JPH03166073A - Detection of work position - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly detect the work position, by marking the surfaces of plural jigs which regulate carry-in spaces, discriminating the marks from the image signal transmitted by a visual sensor and detecting the work position by an operation based on the positional data of the mark. CONSTITUTION:A mark M1 comes to be image at the position slipped from the visual field center of a visual sensor 5, in the case of the stoppage position of a moving robot 10 being slipped. The image signal transmitted by this visual sensor 5 has a different lightness between the part of the mark M1 and the other part of no mark and an image processing device 6 calculates the centroid of a scope by utilizing the difference in lightness. A robot control unit 12 then moves a robot arm 3 in the specific direction by the specific distance. The image pickup of the mark M2 by the visual sensor 5 is then started and the image processing device 6 calculates the centroid as in the case of the mark M1. The position of a work can be specified from both the centroids because they are located on the line connecting the opposite angles of a work W.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a workpiece position detection method for a mobile robot.

[Conventional technology]

When a mobile robot with a handling robot mounted on an unmanned vehicle is moved to a working position to handle a workpiece, it is difficult to accurately position the mobile robot to the working position, so a visual sensor such as a CCD camera is installed on the robot arm, etc. A method is adopted in which the workpiece is attached, visually recognizes the workpiece, detects the workpiece position, and handles it.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, conventionally, the entire workpiece is imaged with a visual sensor, the image signal is processed by an image processing device to detect the position of the workpiece, and the mobile robot is controlled based on the position data, so it takes a long time to process the image signal. In addition, it is technically difficult to control the robot using the obtained position data, and the image processing device becomes expensive.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a workpiece position detection method that can quickly detect the workpiece position by simple image processing.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an image processing apparatus that attaches marks to the surfaces of a plurality of surfaces defining a loading space into which workpieces are loaded in a fitted manner, and inputs an image signal from a visual sensor. The above-mentioned mark is identified from the image signal sent by the visual sensor, and the workpiece position is detected by calculation based on the position data of the mark. When the workpiece is square, the jig is placed in the opposite position of the workpiece. The two corners fit together to form a letter shape, and marks are attached to the corners.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the image processing device only needs to recognize the marks on the plurality of jigs into which the workpiece is fitted from the image signal sent by the visual sensor, so that simple image processing is sufficient.

〔Example〕

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

In FIG. 1, 1 is a battery-powered unmanned vehicle of a mobile robot 10, and 2 is a handling robot mounted on the unmanned vehicle 1. In FIG. 3 is the arm of robot 2, 4 is robot 2
5 is a visual sensor, which is fixedly supported by the handling drive unit 4, and the image signal sent by the visual sensor 5 is input to an image processing device 6. Ru. W is a workpiece, which has a rectangular parallelepiped shape as shown in FIG. 2, and is carried into a carrying-in space A defined by two R-shaped jigs 7A and 7B in a fitted manner. These jigs 7A and 7B are the two opposite jigs of the workpiece W.
The two corners are arranged and fixed so that they fit together, and marks M1 and M2 are attached to the corners of the surface, respectively.

In this structure, the mobile robot 10 is designated with a destination (work position), and travels toward the work position based on map data stored in a ROM in the unmanned vehicle control device (travel control device) 11, for example. do. mobile robot 10
When the robot stops at the above-mentioned working position, the visual sensor 5 starts to take an image, and first, the mark Ml is taken. If the stop position of the mobile robot 10 is not shifted, the mark M1 is imaged at the center of the field of view of the visual sensor 5;
If the stop position of 0 is shifted, the mark M1 will be imaged at a position shifted from the center of the field of view of the visual sensor 5. The image signal sent by the visual sensor 5 is the mark M1
Since the brightness of the part and the part that is not a mark is different, the image processing device 6 uses this difference in brightness to calculate the center of gravity of the screen (centering on the mark M1). Next, the robot control device l2 moves the robot arm 3 by a predetermined distance l in a predetermined direction. This predetermined distance l is the mark M1 and M2
The distance between them is preset in the robot control device 12, and since the positions and postures of the jigs 7A and 7B are also constant, the above-mentioned predetermined orientation is also preset in the robot control device 12. When this positioning is completed, the visual sensor 5 starts imaging the mark M2, and the image processing device 6 calculates the center of gravity (centers on the mark M2) in the same manner as in the case of the mark M1. Since both centers of gravity are on the line connecting the diagonals of the workpiece W, the position of the workpiece can be specified from both centers of gravity. If the stop position of the mobile robot 10 is shifted, the robot control device 12 performs a handling operation after correcting the position using this workpiece position.

Note that since the workpiece W in the above embodiment is rectangular, the jigs 7A and 7B that define the loading space are in the shape of a letter.
The shape of the jig changes depending on the shape of the workpiece, so it is not limited to the above-mentioned jigs 7A and 7B. For example, if the workpiece W is cylindrical, the jigs 7A and 7B may be arcuate. , the marks may be placed in a linear manner passing through the center of the workpiece W.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention has a structure in which marks are attached to the surfaces of a plurality of jigs that define the carry-in position where the workpiece is fitted, and the workpiece position is detected by recognizing the marks through image processing. As a result, the workpiece position can be detected more quickly than before using simple image processing technology, and the image processing equipment can be inexpensive, making it practical to detect the workpiece position using images. can be done, and the effect is great.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of a workpiece in the above embodiment.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In the case where a visual sensor is attached to the working robot of a mobile robot in which the working robot is mounted on an unmanned vehicle, and the image signal sent by the visual sensor is processed by an image processing device to detect the position of the workpiece, Marks are attached to the surfaces of a plurality of jigs that define loading spaces into which the workpieces are loaded in a fitted manner, and the image processing device identifies the marks from the image signal sent by the visual sensor and locates the marks. A workpiece position detection method characterized by detecting the workpiece position by calculation based on data. (2) When the workpiece is square, the jig has a shape in which two opposing corners of the workpiece fit together;
A workpiece position detection method characterized in that marks are attached to the corners of the workpiece.