JPH10260712A - Operation program preparing method for robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for efficiently preparing the practical operation program of robot to an article having difference in the condition for left-handed or right-handed. SOLUTION: Based on the existent operation program for an article plane- symmetric to the article defined as an object by an operation program to be newly prepared, the processing conditions of planes in that existent operation program are exchanged, desides, teaching point data in the existent operation program are converted symmetrically on the left and right sides for each plane and the operating instruction of tool is changed with the exchange of plane processing order so that the operation program for the article having the difference in the condition for light-handed a right-handed at the level of completion similar to the existent operation program can be provided. The article is processed on a turn table and when preparing the program with the operating instruction of the turn table, procedures for changing teaching angle data related to the turn table operating instruction in the existent operation program while relating them with the change of plane processing order and for reversing the rotating direction of turn table are included.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for creating an operation program for a robot which performs various processes such as painting, welding, and cutting. The present invention relates to a method for efficiently creating an operation program for a symmetrical article.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a robot performs various processes such as painting, welding, or cutting on a three-dimensional article having a plurality of surfaces to be processed, a robot operation program is generally created for each type of article. There is a need to.

[0003] By the way, in the case of certain types of articles, there are cases where articles that are different in right and left sides, in other words, articles that are plane-symmetric with each other, are commercialized. As a general type of different article as described above, a unique operation program is created using a teaching pendant independently of each other.

[0004]

Independently creating an operation program for a plane-symmetrical article as described above involves first completing an operation program for one of the articles, and then starting with an article having a shape similar to that of the article. From the beginning, and the same teaching is performed twice, resulting in a very wasteful man-hour.

[0005] Many robots have a mirror symmetric conversion function (for example, Kobe Steel Ltd. painting robot K).
Although a function referred to as an operation manual PV-V1.1) of the RE320 series is provided as standard, this mirror symmetry conversion function mirrors the operation of the robot on one processing target surface with mirror symmetry (plane). This is a function that can be converted into a symmetric operation. By using this function, a plane symmetric operation program can be relatively easily created for one surface to be processed, but a plurality of three-dimensional articles can be created. When applied to an object where each of the surfaces is plane-symmetric, the end of the tool operation on one surface cannot be connected to the beginning of the next surface, causing a lot of waste in the tool operation or an operation program. In the case where an operation command of a turntable for mounting an article to be processed is included in the operation, the operation of the turntable and the operation of the robot may be totally wasteful, Creating a use behavior program is virtually impossible.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to provide a method capable of efficiently creating a practical operation program of a robot for an article having a left-right difference.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a method for preparing a robot operation program according to the present invention provides a method for preparing an object having a plurality of surfaces to be processed by using a tool for each surface. A motion program for a robot that performs the processing of (1), wherein the motion program to be newly created is based on an existing motion program for an article that is plane-symmetric with respect to the article targeted by the existing motion program. It is characterized by changing the processing order of the planes in the program, symmetrically converting the teaching point data in the existing operation program for each plane, and changing the operation instructions of the tool according to the rearrangement of the processing order of the planes. Attached.

Here, in the present invention, when the processing position of the article by the robot is on the turntable and the operation command of the turntable is included in the existing operation program, the present invention relates to the operation command. It is desirable to change the teaching angle data of the turntable in association with the change of the processing order of the surface, and to include a procedure of reversing the rotation direction data of the turntable in the same command.

According to the robot operation program creating method of the present invention, the robot operation for each surface is converted to the existing operation program in plane symmetry by the left-right symmetric conversion of the teaching point data for each surface of the existing operation program. Is done. In addition, by changing the processing order for a plurality of surfaces of an article, for example, the end of the tool on each surface is connected as much as possible to the start of the tool on the next surface to be processed, and the new operation program causes the tool to perform a waste operation. By changing the operation command of the tool according to the change of the processing order of the surfaces, the operation of the tool itself is also converted to the one related to the operation of the robot. It can be easily created with substantially the same degree of perfection as the existing operation program.

[0010] When the surfaces that are not connected in the processing order of the existing operation program are connected by changing the processing order of a plurality of surfaces of the article, interference between the robot and the object is avoided, and the connection between the surfaces is performed. At the end of the previous two faces of the existing motion program, at the position where the robot and the object do not interfere with each other, the same posture as the first teaching point of the rear face so that the robot can move the eyes smoothly Teach in advance. The traveling coordinate position is also set to be the same as the first teaching point on the rear surface.

In the case where an article is processed while being rotated on the turntable, the turntable teaching angle in the operation command of the turntable is changed in accordance with the above-mentioned replacement of the surface, and By reversing the rotation direction of the table, it is possible to secure the connection of the tool operation at the time of the transition from the surface to the surface, and it is possible to achieve the same operation and effect as described above. Further, when there is a deviation between the rotation center of the article and the longitudinal axis of the robot, by correcting the deviation after the left-right symmetric conversion of the teaching data, the same operation and effect as described above can be achieved.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the entire configuration of a device including a robot for which an operation program is created by applying the present invention. In this embodiment, an example of creating an operation program for a robot of a spray-up device will be described. .

In this example, an article to be processed, that is, an article W to be sprayed, is placed on the turntable 1 and approached to and separated from the turntable 1 by a traveling cart 2a disposed adjacent to the turntable 1. A spray gun 3 is mounted on a free robot 2, and the spray gun 3 is connected to a spray-up device 4 for supplying a resin thereto, thereby forming a so-called tool. The turntable 1, the robot 2 including the traveling vehicle 2a, and the spray-up device 4 are controlled by control signals output from a robot controller 5, and the robot controller 5 is created by a program conversion device 6 described below. The operation program transmitted is transmitted, and control signals for the above-described units are output in accordance with the operation program.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a system for creating an operation program used by the robot controller 5. In this example, a program conversion device 6 mainly composed of a personal computer is used as shown in FIG. A system configuration for creating an operation program for an article as shown in FIG. 3B based on an existing operation program for an article is adopted.

That is, the existing operation program Pr for applying a paint to each of the five surfaces except for the back surface of the article A whose perspective view is shown in FIG. 3A is obtained from the robot controller 5 by a floppy disk or the like. To the program conversion device 6 via a data storage device or a communication line. In the program conversion device 6, based on the existing operation program Pr, as shown in the perspective view of FIG. A new operation program Pn for applying a paint to each surface of the article B having the right and left difference is created. The new operation program Pn is sent to the robot controller 5 via a data storage device or a communication line and stored in the same manner as described above.

The operation program in this example is as follows.
It has a structure as shown in FIG. That is, the operation program includes, as shown in FIG. 4A, a movement instruction, a speed instruction, a turntable operation instruction, and a tool operation instruction.

The movement command includes a teaching point number, a teaching point interpolation method, a teaching point coordinate system, and teaching data as shown in FIG. 2B, and the teaching data further includes a robot teaching position [X, Y , Z], robot wrist posture [α, β, γ], running coordinate position [S], and turntable rotation angle [T]. That is, an 8-axis control robot is used.

The speed command indicates the speed at which the robot operates, the turntable operation command indicates a turntable rotation speed, a target angle and a rotation direction, and the tool operation command indicates the spray-up device 4 in FIG. ON / OFF operation and spray advance / delay time.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for creating an operation program Pn for an article having a shape different from right to left from the existing operation program Pr by the program conversion device 6. In this example, in the existing operation program Pr, the articles A shown in FIG. 3A are sprayed on five surfaces in the order indicated by the arrows in the figure, and each of the first to fourth surfaces is sprayed. At the time of spraying, the rotation angle of the turntable 1 is 0 ° on the first surface, and the second to fourth surfaces are sequentially rotated clockwise from 90 ° to 270 ° for each surface. .

In the transition from the fourth surface to the fifth surface, the rotation angle of the turntable 1 remains at 270 °. Further, a spray ON command to the spray-up device 4 is given at the start of spraying on the first surface, and a spray OFF command is given at the end of spraying on the fifth surface.
The article A is defined so as to be carried on the turntable 1 such that the first surface faces the robot 2 side.

In order to create an operation program Pn for the article B, which is different from the existing operation program Pr for the article A as described above, the processing order of each surface is first changed. In this example, of the surfaces of the article B, the surface corresponding to the third surface of the article A is replaced with the first 'surface, and similarly, the fourth surface → second ′ surface, the fifth surface → third ′.
Plane, the first plane → the 4 ′ plane, and the second plane → the 5 ′ plane. Explaining the reasoning about the change of the processing order of this surface, in this example, the article B is the first 'side shown in FIG.
It is assumed that the surface corresponding to the surface is carried on the turntable 1 so as to face the robot 2 side. Therefore, when changing the processing order of the surfaces, efficient painting work is performed in relation to the carrying posture of the article B. As described above, the third surface in the existing operation program Pr is replaced with the first 'surface.

In the existing operation program Pr, the fourth surface to be processed subsequent to the third surface is changed to the 2 'surface, and the process is shifted from the fourth surface without rotating the turntable 1. The fifth surface is replaced with the third surface, and the remaining first surface and second surface require only 90 ° of rotation of the turntable 1 after the completion of the processing of the fifth surface (third surface). One surface is replaced by a 4 'surface, and the subsequently processed second surface is replaced by a fifth surface. By changing the processing order of the surfaces, the number of changes to the existing operation program Pr is reduced as much as possible, and the efficiency of the spraying operation by the new operation program Pn is improved.

In order to avoid interference between the robot and articles during the transition from the 3 'plane to the 4' plane and to allow the robot to operate smoothly, the operation program Pr includes the fifth plane in advance. Finally (after spraying) Figure 3 (A)
At the position of LP, the same posture as the first teaching point on the first surface of Pr,
Teach at the same traveling coordinate position.

Next, the rotation angle of the turntable 1 during the processing of the 1'-th surface is determined based on the fact that the processing order of each surface has been changed and the attitude of the article B being carried onto the turntable 1. The angle of 180 ° on the third surface is changed to 0 °, and the turntable 1 during processing of the fourth surface is
Is changed from 0 ° to 180 °.

Further, the teaching point data on each surface is bilaterally symmetrically transformed in response to the fact that the shape of each surface changes to a plane-symmetric shape with respect to the article A. Specifically, the sign of the left-right axis coordinate position, the wrist left-right rotation angle, and the sign of the wrist twist angle are reversed. Thereafter, in order to correct the deviation between the robot longitudinal axis 8 and the article rotation center position 7, a value obtained by doubling the deviation a between the robot longitudinal axis 8 and the article rotation center position 7 shown in FIG. 6 is added to the left and right axis coordinate values. Further, the rotation direction of the turntable 1 is reversed from the clockwise direction to the counterclockwise direction in response to the left-right symmetric transformation of the teaching point. Thereby, the connection of the processing position by the tool at the time of the transition of the processing between the surfaces becomes equivalent to the existing operation program Pr.

Next, an ON command for the spray device 4 is added at the start of the processing of the first 'surface, and an OFF command is added at the end of the processing of the 5' surface. Finally, the creation of a new operation program Pn is completed by correcting the teaching point numbers so as to follow the order after the program change.

The operation program P thus obtained
n, the connection of the position of the tool (spray gun 3) and the operation of the turntable 1 at the time of the transition of the processing between the surfaces are the same as those in the existing operation program Pr. It is almost equal, and the degree of perfection in both programs is equal to each other.

The above-described program creation algorithm is converted into software in C language and incorporated in the program conversion device 6, and the operation program Pn of the article B in FIG. 3B is changed from the operation program Pr of the article A in FIG. When it was created, the required time was about 2 minutes.

On the other hand, as a comparative example, when the operation program of the article B was created from the beginning using the teaching pendant, the required time was about 200 minutes.
The method of changing the processing order of the surfaces is appropriately changed according to the loading posture of the article to be processed onto the turntable 1, the processing method of each surface, and the like so as to obtain the optimum operation. Obviously you can get it.

In the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which an article to be processed is placed on a turntable and each surface of the article is processed by both rotation of the turntable and operation of the robot. The present invention is not limited to this, and is also applicable to a case where an article fixedly arranged at a predetermined processing position without a turntable is subjected to processing on each surface of the article only by the operation of the robot. In this case, the change of the rotation angle and the reversal of the rotation direction on each surface of the turntable in the above-described embodiment are
What is necessary is just to change the teaching point data at the start of processing on each surface of the robot and to reverse the moving direction.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that the present invention is equally applicable to robots that perform processes such as welding and cutting in addition to the spraying process as described above. It is effective to apply.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, when creating an operation program of a robot for processing such as painting two kinds of articles symmetrical with each other, a teaching pendant is applied to only one of the articles. By creating an operation program using, it is possible to easily create an operation program for the other article based on the operation program, and it is possible to greatly reduce the number of steps for creating the operation program. Further, if the method of the present invention is softwareized so that an operation program can be created by a personal computer or the like, even if the robot language is not understood, an operation program for an article having a left-right difference based on an existing operation program can be easily created. It can be created.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an overall configuration of an apparatus including a robot for creating an operation program in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a system for creating a robot operation program according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an article (A) targeted by an existing operation program Pr and an article (B) targeted by a newly created operation program in a plane object relationship in the embodiment of the present invention. Figure

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a structure (A) of an operation program according to the embodiment of the present invention and a content (B) of a movement instruction thereof;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure of creating an operation program by the program conversion device 6 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a shift amount a between a robot longitudinal axis and an article rotation center position according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Turntable 2 Robot 3 Spray gun 4 Spray-up equipment 5 Robot controller 6 Program conversion device W Article 7 Article rotation center position 8 Robot longitudinal axis Pr Existing operation program Pn Newly created operation program

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for creating an operation program of a robot for performing a predetermined process for each surface using a tool on an article having a plurality of surfaces to be processed, wherein the operation program to be newly created is Based on an existing operation program for an object that is plane-symmetric to the target object, the processing order of the surfaces in the existing operation program is changed, and the teaching point data in the existing operation program is changed for each surface. A robot operation program creating method, wherein the operation command of the tool is changed in accordance with the change of the processing order of the surface. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing position of the article by the robot is on a turntable, and the existing operation program includes an operation command of the turntable. If so, the method includes changing the teaching angle data of the turntable according to the operation instruction in association with the change in the processing order of the surface, and reversing the rotation direction data of the turntable in the instruction. How to create a robot motion program. 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of correcting a shift amount after the left-right symmetric conversion of the teaching data when there is a shift between the rotation center of the article and the longitudinal axis of the robot. And a method of creating an operation program for a robot, which eliminates the need for position correction after program creation. 4. A method according to claim 2, wherein a teaching point for avoiding interference between the robot and the article and for smoothly operating the robot even when the processing order of the surfaces is changed is provided. A method for creating a robot operation program, which is inserted into an operation program.