JPH03264224A - Carpet mounting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatize a carpet transportation process and to reduce the labor burden of a worker, by providing a robot control means which controls the carpet transportation motion of a carpet transportation robot based on the information fed from a color discriminating means and vehicle position detecting means. CONSTITUTION:Vehicle position detecting means 4, 5 which detect the position of the vehicle 3 carried into a device, a car transportation robot 1 which carrys into the vehicle 3 room a piece of carpet from the carpet stack 2 stacked at the specific position inside the device with its positioning at the side part of the vehicle 3 which is arranged at the specific position inside the device and a color discriminating means 17 which discriminates the color of the carpet C becoming to be transported by the carpet transportation robot 1 with its positioning at the vicinity of the carpet stack 2, are provided. The carpet transportation action of the carpet transportation robot 1 is controlled by a robot control means 6 based on the informations fed from the vehicle position detecting means 4, 5 and color discriminating means 17 and the carpet transportation process is automatized.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is installed in a production line for automobiles, etc., and is applied to carpets in the interior of automobiles brought into the apparatus. Problem] In general, in the manufacturing process of vehicles such as automobiles, various parts are automatically assembled along the production line, or parts are assembled manually by workers.

Currently, the process of assembling carpet, which is an interior part of a vehicle, is carried out by a worker, who carries a carpet of a predetermined color into the interior according to the body color of the vehicle that has been brought in, and then installs the carpet inside the vehicle. Positioning and fixing work is being carried out. Therefore, from the perspective of improving work efficiency and shortening car manufacturing time, the process of assembly that required workers to carry relatively heavy carpets was a burden on workers as well. It was time consuming. In view of the current situation, the present invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a carpet transport device that realizes automation of this carpet transport process.

[Means to solve the problem]

For the above purpose, the present invention includes a vehicle position detecting means for detecting the position of a vehicle carried into the device; A carpet transport robot that transports one carpet from a piled up carpet stack into the vehicle interior; and a color identification system that identifies the color of the carpet that is located near the carpet stack and is to be transported by the carpet transport robot. and robot control means for controlling carpet carrying operations of said carpet carrying robot based on information from said vehicle position detection means and color identification means.

[For production]

The present invention automates this carpet transport process, which conventionally relied on workers, using a carpet transport robot that has been programmed to operate in advance. It was (1
) Installation is to confirm the location of the vehicle, and (2) to identify if a carpet of a color different from the specified color is mistakenly mixed into a carpet stack (a stack of many carpets). The carpet loading device of the present invention uses a vehicle position detection means to detect the current vehicle position, and a color identification means to identify the color of the carpet to be picked up from the carpet stack, and according to these detection results, the robot control means transports the carpet. Control the operation of the robot.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a top plan view schematically showing the arrangement structure of each element constituting the cart loading device according to the present invention.

In this figure, 1 is a carpet transport robot installed at a predetermined position on the equipment base (or foundation), 2 is a carpet stack in which a large number of carpets are piled up and installed near this carpet transport robot 1, and 3 is a carpet stack of this equipment. Vehicles (automobiles) that will be equipped with carpets
are shown respectively. Note that this figure shows a state in which the automobile 3 is brought to a fixed position within the apparatus, which is a prerequisite for the carpet carrying robot 1 to carry in the carpet, by means of automobile conveyance means such as a belt conveyor.

Further, on the device base, there are industrial television cameras (ITV cameras) 4 and 5 that constitute vehicle position detection means for detecting whether or not the automobile carried by the automobile transport means is at the fixed position. These ITV cameras 4.5 are installed on the side and rear sides, respectively.The ITV cameras 4.5 take images of, for example, a turn signal, a part of the bumper, a fuel filler opening, etc. (not shown) of a car as an imaging subject, and the image information is determined in advance. The purpose is to determine whether or not the automobile 3 is in the normal position by determining whether or not it is in the normal position. Therefore, the output from the cameras 4 and 5 is sent to the image processing device (
(not shown) to a control computer 6 (robot control means) that controls the operation of the carpet transport robot 1 and the vehicle transport means. In addition, as a substitute for this ITV camera 435, a distance sensor that detects the fixed position of the vehicle by measuring the distance to the object to be detected may be used.

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the carpet carrying robot (hereinafter simply referred to as robot) 1.

As is clear from this figure, the robot 1 includes a robot base 7 installed rotatably in any direction around the robot center R, and an articulated robot arm connected to the robot base 7 and movable in multidimensional directions. 8, and a gripping device 9 that is attached to the tip of the robot arm 8 and grips a carveler (C) to be mounted.

The gripping device 9 includes two first shafts H1 extending parallel to each other from a gripping device drive unit 10, and a total of four second shafts 12 connected at right angles to each of the first shafts 11.
and a car propeller fixed to each second shaft 12)
The carpeller is composed of a total of eight pads 13 that adsorb C, and each pad 13 is expanded by suction from a pump 14 provided outside the robot 1 body)
It is designed to absorb. Furthermore, for this reason, pump 1
4 and each pad 13 are communicated with each other via a pipe 14a.

In addition, the two first shafts 11 are rotated synchronously in opposite directions after suctioning the carpet by an actuator (not shown) provided in the drive unit 10, so that the two first shafts 11 fold the suctioned carpet (C) and open the narrow entrance. The carpet C can be carried smoothly into the interior of the automobile 3 even when transported through a vehicle.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the carpet mounting device has a phenomenon in which the carpet is folded in reverse (the carpet C becomes M-shaped instead of an inverted V-shape, and the carpet C falls off from the pad 13 due to the automatic reverse folding part). In order to prevent this (a phenomenon that occurs concurrently with will be installed. Naturally, this reverse bending prevention device 16 is also controlled by the aforementioned control computer 6 in advancing and retracting the bar 15.

By the way, the color of the carpet C is generally determined in advance according to the car 3 to be installed, by matching with the car body color, etc., and in the carpet stack 2, the color corresponds to the car (not shown) to be transported. Carpellers) C corresponding to the order of conveyance must be stacked in advance, and this work is performed, for example, by an operator at the setup stage before the device is operated. If a worker accidentally mixes in a carpet of a color different from the specified color, the automated carpet loading process will simply erroneously load the carpet. In order to deal with such a problem, according to this embodiment, a color discrimination camera 17 (color discrimination means) is installed near the carpet stack 2 to discriminate the color of the carpet (C) picked up by the gripping device 9 of the robot 1. will be installed. And this color discrimination camera 1
The information on the carpet color detected by the controller 7 is input to the control computer 6, and the computer 6 determines whether or not the color of the carpet color C currently held is the specified color. In this case, the computer 6 may have inputted in advance the carpet color order according to the order in which the vehicles are transported, or the car body color of each car, which can also be detected by the above-mentioned ITV camera 4 or 5. In the latter case, it is determined whether the carpet color and the vehicle body color are matched using a previously stored color combination map.

It should be noted that in Fig. 1, 18 indicates a carpet platform (pallet) for stacking the carpets in an unfolded state in the next process, and the carpet stack is located at the carpet stack position 2 shown in Fig. 1). After loading C, the empty pallet is automatically pushed out as shown by the arrow in the figure, and the carpet placement platform 18 is brought to the carpet stack 2 position by a worker or other conveyance means. , a so-called palette change is performed.

Below is an example of the operation of the carpet mounting device according to this embodiment (
1 cycle〉Explain.

First, the gripping device 9 of the robot 1 grips one carpet C from the carpet stack 2 by the suction action of the pump 14, and then the robot 1 grips the carpet C from the carpet stack 2.
While holding it, lift it up to the height of the color discrimination camera 17. The color discrimination camera 17 detects the color of the gripped carpet C, and the data is input to the control computer 6, where the computer 6 determines whether the currently gripped carpet C has the specified color input in advance. It will be determined whether or not. If it is determined that the robot 1 is holding a car peller (C) that is different from the specified color, the computer 6 outputs a signal to stop the operation of the robot 1, and at the same time turns on a warning lamp etc. (not shown). This flashes to notify surrounding workers of the presence of foreign items in the carpet stack 2.

If it is determined that a regular carpella) C is being held,
Next, the control computer 6 activates the reverse bending prevention device 16 to move the bar 15 of the device 16 to a position below the center of the gripped car bella) C. In this state, the gripping device 9
After driving the actuator to rotate the first shaft 11 and folding the gripped carpet C into two, the reverse folding prevention bag [16 is driven again to move the bar 15 backward.

During the above-described carpet gripping and folding process by the robot 1, the ITV camera 4.5 (or distance sensor) detects the position of the transported automobile 3 in parallel. Based on this detection data, the control computer 6 determines whether or not the vehicle 3 is at the device's designated position. If the vehicle 3 is not at the designated position, the computer 6 adjusts and operates the vehicle transport means to correct the vehicle 3 to the designated position. It outputs a signal or calculates correction data for adjusting the operation of the robot 1 according to the detected current position of the vehicle.

Next, the control computer 6 executes a regular operating program that has been input in advance (when the vehicle 3 is in a regular position) or an operating program that has been modified using correction data (
When the car 3 is not in a fixed position), the robot arm 8 of the robot 1 is driven to carry in the carpet C through the door opening of the car body, and then the actuator of the gripping device 9 is activated inside the room to move the first shaft 11. While rotating and unfolding the folded carpella (C), the gripping device 9 is positioned at a predetermined position indoors. Then, by stopping the operation of the pump 14, the carpet C is released from the gripping device 9, and the loading of the carpet C is completed in the manner described above.

After loading the carpet C, the robot 1 returns to the carpet stack 2 position again in order to load the next carpet, and repeats the above-described operations.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the labor burden on the workers can be reduced by automating this carpet transport process, which conventionally relied on workers, using a carpet transport robot whose operation is programmed in advance. ,
Also, the installation time can be shortened.

In addition, the carpet mounting device of the present invention has a vehicle position detection means for detecting the position of the mounted vehicle, and a color identification means for identifying the color of the carpet gripped by the robot, so that it is possible to prevent erroneously picking up a non-specification carpet. It is possible to accurately mount a carpet at a predetermined position indoors without mounting the carpet, and to provide a highly reliable carpet mounting device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a carpet loading device according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a side view of a carpet transport robot constituting the carpet loading device. 1... Carpet transport robot, 2... Carpet stack, 3... Automobile (vehicle), 4.5... ITV camera (vehicle position detection means), 6.
... Control computer, 17... Color discrimination camera (color discrimination means), C... Carpet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle position detection means for detecting the position of a vehicle carried into the device, and one piece of carpet from a carpet stack stacked at a predetermined position inside the device, located on the side of the vehicle placed at a fixed position inside the device. a carpet transport robot that transports the carpet into the vehicle interior; a color identification means located near the carpet stack for identifying the color of the carpet to be transported by the carpet transport robot; and a vehicle position detection means. and robot control means for controlling the carpet transporting operation of the carpet transporting robot based on information from the color identification means.