JPH05282016A - Robot controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need to decide the states of input elements by a sequence controller and to simplify a program by inputting the states of input and output elements to the robot controller, and selecting an operation block to be operated and placing a robot in operation. CONSTITUTION:A driving circuit 13 which is connected to a CPU 11 through an arithmetic unit 11, a memory 12, and an interface IF1 and drives plural servomotors on the robot R is connected to the robot controller 10. The memory 12 has a control program area CPA, an operation program area MPA for the robot, and an operation information area MIA. The sequence controller 20 consists of a controller main body 21, a sequence memory 22, and input/output circuits 23 and 24. The respective shafts of the robot R, a machine tool M/C which operates together with the robot R, a limit switch LS fitted to a conveyor C/V, and a solenoid SL are connected to the input/output circuit 23.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for controlling a robot which operates in synchronization with other equipment controlled by a sequence control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, machining work has been efficiently performed by synchronizing robots with other equipment, such as carrying in and out of a workpiece to and from a machine tool. Conventionally, this machine tool and the robot are synchronized. When operating the robot, the robot controller that controls the robot receives an operation command signal from the sequence controller that controls the operation of other equipment, and the robot performs a series of operations according to this operation command signal. Was there.

[0003]

However, in the prior art, the sequence control device determines an operation state of the machine tool and issues an operation command to the robot control device to cause the robot to perform a specific operation according to the operation state of the machine tool. Since the output has been made, it is necessary to accurately grasp the state of whether the machine tool is being machined, or whether the machine has finished machining and is waiting for the workpiece to be carried in.

As a result, the sequence control device needs to test the on / off state of a large number of input / output elements such as limit switches and solenoids attached to various parts of the machine tool, and the sequence program for that purpose becomes enormous. , It took a lot of work to create this.

[0005]

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and as shown in FIG. 1, an information input means 1 for inputting a status signal from a sequence controller PC and a robot R are provided. An operation program storage means 2 for storing a series of operations to be continuously performed by dividing it into a plurality of operation blocks, and an operation information storage means 3 for storing the relationship between the ON / OFF states of input / output elements and the plurality of operation blocks. ,
An operation block selecting unit 4 for selecting each operation block corresponding to the input / output signal input by the information input unit 1 from the operation information storage unit 3, and a program of the selected operation block is an operation program storage unit. 2 and a program executing means 5 for operating the robot R.

[0006]

When the operation is started, the robot controller inputs the state of the input / output element from the sequence controller PC by the information input means 1 and the operation block selecting means 4 changes the operation information from the state of the input / output element. The storage unit 3 selects an operation block to be operated by the robot R, and the program execution unit 5 reads the program of the selected operation block from the operation program storage unit 2 to read the robot R.
Operate.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 is a robot control device for controlling the robot R. The robot control device 10 includes an arithmetic unit (CPU) 11, a memory 12, and an interface IF1.
Drive circuit 13, which is connected to the CPU 11 via the CPU and drives a plurality of servomotors on the robot R, an interface I
The operation panel 14 connected to the CPU 11 via F2 is a main component, and the CPU 11 is connected to an interface IF3 for exchanging signals with the sequence control device 20 described later.

In the memory 12, a control program area CPA for storing a control program for controlling the operation of the CPU 11, an operation program area MPA for storing an operation program of the robot R, and an input / output element described later from the sequence controller 20. And an operation information area MIA for storing the relationship between the status signal and the operation block.

FIG. 3 shows the operation program area MPA.
A series of operations m1 and m to be performed by the robot R as shown in FIG.
Programs corresponding to 2, m3, ... Are divided and stored by a plurality of labels LAB1, LAB2, LAB3 ,. As this series of operations, for example, the carrying-in arm of the robot is moved to the conveyor C / V in order to move the workpiece from the carry-in position of the conveyor C / V to the carry-in position of the machine tool M / C as shown as the execution operation of FIG. V lowering operation, loading claw closing operation, conveyor C / V raising operation, machine tool M /
This is an operation of moving the robot to the C carry-out position.

Further, the operation information area MIA is shown in FIG.
As shown in the label LAB1, LAB2, LAB
3, ..., The on / off state of the input / output element at this time is divided into an input element and an output element, and labels LAB1,
The data is divided into LAB2 and LAB3 and stored separately. As shown in FIG. 4, the on / off states of the input / output elements are connected to the sequence controller 20 by a combination of numbers I1, I2, I3 ... On the vertical axis and numbers 0, 1, 2, ... On the horizontal axis. Indicates the input / output address of the input / output element.

It should be noted that the contents of the information in the operation information area MIA are plotted in a table with the horizontal axis representing the series of operations corresponding to the labels LAB1, LAB2 and LAB3, and the vertical axis representing the state of each input / output element. As shown in FIG. This Figure 5
Further, in FIG. 4, ◯ indicates an on condition, x indicates an off condition, and blank indicates unused. The sequence control device 20 shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the sequence controller main body 21 is composed of a computer, a sequence memory 22, and input / output circuits 23 and 24. The input / output circuit 23 includes each axis of the robot R and a machine tool M that operates together with the robot R. / C and conveyor C / V are connected to input / output elements including limit switches LS and solenoids SL mounted at the carry-in / carry-out positions. Further, the input / output circuit 24 is an interface IF3 of the robot controller 10.
The limit switch LS and the solenoid SL are connected to each other to output status signals.

The sequence memory 22 stores a sequence program for inputting signals from the limit switch LS and the solenoid SL to operate the machine tool M / C and the conveyor C / V. With the above configuration, CP
The operation of U11 will be described. When the start switch (not shown) of the operation panel 14 is pressed, the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 is started.

First, in step 100, the label L
A variable n for specifying AB1, LAB2, LAB3 ... Is set to 1. Then, in step 102, the sequence control device 20 sends the current limit switch LS.
A state signal indicating the on / off state of the input / output element including the solenoid SL is input to the robot controller 10. Next, in step 104, the motion information of the number of labels stored in the variable n (because n = 1 at the beginning, so LAB1) is taken out from the motion information area MIA, and step 10
In step 6, the status signal indicating the on / off status of the current input / output element input in step 102 is compared with the operation information of the extracted label. If the operation information of the label extracted from the operation information area MIA does not match the current on / off state of the input / output element in the comparison of step 106, the process proceeds to step 108 and the variable n is incremented by 1 and then to step 110. move on. In step 110, it is determined whether the variable n is smaller than the number of labels stored in the motion information area MIA. If the variable n is smaller than the number of labels stored in the motion information area MIA, step 102.
If the number of labels is larger than the number of labels, it is determined that there is no corresponding operation state, and in step 112, the operation panel 14 displays an abnormality and ends the operation. On the other hand, when the motion information matches the current on / off state of the input / output element in step 106, the process proceeds to step 114, the motion program of the label indicated by the variable n is read from the motion program area MPA and executed, and the robot R is predetermined , The variable n is returned to 1, the process returns to step 102, and steps 102 to 116 are repeated thereafter.

As a result, the robot R can perform an operation according to the states of the machine tool M / C and the conveyor C / V. In the above embodiment, the information input means is the CPU 11
This function is achieved in step 102 of FIG. 6, the operation program storage means is composed of the operation program area MPA of the memory 12, and the operation information storage means is composed of the operation information area MIA of the memory 12. The block selecting means is composed of the CPU 11 and the memory 12, and its function is achieved in steps 104 and 106 of FIG. 6, and the program executing means is the CPU 11
And memory 12 and its function is achieved in step 114 of FIG.

Further, in the above embodiment, the robot R is operated by the status signals of the input / output elements of the robot R, the machine tool M / C and the conveyor C / V, but the invention is not limited to this. It can also be applied to a configuration in which the robot R alone detects the operating state of the arm or the like by the input / output element.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the information input means for inputting the status signal from the sequence controller and the operation for dividing the series of operations to be continuously performed by the robot into a plurality of operation blocks and storing the operation blocks. Program storage means, operation information storage means for storing the relationship between the ON / OFF states of the input / output elements and the plurality of operation blocks, and each operation block corresponding to the input / output signals input by the information input means. The robot is provided with a motion block selecting unit selected from the motion information storing unit and a program executing unit for reading the program of the selected motion block from the motion program storing unit to operate the robot. Therefore, the sequence program does not have to be judged by the sequence controller, so the sequence program There is simply possible advantage.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing the configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of an operation program area MPA.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing details of an operation information area MIA.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of contents stored in a motion information area MIA.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the CPU 11.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 robot control device 11 CPU 12 memory 14 operation panel 20 sequence control device 21 sequence control device body 22 sequence memory 23 input / output circuit 24 input / output circuit M / C machine tool R robot C / V conveyor

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshio Aono 1-1, Asahi-cho, Kariya city, Aichi prefecture Toyota Koki Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sequence control device for inputting / outputting a status signal to / from an input / output element such as a limit switch attached to each axis of the robot or another device operating in association with the robot, In a robot control device that controls the operation of a robot by exchanging signals with the sequence control device, a plurality of information input means for inputting a status signal from the sequence control device and a series of operations to be continuously performed by the robot are performed. An operation program storage means for storing the operation program divided into operation blocks, an operation information storage means for storing the relationship between the ON / OFF states of the input / output elements and the plurality of operation blocks, and the input / output input by the information input means. An operation block selecting means for selecting each operation block corresponding to a signal from the operation information storage means, and the operation block selecting means. A robot control device comprising: a program executing unit that reads out a program of an operation block from an operation program storage unit and operates the robot.