JPH04324359A - Handling jam preventing means for robot hand - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent possible jamming especially in handling of a flask or a breaker with a robot hand concerning an automation art for measuring pH value, OH value or the like of a chemical agent such as polyether for polyurethane. CONSTITUTION:The completion of work of gripping an object with a robot hand is detected by a judgment that the object is gripped when force which is set as reaction from the object in the gripping of the object with fingers 3 and 4 is returned with a grip sensor. Grip off parts of the fingers 3 and 4 of a grip hand 2 are provided with an elastic buffer material 5 to achieve a higher detection capacity of the grip sensor. This enables the prevention of a handling jam in the gripping of a breaker, a flask or the like with the robot hand.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to automation technology for measuring the pH value, OH value, etc. of chemical agents such as polyether for polyurethane, and in particular, prevention of jamming when handling flasks and beakers with robot hands. Regarding technology.

0002

[Prior Art] Conventionally, p of polyether for polyurethane has been used.
The H value and OH value were all measured manually according to the test method specified in JIS-K-1557.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventional manual methods for measuring the pH value and OH value of polyether for polyurethane are extremely complicated and inefficient. Therefore, the present inventors attempted to automate the measurement using a robot, but found that there were various obstacles in trying to put it into practical use. For example, jams often occur where a detection signal is not output when a robot hand is picking up a flask, beaker, etc., causing the robot to stop. Each time, jams must be cleared manually, which can be extremely difficult. This was not only complicated, but also had the potential to undermine the benefits of automation.

[0004] In other words, the robot hand completes the gripping work of a beaker or flask by using a grip sensor, and when the finger grips an object, if the force set as a reaction from the object returns, it is determined that the object has been gripped. When we adopted a configuration that detects this by determining that jams occur, we found that jams occur not because of software problems but because of differences in sensor sensitivity due to deformation of the hand (fingers) or deterioration of motors, potentiometers, etc. It was found that the hardware required periodic checks and parts replacement.

[0005] Various physical improvements have been tried, such as inserting an object between the fingers, bending the fingers, etc., but no favorable results were obtained.

[0006] It should be noted that improvements made by software (programs) do not result in fundamental improvements and are not only problematic from a safety perspective, but also require a great deal of cost to change programs, so it has been concluded that this is not desirable. Obtained.

[0007] In view of the above, the present invention is a technology for preventing jams from occurring at the stage of grasping flasks, beakers, etc. with robot hands, and for making automatic measurement of pH value and OH value of polyether for polyurethane more effective. The purpose is to clarify the

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention is utilized in an automatic measuring device that measures the pH value, OH value, etc. of a chemical agent such as polyether for polyurethane by operating a robot. Completion of grasping an object by the hand is detected using a grip sensor, which determines that the object has been grasped if the force set as a reaction from the object returns when the finger grasps the object. By providing an elastic cushioning material in the grasping part of the finger of the grip hand, the detection ability of the grip sensor is improved, and it is used as a handling jam prevention means when a beaker, flask, etc. is grasped by the robot hand. characterized by something.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Prior to explaining the present invention, an automatic measuring device to which the present invention is applied and a measurement procedure will be explained.

An automatic measuring device to which the present invention is applied is shown in FIG. Although this device automatically measures the pH value and OH value of polyether for polyurethane, the present invention is not limited to this device, and can be used for various automatic measurements performed by operating a beaker or flask with a robot hand. Applies to equipment.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes a robot, which rotates an arm 360 degrees, lifts and lowers, extends and contracts, rotates a robot hand 360 degrees, and grasps fingers. The robot hand is provided with a syringe hand 11 and a grip hand 12, which are used by replacing them according to the operating procedure. A pipette rack 13 is arranged at the front position of the syringe hand 11.
A pipette is provided to be handled by the user. 14
is a heating block that houses test tubes containing samples to be tested, and controls the temperature to reduce viscosity and facilitate sampling. 15/16
17 is a stirrer, 17 is an electrode holder station on which the electrode holder is placed when measuring the pH value, and 18 is an electrode holder station.
is a cleaning station that cleans the electrodes. 19 is a dispensing stand, 20 is a buzzer switch, 21 and 22 are balances,
23 to 26 are racks for preparing beakers and flasks used for measurement; 27 is a remote teaching module; 28 is a TARE changeover switch; and 29 is a switch for canceling an alarm or starting the robot. 30 is a personal computer for managing samples and measurement data, 31 is an FDDCRT for robot operation, 32 is a power event controller, and 33 is a computer for controlling measurement equipment.

Next, the operating procedure for automatic OH value measurement will be explained.

[0013] The samples to be measured are placed in test tubes and prepared in the heating block 14, and the samples are numbered in the order in which they are to be measured. etc. are input by the FDD CRT 31, and reagents, solvents, etc. used in the measurement are also adjusted and prepared.

First, the robot 10 has a grip hand 1.
Rotate to position 2 and attach this to the tip of the arm,
The user switches to the flask finger 3, picks up the flask from the rack 23, carries it to the balance 22, measures the tare weight (measurement data is automatically input into the computer 33), and then moves it to the stirrer 15 and places it there. Next, the robot 10 switches from the grip hand 12 to the syringe hand 11, grabs a pipette from the pipette rack 13, selects and samples the sample in the measurement order from the samples prepared in the heating block 14, and places it on the stirrer 15. Pour it into the tared flask placed there, switch to the grip hand 12 again,
The flask is brought to the balance 22 and its weight is measured (the measurement data is automatically input into the computer 33), and then the flask is brought to the dispensing stand 19 and the reaction liquid (reaction auxiliary liquid) is poured into the flask. Return to rack 23. The operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is now completed, and the subsequent measurement work is performed by a separate automatic titration device, but it is also possible to systemize it so that it is continuously performed by a robot.

[0015] In the subsequent measurement work, first, the air condenser is set, the above-treated flask is set in the reaction tank, waiting for reaction, taken out from the reaction tank, the condenser and flask are washed, and the flask is placed in the autocycler. The relocation is done manually. The flask is moved to the titration position and dispensing position in the automatic titrator using an autocycler. In the automatic titration device, first, a partially neutralized liquid is injected (dispensed), stirred with a stirrer, and then a measurement electrode is inserted to measure the OH value, and the measurement data is automatically input into the computer 33. When the titration is completed, the electrode is automatically cleaned and one cycle of measurement is completed.

Next, automatic measurement of pH value will be explained.

[0017] Take the beaker from the rack 23, bring it to the dispensing stand 19, and inject the solvent. Move the beaker to stirrer 16 to neutralize the solvent,
When neutralization is completed, transfer to the balance 21 and perform tare measurement (measurement data is automatically input into the computer 33), transfer the beaker to the stirrer 15 again, and measure the measurement order from the samples prepared in the heating block 14. Take a sample of what is in it and pour it into a beaker. Next, the beaker is transferred to the balance 21 and its weight is measured (data is automatically input into the computer 33). Next, the beaker is moved to and set in the stirrer 16, and the electrode holder for measuring the pH value prepared in the cleaning station 18 is transferred to the electrode holder station 17, and the electrode is immersed in the liquid in the beaker to measure the pH value. Measurement is performed, and the measured data is input into the computer 33 and printed out at the same time. When the pH value measurement is completed, the electrode is moved to the cleaning station 18 and cleaned, and the beaker is returned to the rack 23 to complete one cycle of pH value measurement. The invention will now be described in more detail according to embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is an arm of a robot hand of the robot 10 shown in FIG. 2, and 2 is a grip hand, to the tip of which a flask finger 3 and a beaker finger 4 are attached. . A cushioning material 5 made of an elastic material is attached to the gripping portion of each finger 3, 4. Materials for forming the cushioning material 5 include various natural or synthetic rubbers;
plastics are used. To set this cushioning material in the gripping parts of the fingers 3 and 4, for example, a method such as inserting a round sliced rubber tube or a silicone rubber tube into the gripping part may be used, or a method of gripping a piece of rubber plate with adhesive etc. It may also be attached to the section.

[0019] It is also preferable that the surface of the buffer material that comes into contact with flasks, beakers, etc. is formed into a rough surface.

As mentioned above, the present inventors have conventionally completed the gripping work of a beaker or flask by a robot hand by using a grip sensor to detect a set force when the finger grips an object. We adopted a configuration in which if the sensor returns as a reaction from the object, it is detected by determining that the object has been grasped, but when the finger grasps (tightens) the object, the finger deforms, and the grip sensor detects the object. A problem arises in that the set force (reaction) cannot be detected, and in the end it is determined that the object does not exist. According to the device of the present invention in which the cushioning material 5 is provided, the force acting as a force that deforms the finger is absorbed by the cushioning material 5, and then repulsion occurs due to the elasticity of the cushioning material 5, and the grip sensor Since the set value will be detected correctly, jams will not occur.

According to experiments, when a flask or beaker is handled using the improved fingers 3 and 4 as described above, the sensor may not detect the flask or the like even though the fingers are gripping it, and a jam signal may be generated. It was confirmed that there were no accidents and that the measurement work proceeded smoothly.

[0022]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to effectively prevent jamming at the stage of grasping a flask or beaker by a robot hand, and not only eliminate loss of measurement time, but also simplify maintenance. This has the advantage of significantly reducing costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

[Fig. 1] A perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 2] Schematic diagram of automatic measuring device

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Robot hand arm 2 Grip hand 3 Flask finger 4 Beaker finger 5 Cushioning material 10 Robot 11 Syringe hand 12 Grip hand 13 Pipette rack 14 Heating block 15 Stirrer 16 Stirrer 17 Electrode holder station 18 Washing station 19 Dispensing stand 20 Buzzer switch 21 Balance 22 Balance 23 Beaker (flask) rack 24 Beaker (flask) rack 25 Beaker (flask) rack 26 Beaker (flask) rack 27 Remote teaching module 28 TA
RE changeover switch 29 Alarm release or robot start switch 30
Management PC 31 FDD CRT 32 for robot operation
power event controller

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: In an automatic measuring device for measuring the pH value of a chemical agent, etc., which is performed by operating a beaker, flask, etc. with a robot hand, a grip sensor is used to determine when the robot hand has completed the gripping operation of an object. If the set force returns as a reaction from the object when the object is grasped, it is determined that the object has been grasped. A handling jam prevention means for a robot hand, characterized in that a material is provided. 2. The handling jam prevention means for a robot hand according to claim 1, wherein the chemical agent is a polyether for polyurethane, and the measurement items are a pH value and an OH value.