JPH03117594A - Method for controlling work restart of industrial robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To exclude any useless operation of a robot by reloading work data in case of reoperating the robot, and designating a specified work step which is within an air cut range and is a step before or behind a stored work step as the work step in the position for restarting the work. CONSTITUTION:When loaded work data are erased by work interrupting accident occurring during the actual operation of a robot, the number of the work step where the work interrupting accident has occurred is stored in a backing up RAM 25, and the work data are reloaded from an external storage 33 into an internal storage (data RAM) 24 at the restarting of the work. An arithmetic processing unit 22 then designates a specified work step which is within an air cut range and is a step before or behind the work step of the stored number on the basis of the reloaded work data, and determines the specified work step as a work restarting point to make the robot 10 restart the work.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention loads one piece of work data in which multiple work steps are described using data including position information from an external storage device to an internal storage device, and stores the loaded work data. The present invention relates to a control device for an industrial robot in which a processing unit processes data according to a work program and causes the robot to perform work while moving a work point of the robot in the order of work steps.

[Conventional technology]

In this type of industrial robot, the position of the work jig of the robot is controlled according to the position data included in the loaded work data, and the actual work is performed under the work conditions at the predetermined taught position.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, during actual operation, a work interruption accident occurred.
If the above-mentioned work data loaded into the internal storage device is deleted, in order to restart work from the interrupted step after the cause of the accident has been removed, the work step of the reloaded work data must be interrupted from the beginning. Steps must be repeated in the blank, and when the work is welding large structures such as bridge steel frames, it takes several hours to complete welding, so the above-mentioned work interruption accidents occur. When this occurs, the remaining welding work is often forced to be postponed to the next day, resulting in a significant decrease in the operating efficiency of the robot. This invention was made to solve the above problem. in,
When restarting work after a work interruption accident, there is no need to move the robot to the step where the work interruption accident occurred. 1. Work restart control for industrial robots that allows work to be resumed from near the location where the work interruption accident occurred. The purpose is to provide a method.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention loads one piece of work data in which a plurality of work steps are described using data including position information from an external storage device to an internal storage device, and loads the loaded data into an internal storage device. In a control device for an industrial robot, an arithmetic processing unit processes work data according to a work program and causes the robot to perform work while moving a work point of the robot in the order of work steps.
If the loaded work data is erased due to a work interruption accident that occurs during actual robot operation, the number of the work step where the work interruption accident occurred will be stored, and when the work is resumed, the work data will be transferred to the external device. The data is reloaded from the storage device to the internal storage device, and the arithmetic processing unit specifies, based on the reloaded work data, a specific step within the air cut section that is a step before or a step after the work step with the stored number. The robot is configured to specify a work step and have the robot restart the work using this specific work step as a starting point for rework.

[Effect]

In this invention, when a work interruption accident occurs, the number of the work step that was completed immediately before the accident in the work data that describes multiple work steps is stored, and when restarting the operation, the above work data is reloaded and the above work is restarted. A specific work step within the air cut section, which is a step before or after the step, is designated as a rework start position, and the remaining work is executed from this specific work step. Therefore, there is no need to repeat the work steps of the reloaded work data from the beginning to the work interruption step in empty work.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control device for an industrial robot implementing the present invention. In both figures, 1
0 is the robot body of, for example, a gate-type welding robot that runs on rails, and 20 is a robot control panel. 21 is a robot interface section; 22 is an arithmetic processing unit (microcomputer) CPU that executes a work program;
3 is a program ROM that stores a work program;
4 is a large-capacity data RAM (volatile memory) that stores work data (hereinafter referred to as NC data) in which multiple work steps (welding jig movement paths) are described using data including position information; 25 is the above NC data; A backup RAM (non-volatile memory) that stores data numbers, work data identification codes (serial numbers), work step numbers, etc.; 26 is an image (display) given from the CPU 22;
A display RAM for storing data, 27 is a bubble cassette interface section, 28 is an operating vehicle interface section, and 21 to 28 constitute a robot main control device built into the robot control panel.

31 is a color graph ink display device,
The image data stored in the display RAM on the operation desk is displayed in color on the screen.

Reference numeral 32 denotes a keyboard on the robot operation desk operated by the operator, and the human power of the keys is transmitted to the CPU 22 through the operation vehicle interface section 28. Reference numeral 33 denotes a bubble cassette which is an external storage device, and as shown in FIG.

Figures 3 [a] and (b) show an example of a welding target to be welded by the above-mentioned portal welding robot, where 100 is a base material that is a longitudinal member, and 200 and 300 are welding objects that reside on the base material 100. Horizontal frame and vertical frame to be welded (both referred to as the workpiece hereinafter)
40A and 40B indicate the twin torches. Moreover, the arrow indicates the welding direction.

Next, the work restart control method of the present invention will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 and the work step map of FIG.

The operator displays a work menu on the screen of the display device 31 by operating keys on the keyboard 32, selects the auto playback mode, and selects the auto playback mode.
One of the multiple NC data stored in
The NC data regarding the above welding object is its data number (n
) and pass it through the interface section 27.
The data is loaded into the data RAM 24, and the welding line data of the position data of the welding jig movement path included in the NC data is read out from the data RAM 24 to the display RAM, and the display is displayed as shown in FIG. 4(C). The locus of the welding line is drawn, for example, in red on the screen of the device 21. The operator confirms from the trajectory of the welding line displayed on the screen that the displayed welding line is the welding line of the workpiece, that is, the loaded NC data is the data for the workpiece to be welded. After confirming that there are no errors, the NC data, which is the workpiece coordinate system, is operated by the CPU 22 by, for example, two-point shift teaching, and converted to the robot coordinate system. After this coordinate transformation, the operator operates the keys on the keyboard 32 to
The data number of the loaded NC data, its serial number (work data identification code), and work step number are stored in the M25, and a welding start command is input manually to start automatic welding. CPU22 is R for programming.
According to the work program stored in the OM 23, control data is calculated from the above NC data and sent to the robot-side control device mounted on the robot body 10 through the robot interface unit 21. The welding jig of the robot main body 10 moves from work step to work step according to the work step data in the order of the work steps specified by the NC data, and executes the welding work along the welding line. At this time, 1
After each work step, the backup RA is
The step number of M25 is updated to the step number of the next work step.

As the automatic welding progresses, welding along a certain welding line is completed, and the welding jig of the robot body 10 is retracted to the initial position (work step N) of the air cut section shown in FIG.
In order to go to the next welding start position, a high-speed movement command (which the work step data has) is received and the work step (
N+1), and then move to work step (
Move to the welding start position (N+2) and start welding along the welding line.

Now, from work step (N+1) to work step (N+2)
), some trouble occurred in the robot body 10 and the welding work was interrupted, and the loaded NC
Assuming that the data has been erased from the data RAM 23, the C
The PU22 stores the work step (
N+1) number (note that the serial number has already been stored).

To resume work, the operator calls the work menu on the screen of the display device 3I, selects the auto play bank restart mode, and displays the data number and work data identification number of the NC data stored in the external storage device 33. and reloads the NC data of number n into the data RAM 24. The operator uses a key operation to display the work data identification number of the reloaded NC data and the work data identification number stored in the bank amplifier RAM 25 on the screen of the display device 31, and checks whether the two match. After verifying the failure on the screen, if the failure is confirmed, the work restart command is sent to the CPU 2.
2. Key human power.

Since the work interruption occurred on the way from work step (N+1) to work step (N+2), the CPU 22 specifies work step N, which is the initial position of the air cut section, as the restart start step, and stores the step number in the backup RAM 25. is updated to rNJ and displayed on the screen of the display device 31. The operator can reload the NC data and CPU2 from this screen display.
After confirming that the specification of the above work step N in step 2 is correct, a two-point shift is taught by key operation, and the NC data (reloaded NC data) that is the workpiece coordinate system is
Convert to robot coordinate system. After this coordinate transformation, the operator manually issues a command to start welding. This allows the CPU
22 sends control data to the robot-side control device through the robot interface unit 21 as described above, so the welding jig of the robot body 10 moves to work step N and then moves to the welding start position from work step (N+1). The robot moves to work step (N+2), performs welding under predetermined welding conditions and welding speed, travels to work step (N+3), which is the welding end position, and enters the air cut section.

When entering the air cut section, work step (N+4) at low speed.
), then moves at high speed to work step (N+5), and then to work step (N+6). This work step (N+6) corresponds to the work step N for the work to be welded next.

In this embodiment, these work steps (N+2) to (N+5
), the program is programmed to designate work step (N+6) as the re-starting position if the work interruption accident occurs.

As described above, work step N, which is the initial position of the air cut section, is designated as the restart start step, and the step number in the backup RAM 25 is updated to rNJ and displayed on the screen of the display device 31.
This screen display may be performed in such a way that the welding line is read out on the screen and the welding line trajectory included up to the restart start step is displayed in a different color from the remaining welding line trajectory.

Although the above explanation takes as an example a gate-type welding robot that runs on rails, the present invention is not limited to this type of robot.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, one piece of work data in the external storage device 33 is loaded into the data RAM, but the same holds true for horizontally or sequentially loading a plurality of work data.

Further, in the above embodiment, the starting point for rework is a specific work step in the air cut section, but it is clear that any position where the work jig does not interfere with the workpiece may be used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, when a work interruption accident occurs, this invention stores the number of the work step that was completed immediately before the accident in work data that describes multiple work steps,
When re-operating, the above-mentioned work data is reloaded and a specific work step within the air cut section, which is a step before or after the above-mentioned work step, is designated as the re-work start position. Since the remaining work is executed from the work step, there is no need to repeat the work steps of the reloaded work data from the beginning to the work interruption step with empty work, and unnecessary operations can be avoided. The operating rate of the robot in the event of an accident that interrupts work can be significantly improved compared to conventional methods.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the main control device of a welding robot implementing the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the internal state of the external storage device in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 (a) and middle) are diagrams of the welding target. A plan view and a cross-sectional view showing one example; FIG. 3(C) is a diagram showing an example of the display screen in the above embodiment;
The figure is a work flow diagram for explaining the present invention in detail, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a sequence of work steps for explaining the above embodiment. 10--Robot body, 22-=CPU. 〇---Main controller 3--Program ROM, 4-Data RAM 5--Backup RAM 3--External storage device

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) One piece of work data describing multiple work steps using data including position information is loaded from an external storage device to an internal storage device, and the arithmetic processing unit processes the loaded work data according to the work program to step the work step. In a control device for an industrial robot that sequentially moves the robot's work point to perform work, the work interruption accident occurs when the loaded work data is erased due to a work interruption accident that occurs during actual operation of the robot. The number of the work step is stored, and when the work is restarted, the work data is reloaded from the external storage device to the internal storage device, and the arithmetic processing unit stores the work data based on the reloaded work data. An industry characterized by specifying a specific work step within an air cut section that is a step before or a step after the work step numbered, and causing the robot to resume work using this specific work step as a starting point for rework. A method for controlling the resumption of work for robots.