JPS6211908A - Teaching system for robot action - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the quick and easy teaching actions of a robot for both the coating and polishing jobs by decomposing a closed plane of an optional form into plural rectangles and producing automatically the action data of the robot for each of those divided planes. CONSTITUTION:A work 9, i.e., a closed plane having an optional form is divided into plural rectangles and the action data of a robot 1 is produced automatically by an electronic computer 5 for each of these divided rectangles. If it is impossible to divide the surface of the work 9 all into rectangles, the robot 1 is started by means of the action data already produced by the computer 5 for execution of the coating job, etc. Then the manual teaching is carried out for the uncoated areas of the work 9. The data produced by the computer 5 is combined with the data underwent the manual teaching so that a series of jobs can be carried out by the robot 1. Thus the final action data of the robot 1 is sent to a robot controller 2. In such a way, the number of teaching processes is decreased and the teaching work can be performed easily and quickly.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a robot that memorizes a series of operations such as painting or surface polishing, and repeatedly performs operations by reproducing the operations. This invention relates to a robot motion teaching method suitable for when the shape is a closed plane.

[Background of the invention]

In operations such as painting or surface polishing (hereinafter simply referred to as polishing), a large amount of sprayed paint and dust from polishing are generated, resulting in a very poor working environment. Recently, the number of cases in which robots are replacing such tasks that were traditionally performed manually is rapidly increasing.

By the way, in order to make the robot perform the desired work, 1.
Humans must teach the robot how to perform the work. Here, if the surface of the workpiece to be worked on is limited to a rectangular plane, teaching three representative points as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 57-17015 will yield
Robot motion data can be automatically created. However, if the work surface is a closed plane with an arbitrary shape,
Since the method disclosed in the published patent cannot be applied, it is necessary to rely on conventional manual teaching. In this case, when performing painting or polishing work near the contour of the work surface, it is necessary to check to ensure that the operating head does not go beyond the contour, so the work must be done carefully and accurately. On the other hand, in those operations inside the work surface, there is no need to check whether or not the operating head exceeds this outer frame, so the operations become purely mechanical and intimidating. However, at present, even such mechanical work must be taught by humans, and the amount of effort and time required has become enormous.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a robot operation teaching method that quickly and easily teaches painting and polishing robots.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized in that it incorporates the advantage that ``when the work surface is a rectangular plane, robot motion data can be easily created''. The user arbitrarily divides a closed plane with an arbitrary shape as shown in Figure (a) into multiple rectangles as shown in Figure 1 (1)), and automatically creates robot motion data for each divided plane. do. However, for work in a small area 101 that cannot be divided into rectangles, a human will perform teaching while actually moving the robot arm, as in the past.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to Examples.

Figure 2 shows the appearance of a robot performing painting work on the surface of a workpiece. In the figure, 1 is a painting robot, 2 is a robot controller, 3 is a driving hydraulic power source, 4 is a teaching box, 5 is an electronic computer, and 6 is a graphic display device.

7 is a light pen, 8 is a painting head, and 9 is a workpiece.

10 is a transport device. When painting the surface of a workpiece with such a hardware configuration, teaching may be performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step 301, a work surface of arbitrary shape is divided into a plurality of rectangles. Next, in step 302, step 3
The computer 5 automatically creates robot motion data for each rectangle divided by 01. If the entire work surface can be divided into rectangles in step 301, the process proceeds to step 306. If not, that is, if there is an area that could not be divided completely, then in the next step 302, the robot 1 is activated using the motion data created in step 302 to perform the painting work. As a result, there should remain an unpainted area within the work surface, and step 30
In step 5, the robot 1 is manually taught how to operate the robot 1 in the remaining area.

Then, in step 306, the motion data created in step 302 and the data taught in step 305 are combined in order to make the robot perform a consistent work motion. Finally, in step 306, the final robot work operation data is sent to the robot controller 2.

By performing the above steps, teaching for painting work on a work surface having an arbitrary shape is completed. Each of the above steps will be explained in detail below.

Step 301> The specific processing content of dividing a work surface having an arbitrary shape into a plurality of rectangles will be described below.

(1) As shown in FIG. 4, the leak surface 401 to be worked on and the mesh 402 are displayed on the same screen on the graphic display device.

(2) As shown in Fig. 5, indicate the lower left mesh 502 and upper right mesh 503 of the area 501 to be divided into rectangles with a light pen, and calculate the coordinate values on the screen as shown in Fig. 6 (
It is stored in the table shown in a).

(3) Until the rectangle cannot be cut in the work surface,
) continues processing.

(4) Determine the work order for the divided rectangles and store the results in the table shown in FIG. 6(a).

<Step 302> Operation data of the robot 1 is created for each rectangle divided in step 301. Specifically, from the lower left and upper right coordinate values (XLe ML) e (Xms y*) of each rectangle stored in the table in Figure 6(a), three points are found at the corners of the rectangle in the robot coordinate system. = pl(X
ll Yl> -Pz (xz-Yl) Pa <x,
.

The coordinate values of Y3) are calculated using the following equation.

However,: Conversion constant for the robot coordinate system in the x-axis direction; Conversion constant for the robot coordinate system in the y-axis direction From the three points calculated using the above formula, the motion data for one rectangle is automatically calculated. (The specific method of creation is known from Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 57-17015, so its explanation will be omitted here).

The results are then stored in the table shown in FIG. 6(b).

<Step 303> Using the motion data created in step 302, the robot 1 is activated to perform painting work.

This step is provided to check which area on the actual work surface has not been taught yet.

<Step 304> The area that was not painted by the robot 1 in step 303 is taught manually.

<Step 305> The teaching data of step 304 is taken into the computer 5 and combined with the motion data created in step 302. Specifically, teaching data is added to the table shown in FIG. 6(b) that stores motion data.

<Step 306> The motion data created in step 302 or the data combined in step 305, which is stored in the computer, is sent to the robot controller 2. The transmitted data is stored in the memory within the computer in a format that can be interpreted by the robot controller 2.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, instead of teaching the internal area of the work surface, it is necessary to divide the internal area into rectangles, but the interactive teaching method with the graphic display device makes it easy to divide the internal area into rectangles. Man-hours can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a detailed explanatory diagram of the invention, Fig. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 3 is a flowchart of the painting work teaching procedure, and Figs. 4 and 5 are Detailed explanatory diagram, FIG. 6(a) is a coordinate value storage table of divided rectangles,
FIG. 6(b) is a robot motion data storage table.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a robot teaching system consisting of a robot that performs a predetermined work on a work surface, a controller for the robot, an electronic computer connected online to the controller, and a graphic display device under the control of the computer, the work object is If the work surface is a closed plane with an arbitrary shape,
A robot motion teaching method characterized by dividing the work surface into a plurality of rectangles and automatically creating motion data for the robot for each divided surface.