JPH08141976A - Controller for industrial robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a controller for an industrial robot, capable of easily confirming the contents of the generated error, and for quickly coping with the error. CONSTITUTION: A controller 4 is provided with a control unit 20. The control unit 20 is provided with a CPU 21, an RAM 22, an ROM 23 and an input/output unit 24. A backup power 25 for holding the data stored in the RAM 22 even if the external power from the power line is cut off is connected to the RAM 22, this backup voltage is input into the CPU 21, and the backup voltage drop is monitored. Moreover, an emergency stop signal is input into the CPU 21. A watch dog timer 26 is provided in the CPU, and the abnormal state of the CPU 21 is monitored. A voice composite LSI 27 is connected to the control unit 20 through the input/output unit 24, and the output of the voice composite LSI 27 is generated as the voice for informing the outside of the kind of the errors by a speaker 29 through an amplifier 28.

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 driving and controlling an industrial robot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, an X-axis drive member that moves a slider in the X-axis direction and a Y-axis drive member that moves the X-axis drive member in the Y-axis direction are used to move the X-axis to an arbitrary position on an XY plane.
An industrial robot that moves an operating end such as a chuck installed on a slider of an axial drive member is controlled by a control device that uses a microcomputer or the like. This control device is housed in a box-shaped housing, and an operation panel is installed on the front surface of the housing. Further, a teaching pendant is connected to the control device to input the operation program of the robot and monitor the operation.

When various errors such as an emergency stop state, battery voltage drop, or program abnormality occur during the operation of the robot, an alarm buzzer provided in the control unit sounds and an alarm lamp installed on the operation panel lights up. To be done. In addition, an error code display for displaying the type of error that occurred with an error code such as alphanumeric characters and an error code correspondence table that prints the correspondence between the error code and the type of error are installed in the housing. Has been done.
The operator confirms the error code displayed on the error code display and further confirms the type of error that has occurred in the error code correspondence table. As a result, the operator takes measures to deal with the error that has occurred.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned prior art, when an error occurs in the robot, the operator opens the lid of the housing in which the control device is stored, and displays the error code indicator and the error code correspondence table. There is a problem in that it is necessary to confirm the error, labor is required for the error confirmation work, and it is difficult to quickly deal with the error.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, and the purpose thereof is to easily confirm the content of an error that has occurred and to quickly respond to the error. An object is to provide a control device for an industrial robot.

[0006]

A control device for an industrial robot according to the present invention comprises a notification-required state detection means for detecting the occurrence of a state in the industrial robot that requires notification to the outside.
A voice data storage unit that stores, as voice data, an external notification item corresponding to the type of the notification required state, a voice output unit that acoustically outputs the voice data, and the notification required state detection unit In response to the detection of the occurrence of the notification required state, there is provided control means for reading out the notification item corresponding to the type of the generated notification required state from the voice data storage means and outputting it from the voice output means. Thus, the above object can be achieved.

[0007]

According to the controller of the industrial robot of the present invention,
The notification required state detection means detects the occurrence of a state in the industrial robot that requires notification to the outside. The control means responds to the detection of the occurrence of the notification required state by the notification required state detection means, and issues the notification item corresponding to the type of the notification required state generated to the outside corresponding to the type of the notification required state. Is read from the voice data storage means that is stored as voice data, and is output from the voice output means that acoustically outputs the voice data.

Thus, when an error occurs in the industrial robot, the operator can confirm the error content by listening to the voice output from the voice output means. Therefore, it is possible to easily perform the error confirmation work and quickly respond to the error that has occurred.

[0009]

1 is a block diagram of a controller 4 for an industrial robot (hereinafter referred to as a robot) 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a system diagram of the robot 1 according to the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the entire configuration of the robot 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The robot 1 drives the X-axis drive member 2 and the Y-axis drive member 3, which extend along the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction which are orthogonal to each other, and the X-axis drive member 2 and the Y-axis drive member 3, for example. And a control device 4 for controlling. The X-axis drive member 2 includes a drive unit 5 including a pulse motor and an encoder, a ball screw housed therein which is rotationally driven by the pulse motor of the drive unit 5, and a slider 6 that moves in parallel in the X-axis direction by the rotation of the ball screw. It has a guide portion 7 for guiding the slider 6 in the X-axis direction. The Y-axis drive member 3 is fixed to the slider 6. The Y-axis drive member 3 also has the same configuration as the X-axis drive member 2, and a drive unit 8 including a pulse motor and an encoder, and a ball screw that is rotationally driven by the pulse motor of the drive unit 8 are housed therein. A guide portion 10 for guiding the slider 9 that is moved in parallel in the Y-axis direction by rotation.
And have.

The drive units 5 and 8 are connected to each other by a connector cable 11 and further connected to the control device 4 by a connector cable 12. The controller 4 is connected to a teaching pendant 14, which is a remote control device, by a connector cable 13, and a power supply line 15 to which drive power from the outside is supplied. The teaching pendant 14 inputs an operation program that defines the operation state of the robot 1 including the X-axis drive member 2 and the Y-axis drive member 3 and monitors the operation state of the robot 1. Further, the control device 4 includes a housing 16
2 is provided with a circuit having an electrical configuration described later with reference to FIG. 2, and particularly has a built-in mechanism for generating a voice described later. On the operation panel 17 of the control device 4, a notification lamp 18 such as an LED (light emitting diode) for various notifications and an emergency stop button 19 are arranged.

The electrical configuration of the control device 4 will be described below with reference to FIG. The control device 4 includes a control unit 20 realized by using a microcomputer or the like. The control unit 20 includes a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 21 such as a microprocessor, the operation program that defines the operation of the CPU 21 and a RAM (writable and readable) that stores various variables during the operation of the robot 1. Storage element) 22 and an OS that defines the operation of the operation program
A ROM (readout storage element) 23 for storing (operation system) and the like, and an input / output unit 24 used when the control unit 20 communicates with an external configuration are provided.

In the RAM 22, the power supply line 15
A backup power supply 25 for holding the data stored in the RAM 22 is connected even when the external power supply from the CPU is shut off, and this backup voltage is also input to the CPU 21 and backed up by the voltage drop detection unit 30 as described later. The voltage drop is monitored. Also, CPU2
An emergency stop signal is input to 1. This emergency stop signal is input as an operation signal of the emergency stop button 19 of the control device 4 or a command signal from a computer such as a sequence controller to which the control device 4 is connected. Also, C
The PU 21 is provided with a watchdog timer (hereinafter referred to as WD timer) 26, and monitors an abnormal state of the CPU 21 by a well-known technique. When the abnormality of the CPU 21 is detected by the WD timer 26, the WD timer 26 outputs an abnormality detection signal of a predetermined mode. The notification lamp 18 is connected to the CPU 21, and is turned on by the abnormality detection signal when the CPU 21 is in an abnormal state, for example.

The control unit 20 communicates various signals and data with the X-axis driving member 2, the Y-axis driving member 3, and the teaching pendant 14 via the input / output unit 24. A voice synthesis LSI (large-scale integrated circuit) 27 is connected to the input / output unit 24, and an output of the voice synthesis LSI 27 is generated as a voice by a speaker 29 via an amplifier 28.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the control device 4 of this embodiment. The operation of the control device 4 will be described below with reference to FIGS. Step a
In 1, the control device 4 detects whether an error has occurred in the robot 1 and the control device 4. The types and causes of errors that can occur in the robot 1 and the control device 4 are
The outline is as follows, and the error detection is performed as described below. It should be noted that the causes and detection methods of the following errors are merely examples, and do not limit the present invention.

1) Emergency stop state.

Cause: This is because when the operator operates the emergency stop button 19 to generate an emergency stop signal, or when an emergency stop signal is output from an external computer or the like connected to the control device 4. Occurs when entered. That is, when the operator confirms an abnormal operation of the robot 1 and makes an emergency stop, or when the computer monitoring the robot 1 detects an abnormality, the robot 1 is detected.
Is an emergency stop.

Detection method: The CPU 21 detects the emergency stop signal.

2) Backup voltage drop Cause: The backup voltage drops due to changes in the characteristics of the backup power supply 25.

Detection method: voltage drop detection unit 30 of CPU 21
Monitors the drop of the backup voltage, and the drop of the backup voltage above a predetermined level is detected.

3) Abnormality of CPU 21 Cause: This is caused by an abnormality in the hardware of the CPU 21.

Detection method: The WD timer 26 is the CPU 21
To detect an abnormality of the basic clock signal.

4) Communication error Cause: It is caused by the inclusion of noise in the communication path or data abnormality.

Detection method: The CPU 21 detects an error by checking the communication data according to a predetermined communication protocol.

5) Program error Cause: This occurs when an operation program input using the teaching pendant 14 or the like includes an instruction that does not satisfy various conditions for program creation.

Detecting method: The OS of the control device 4 stored in the ROM 23 operates as a monitor program and is detected by the CPU 21.

External notification items by voice for each of these various errors, for example, an external notification item such as "it is an emergency stop condition" corresponding to the occurrence of the emergency stop condition, are stored in the ROM 23 for each error type. Remembered

When an error is detected in step a1 and the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step a2, where CP
The type of error is confirmed by U21. The error that occurred is detected by the above-mentioned detection method, etc.
21 recognizes the type of error that has occurred according to this detection result. In step a3, the CPU 21 stores the external notification item corresponding to the type of error that has occurred in the ROM 23
Is output as voice data from the speaker, the voice data is converted into a voice signal by the voice synthesizer LSI 27 via the input / output unit 24, and the voice is generated from the speaker 29 via the amplifier 28, for example, "in an emergency stop state".

In this way, in this embodiment, when an error occurs in the robot 1 or the control device 4, the operator can confirm the error contents by listening to the synthetic voice generated from the speaker 29. Therefore, as described in the related art, even when an error occurs in the robot 1, the operator opens the lid of the housing 16 in which the control device 4 is stored, and the error code provided in the related art is provided. There is no need to check the display unit and error code correspondence table, and error checking work can be performed easily. Also,
As a result, it is possible to quickly respond to the error that has occurred.

In the above embodiment, the two-axis robot 1 has been described, but the present invention can be easily implemented in the case of a robot including the Z-axis.

As a modified example of this embodiment, all the errors are detected by hardware such as a gate circuit, and different address data is used in accordance with the detected error type by using an address generation circuit or the like. It is also possible to generate the voice data, and read the voice data stored in the address range of the ROM 23 having a predetermined length after this address according to the generated address and cause the speaker 29 to generate the voice data. In this embodiment, in addition to the effects described in the above embodiments, the stability of the error notification operation can be improved.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, the control means responds to the detection of the occurrence of the notification required state by the notification required state detection means and the notification item corresponding to the type of the generated notification required state. Was converted to sound and output.
As a result, if an error occurs in the industrial robot,
The operator can confirm the error content by listening to the voice output from the voice output means. Therefore, it is possible to easily perform the error confirmation work and quickly respond to the error that has occurred.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a control device 4 of an industrial robot 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram of the robot 1 of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the control device 4.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Robot 2 X-axis drive member 3 Y-axis drive member 4 Control device 18 Notification lamp 19 Emergency stop button 20 Control unit 21 CPU 22 RAM 23 ROM 25 Backup power supply 26 Watchdog timer 27 Voice synthesis LSI 30 Voltage drop detection unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A notification required state detecting means for detecting the occurrence of a state requiring notification to the outside in an industrial robot, and an outside notification item corresponding to the type of the notification required state is stored as voice data. Corresponding audio data storage means, audio output means for converting the audio data into sound and outputting it, and corresponding to the type of the notification required state that has occurred in response to the detection of the notification required state by the notification required state detection means. A control device for an industrial robot, comprising: a control unit that reads out the notification item from the voice data storage unit and outputs it from the voice output unit.