KR20230112359A - Multi-joint robot having vision inspection fuction - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is an articulated robot including a camera for photographing a subject transported by a transport means, wherein the head part is provided at a head part and a distal end where the camera is provided, and an articulated robot arm having a degree of freedom so that the camera can photograph the subject in two or more different directions, and a control unit for controlling the operation of the robot arm according to two or more preset postures and determining whether the inspected object is good or bad based on an image of the inspected object. provides

Description

Multi-joint robot with vision inspection function {MULTI-JOINT ROBOT HAVING VISION INSPECTION FUCTION}

The present invention relates to an articulated robot, and more particularly, to an articulated robot having a vision inspection function for inspecting whether an inspected object is good or not.

In general, a robot is a machine that automatically processes or operates a given task by its own ability, and its application fields are very diverse, such as industrial, medical, space, and submarine use.

Recently, with the establishment of factory automation facilities and high-speed and mass production systems for products, articulated robots performing various motions are being used for various purposes.

On the other hand, in the related art, by using an image taken using a camera fixedly installed on a conveyor for transporting a product, images of a subject and a good product are compared with each other to determine whether the inspected object, which is the subject, is normal.

However, there is a limit to flatly determining whether an inspected object is a good product only with a two-dimensional image of the inspected object.

This is because, as consumers' tastes become more diversified, the shapes of products automatically produced in factory automation equipment become more and more complicated, and it is necessary to check the inspected object from various directions to accurately determine whether it is a good product or not.

In order to solve this problem, a technique for an articulated robot for determining whether an inspected object is good or not is proposed.

KR 10-1161056 B1

An object of the present invention is to provide an articulated robot with a vision inspection function for accurately determining whether or not an inspected object is good or bad based on images taken from various directions.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is an articulated robot including a camera that photographs an object to be inspected transported by a transport means, wherein the head part is provided at a head part provided with the camera, and the head part is provided at the distal end, and the camera has a degree of freedom so that the inspected object can be photographed in two or more different directions. An articulated robot arm having a degree of freedom, and a control unit that controls the operation of the robot arm according to two or more preset postures and determines whether the inspected object is good or bad based on an image of the inspected object. An articulated robot with vision inspection function is provided.

According to an embodiment, the head unit may further include a chucking unit capable of holding the inspected object, and the control unit may hold the inspected object determined to be defective and classify the inspected object into adjacent sorting boxes.

According to an embodiment, the test subject is an electric component, and the control unit determines whether wires having different colors in the inspected object match, the number of crossings of wires having different colors in the inspected object, or whether one wire is disconnected in the inspected object, to determine whether the corresponding inspected object is good or not, using images obtained by photographing the inspected object in two or more different directions.

According to an embodiment, the inspected object is an electrical component, and the control unit determines whether a plurality of parts are at preset positions in the inspected object or whether at least one of the plurality of parts is missing from the inspected object, using images obtained by photographing the inspected object in two or more different directions, to determine whether the corresponding inspected object is good or not.

According to an embodiment, the head unit further includes a chucking unit capable of gripping the object to be inspected, and the control unit may hold the object to be inspected with the chucking unit, rotate the corresponding object to be inspected, and retest the object, when a direction of the plurality of parts is different from a preset direction even though all of the plurality of parts are present in the object to be inspected.

According to one embodiment, the robot arm is coupled to one surface, and a transport unit traveling along a pre-prepared guide rail may be further included.

According to an embodiment, the transfer unit may travel while being supported by the guide rail on the guide rail, or may run while hanging from the rail.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to accurately determine whether or not the inspected object is a good product based on images taken from various directions.

1 is a view showing the appearance of an articulated robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a view showing a transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 and 4 are diagrams showing a state in which an articulated robot according to an embodiment of the present invention inspects an object to be inspected.

Hereinafter, the embodiments disclosed in this specification will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the same or similar elements are given the same reference numerals regardless of reference numerals, and redundant description thereof will be omitted. The suffixes "module" and "unit" for components used in the following description are given or used together in consideration of ease of writing the specification, and do not have meanings or roles that are distinct from each other by themselves. In addition, in describing the embodiments disclosed in this specification, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known technology may obscure the gist of the embodiment disclosed in this specification, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, the accompanying drawings are only for easy understanding of the embodiments disclosed in this specification, and the technical idea disclosed in this specification is not limited by the accompanying drawings, and all changes included in the spirit and technical scope of the present invention It should be understood to include equivalents or substitutes.

It should be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “connected” to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, but other elements may exist in the middle. On the other hand, when an element is referred to as “directly connected” or “directly connected” to another element, it should be understood that no other element exists in the middle.

Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

In this specification, the terms "comprise" or "having" are intended to designate that a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification exists, but it should be understood that the presence or addition of one or more other features or numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof is not excluded in advance.

1 is a view showing the appearance of an articulated robot according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a view showing a transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are an articulated robot according to an embodiment of the present invention It is a diagram showing a state of inspecting a subject.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, an articulated robot according to an embodiment of the present invention is an articulated robot including a camera for photographing a subject transported by a transfer means, and includes a head part equipped with a camera, a head part provided at the distal end, and an articulated robot arm having a degree of freedom so that the camera can photograph the subject in two or more different directions, controlling the operation of the robot arm according to two or more predetermined postures, and controlling the operation of the robot arm based on the image of the subject. It may include a control unit that determines whether or not.

The robot arm 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention rotates in up and down and/or left and right directions around a plurality of axes (eg, 5 axes, 6 axes, 7 axes, 8 axes, etc.), and may be multi-joints having degrees of freedom capable of moving in any direction or at any point.

The controller is a means for controlling the overall operation of the articulated robot 1, and can execute various application programs in conjunction with each component of the articulated robot 1 and perform operations related thereto. That is, the controller can control the driving of the articulated robot 1 by processing signals or data input and output through the components of the articulated robot 1 or by driving an application program stored in the storage unit.

According to a specific embodiment, the control unit may control the operation of the robot arm 10 according to a preset sequence consisting of predetermined steps stored in the storage unit. Here, each step may include the position and direction of the distal end of the robot arm in space, the posture of the head, and the like.

Accordingly, the articulated robot can accurately determine whether or not the inspected object is good or bad based on images taken from various directions of the inspected object that has been transported along a transport means such as a conveyor.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the head unit may further include a chucking unit capable of gripping an object to be inspected, in addition to a camera capable of photographing the object to be inspected.

Accordingly, the control unit may hold the inspected object determined to be defective using the chucking unit and classify it into an adjacent sorting bin (see FIG. 4 ).

Specifically, when the object to be inspected is an electrical component, that is, an electric device component, and includes wires and electronic elements, the control unit compares images of the inspected object in two or more different directions with reference images of two or more pre-stored good products, and checks whether the wires having different colors match each other in order to confirm that each of the wires having different colors is wired at the intended location so that the wires of different colors do not cross each other in the inspected object. It is possible to check the number of crossings between wires having different colors in order to check whether the wires having different colors are not twisted, and by checking whether any one wire is disconnected in the subject, it is possible to determine whether the corresponding subject is a good product.

If the position and / or direction of the subject seated on the transportation means may be different based on the position of the current articulated robot, the position and / or direction of the subject may be aligned in order to photograph the subject in various directions. It is necessary.

Therefore, in order to determine whether the articulated robot according to an embodiment of the present invention is good for the test object, the controller may check the position and/or direction of the test object in advance to determine whether alignment is required. The controller may grasp the test object with the chucking unit, rotate the test object by an angle different from the preset direction, and then retest the test object when all of the plurality of parts exist in the test object, but the direction of the plurality of parts is different from the preset direction. .

In addition, the control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention may determine based on the direction of a plurality of parts in the test object in order to determine whether or not the position alignment of the test object seated on the transfer means is necessary, but it is of course possible to use a standard identification mark printed on the exposed surface of the test object.

On the other hand, the robot arm 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention may be fixedly installed at any one point, but according to another embodiment of the present invention, the robot arm 10 may be coupled to a transfer unit (not shown) that travels along a guide rail.

The robot arm 10 is coupled to the transfer unit, and as the transfer unit travels along the guide rail, the robot arm 10 may also travel along the guide rail.

At this time, according to one embodiment, the transfer part installed on the guide rail to be able to travel is provided on the guide rail so as to be supported by the guide rail, and the robot arm 10 can be installed upward. According to another embodiment, the transfer part is provided under the guide rail so as to hang on the guide rail, and the robot arm 10 can be installed downward.

In the above, preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings. The description of the present invention is for illustrative purposes, and those skilled in the art will understand that it can be easily modified into other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention.

Therefore, the scope of the present invention is indicated by the following claims rather than the above detailed description, and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning, scope and equivalent concepts of the claims are included in the scope of the present invention. It should be construed.

1: articulated robot
10: robot arm

Claims (7)

In an articulated robot including a camera for photographing a subject transported by a transfer means,
a head unit provided with the camera;
A multi-joint robot arm having a degree of freedom so that the head part is provided at the distal end, and the camera can photograph the subject in two or more different directions; and
a control unit for controlling the operation of the robot arm according to two or more preset postures and determining whether the inspection subject is good or not based on an image of the inspection subject;
A vision inspection function articulated robot comprising a. According to claim 1,
The head unit includes a chucking unit capable of gripping the object to be inspected;
Including more,
The control unit grips the inspected object determined to be defective and classifies it into an adjacent sorting box. According to claim 1,
The test subject is an electric component,
The control unit, using images of the inspected object from two or more different directions, determines whether the wires having different colors in the inspected object match, the number of crossings of wires having different colors in the inspected object, or whether one wire is disconnected in the inspected object, and determines whether the corresponding inspected object is good or not. According to claim 1,
The test subject is an electric component,
The control unit determines whether a plurality of parts of the inspected object are at a preset position or whether at least one of the plurality of parts is missing from the inspected object, using images of the inspected object in two or more different directions, and determines whether the corresponding inspected object is good or not. According to claim 4,
The head unit includes a chucking unit capable of gripping the object to be inspected;
Including more,
The control unit grips the target object with the chucking unit when all of the plurality of parts are present in the test object, but the direction of the plurality of parts is different from a preset direction, and rotates the corresponding test object. Multi-joint robot with vision inspection function, characterized in that for re-examination of the test object. According to claim 1,
Doedoe the robot arm is coupled to one surface, the transfer unit traveling along the guide rail provided;
A vision inspection function articulated robot further comprising a. According to claim 6,
The transfer unit,
An articulated robot with vision inspection function, characterized in that it travels while being supported by the guide rail on the guide rail, or travels while hanging from the guide rail.