JPS6249403A - Manipulator control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control correspondingly a motion of a manipulator through a manual control device even in the course of an autonomous operation by a program, by providing a program interpreting device, a manual control data generating device, and a control system superposing device. CONSTITUTION:When a manual 11 is operated, a corresponding manual control data is generated by a manual control data generating device 12. When making the manual device 11 and a manipulator 16 correspond to each other as desired, a concept of a generalized coordinate is led into a manual control data. On the other hand, a fixed and predetermined program 13 is inputted to a program interpreting device 14, converted to a data which is suitable for controlling the manipulator 16 therein and outputted. When both such data are superposed by a control system superposing device 15, a forced operation corresponding to the manual operation can be executed by applying an interruption to an operation sequence of the manipulator 16, or, on the contrary, a device system in which the manual operation is a main operation mode can be backed up by a program.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention is applicable to manipulators and masks for industrial robots.
The present invention relates to improvements in a manipulator control device used to cause a slave manipulator or the like to execute a given specific task.

<Prior Art> Manipulators that have the ability to perform tasks autonomously based on a program, such as manipulators for industrial robots in particular, have conventionally been moved only unilaterally by a control device according to a trajectory or torque generated according to the program. Met.

In addition, when the operator moves the mask manipulator, the movement of a slave manipulator installed at a separate spatial position is remotely controlled so that it corresponds to and follows the movement of the mask manipulator (this control mode is called tracking control). call)
Some mask slave manipulators had program control modes, but conventionally, when program control mode was selected with such mask slave manipulators, all other control modes were disabled. However, the slave manipulator was only moved unilaterally by the program.

<Problems to be solved by the invention> In a control device that controls a manipulator according to a given program to perform a specific task, as in the conventional example described above, the program is fixed, so sudden changes in the environment are not possible. There was a problem in that it was not possible to respond immediately to unexpected accidents.

For example, if the destination of the manipulator changes unexpectedly, or if an obstacle enters the manipulator's operating range, there is no way to deal with it effectively, and it may become impossible to perform the specified work. Or, accidents such as the manipulator colliding with an obstacle and being damaged could not be prevented. Furthermore, in cases where the obstacle to the manipulator was a human being, it could cause not only mechanical and economic losses, but literally fatal consequences.

In order to deal with this kind of danger, it has been proposed to incorporate an emergency stop device into such manipulator devices, but with these conventional devices, it is difficult to restart the program after it has been interrupted, or to recreate the program itself. It required unnecessary effort. This causes a significant reduction in the working efficiency of the manipulator.

The present invention has been made in view of these conventional circumstances.
Even when a program is executing an automatic or autonomous operation, if the operator performs an intentional operation via a mask manipulator, teaching pendant, or other suitable manual control device, the manipulator may The aim is to make it possible to control the movements of the

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a manipulator control device having the following configuration.

Interpret the program that moves the manipulator autonomously,
a program interpretation device that generates program control data corresponding to the program; a manual control data generation device that generates data that moves the manipulator in a predetermined relationship in accordance with the movement of the manual device moved by the operator; and: the program control described above. A manipulator control device comprising: a control method superimposition device for superimposing data and the manual control data;

<Operation> The program interpretation device in the above-described gist of the present invention sequentially fetches program instructions prepared in advance, and sends program control data for controlling the manipulator to the control method superimposition device.

The manual control data generation device generates manual control data that has an appropriate correspondence to move the manipulator in response to the operation of the manual device by the operator, and sends this to the control method superimposition device.

The control method superimposition device superimposes the above two data and controls the manipulator accordingly.

Of course, a known existing circuit system or mechanical system may be used for the part that actually drives the manipulator according to the above data.

In addition, the manual devices operated by the operator are a mask manipulator and a teaching pendant.

joy stick, mouse, keyboard, light
Any existing form such as a pen, tablet, etc. can be used, and it may be uni-lateral or pie-lateral.

In the case of unilaterals, the sequence using the water control device is generally as follows.

■Generate corresponding manual control data according to the movement of the manual device and send it to the control method superimposition device.

■Generate program control data from a given program by a program interpreter.

(2) Calculate the state on the way to the target state of the program's operation command and send it to the control method superimposition device.

■Calculate the movement state of the manipulator from both of the above data.

(Output the above calculation results to the manipulator and execute the operation.

(ΦReturn to ■ above.

On the other hand, in the case of pi lateral, it is as follows.

■Generate corresponding manual control data according to the movement of the manual device and send it to the control method superimposition device.

■Generate program control data from a given program by a program interpreter.

(■ Calculate the movement state of the manipulator from both of the above data.

■Send the above calculation results to the manipulator and have it execute the work.

(5) On the other hand, the above calculation result is inversely converted into data on the movement destination of the manual device, transmitted to the manual device, and fed back to the operator as a movement (◇Return to ◇ above).

<Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows a manipulator control device 10 as a principle configuration or a basic embodiment of the present invention.

As mentioned above, any existing form can be used, such as a mask manipulator, teaching pendant, joy stick, mouse, keyboard, light pen, tablet, etc., and even a unilateral device can be used. pie·
There is a manual device 11, which may be lateral, for the operator to move the manipulator I6 as intended.

When the manual device 11 is moved, manual control data corresponding to the movement is generated by the manual control data generation device 12.

At this time, in order to create a desired correspondence between the manual device and the manipulator 16, it is convenient to introduce the concept of generalized coordinates into the manual control data.

For example, if the manual device is a mask manipulator in an existing mask slave manipulator device, first calculate the necessary generalized coordinates regarding the joint angle or cJJfl:I force of the mask manipulator, and then calculate the necessary generalized coordinates based on this. It is most rational and simple to perform the necessary data conversion processing for driving the manipulator 18 configured as a slave manipulator.

In this case, generalized coordinates means that when a concept from a normal physical system is applied to the mask manipulator or slave manipulator discussed here, a known specific relationship is established for the mask manipulator or slave manipulator. It is a general representation of the space spanned by each physical quantity that defines the movement of a point within a certain space.

Specifically, it has position, attitude (rotation), speed, angular velocity, acceleration, angular acceleration, parallel force, and rotational force (torque)': J. However, it is not always necessary to include all of these physical quantities, and only the necessary ones may be selected.

For example, in a position-symmetric mask slave manipulator, we assume an orthogonal coordinate system with the origin at one point on the base on which the mask manipulator and slave manipulator are attached, respectively.
The position, posture, velocity, and angular velocity of each hand of the slave manipulator may be used as a generalized coordinate system.
In mask slave manipulators using the force reversal method or the force feedback method, the position, orientation, velocity, and joint angle set in the angular velocity bulator are also examples of generalized coordinates obtained by identity transformation.

Of course, depending on the form or type of manual device used, generalized coordinate groups with appropriate correspondence can be obtained. In other words, even if the mechanical system is different from that of the manipulator 16, or the manual device ll has a different position, posture, or range of movement, if generalized coordinates are used, an appropriate correspondence between them can be achieved using a predetermined transformation. This can be done relatively easily based on data.

On the other hand, the fixed and predetermined program 13 is input to a program interpreter 14, where it is converted into data suitable for controlling the manipulator 1B and output. This program control data also
As above, it is desirable to express the -film coordinates.

If these two data are superimposed by the control method superimposition device 15, the macomulator 1 operating according to the program
It is now possible to interrupt the relevant operation sequence in step 6 to perform a forced action corresponding to manual operation in step 1, or conversely, support can be provided by a program in a device system whose main operation mode is manual operation. It becomes like this.

The present invention can be used as a control device that can be manually controlled as a manipulator control device for an industrial robot, which has hitherto been controlled only by a program, and conversely, it can be used as a control device for a mask slave manipulator, which has hitherto been based on follow-up control. It can also be a control device that adds a program support function to the device.

FIG. 2 shows a more practically constructed embodiment of the invention, representing the latter case.

In addition to the idea of the present invention, this embodiment provides a control mode in which both ratio type control and incremental type control as other control modes can be superimposed on the normal follow-up type control mode, and a control mode which will be described later. It also includes a constraint operation function.

In this embodiment, the manual device 11 referred to in the gist of the present invention is the mask manipulator 11 in the existing mask slave manipulator device 17.

When the mask manipulator 11 is of a link type, the mask manipulator state detection device 18 for detecting the state of the mask manipulator may be constituted by a known and existing suitable angle detector attached to each joint. Can be done.

From the angle information of each joint output from the mask/manipulator state detection device 18, the values of the six degrees of freedom in the orthogonal coordinate system of the hand of the mask/manipulator, that is, the coordinates of X, Y, and Z, and the coordinates around each axis are determined. The mask/manipulator film coordinate generation device 12-1 that calculates each rotation angle A, B, and C forms a part of the manual control data generation device 12 referred to in the present invention in FIG. It can be configured with a calculator, etc.

On the other hand, the generalized coordinates JT
Y, Z; A, B, Ci,: On the slave manipulator side, the slave manipulator-like jE inverse conversion device 20 converts the slave manipulator so that the hand of the slave manipulator assumes the corresponding position and posture. Calculate the value of each joint angle of the manipulator.

The slave manipulator drive device 21, which is constructed using known and existing technology and uses the thus obtained joint angle values as target values, uses an appropriate actuator (not shown) attached to each joint of the slave manipulator 16. ,
For example, an electric motor is driven and controlled to achieve the target value.

The control symbol string input device 22 inputs commands to each partial device in symbols, including overall control such as starting and stopping the tree mask slave manipulator 17.

Under such a configuration, the illustrated mask slave
The manipulator 17 includes a program interpretation device 1 that interprets the program 13 and generates data in a suitable form to be superimposed on the follow-up control via the control method superimposition device 15.
4 is included.

Therefore, as mentioned above, while operating the slave manipulator 16 according to this program 13, manual commands from the operator can be forcibly added when necessary, and conversely, when the slave manipulator is operating with follow-up control as the basic mode. can receive program support.

The device 15 continues to increase or decrease the value of the corresponding degree of freedom at a corresponding constant speed while the input signal from each switch of the ratio δ control command input device 23 continues. The speed of increase/decrease can be set or changed using a switch provided in the ratio δ control command input device 23 or a control symbol string input device 22.

Similarly, a group of switches are provided that can instruct the number of mask slaves shown in the figure to be increased or decreased.

Each time a specific switch provided in the incremental control command input device 24 is operated, the control method superimposition device 15 changes the value of the degree of freedom corresponding to this switch by a corresponding fixed amount. Increase or decrease. As a result, the value of any degree of freedom of the membrane coordinates increases or decreases by a certain amount corresponding to the selection operation of the switch group. It can be set and changed using the control symbol string input box 5122.

In this embodiment, the mask manipulator 11 can also be controlled to follow from the slave manipulator 16 side. In other words, the slave manipulator state detection device 25 that detects the state of the slave manipulator is composed of a known and existing suitable angle detector attached to each joint of the slave manipulator 16, as in the case for the mask manipulator described above. From the angle information of each joint output from the slave manipulator state detection device 25, the values of the six degrees of freedom in the orthogonal coordinate system of the hand of the slave manipulator 16, that is, each of X, Y, and Z, can be determined. The coordinates and the rotation angles A, B, and C around each axis are calculated by the slave manipulator/film coordinate generation device 26.

On the other hand, regarding the generalized coordinate group X, Y, Z;・Manipulator 11
The value of each joint angle of the mask manipulator 11 is calculated so that the hand of the mask manipulator 11 assumes the corresponding position and posture.

The master manipulator drive device 28, which is constructed using known existing technology and uses the thus obtained joint angle values as target values, uses appropriate actuators (not shown) attached to each joint of the master manipulator 11. , for example, to drive and control an electric motor to achieve the target value.

In the above generalized coordinate generation device 1'#2B, in addition to calculating the value of the degrees of freedom of the hole, it may be possible to perform calculations regarding a smaller number of degrees of freedom depending on the case. However, conversely, torque information etc. can also be added.

For example, the torque generated when the slave manipulator tries to follow the movement of the mask manipulator is calculated as torque information by the generalized coordinate generation device 2B, and from this, the joint force of the mask manipulator is calculated by the mask manipulator state inversion device 27. It is conceivable to use this force as a target value and control an appropriate actuator (not shown) using the mask manipulator drive device 28. Furthermore, in special cases, it is possible to apply the components described above only to the joint force transmission mechanism.

In the illustrated case, a mask manipulator operation detection device 28 is further provided to detect whether or not the operator is operating the mask manipulator 11, and the detection signal is inputted to the data processing section 18. .

This is to apply braking to the mask manipulator by sending a braking signal from the data processing unit 18 so that the mask manipulator is not moved by external force after the operator releases his/her hand from the mask manipulator 11. .

However, when the conversion data generation device 12-2 provided in the data processing unit ls is instructed to generate data (the command unit is not shown), it generates the generalized coordinates of the mask manipulator and the slave data at that time. - The desired correspondence between the generalized coordinates of the manipulator generates data (coordinate transformation data).

In the coordinate system mapping device 12-3 that receives this, the generalized coordinates of the mask manipulator are converted to those of the slave manipulator, and preferably vice versa.

Therefore, these conversion data generation device 12-2 and coordinate system correspondence device 12-3 are the manual control devices shown in FIG. It forms part of the data generation device l12.

In such a case, the various control methods described above are superimposed on this converted data. However, the superposition of the control method is based on the generalized coordinates of the mask manipulator 11, the slave
It may be done at any of the generalized coordinates of the manipulator 16, or the ratio control command input device 23 and the incremental control command input device 24 may be provided separately for the mask manipulator side and the slave manipulator side.

However, in general, it is sufficient that these command devices 23 and 24 are provided on either the mask manipulator side or the slave manipulator side.

In this embodiment, it is also possible to set constraint operating conditions.

Constraint motion refers to the motion of the slave manipulator 1B expressed in generalized coordinates as described above, such as fixing the value of a specified degree of freedom to a predetermined value or changing the value between it and the value of another degree of freedom. Say something about maintaining a particular relationship.

For example, when the hand of a slave manipulator is expressed in generalized coordinates in a three-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system, it is possible to fix only the rotation angle around the X axis to a constant value, or to make the values of the X and Y coordinates match. It is to limit it only to related movements.

In the mask slave manipulator device 17 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, each required restraint motion can be given as data in an appropriate symbol string through the restraint motion command input device 32. Further, the restraint motion selection input device 33 is for instructing which restraint motion to select.

The constraint motion given in this way is transmitted from the constraint motion command data and the slave manipulator 16 to the circuit 25.
, 28 to generate the coordinate values to be constrained based on the values of the generalized coordinates, and send these to the control method superimposition device 15.

In addition, such a restraining operation is performed by the slave manipulator I.
Instead of or in addition to 8, the mask manipulator 11 is
It can also be given to Note that the aforementioned control symbol string input device 22 can also be used as the constraint motion command input device 32.

The superimposition of the various control methods described above can also be commanded from the operator's hand, for example, by a group of control command switches provided at appropriate positions on the grip portion of the mask manipulator 11. Of course, if this is done, the workability will be extremely high.

As described above in detail, the technical idea of the present invention is that, as seen in the summary structure and also in the structure of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the program control mode and manual control mode Therefore, in principle, it has nothing to do with the superimposition or constraint operation of control methods other than the program control mode or manual mode, and these are by no means limiting, however. The mask slave manipulator device configuration as shown in FIG. It is clear that the invention can be widely applied not only to equipment but also to various industrial robots, which in principle operate autonomously through program control.

<Effects of the Invention> According to the present invention, even when the manipulator is executing an autonomous operation under program control, an operation to avoid colliding with an obstacle can be superimposed on the manipulator via a manual device. I can do it.

For example, if there is a robot that uses a program to arrange parts carried by a belt conveyor onto pallets, the robot will be able to run the program even if a human enters the trajectory of the robot's manipulator. If the invention is applied, a manual device can be used to avoid the person, and serious accidents can be prevented.

Or, while bringing a mask slave manipulator device to a disaster site and using program control to retrieve thrown out boxes of bottles one by one,
If a rock or the like suddenly falls into the operating range of the slave manipulator, manually operate the mask manipulator to temporarily change the trajectory of the slave manipulator to avoid collision with the rock. I can also do things.

In these cases, once the obstacle is out of the operating range of the manipulator, the work can be continued under normal program control. There is no need to rewrite the program or start over from the beginning.

Furthermore, it is also possible to interrupt the operation by stopping the manual device while the program is executing an autonomous operation. For example, the program can set the target position where the parts gripped by the manipulator should be placed during assembly work. If the position differs from the original position, the autonomous operation can be temporarily interrupted by stopping the movement of the mask manipulator.

Furthermore, while a programmed work is being executed, a new action that was not considered when the program was created can be taught via a manual device, and the results can be used as a modified program.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a basic embodiment of a manipulator control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment to which the present invention is more specifically applied. In the figure, 11 is a manual device such as a mask manipulator, 1
2 is a manual control data generation device, 12-1 is a generalized coordinate generation device, 12-2 is a conversion data generation device, 12-3 is a coordinate system compatible material device, 13 is a program, 14 is a program control data generation device, 15 is a control method superimposition device, IB
17 is a mask/slave manipulator installation command input device; 32 is a constraint motion command input device; 33 is a constraint motion selection input device;
It is.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Interpreting a program to autonomously move a manipulator,
a program interpretation device that generates program control data corresponding to the program; a manual control data generation device that generates data that moves the manipulator in a predetermined relationship in accordance with the movement of the manual device moved by the operator; A manipulator control device comprising: a control method superimposition device for superimposing data and the manual control data;