WO2019230931A1

WO2019230931A1 - Robot and robot control method

Info

Publication number: WO2019230931A1
Application number: PCT/JP2019/021661
Authority: WO
Inventors: 達博宇都; 将司三澤; 和範平田
Original assignee: 川崎重工業株式会社
Priority date: 2018-05-31
Filing date: 2019-05-31
Publication date: 2019-12-05
Also published as: TW202003177A; JPWO2019230931A1; JP7033201B2

Abstract

A robot comprises a base; a first robot arm attached to the base; a first end effector that is attached to the distal end of the first robot arm and holds a workpiece; a second robot arm attached to the base; a second end effector that is attached to the distal end of the second robot arm and performs a predetermined operation on the workpiece; and a control device that controls the operation of the first and second robot arms. The control device controls the operation of the first robot arm so as to convey the workpiece held by the first end effector from a first position to a second position, and controls the operation of the second robot arm so as to perform a predetermined operation other than the conveying operation on the workpiece, which is being conveyed, with the second end effector while following the first robot arm that conveys the workpiece.

Description

Robot and robot control method

The present invention relates to a robot and a robot control method.

Recently, in various fields, it has been proposed that robots and workers work together in the same work space from the viewpoint of improving productivity. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a human-type dual-arm robot introduced into a food production site, for example. This robot stops the lunch box conveyed by the conveyor with one arm, and then supplies the seasoning to the food in the lunch box with the other arm.

International Publication No. 2017/085928

However, in the above-described conventional double-arm robot, the work transfer work and the seasoning supply work for the work are sequentially executed. For this reason, the work efficiency has room for further improvement.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to improve the working efficiency of a double-arm robot that performs a predetermined work on a work being transported.

To achieve the above object, a robot according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a base, a first robot arm attached to the base, a first robot arm attached to a tip of the first robot arm, and holding a workpiece. An end effector, a second robot arm attached to the base, a second end effector attached to the tip of the second robot arm and performing a predetermined operation on a workpiece, and the first and second robot arms. A control device that controls the operation, and the control device controls the operation of the first robot arm so as to convey the workpiece held by the first end effector from the first position to the second position. In addition, while following the first robot arm that is transporting the workpiece, the first workpiece is transferred to the workpiece being transferred. It controls the operation of the second robot arm to perform the predetermined work other than carrying operation by the end effector.

According to the above configuration, the work held by the first end effector is transported from the first position to the second position, and a predetermined work is performed on the work being transported by the second end effector. . Since the robot performs the work transfer of the work by the first arm and the work on the work by the second arm in parallel, the loss of work time is reduced and the work efficiency is improved.

Note that the second position may be a predetermined position (for example, a weighing platform of a measuring instrument) on which the workpiece is placed by the first robot arm.

The work is a food container having an open top surface, and the second end effector has a food supply device configured to be able to supply a predetermined food from above, and the predetermined operation is the food supply The operation of supplying food from above to the container may be performed by an apparatus.

According to the above configuration, for example, in a food production site, the operation of supplying liquid food such as soup is efficiently performed while transporting cup containers from a predetermined position on a conveyor to a predetermined position of a measuring instrument. Can do.

The food supply apparatus may include a nozzle that can supply liquid food, and a cover member having a predetermined shape that covers the opening on the upper surface of the container may be provided at the tip of the nozzle.

According to the above configuration, the food supply device has a nozzle that can supply liquid food, and has a predetermined shape (for example, a circle) that covers the opening (for example, a circle) on the top surface of the container at the tip of the nozzle. Since the member is provided, for example, when supplying the liquid food during the transport of the container, the food is less likely to spill from the container by covering the opening of the container with the cover member. Work efficiency is improved.

A robot control method according to another aspect of the present invention includes a base, a first robot arm attached to the base, a first end effector attached to a tip of the first robot arm and holding a workpiece, The second robot arm attached to the base, the second end effector attached to the tip of the second robot arm and performing a predetermined operation on the workpiece, and the operations of the first and second robot arms are controlled. And a control device for controlling the robot, wherein the control device moves the workpiece held by the first end effector from a first position to a second position. While controlling the operation and following the first robot arm carrying the workpiece, Hand, controls the operation of the second robot arm to perform the predetermined work other than carrying operation by the second end effector.

The present invention has the configuration described above, and can improve the work efficiency of a robot that performs a predetermined work on a workpiece being transferred.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a food manufacturing apparatus to which a robot according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the food supply apparatus. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the robot control device. FIG. 4 is a first explanatory diagram showing an example of the operation of the robot. FIG. 5 is a second explanatory diagram showing an example of the operation of the robot. FIG. 6 is a third explanatory diagram showing an example of the operation of the robot. FIG. 7 is a table showing an operation procedure of the robot of this embodiment and the comparative example.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference symbols throughout the drawings, and redundant description thereof is omitted. Further, the drawings schematically show each component for easy understanding.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a food manufacturing apparatus to which a robot according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the food production apparatus 1 is introduced into a food production site, for example. The food manufacturing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is configured by a robot 11 according to the present invention. The robot 11 according to this embodiment performs an operation of filling the container 40 with soup. The robot 11 is a double-arm robot including a pair of robot arms (hereinafter also simply referred to as “arms”) 13L and 13R supported by the base 12. As the robot 11, a horizontal articulated double-arm robot will be described, but a vertical articulated double-arm robot can be used. The robot 11 can be installed in a limited space (for example, 610 mm × 620 mm) corresponding to one person. Hereinafter, the direction in which the pair of

arms

13L and 13R are expanded is referred to as the left-right direction, the direction parallel to the axis of the base shaft is referred to as the up-down direction, and the direction orthogonal to the left-right direction and the up-down direction is referred to as the front-rear direction.

The robot 11 includes, for example, a base 12 fixed to a carriage, a left arm 13L attached to the base 12, an end effector 18 attached to the tip of the left arm 13L, and a right arm attached to the base 12. 13R, an end effector 19 attached to the tip of the right arm 13R, and a control device (see FIG. 3) for controlling the operations of the left and

right arms

13L and 13R.

Each

arm

13L, 13R includes an arm portion 15 and a wrist portion 17. Further, the rotation axes of the base end side links constituting the two arm portions 15 are on the same straight line, and the left arm 13L and the right arm 13R are arranged with a vertical difference in height. The left and

right arms

13L and 13R may have substantially the same structure. Each

arm

13L, 13R has four joints, and a servomotor for driving (not shown) and an encoder (not shown) for detecting the rotation angle of the servomotor so as to be associated with each joint. ) Etc. are provided. The left and

right arms

13L and 13R can operate independently or operate in association with each other.

A table 80 is arranged on the left side of the robot 11. On the table 80, a container table 82 for placing the container 40 is disposed. The container 40 is a food container having an upper opening. The container 40 is, for example, an inverted frustoconical cup container. The container 40 is made of thin paper or synthetic resin. The container 40 is placed on the container mounting table 82 in a state where it is stacked in multiple stages in the vertical direction (hereinafter also simply referred to as “aggregate 41”). A transfer device 50 is disposed in front of the robot 11. The transport device 50 is a belt conveyor that transports the containers 40 supplied by the robot 11 in the transport direction along the transport path 51 (from left to right in the figure). The conveyance path 51 of this embodiment is formed in a straight line. A small table 81 for placing the weighing instrument 70 is installed on the front side of the transport device 50. The scale 70 is used to measure the weight of the container 40 filled with soup. The work area of the robot 11 is an area that covers a part of the table 80 on which the container table 82 is arranged, the table 81 on which the weighing instrument 70 is arranged, and the conveyance path 51 of the conveyance device 50.

The end effector 18 is attached to the tip of the wrist portion 17 of the left arm 13L. The end effector 18 includes a base portion 20 including the tip of the wrist portion 17, and a first holding portion 21 and a second holding portion 22 provided on the base portion 20.

The first holding part 21 has a pair of claws. Each claw is curved inward along the outer periphery of the upper portion of the container 40. These claws are driven by a single actuator (for example, an air cylinder) provided on the base portion 20 and translate to move toward and away from each other while maintaining parallelism. Thereby, the edge of the container 40 can be held or released. Further, a push-down portion 21 a is provided on each claw of the first holding portion 21. The lower part of the pressing part 21a is driven up and down by an actuator (for example, an air cylinder). As a result, when the assembly 41 of the container 40 is held by the pair of claws of the first holding unit 21, the edge of the lowest container 40 of the assembly 41 is pushed down from above by the push-down unit 21a. The lowermost container 40 can be separated from the assembly 41.

The second holding part 22 has a pair of claws. Each claw is curved inward along the outer periphery of the upper portion of the container 40. These claws are driven by a single actuator (for example, an air cylinder) provided on the base portion 20 and translate to move toward and away from each other while maintaining parallelism. The second holding unit 22 can hold or release the edge of the container 40 with a pair of claws.

The end effector 19 is attached to the tip of the wrist portion 17 of the left arm 13L. The end effector 19 includes a base portion 30 including the tip of the wrist portion 17, a holding portion 31 provided on the base portion 30, and a food supply device 32 provided on the base portion 30.

The holding part 31 has a pair of claws. Each claw is curved inward along the outer periphery of the upper portion of the container 40. These claws are driven by a single actuator (for example, an air cylinder) provided on the base 30 and translate so as to approach and separate from each other while maintaining parallelism. The holding part 31 can hold or release the edge of the container 40 with a pair of claws.

The food supply device 2 is configured to be able to supply liquid food (for example, soup) from above. FIG. 2A is a plan view of the food supply apparatus 2. FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view taken along a line BB in FIG. In FIG. 2, only the food supply apparatus 2 and the container 40 are shown. As shown in FIG. 2, the food supply device 32 includes a nozzle 32a capable of supplying a liquid food material (for example, soup), and a cover member 32b provided at the tip of the nozzle 32a. The cover member 32 b at the tip of the nozzle 33 is formed in a circular shape so as to cover the opening on the upper surface of the container 40.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the control device 14 of the robot 11. As shown in FIG. 3, the control device 14 includes a calculation unit 14 a such as a CPU, a storage unit 14 b such as a ROM and a RAM, and a servo control unit 14 c. The control device 14 is a robot controller including a computer such as a microcontroller. The control device 14 may be configured by a single control device 14 that performs centralized control, or may be configured by a plurality of control devices 14 that perform distributed control in cooperation with each other.

The storage unit 14b stores information such as a basic program as a robot controller and various fixed data. The calculation unit 14a controls various operations of the robot 11 by reading and executing software such as a basic program stored in the storage unit 14b. That is, the arithmetic unit 14a generates a control command for the robot 11 and outputs it to the servo control unit 14c. The servo control unit 14c is configured to control driving of an actuator such as a servo motor corresponding to the joint of each arm 13 of the robot 11 based on the control command generated by the calculation unit 14a. In addition, the control device 14 also controls the actuator of the end effector 18 and the end effector 19 (food supply device 32). Therefore, the control device 14 controls the operation of the entire robot 11.

Next, the operation of the robot 11 will be described with reference to the drawings. First, as shown in FIG. 1, the control device 14 controls the operation of the left arm 13 </ b> L, and holds the container 40 disposed on the transport path 51 by the end effector 18. Specifically, the control device 14 drives the pair of claws of the second holding unit 22 to hold the edge of the container 40 on the transport path 51.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the control device 14 controls the operation of the left arm 13 </ b> L to move the container 40 held by the end effector 18 on the table 81 from the transport path 51 (first position). To the weighing scale 70 (second position). The container 40 is placed at a placement position on the weighing instrument 70 by the left arm 13L. At the same time, the control device 14 controls the operation of the right arm 13R to follow the left arm 13L that is transporting the container 40 and to the end effector 19 (food supply) for the container 40 that is being transported. The soup is supplied by means of device 32). Soup is supplied while covering the upper surface opening of the container 40 by the cover member 32b at the tip of the nozzle 32a. Since the cover member 33a has a circular shape, even if the soup is supplied while the container 40 is being transported, it is difficult for the soup to spill from the upper surface opening of the circular container 40.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the control device 14 releases the container 40 from the end effector 18 simultaneously with the end of the soup supply operation by the end effector 19, thereby measuring the container 40 filled with soup by the measuring device 70. Place on the table. In the present embodiment, the weighing operation of the container 40 is performed by the operator visually reading the value of the weighing instrument 70.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 6, the control device 14 controls the operation of the right arm 13 </ b> R, holds the container 40 on the weighing platform of the measuring instrument 70 by the end effector 19, and The held container 40 is transported to the transport path 51 of the transport device 50. On the other hand, the control device 14 controls the operation of the left arm 13 </ b> L, and holds the aggregate 41 of the containers 40 placed on the container mounting table 82 on the left table 80 by the end effector 18. Then, by controlling the operation of the left arm 13L, the assembly 41 of the containers 40 held by the end effector 18 is moved onto the transport path 51 of the transport device 50, and the control device 14 moves the end effector 18 (the first effector 18) 1) The operation of the holding unit 21) is controlled to separate the lowest container 40 from the assembly 41. Thereby, the lowest container 40 is supplied onto the conveyance path 51 of the conveyance device 50. Thereafter, the above operation is repeated until the work is completed.

FIG. 7 is a table showing the operation procedure of the robot of this embodiment and the comparative example. The table on the right side of FIG. 7 shows a conventional control procedure of the robot as a comparative example. In the comparative example, the robot 11 performs the transfer operation of the container 40 after the holding operation of the container 40 by the left arm 13L. Thereafter, the food supply operation is performed by the right arm 13R, and finally, the conveyance operation of the container 40 by the right arm 13R is performed. As described above, in the conventional robot control, each operation is sequentially performed in time series even with a dual arm.

On the other hand, the left table of FIG. 7 shows the control procedure of the robot of this embodiment. In the present embodiment, the robot 11 performs the food supply operation simultaneously with the conveyance operation of the container 40 by the left and

right arms

13L and 13R after the holding operation of the container 40 by the left arm 13L, and finally the container by the right arm 13R. 40 transfer operations are performed. Thus, since the conveyance operation | work of the container 40 and a food supply operation | work are performed in parallel, the loss of work time is reduced and work efficiency improves compared with the conventional control.

In this embodiment, the work by the other arm 13R performed on the container 40 (work) during the work of transporting the container 40 (work) by the one arm 13L is a food supply work. However, this is not a limitation. For example, it may be a heating or cooling process of food during food conveyance, or may be metal processing (welding operation or the like) during conveyance of a metal material (work).

In addition, although the cover member 32b was circular shape at the front-end | tip of the nozzle 32a of the food supply apparatus 32 of this embodiment, it is not limited to this. If the upper surface opening of the container 40 is rectangular, it may be rectangular so as to cover it.

In the present embodiment, the robot 11 fills the container 40 with the soup while the container 40 is being transported, but may be a stew, for example, as long as it is a liquid food. Stew is a gel-like food with higher viscosity than soup. For this reason, when the stew is dropped from a high place, the liquid level of the stew becomes a mountain shape. As a result, the liquid level spreads toward the edge of the container after the filling operation is completed, and the stew easily spills from the edge of the container. On the other hand, when the stew is discharged from the tip of the nozzle near the bottom of the container, the liquid level of the stew spreads in a flat shape. Therefore, the control device 14 controls the operation of the right arm 13R to place the nozzle tip near the bottom surface of the container 40. From this state, the food supply device 32 starts to supply food, The operation of the right arm 13R may be controlled so as to raise the position of the nozzle tip as the liquid level rises. Thereby, food can be made difficult to spill. In this case, as in the present embodiment, a cover member 32b may be provided at the tip of the nozzle 33 so as to cover the opening on the upper surface of the container 40.

In the food manufacturing site of the present embodiment, the weighing operation of the container 40 is performed by an operator, but the weighing operation may be automated by the robot 11. For example, the robot 11 may be configured to include a weighing unit at the tip of the right arm 13 and to measure the weight of the container 40 by the weighing unit in a state where the container 40 is gripped by the end effector 19.

From the above description, many modifications and other embodiments of the present invention are apparent to persons skilled in the art. Accordingly, the foregoing description should be construed as illustrative only and is provided for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode of carrying out the invention. The details of the structure and / or function may be substantially changed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

The present invention is useful in the field of food production.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Food manufacturing apparatus 11 Robot 12

Base

13L, 13R Robot arm 14 Control apparatus 15 Arm part 17

Wrist part

18, 19 End effector 20 Base part 21 First holding part 21a Push-down part 22 Second holding part 30 Base part 31 Holding part 32 Food supply Device 32a Nozzle 32b Cover member 40 Container (work)
41 Container assembly 50 Conveying device 51 Conveying path 70 Weighing

device

80, 81 Table 82 Container stand

Claims

Base and
A first robot arm attached to the base;
A first end effector attached to the tip of the first robot arm and holding a workpiece;
A second robot arm attached to the base;
A second end effector attached to the tip of the second robot arm and performing a predetermined operation on the workpiece;
A control device for controlling the operation of the first and second robot arms;
With
The controller is
Controlling the operation of the first robot arm so as to convey the work held by the first end effector from the first position to the second position;
Control the operation of the second robot arm so that the second end effector performs a predetermined operation other than the transfer operation on the workpiece being transferred while following the first robot arm that is transferring the workpiece. Robot.
The robot according to claim 1, wherein the second position is a predetermined position where the workpiece is placed by the first robot arm.
The workpiece is a food container having an open top surface.
The second end effector has a food supply device configured to supply predetermined food from above,
The robot according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the predetermined operation is an operation of supplying food from above to the container by the food supply device.
The food supply device has a nozzle capable of supplying liquid food,
The robot according to claim 3, wherein a cover member having a predetermined shape is provided at a tip of the nozzle so as to cover an opening on an upper surface of the container.
The food supply device has a nozzle capable of supplying liquid food,
The control device controls the operation of the second robot arm, arranges the position of the nozzle tip near the bottom surface of the container, starts the supply of food by the food supply device, and the liquid level of the food The robot according to claim 3 or 4, wherein an operation of the second robot arm is controlled so as to raise a position of the nozzle tip as it rises.
A base, a first robot arm attached to the base, a first end effector attached to a tip of the first robot arm and holding a workpiece, a second robot arm attached to the base, and the first A robot control method comprising: a second end effector that is attached to a tip of a robot arm and that performs a predetermined work on a workpiece; and a control device that controls operations of the first and second robot arms,
The controller is
Controlling the operation of the first robot arm so as to convey the work held by the first end effector from the first position to the second position;
Control the operation of the second robot arm so that the second end effector performs a predetermined operation other than the transfer operation on the workpiece being transferred while following the first robot arm that is transferring the workpiece. To control the robot.