JPH025556B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a teaching playback type industrial robot that operates based on data taught in advance by numerical values or manual operations.

Teaching playback type industrial robots are suitable for high-mix, low-volume production processes because their operating programs can be easily changed. However, the teaching of machining program data for various workpieces needs to be performed more precisely as the finishing accuracy is required, and is a relatively time-consuming and troublesome task. For this reason, it is not efficient to perform teaching every time the workpiece is changed, and generally an external storage means such as a magnetic tape is provided in advance to store the data taught for each workpiece. For each workpiece, an operator selects suitable data from among these magnetic tapes and transfers the data as machining program data to the control unit of the robot to execute the machining.

In addition, robots that have a relatively wide range of motion relative to the workpiece, such as robots with orthogonal coordinate systems, have long horizontal axes (usually the X-axis or Y-axis),
Alternatively, in the case of a robot with a rotation axis such as a polar coordinate system or an articulated robot, a plurality of work stations may be provided as long as the work areas do not overlap with each other, and workpieces may be placed on each station and processed in sequence. A method may be used.
In this case, the order of work is usually determined in advance, and the robot is controlled to start after all the workpieces have been set in their processing positions, and to stop after each workpiece has been processed once.

There is also a skip method (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 50-555) that allows you to specify to omit unnecessary operations from a series of operations, but in either case, all the workpieces to be installed at each station are It was not possible to start up the machines until all the machines were assembled, and it was not possible to process only specific workpieces in succession or to randomly specify the order in which workpieces were processed at each station.

The present invention includes a data storage unit that separately stores a plurality of programs taught corresponding to a plurality of workpieces, a plurality of start switches, a start assignment circuit that assigns each start switch to program data, A start order reservation circuit is provided that stores commands from the start switch in the order of arrival, and when a command is received from the start switch corresponding to each workpiece, it is sequentially reserved as a start reservation, and when executed. By sequentially reading out the data and operating the robot based on the dedicated program data assigned to each start switch,
This allows activation of multiple workpieces in any specified order.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an industrial robot of the present invention. In the figure, S ₁ to S _o are n starting switches provided corresponding to the workpieces,
2 is a control unit, 3 is a servo control circuit operated by a signal from the control unit 2, 4 is a mechanical unit of the robot driven by the servo control circuit 3, and 5 is a system for storing data for each of the m types of workpieces. A data storage section that stores information with a starting address, and 6 is n activation switches.
an activation allocation circuit for allocating S ₁ to S _o to each suitable n addresses among the m data stored in the data storage unit 5 corresponding to each workpiece; 7;
is a start order reservation circuit that stores commands from the start switches _{S1 to S0} in the order of arrival and reads them out in the order of storage according to commands from the control unit 2, and an integrated circuit generally called a waiting queue can be used. 8 is a numerical command signal for each workpiece during teaching, or the robot is moved by manual operation such as a push button switch, and the data at that time is determined for each workpiece in the data storage unit 5 via the control unit 2. This is the operation panel for storing the specified address. In the robot configured as shown in the figure, during teaching, the control section 2 issues a movement command to the servo control circuit 3 in response to a command from the operation panel 8 to operate the mechanism section 4. This motion is detected by a motion amount detector provided in the mechanism section 4 and fed back to the servo control section as a feedback signal. The control section 2 counts command signals from the operation panel 8 or feedback signals from the mechanism section 4, and sends them to the data storage section 5 together with address signals according to commands from the operation panel 8 and stores them. Further, the address signal and the number of the corresponding start switch are entered into the start allocation circuit 6 via the control section 2.

During playback operation, start switch S ₁ or
When one of the S _o is pressed, this signal is sent to the control unit 2.
The signal is supplied to the activation allocation circuit 6 via the. The start assignment circuit 6 sends an address signal corresponding to the commanded start switch to the teaching data storage section 5, and the teaching data storage section 5 sends the program data stored at the designated address to the control section 2, and the servo The control circuit 3 is operated to drive the mechanism section 4. When two or more of the start switches S ₁ to _{S o} are pressed in sequence, the start signals are stored in the start order reservation circuit 7 in the order in which they arrive, and read out in the order in which they were stored first according to a command from the control unit 2. , selects the corresponding address of the data storage unit 5 from the activation allocation circuit 6. The operation at this time will be described in detail with reference to the explanatory diagrams in FIGS. 2 to 4. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of displaying data stored in the data storage unit 5 in address order. For example, program data A to G are stored for each of seven types of workpieces. . Figure 3 shows the activation allocation circuit 6.
This is a diagram for explaining an example of the internal structure of the system, and as shown in the figure, addresses A, C, E, and G of the data storage section 5 are set and stored for the start switches _S1 to _S4 , respectively. Also, FIG. 4 shows the startup order reservation circuit 7.
This is _an explanatory diagram showing _{the internal} state _{of the} system _.
This indicates that S ₃ , S ₁ , and S ₄ were pressed in this order. The robot set as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4 first operates based on data stored at address A corresponding to start switch _S1 . When the operation stored at address A is completed, the next operation is performed based on the data stored at address E corresponding to start switch _S3 . Similar operations are performed sequentially as reserved by the startup order reservation circuit 7,
It will stop after completing the operation based on the data stored at address B corresponding to the last reserved activation switch _S4 . If another start switch is pressed before stopping, start switch S ₄
After the operation corresponding to , the operation corresponding to these activation switches is performed.

In this way, by pressing the start switch in the order in which the workpieces are set, the robot sequentially reads out the data corresponding to each workpiece and performs processing.
There is no restriction on the order, and reservations can be made even during the processing of a specific workpiece, and the settings are completely free.

Of course, when different workpieces are installed and processed at the same location, continuous operation is not performed.
Naturally, therefore, only one start switch corresponding to the workpiece will be pressed, so only one start command will be stored in the start order reservation circuit 7. Note that the number of program data and start switches is arbitrary, and the contents of the start allocation circuit that determines the combination of each start switch and program data can also be changed arbitrarily. Furthermore, a plurality of layout tables having different combinations may be provided in the layout circuit, and an appropriate selection may be made from among these layout tables depending on the type of work.

The start switch is usually a push button switch operated by the operator, but the output of a detector that detects workpieces by type and installation position may also be used. In this case, an automatic workpiece feeder and By combining them, unmanned operation becomes possible.

Furthermore, between the startup switch and the startup order reservation circuit, a new/old discrimination circuit may be provided that compares the new reservation number with the previous final reservation number, and transmits this reservation number to the startup order reservation circuit only if the new reservation number is different. ,
Even if the same start switch is pressed twice in a row by mistake, it is safe because the workpiece that has already been processed will not be reprocessed in succession.

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of program data are stored for a plurality of different workpieces, and a plurality of starting switches are provided that are assigned to each program data. Data is automatically selected and predetermined machining is performed simply by selecting the start switch, which improves efficiency and allows the order in which workpieces are loaded into the robot to be random. Also, when the operating area of one robot is divided into multiple processing stations, and workpieces are installed and processed at each of these stations, it is possible to By selecting the start switch accordingly, machining that matches each workpiece can be easily performed without requiring any judgment by the operator, making unmanned operation possible.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 4 are explanatory diagrams for explaining the operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1, respectively. S ₁ ~ _{S o} ...Start switch, 2...Control unit, 3...
... Servo control circuit, 4 ... Mechanism section, 5 ... Data storage section, 6 ... Start assignment circuit, 7 ... Start order reservation circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A teaching playback type industrial robot comprising: a data storage unit that stores a plurality of teaching programs separately for each program; a plurality of start switches; A start-up allocation circuit that allocates commands to the start-up switches, a start-up order reservation circuit that stores commands from the start-up switches in the order of arrival, and a teaching program assigned to the first start switch of the start-up switches reserved in the start-up order reservation circuit. An industrial robot equipped with a control unit that sequentially reads and executes data. 2. In a teaching playback type industrial robot, a data storage unit stores a plurality of teaching programs separately for each program, a plurality of start switches, and a start assignment that assigns each start switch to one of each teaching program. The command signal from the circuit and the starting switch is input, and the continuous starting switch signal is transmitted to the next stage only when the signal is from a different starting switch, and when the signal from the same starting switch is input continuously. A new/old discrimination circuit that does not transmit signals, a startup order reservation circuit that stores the output signals of the old/new discrimination circuit in the order of arrival, and a teaching program assigned to the first startup switch of the startup switches reserved in the startup order reservation circuit. An industrial robot equipped with a control unit that reads and executes data.