 at this time, is defined. 25(a) to (c) show the parameter setting screen 20 having the joint value setting section 211, and FIG. 25(a) corresponds to the state immediately after the offset teaching point 107 is selected in step S12. .

The parameter setting screens 20 of FIGS. 25(a) to (c) are, for example, the parameter setting screens 20 of FIGS. 5(a) to (d) (or FIGS. 6(a) to (d)). is added, and the configuration other than the joint value setting unit 211 is the same as that of FIG. 5 (FIG. 6).

25A, the display of the teaching point name setting section 212 of the parameter setting screen 20 is switched to "P100" corresponding to teaching point 107. In FIG. The value of the teaching point setting section 203 is switched to "P001" corresponding to the teaching point 106 serving as the reference. Further, as displayed in the coordinate system selection section 204, the tool coordinate system is selected as the coordinate system.

A joint value setting portion 211 of the parameter setting screen 20 is a numerical value input field for inputting or displaying joint values (rotation angles) for six joints, for example. These joint values are angles corresponding to the position and orientation of the offset teaching point 107 according to the joint value calculation described above.

In step S31 of FIG. 23, the user can edit arbitrary joint values related to the offset teaching point 107 using the joint value setting unit 211 (parameter setting means). For example, as shown in FIG. 25A, the joint value setting section 211 setting column 208 of the parameter setting screen 20 is clicked with the mouse cursor 205 of the operation input section D to specify. In the figure, the setting column 208 for the joint No. 3 (joint 101a in FIGS. 24(a) and 24(b)) is selected. Then, as shown in FIG. 25B, for example, the keyboard of the operation input unit D is used to input a numerical value in the setting column 208 of the joint value setting unit 211 . Here, the value "24.85" (FIG. 25(a)) is changed to "50". After inputting the numerical value, for example, when the [Enter] key is pressed on the keyboard of the operation input unit D, the numerical input to the setting column 208 is confirmed.

Subsequently, in step S7, the CPU 33 determines whether or not the set joint values are within the restrictions determined by the hardware, specifications, rules, etc. (restriction determination process). If it is determined to be out of the constraints, the process proceeds to step S8 to display the error screen 50 shown in FIG. back to

If the constraint is satisfied in step S7, the process proceeds to step S32, where the function of the calculation unit 34 of the CPU 33 performs position/attitude calculation (attitude calculation means). Here, relative values from the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 to the offset teaching point 107 are calculated by forward kinematics calculation from the joint values of each axis of the robot 101 .

Subsequently, in step S33, the absolute value from the absolute coordinate system (for example, the base coordinate system) to the offset teaching point 107 is calculated (absolute value calculation process). For example, as shown in the following equation (13), from the product of the absolute value orientation matrix _T6 from the absolute coordinate system to the base coordinate system 104 of the robot 101 and the orientation matrix _T3 that is the calculation result of S31, the absolute coordinate system An attitude matrix _T7 of absolute values up to the offset teaching point 107 is obtained. Then, the absolute values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) of the offset teaching point 107 are calculated by performing the Euler angle conversion from the equation (13).

Next, in step S4, it is determined whether the selected coordinate system is the tool coordinate system 105 or not.
If the selected coordinate system is the tool coordinate system 105, the process advances to step S14 to execute relative value calculation of the tool coordinate system 105 (relative value calculation process). If the selected coordinate system is the base coordinate system 104, the process advances to step S15 to execute relative value calculation of the base coordinate system 104 (relative value calculation process).

After the relative value calculation in step S14 or S15, the CPU 33 updates the display screen E of the display device C according to the calculation result (normal system display processing). In updating the display screen E, the calculated absolute values (X, Y, Z, α, β, γ) are displayed in the absolute value setting section 201 of the parameter setting screen 20 . Also, the content of the relative value setting section 202 of the parameter setting screen 20 is updated so that the relative value from the reference teaching point 106 to the offset teaching point 107 is displayed. Also, the virtual display of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10 is updated so that the position and orientation are determined by the joint values in the setting field 208 of the joint value setting unit 211 .

FIG. 24(b) shows the display state of the virtual environment screen 10 after editing the joint values after the above processing, and FIG. 25(c) shows the display state of the parameter setting screen 20 after editing the joint values. there is

In this example, since only the joint value of the third joint (joint 101a) is changed by the joint value setting unit 211, only the angle of the joint 101a is changed in the posture of the robot 101 on the virtual environment screen 10, and the offset teaching point 107 is changed. The position and orientation have also been changed. Also, in the parameter setting screen 20, the absolute value setting section 201 and the relative value setting section 202 are changed to values corresponding to the change of the joint value.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to input and edit the position and orientation data of the robot 101 or its joints by expressing joint values. Then, even when the joint values are manipulated, the user (operator) can immediately check the position/orientation and relative value parameters at the same time as the editing work, thereby reducing the man-hours required for checking.

Note that the absolute value setting section 201, the relative value setting section 202, and the joint value setting section 211 of the parameter setting screen 20 can of course be mutually converted via the position/orientation calculation by the CPU 33 described above. Therefore, although an example of inputting to the joint value setting section 211 has been described above, if any of the absolute value setting section 201, the relative value setting section 202, and the joint value setting section 211 is edited, the position and orientation calculation can be performed. It goes without saying that the remaining two can be updated to corresponding values via the For example, when the absolute value setting section 201 is edited, each joint value can be displayed in the joint value setting section 211 based on the posture calculation result. Similarly, when the relative value setting section 202 is edited or when editing is performed using the operation handle 111, each joint value can be displayed in the joint value setting section 211 based on the posture calculation result.

The present invention can provide a program that implements one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or storage medium. It can also be realized by processing in which one or more processors in the computer of the system or apparatus read and execute the program. It can also be implemented by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that implements one or more functions.

A... Information processing device, B... Personal computer, C... Display device, D... Operation input unit, E... Display screen, 10... Virtual environment screen, 20... Parameter setting screen, 33... CPU, 34... Calculation unit, 40... Management Screen 50... Error screen 35... External storage device 100... Absolute coordinate system (ROOT) 101... Robot (ROBOT) 102... Tool (Tool) 103... Work (Work) 104... Base coordinate system (ROBOT) ), 105... Tool coordinate system (TCP), 106... Teaching point (P001), 107... Offset teaching point (P100), 110... Offset teaching point (P110), 111... Operation handle, 201... Absolute value setting unit, 202 Relative value setting unit 203 Teaching point setting unit 204 Coordinate system selection unit 205 Mouse cursor 206 Teaching point list 207 Coordinate system list 208 Setting field 209 Enter button 210 Cancel button, 211 . . . Joint value setting section.

Claims (20)

An information processing device for setting the position or posture of a predetermined part of a virtual robot,
coordinate system designating means for designating a first coordinate system from among a plurality of coordinate systems used for the virtual robot;
a control unit;
The control unit displays on the display unit,
displaying a first coordinate value relating to the position or orientation of the predetermined part corresponding to the movement of the predetermined part in the first coordinate system, and corresponding to the first coordinate value in a second coordinate system other than the first coordinate system; displaying a second coordinate value related to the position or posture of the predetermined part to be
displaying a first input section for inputting the first coordinate value and a second input section for inputting the second coordinate value;
When the first coordinate value is input in the first input unit, the display of the second coordinate value is updated to display corresponding to the input first coordinate value, and the second coordinate value is input in the second input unit. when a value is input, updating the display of the first coordinate value to display corresponding to the input second coordinate value;
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 1,
The control unit
moving the predetermined part based on the first coordinate value input to the first input unit;
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 1 or 2,
The control unit performs coordinate conversion of the first coordinate value from the first coordinate system to the second coordinate system to calculate the second coordinate value, and displays the second coordinate value on the display unit.
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The control unit outputs the second coordinate values to another device,
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The control unit determines whether the state of the virtual robot at the first coordinate value is within a range of constraints of a mechanism of a real robot corresponding to the virtual robot, signaling an error if the virtual robot state based on values falls outside the constraints of the mechanism;
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing apparatus according to claim 2,
The display unit includes a parameter display unit that displays the first coordinate value and the second coordinate value, and a model display unit that displays the virtual robot model and teaching points set in the virtual robot. is displayed,
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 6,
The control unit displays a new teaching point in the first coordinate system on the model display unit based on the first coordinate values input by the first input unit.
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 7,
The control unit displays coordinate values in the second coordinate system for the new teaching point on the parameter display unit.
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
When there is a site that has a dependency relationship with the predetermined site, the control unit displays information about the predetermined site and information about the site that has the dependency relationship as hierarchical structure data on the display unit.
An information processing device characterized by: 10. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the predetermined part is the tip of the virtual robot,
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to any one of claims 6 to 8,
The model display unit renders a 3D image of the virtual robot in a virtual space simulating an operating environment of a real robot corresponding to the virtual robot by a 3D model representation. indicate,
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11,
The plurality of coordinate systems includes an absolute coordinate system used for the virtual robot and a relative coordinate system to the absolute coordinate system,
The first coordinate system is the relative coordinate system, and the second coordinate system is the absolute coordinate system.
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 7,
When setting the new teaching point, the teaching point can be offset and duplicated at a predetermined position in the first coordinate system.
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 13,
further comprising a teaching point setting unit that sets a reference teaching point that serves as a reference for the offset from the teaching point;
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 12,
The plurality of coordinate systems includes a plurality of the relative coordinate systems,
The control unit
When the first coordinate system is newly specified by the coordinate system specifying means from among the plurality of coordinate systems and the first coordinate system before specification is switched to the new first coordinate system, the first coordinate system updating the display of the coordinate values in accordance with the switching of the first coordinate system;
An information processing device characterized by: In the information processing device according to claim 1,
further displaying a model corresponding to an operation handle for moving the predetermined part in the first coordinate system;
An information processing device characterized by: The information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 16, and a controller that acquires position or orientation information of a predetermined part of a real robot corresponding to the virtual robot set by the information processing device. and the actual robot,
The controller controls the motion of the actual robot based on the acquired information on the position or orientation of the predetermined part of the actual robot.
A robot device characterized by: An information processing method for setting the position or posture of a predetermined part of a virtual robot,
a receiving step of receiving designation of a first coordinate system by a coordinate system designating means from among a plurality of coordinate systems used for the virtual robot;
displaying a first coordinate value relating to the position or orientation of the predetermined part corresponding to the movement of the predetermined part in the first coordinate system, and corresponding to the first coordinate value in a second coordinate system other than the first coordinate system; a display step of displaying a second coordinate value related to the position or posture of the predetermined part,
In the display step, when the first coordinate value is input to the displayed first input unit , the display of the second coordinate value is updated to the display corresponding to the input first coordinate value, and displayed. updating the display of the first coordinate value to a display corresponding to the input second coordinate value when the second coordinate value is input to the second input unit,
An information processing method characterized by: 19. A program for causing a computer to execute the reception step and the display step in the information processing method according to claim 18. A computer-readable recording medium storing the program according to claim 19.

Images