JPH08318488A - Robot hand - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To smoothly and surely take out a work to be held by projecting a sucking body outward of a finger tip part of each finger forming body in the holding releasing position to suck the work to be held, and retracting the sucking body inward of the finger tip part of each finger forming body in the unchanged state. CONSTITUTION: A supporting member 2 is approaches the harvesting cage side, a sucking nozzle N projected outward of a finger forming body in the holding release condition is abutted on the target detected by a first sensor, e.g. the highest cucumber with each side part adjacent to each other, and the cucumber is sucked by the suction of a third pump. The compressed air is fed from a second pump 13 into a cylinder chamber 7, and a supporting shaft 6 is moved inward of the supporting member 2 to lift the cucumber inward of the finger tip of the finger forming body 1. When the first sensor 16 detects that the cucumber is lifted, the compressed air is fed from the first pump 3 to the finger forming body 1, the finger forming body 1 is bent to the belly side, the cucumber is held, and the supporting member 2 is separated from the harvesting cage side to take out one cucumber.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention In the present invention, a plurality of finger formations are dispersed around a support member, each base end portion is supported by the support member, and each finger formation body is bent to the abdomen side. The present invention relates to a robot hand in which the posture of each finger forming body can be freely switched between a grasping posture and a grasp releasing posture in which the finger is extended and returned to the back side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the above-mentioned robot hand, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-203287, only a finger-formed body is used to hold an object to be grasped. Then, when holding the grasped object, each finger formation is kept open, positioned on both sides of the grasped object, and then bent toward the abdomen.

[0003]

For example, in the case of grasping and taking out one cucumber one by one from among a large number of laminated cucumbers, the adjacent cucumbers of the uppermost layer are in contact with each other at both sides and the surface of the uppermost layer is contacted. In the above conventional configuration, when the finger formations in the opened state are positioned on both sides of the cucumber, the tip of the finger formation hits the adjacent cucumber, and Was difficult to position on both sides, and it was troublesome to grip.

The object of the present invention is, as described above, even in the case where the objects to be grasped such as adjacent cucumbers in the uppermost layer are in contact with each other on both sides and the surface of the uppermost layer is substantially flat. The object is to enable the grasped object to be taken out smoothly and surely.

[0005]

According to a characteristic configuration of the invention according to claim 1, a plurality of finger forming bodies are dispersedly arranged around a supporting member, and each base end portion is supported by the supporting member. An adsorbent that is configured to be switchable between the grasping posture in which the forming body is bent to the abdominal side and the grasping releasing posture in which the forming body is returned and extended to the back side so that the fingers can be adsorbed to and released from the grasped object. To
The support member is supported by the support member via the support shaft so as to be able to move toward and away from the object to be grasped, and the suction body can be attracted to the object to be grasped outward than the fingertip portion of each finger formation body in the grip release posture. Switch between a protruding state in which the object is grasped and a retracted state in which the object to be grasped by each finger formation body can be grasped by the finger formation body inwardly of the fingertip portion. It is configured freely.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, a control means for driving and controlling the suction body and each finger forming body is provided, and the suction body sucks the object to be grasped. In releasing the gripping target object into the gripping target object accommodating part from the state where each finger forming part grips the gripping target object, each finger forming part grips the gripping target object at a position separated from the gripping target object accommodating part. The gripping of the object is released, the suction body projects outward from the fingertip portion of each finger forming body in the grip release posture, and the gripping target object is positioned at a predetermined position of the gripping target object accommodating section, It is configured such that the control means can drive and control the suction body and each finger forming body so as to release the suction of the body to the grasped object.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the first or second aspect, the finger forming body is formed of a cylindrical soft material having an open base end and a closed free end. ,
A gripping posture in which the opening of the finger forming body is connected to a fluid supply unit, and the finger forming body is bent to the abdomen side by the pressure of the fluid supplied from the fluid supply unit through the opening, It is configured such that the posture of each finger forming body can be switched between the grasping release posture in which the fluid is discharged from the opening and is returned and extended to the back side.

[0008]

According to the structure of claim 1, for example, in the case where one cucumber is picked up from a large number of stacked cucumbers one by one and the cucumbers adjacent to each other in the uppermost layer contact each other at both sides, When the surfaces are substantially flat, the adsorbents are made to project outward from the fingertips of the finger forming bodies in the grip release posture and adsorbed on the target cucumber, and the adsorbents are kept adsorbed as such. The cucumber can be grasped by each finger formation after being retracted inward of the fingertips of the finger formation, and it is possible to avoid each finger formation hitting the adjacent cucumber during grasping. .

According to the constitution of claim 2, in addition to the action of the constitution of claim 1, the following action can be exerted.

That is, in releasing the cucumber from the state in which the adsorbent adsorbs to the cucumber and each finger forming body holds the cucumber, the cucumber is first released to the harvest basket which is an example of the grasped object storage section. The forming body releases the grip of the cucumber at a position separated from the harvest basket. Then, the adsorbent protrudes outward from the fingertips of the finger forming bodies in the grip release posture, positions the cucumber at a predetermined position in the harvest basket, and releases the adsorption of the adsorbent on the cucumber. Since the cucumbers are released to the harvest basket in this way, when arranging the cucumbers one by one in the harvest basket one after another, place them without touching the fingertips on the preceding cucumbers already stored. You can

According to the third aspect of the invention, in addition to the action of the first or second aspect of the invention, the finger forming body is formed of a cylindrical soft material having an open base end and a closed free end. Therefore, for example, when picking vegetables and fruits one by one from the harvest basket, or when picking them up and placing them side by side on another harvest basket one by one in order, It can be taken out and placed without damaging fruits and fruits.

[0012]

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the invention, in the case where the gripping objects are picked up one by one from among a large number of stacked gripping objects, the gripping objects adjacent to each other in the uppermost layer are adjacent to each other. Even if both sides are in contact with each other and the uppermost surface is substantially flat, the object to be grasped can be taken out smoothly and reliably.

According to the structure of claim 2, in addition to the effect of the structure of claim 1, the gripping target objects taken out as described above are adjacent to the gripping target object accommodating portion one by one with their side portions in contact with each other. When arranging, the object to be grasped can be smoothly and reliably arranged and accommodated.

According to the structure of claim 3, in addition to the effect of the above-mentioned structure of claim 1 or 2, in the case where picked-up objects such as vegetables and fruits that are easily scratched are taken out one by one from the storage part, This is particularly advantageous when the side portions are brought into contact with the other gripping object storage portions one by one in order and are then adjacently arranged after being taken out.

[0015]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a pipe-shaped support arm 25 in the support device A.
Shows a robot hand suspended and supported so that its position can be freely changed. This robot hand is used to sort cucumbers (an example of objects to be grabbed) harvested in a harvesting basket into harvest baskets (an example of an object to be grabbed object) according to grades such as size. A pair of finger forming bodies 1 formed of an elongated tubular rubber material (an example of a soft material) having a base end portion opened and a free end portion closed, is supported by a support member 2 corresponding to a palm. is there.

In the supporting device A, a slide member 24 is slidably moved left and right on a movable frame 23 erected on a base 26 so as to be slidable forward and backward, and the support arm 25 is slidable vertically by the slide member 24. The movable frame 23, the slide member 24, and the support arm 25 are supported so that the robot hand can approach and separate from the harvest basket.
A drive device (not shown) for driving the is provided. The base 26 is provided with an image pickup type first sensor 27 for detecting the stacked state of a large number of cucumbers harvested in the harvest basket, and the cucumbers at the highest position can be taken out in order. .

As shown in FIG. 2, the finger-formed body 1 has a ring-shaped clip in which the base end portion on the side of the opening 1a is externally fitted to the round boss 11 on the protruding end portion side of the support member 2. It is fixed at 5. Then, the distal end of the hose H is communicatively connected to the through hole for air circulation formed in the round boss 11 from the back side of the round boss 11, and the first pump 3 (an example of a fluid supply unit) is connected to the base end of the hose H. And an air outlet (not shown) which can be opened and closed freely is connected to the middle part of the hose H, and the middle part of the finger formation 1 is placed on the back side of the finger formation 1 with the height dimension of the folds. A gripping posture in which each finger formation 1 is bent to the abdominal side by the supply and discharge of the pressurized air from the first pump 3 and a grip that is restored and extended to the back side by forming the bellows 18 that is higher than that (see FIG. 3). The posture of each finger formation 1 can be switched between the releasing posture and the releasing posture.

A hollow support for supporting a bellows-shaped adsorption nozzle N (an example of an adsorbent) capable of adsorbing cucumber at its tip by forming a through hole from the base end side to the tip end side in the support member 2. Set the shaft 6 so that the suction nozzle N faces the fingertip side.
The base end side is inserted into the through hole, and the tip of the through hole is shielded from the outside air by the seal ring 7. Then, the intermediate portion of the support shaft 6 is bulged to form the piston 9, while the diameter of the through hole is reduced on the base end side of the support member 2 so that the tip end side portion of the support member 2 is smaller than the reduced diameter portion. The second pump 1 is formed in the air supply / discharge port 10 formed in the chamber 8 and formed on the tip side of the support member 2.
3 are connected in communication, and the seal ring 7 on the tip side of the support member 2 is connected.
A spring 14 provided between the support shaft 6 and the suction nozzle N biases the support shaft 6 in a direction in which the suction nozzle N projects outward from the tip end portions of both finger forming bodies 1 to supply and exhaust air to and from the cylinder chamber 8. By supplying and discharging pressurized air from the mouth 10, the suction nozzle N is
To the cucumber so that it can be adsorbed to cucumbers. In the protruding state in which the finger formations of the finger formations 1 are in an outwardly released state, and to the position where the cucumbers can be grasped by the finger formations 1 while adsorbed to the cucumber. It is configured to be freely switchable to a retracted state in which the fingertip portion is retracted inward.

The hollow portion of the support shaft 6 communicates with the negative pressure forming space in the suction nozzle N, and the air in the negative pressure forming space in the suction nozzle N is not shown in the drawing from the hollow portion of the support shaft 6. The third pump is configured to be sucked and adsorbed on cucumber, and the adsorption action can be released by discharging air from an air supply / exhaust port (not shown) communicating with the hollow portion of the support shaft 6. .

Then, the second sensor 16 with a potentiometer for detecting the contact of the cucumber is attached to each finger forming body 1.
Is supported in a cantilever shape in the lateral inward direction by the fingertips of the above, and a control device 21 (an example of a control means) capable of driving and controlling the first pump 3 based on the detection result of the second sensor 16 is provided, and suction is performed. The nozzle N lifts a certain amount of the object to be grasped (to a position where the finger forming body 1 can grasp the cucumber), and then the finger forming body 1 is bent to the abdomen side so that the cucumber can be grasped.

The control device 21 is also configured to be able to control the drive device, the second pump 13, and the third pump, and the robot hand having the above-mentioned configuration detects the detection results of the first sensor 27 and the second sensor 16. Execution of the control of the control device 21 based on the operation causes the following operation.

[1] The support member 2 is close to the side of the harvest basket,
The suction nozzle N protruding to the outside of the finger body 1 in the grip release posture is the target 1 detected by the first sensor 27.
Touch the cucumber on the book. The third pump (not shown) sucks the air in the negative pressure forming space in the suction nozzle N and the suction nozzle N adsorbs the cucumber (FIG. 4A).

[2] Pressurized air is supplied from the second pump 13 into the cylinder chamber 8 to cause the piston 9 to move to the spring 14
The cucumber is pushed to the side opposite to the fingertip side against the biasing force of, and the support shaft 6 is moved inward of the support member 2 to lift the cucumber inward of the fingertip portion of the finger formation 1.

[3] When the first sensor 16 detects that the cucumber has been lifted inward of the finger forming body 1, the first
Pressurized air is supplied from the pump 3 to the finger forming body 1, the finger forming body 1 bends to the abdominal side, and holds the cucumber (FIG. 4).
(B)). In this state, the support member 2 is separated from the harvest basket side and one cucumber is taken out.

When the cucumbers are taken out as described above, and when the cucumbers are picked up one by one from among the many stacked cucumbers, the cucumbers adjacent to each other in the uppermost layer are in contact with each other at their both sides. Even when the surfaces of the above are substantially flat, it is possible to prevent each finger formation 1 from hitting an adjacent cucumber during gripping.

[4] When the finger formation 1 is located above a predetermined position in the harvest basket to be newly accommodated, the pressurized air in the finger formation 1 is discharged, and the finger formation 1 releases the grip. . After the gripping is released, the pressurized air in the cylinder chamber 8 is discharged from the air supply / discharge port 10, the elastic restoring force of the spring 14 causes the support shaft 6 to project outward from the fingertip, and the side portion of the cucumber is removed. The cucumber is placed so that it comes into contact with the side of the previously stored cucumber. The air in the suction nozzle N is discharged from the air discharge port communicating with the support shaft 6 to release the suction of the cucumber.

Since the cucumbers are arranged and housed as described above, when the cucumbers are arranged one after another in the harvest basket one by one in contact with the side portions, the finger formations 1 do not hit the housed preceding cucumbers. Can be placed.

[Other Embodiments] As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, a piston 9 is formed at the base end of the support shaft 6, and the piston 9 is urged toward the base end of the cylinder chamber 8. By providing a spring 19 inside the cylinder chamber 8 to supply and discharge pressurized air from the base end side of the support member 2 to the cylinder chamber 8, the suction nozzle N is closely spaced from the cucumber, and the suction nozzle N
May be configured to be attracted to the object to be grasped. A hollow portion is formed in the support shaft 6 so as to communicate with the negative pressure forming space in the suction nozzle N, and the hollow portion is opened to the outside air only when the piston 9 is positioned at the end stroke on the tip side of the support member 2. A communication hole 12 that communicates with the support member 2 is formed. FIG. 5A shows a state in which the piston 9 is located at the end stroke on the tip side of the support member 2 and the suction nozzle N is in contact with the cucumber. The hollow portion communicates with the communication hole 12, and when the support member 2 is slightly lowered from this state, the bellows of the suction nozzle N contracts and the air in the negative pressure forming space of the suction nozzle N is discharged to the outside. To be done. Then, when the air in the cylinder chamber 8 is discharged, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the elastic restoring force of the spring 19 works and the suction nozzle N lifts the cucumber to a predetermined position. As shown in the figure, the rocking bar 19 that rocks by the contact of the cucumber is
The second sensor 16 may be configured by suspending and supporting the supporting member 2 and providing a potentiometer at the swinging base end portion.

The finger forming body 1 may be formed of another soft material such as vinyl urethane instead of the rubber material. The finger forming body 1 is not limited to one made of a soft material, and the finger forming body 1 may be made of, for example, a plurality of metal members or a hard resin material that are bendably connected to each other.

The object to be grasped may be vegetables or fruits other than cucumber, or may be something other than food.

Three or more finger-formed bodies 1 may be provided.
Further, a grip sensor for detecting a grip force may be provided on the abdomen of the finger body 1.

Instead of the pressurized air, the posture of the finger forming body 1 may be switched with a liquid such as pressurized hydraulic oil.

Incidentally, reference numerals are written in the claims for convenience of comparison with the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the configuration of the attached drawings by the entry.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a robot hand and its supporting device.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional front view of the robot hand.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a finger formation body.

FIG. 4A is a vertical cross-sectional front view showing a state in which an adsorbent is adsorbed on a gripping target.

FIG. 5 (a) Vertical sectional view of another embodiment (b) Vertical sectional front view of another embodiment

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Finger forming body 1a Opening 2 Support member 3 Fluid supply part 6 Support shaft 21 Control means N Adsorbent

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yuichi Yamazaki 64 Ishizukitamachi, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture Kubota Sakai Factory Co., Ltd. (72) Kenichi Iwami 64 Ishizukitamachi, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture Kubota Sakai Manufacturing Co., Ltd. In-house

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of finger formations (1) are dispersedly arranged around a support member (2), and each base end portion is provided with the support member (2).
The finger formation body (1) is configured to be switchable between a gripping posture in which the finger formation body (1) is bent to the abdomen side and a grip release posture in which the finger formation body (1) is returned and extended to the back side. The support shaft (6) is provided with an adsorbent (N) that can be adsorbed on and released from an object to be grasped.
Each finger forming body (1) in the grip release posture is supported by the supporting member (2) via the support member (2) so as to be able to move toward and away from the object to be grasped, and the adsorption body (N) can be adsorbed to the object to be grasped. And a protruding state in which the object to be grasped is grasped by the finger formation body (1) while being protruded to the outside of the fingertip portion of the fingertip portion. A robot hand that can be switched between a retired state and a retired side. 2. A control means (21) for driving and controlling the suction body (N) and each finger forming body (1) is provided, and the suction body (N) sticks to an object to be gripped and each finger. Formed body (1)
When releasing the grasping target from the state in which the grasping target grasps the grasping target to the grasping target accommodation unit, each finger forming body (1)
The gripping of the gripping target is released at a position separated from the gripping target accommodating portion, and the suction body N projects outward from the fingertip portion of each finger forming body (1) in the grip releasing posture,
Position the object to be grasped at a predetermined position in the object to be grasped part,
The control means (21) is configured to be able to drive-control the suction body (N) and each finger forming body (1) so as to release the suction body (N) from the suction target. 1
The described robot hand. 3. The finger forming body (1) is formed of a cylindrical soft material having a base end portion opened and a free end portion closed, and the opening (1a) of the finger formation body (1) is made of a fluid. A gripping posture in which each finger formation (1) is bent to the abdomen side by the pressure of the fluid from the fluid supply part (3) which is connected to the supply part (3) and is supplied through the opening part (1a). And the opening (1
The robot hand according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the posture of each finger forming body (1) can be switched between a grasp releasing posture in which the fluid is discharged from a) and is extended back to the back side.