JPH0519721B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a robot control method, and more specifically, when a plurality of robots are performing work, one robot may stop functioning or The present invention relates to a method of controlling a robot in which the work of the robot is shared by robots located around the robot when the work is delayed.

[Background of the invention]

Conventionally, when multiple robots were used to work on a line, the work content of each robot was determined in advance, and when the function of one robot was stopped, the other robots were also stopped, and the entire line was stopped. In order to resume work, it was necessary to repair the malfunctioning robot or replace it with a spare robot that had the same functionality as the malfunctioning robot. With this type of control method, the entire line will stop until the malfunctioning robot is repaired or replaced.
The drawback was that the robot's operating rate decreased.

Furthermore, when the work of a certain robot is delayed, the other robots are temporarily stopped until the work of the robot that is behind is completed, resulting in a drawback that the work of the entire line is delayed.

[Purpose of the invention]

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and to prevent the operating rate of the robots from decreasing even if one robot stops functioning or is delayed when working with multiple robots on a line. The first objective is to provide a robot control method that does not cause delays in the work of the entire line.

[Summary of the invention]

The robot control method of the present invention is such that when a plurality of robots perform work, if the function of one robot stops or the work is delayed, the work of the robot is shared with other robots located around the robot. This prevents all robots from stopping or from delaying the work of the robots as a whole.

[Embodiments of the invention]

The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control device 1 and a robot body 13 used in a first embodiment of the present invention. The control device 1 includes a main control processor 2, an arithmetic processor 3, a servo processor 4, and a digital processor.
Analog converter 5, servo amplifier 6, counter I/O 7, memory 8, and bus management serial I/O 9
, a work management processor 10 , an abnormality processing processor 11 , and an input/output interface 12 . The robot body 13 is composed of a motor 14, a tacho generator 15, a rotary encoder 16, an abnormality detection sensor 17, and a sensor 18. Then, the bus management serial I/I of the control device 1
An operation box 19 is connected to O9, and a peripheral robot control device 2 is connected to the input/output interface 12.
0 and 21 are connected. Here, the peripheral robot control devices 20 and 21 have the same configuration as the control device 1.

A control device 1 shown in FIG. 1 is provided for each of a plurality of robots (robot bodies 13) installed on a line, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device 1. As shown in FIG. 2, when a work abnormality occurs during the work shown in step S1, it is detected in step S2, the operation of the robot is stopped in step S3, and an abnormality signal is sent to the peripheral robot control device in step S4. In step S5, processing corresponding to the abnormality (for example, reducing the amount of work) is performed on the robot in which the abnormality has occurred.

If no work abnormality is detected in step S2,
In step S6, it is detected whether the work is completed or not, and if it is not completed, the process returns to step S1.
If the process has been completed, it is determined in step S7 whether or not it has been completed in the standard time. If the work has not been completed within the standard time, a work delay signal is sent to the peripheral robot control device in step S8, and work change processing for the peripheral robots is performed in step S9.

If it is determined in step S7 that the work has been completed within the standard time, or if the work change processing in step S9 is completed, it is determined in step S10 whether or not there is an abnormal signal from a peripheral robot, and the abnormal signal is detected. If so, a work change process is performed on the robot in step S11. If no abnormal signal is detected, it is determined in step S12 whether there is a work delay signal from a peripheral robot. If a work delay signal is detected, step S13
A work change process is performed on the robot. After the work change processing is performed in steps S11 and S13, the work is executed in step 14. Further, if no work delay signal from the peripheral robot is detected in step S12, the control operation ends.

In FIG. 3, seven robots R1 to R7 perform work in sequence on a work conveyor 30, and each of the robots R1 to R7 is provided with a control device C1 to C7. And each robot R1 to R7
and control devices C1 to C7 are signal transmission cables 31 to
37, and the respective control devices C1 to C7 are connected to each other by signal transmission cables 41 to 47 as shown in the figure, and abnormal signals or function stop signals are transmitted.

If the robot R2 goes out of control for some reason, the abnormality detection sensor 17 in the robot body 13 shown in FIG. 1 will detect that abnormal power has been supplied to the motor 14. . Therefore, an abnormality signal is input from the robot R2 to the control device C2 via the signal transmission cable 32. That is, the first
In the figure, an abnormality signal is input to the control device 1 through the input/output interface 12, and the abnormality processing processor 11 detects a work abnormality in step S2 of the flowchart shown in FIG. This causes robot R2 to stop (step
S3), signal transmission cables 41, 43,
44 to the control devices C1, C5, C6 (corresponding to the peripheral robot control devices 20, 21 in FIG. 1).
(Step S4), and further abnormality processing is performed, such as displaying a lamp indicating that the robot R2's function has stopped (Step S5).

The control devices C1, C5, and C6 transmit the abnormal signal from the robot R2 to the input/output interface 12 (first
(see figure), the abnormality processing processor 11 determines that an abnormal signal has been input (step S10), and performs work change processing to support the division of work among robot R2 in the event that robot R2 stops functioning (step S11). ), this allows the work to continue without stopping the entire work.

Furthermore, if the work of robot R2 is delayed for some reason, the main control processor 2 (see Figure 1) of the control device C2 of robot R2 determines whether the work has been completed within the standard work time (step 1).
S7), a work delay signal indicating that the work of robot R2 has been delayed is sent to the signal transmission cables 41, 43,
44 to the control devices C1, C5, and C6 (step S8). As a result, the control device C
1, C5, and C6 perform work change processing to reduce predetermined work according to the work delay time of robot R2 (step S9).

The control devices C1, C5, and C6 that received the work delay signal of the robot R2 control the work management processor 1.
0 (see Fig. 1), the input of a work delay signal is detected (step S12), and work change processing is performed to increase the amount of work for robot R2's work support in accordance with the work delay of robot R2 and the work delay time. (Step S13). As a result, delays in the overall work takt time can be reduced and work can be continued.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the invention of FIG. 4; In this embodiment, for example, when the function of the robot R3 is stopped or the work is delayed, the control device C3 transmits a signal of the stoppage or work delay to the entire control device 60 via the signal transmission cable 53. The overall control device 60 transfers the work of robot R3, which has stopped functioning or is delayed, to other robots R1, R2, and R.
4. Signal transmission cable 5 to share with R5
1, 52, 54, and 55, an abnormal signal or a work delay signal is output to the control devices C1, C2, C4, and C5 in order to perform work change processing. This makes it possible to continue the work without stopping the entire work or with a reduced delay time.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, when multiple robots are arranged on a line to perform work, even if one robot stops functioning or the work is delayed, it is possible to have other nearby robots share the work. In order to become
It is possible to prevent the entire work from being stopped or delayed, and the operating rate of the robot can be greatly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a control device/robot main body used in the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. 1...Control device, 13...Robot main body, R1-R
7... Robot, C1, C7... Control device, 30... Conveyor, 60... Overall control device, 31 to 37, 4
1-48, 51-55...Signal transmission cable.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a robot control method in which multiple robots perform work, if a certain robot stops functioning while it is performing a work, an abnormal signal is detected, the operation of the robot is stopped, and the surroundings of the robot are After transmitting the abnormality signal to another robot control device located therein, and performing work change processing on each of the other robots that detected the abnormality signal, determining whether the work of the certain robot has been completed within a standard time. If the work is not completed, a work delay signal is sent to the other robot, and the work change process is again performed on the other robot that detected the work delay signal, so that the certain robot executes the work. 1. A robot control method characterized in that, when a function stops or a work delay occurs during a robot control, the other robots are made to share the work.