JP2024014080A - Equipment control device, control system, and control method - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a device control device that can synchronize the operations of a plurality of devices.
A device control device according to the present invention includes a command transmitter 40 that transmits commands 11 for a plurality of devices 130 to the devices 130, a status information receiver 50 that acquires status information 51 of the devices 130, and a command 11 The state comparison unit 90 calculates the state difference 97, which is the difference in the state of the device 130 between the command 11 and the state information 51, for each time in the command 11. a command completion determination unit 100 that determines whether a command has been completed; and a delay time identification unit 70 that determines a delay time 72 from when the command transmitting unit 40 transmits the command 11 to when the device 130 completes the command for the device 130. , a delay difference calculation unit 80 that calculates a delay difference time 81 that is the difference in delay time 72 between the devices 130, and a timing adjustment unit 30 that adjusts the time at which the command 11 is transmitted to the device 130 by the delay difference time 81. .
[Selection diagram] Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a control device, a control system, and a control method for equipment used in industry.

Customer demands are diversifying in each industry, and in the manufacturing industry there is an urgent need to shorten development cycles and respond to mass production and complex product manufacturing. Therefore, in controlling devices such as industrial robots, it is required to control a large number of devices simultaneously in order to improve productivity. When controlling multiple devices at the same time, it is necessary to synchronize the devices to be controlled. For example, in order to manufacture one product using multiple robots, each robot needs to synchronize its operation timing with high precision.

An example of a conventional technique for synchronizing multiple devices is described in Patent Document 1. In the method described in Patent Document 1, in order to harmonize a plurality of agents moving within an environment and allow the agents to operate within the environment without colliding with each other, a first robot device uses a first time parameter. determining a difference between a first rate of progress and a second rate of progress of the first robotic device along the parameterized path, and modifying execution of the first time-parameterized path based on the determined difference. The second rate of progress is the rate of progress of the second robotic device along the second time parameterized path. The first robotic device receives a second progress rate from the second robotic device.

Special Publication No. 2020-500340

As described above, when controlling multiple devices such as industrial robots, it is necessary to synchronize the operations of the multiple devices, that is, to complete commands at the same time. Usually, a plurality of devices are controlled by a control device, and it takes some time (delay time) after the control device sends a command until the device executes and completes the command. This delay time generally differs depending on the device. For example, in devices configured to store commands received from a control device in a buffer and then execute them, the delay time caused by storage in the buffer may vary from device to device. Therefore, even if the control device simultaneously sends commands to a plurality of devices, the times at which the devices complete the commands may be different for the plurality of devices due to differences in delay times. With conventional control devices, it is difficult to determine such delay times in a plurality of devices, absorb differences in delay times, and synchronize operations.

An object of the present invention is to provide a device control device, a device control system, and a device control method that can synchronize the operations of a plurality of devices.

A device control device according to the present invention includes: a command generation unit that generates a command specifying the state of the device at a plurality of times for a plurality of devices; a command transmission unit that transmits the command to the device; a state information receiving unit that acquires state information that is information indicating the state of the device, and a difference between the state of the device in the command and the state of the device in the state information for each time in the command; for each of the devices; A delay time specifying unit that determines a delay time that is the time from when the command transmitting unit transmits the command to the device until the device completes the command, and using the delay time of each of the devices, The device includes a delay difference calculation unit that calculates a delay difference time that is a difference in delay time between the devices, and a timing adjustment unit that adjusts the time at which the command is sent to the device by the delay difference time.

A device control system according to the present invention includes a control device according to the present invention and a plurality of the devices controlled by the control device.

A device control method according to the present invention includes a command generation step executed by a control device that controls a plurality of devices to generate a command specifying the state of the device at a plurality of times for the plurality of devices; a command sending step of transmitting the command to the device; a state information receiving step of acquiring state information that is information indicating the state of the device; and a state of the device in the command with respect to each time in the command. , a state comparison step of determining a state difference that is a difference between the state of the device in the state information; and a state comparison step of determining at which time the device completed the command among the times in the command using the state difference. a step of determining completion of the command to be sought; and a step of determining a delay time for each of the devices, determining a delay time that is the time from when the command is sent to the device in the command sending step until the device completes the command. , a delay difference calculation step of calculating a delay difference time, which is a difference in delay time between the devices, using the delay time of each of the devices; and a timing adjustment step of adjusting only the time.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a device control device, a device control system, and a device control method that can synchronize the operations of a plurality of devices.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a command generated by a command generation unit. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of status information acquired by a status information receiving unit. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of time-added state information to which a time information adding unit has added a time. It is a figure showing the composition of a state comparison part. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a state difference calculated by a state difference calculation unit. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a completion determination result of a command completion determination section. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a time difference and a delay time determined by a delay time specifying unit. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a time difference and a delay time determined by a delay time specifying unit. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a delay difference time calculated by a delay difference calculation unit. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a time chart illustrating a delay time and a delay difference time, and an example of a method for synchronizing the operations of robot A and robot B. FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating correction performed by a command correction section. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a timing adjustment section. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of state information expressed by the angle of the axis of the robot and state information expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a state difference expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a completion determination result made by a command completion determination unit using a state difference expressed in coordinates.

In the device control device, control system, and control method for devices according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a delay time, which is the time from when the control device sends a command to when the device completes the command, for a plurality of devices. , it is possible to absorb this difference in delay time and synchronize the operations of multiple devices. More specifically, in the control device, control system, and control method according to the present invention, the delay time is determined using the current state of the device and the command sent to the device, and the difference in delay time between multiple devices is calculated. is determined as the delay difference time, and the time at which the command is sent to the device is adjusted (for example, delayed) by the delay difference time, thereby making the time at which multiple devices complete the command the same.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A device control device, a device control system, and a device control method according to embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present invention, devices to be controlled include devices such as robots (eg, industrial robots), autonomous vehicles, and belt conveyors. In the following embodiments, a plurality of robots will be exemplified as devices to be controlled.

In the following examples, the state of the device is at least one of the angle of the position of a predetermined specific part of the device (angle from a predetermined reference position), coordinates, speed, and acceleration. . The velocity and acceleration include the velocity and acceleration of angle change and the velocity and acceleration of coordinate change. In the following embodiments, the angle of a joint (axis) of a robot will be described as an example of the state of the device.

In the drawings used in this specification, the same or corresponding components are given the same reference numerals, and repeated explanations of these components may be omitted.

A device control device, a device control system, and a device control method according to embodiments of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a control device 110 according to this embodiment. The control device 110 according to the present embodiment includes, as main components, a command generation section 10, a state information reception section 50, a time information provision section 60, a state comparison section 90, a command completion determination section 100, and a delay time identification section 100. , a delay difference calculation section 80 , a command correction section 20 , a timing adjustment section 30 , and a command transmission section 40 . The control device 110 is connected to a plurality of robots 130a to 130c via robot controllers 120a to 120c. The control device 110 controls each of the robots 130a to 130c by having the command transmitting unit 40 transmitting commands to the robots 130a to 130c. FIG. 1 shows, as an example, an example in which the control device 110 controls three robots 130a to 130c.

Robot controllers 120a-120c are connected to control device 110 and to robots 130a-130c, respectively. Robot controllers 120a to 120c transmit commands from control device 110 to robots 130a to 130c, respectively, and control robots 130a to 130c.

The robots 130a to 130c are devices to be controlled by the control device 110, and execute commands transmitted from the control device 110 via the robot controllers 120a to 120c, respectively. For example, the robots 130a to 130c drive joints (shafts) of the robots 130a to 130c, respectively, according to commands from the control device 110.

In the following description, the robots 130a to 130c may be collectively referred to as the robot 130. Furthermore, in the following description, the robot 130a, the robot 130b, and the robot 130c may be referred to as robot A, robot B, and robot C, respectively.

The device control system according to this embodiment includes a control device 110, robot controllers 120a to 120c, and robots 130a to 130c. The robots 130a to 130c can communicate with and are controlled by the control device 110 via robot controllers 120a to 120c.

Below, the components of the control device 110 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The command generation unit 10 generates commands for the plurality of robots 130 based on the actions that each robot 130 should perform. The motion to be performed by the robot 130 is, for example, a motion instructed by a user, inputted from the outside, and stored in the control device 110. The command is a command that specifies the state of the robot 130 at each of a plurality of times. In this embodiment, the state of the robot 130 is the angle of the axis of the robot (angle from a predetermined reference position).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the command 11 generated by the command generation unit 10. As an example, FIG. 2 shows angles at respective times for axis 1, axis 2, and axis 10 of the robot 130a. For example, FIG. 2 shows an example of a command 11 in which the axis 1 of the robot 130a is at an angle of 20 degrees at a time of 10 ms and at an angle of 10 degrees at a time of 20 ms. Note that in the command 11 shown in FIG. 2, the robot 130a comes to rest at a time of 40 ms. Therefore, the angles of axis 1, axis 2, and axis 10 are equal at time 40 ms and time 50 ms.

The status information receiving section 50 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The status information receiving unit 50 is an input interface and acquires information indicating the current status of the robot 130. Hereinafter, information indicating the current state of the robot 130 will also be simply referred to as "state information." The status information can be acquired by a sensor included in the robot 130 or a sensor installed on the robot 130 detecting it from the robot 130, or by a camera installed around the robot 130 photographing the robot 130. . In this embodiment, the status information receiving unit 50 acquires status information from sensors installed in the robots 130a to 130c via the robot controllers 120a to 120c.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the state information 51 acquired by the state information receiving section 50. FIG. 3 shows, as an example of the state information 51, the angles of the axis 1, axis 2, and axis 10 of the robot 130a. In the state information 51 shown in FIG. 3, the axis 1 of the robot 130a is at a position of 19 degrees, the axis 2 is at a position of 101 degrees, and the axis 10 is at a position of 329 degrees.

The time information adding section 60 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The time information adding unit 60 obtains the state information 51 from the state information receiving unit 50 and adds the time at which the state information receiving unit 50 obtains the state information 51 to the obtained state information 51. Hereinafter, the state information 51 to which the time has been added will also be referred to as "state information with time."

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of time-added status information 61 to which the time information adding unit 60 has added a time. FIG. 4 shows, as an example, state information 61 with time, in which 200 ms, which is the time when the state information receiving unit 50 acquired the state information 51, is added to the state information 51 shown in FIG.

The state comparing section 90 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The state comparison unit 90 compares the state of the robot 130 in the timed state information 61 and the state of the robot 130 at each of the plurality of times in the command 11, and compares the state in the timed state information 61 and the command 11. A state difference, which is a difference from the state at each time in command 11, is determined for each time in command 11. For example, the state comparator 90 calculates the difference between the value representing the state of the robot 130 in the timed state information 61 and the value representing the state of the robot 130 at each time in the command 11, and converts this difference into Each time in command 11 is determined as a state difference.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of the state comparison section 90. The state comparison section 90 includes a received data acquisition section 91 , a command group acquisition section 92 , a state difference calculation section 93 , and a state difference output section 94 .

The received data acquisition unit 91 acquires timed state information 61 from the time information assignment unit 60 .

The command group acquisition unit 92 acquires, from the command generation unit 10, commands 11 (states at each of a plurality of times) for the robot 130, which are generated by the command generation unit 10.

The state difference calculation unit 93 acquires the timed state information 61 from the received data acquisition unit 91, and also acquires the command 11 (state at each of a plurality of times) for the robot 130 from the command group acquisition unit 92, The difference between the state in the timed state information 61 and the state at each time in the command 11 is calculated to obtain a state difference. The state difference calculation unit 93 calculates the state difference for each time in the command 11.

The state difference output unit 94 outputs the state difference calculated by the state difference calculation unit 93 to the command completion determination unit 100.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the state difference 97 calculated by the state difference calculation unit 93. The state difference calculation section 93 obtains, for example, the timed state information 61 (FIG. 4) from the received data acquisition section 91 and the command 11 (FIG. 2) from the command group acquisition section 92. Then, the state difference calculation unit 93 calculates the difference between the state in the timed state information 61 and the state at each time in the command 11, and obtains the value of the state difference 97 for each time in the command 11. .

In the example shown in FIG. 6, the state difference calculation unit 93 calculates the state according to the timed state information 61 that axis 1 of the robot 130a is at a position of 19 degrees at a time of 200 ms, and the state at a position of 20 degrees at a time of 10 ms. The difference between the state and the state according to the command 11 is calculated, and the value of the state difference 97 is determined, which indicates that the difference between the states is -1 degree at time 10 ms. Furthermore, the state difference calculation unit 93 determines that the axis 1 of the robot 130a is at a position of 19 degrees at time 200 ms according to the timed state information 61, and at the time 20 ms it is at a position of 10 degrees according to the command 11. The difference with the state is calculated, and the value of the state difference 97, which means that the difference between the states is 9 degrees at time 20 ms, is determined. The state difference calculation unit 93 similarly calculates the value of the state difference 97 from time 30 ms to time 50 ms in command 11.

In this way, the state difference calculation unit 93 calculates the state difference 97 for each time in the command 11. Note that if the commands at each time can be specified by the numbers assigned to the commands (command numbers), the state difference calculation unit 93 uses the respective command numbers in the command 11 instead of the respective times in the command 11. The value of the state difference 97 may be obtained for. In the command 11 and state difference 97 shown in FIG. 6, the command number is also shown together with the time.

The command completion determination unit 100 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The command completion determination unit 100 acquires the state difference 97 for each time in the command 11 from the state comparison unit 90, and uses the state difference 97 to determine the state of the robot 130 (the state indicated by the time-attached state information 61). , find out which time of the times in command 11 the state corresponds to. That is, the command completion determination unit 100 uses the state difference 97 to determine at which time the robot 130 has completed the command among the times in the command 11.

The command completion determination unit 100 uses an arbitrary method using the state difference 97 to determine at what time in the command 11 the state of the robot 130 corresponds to (that is, at what time in the command 11 the command was completed). ) can be found. The state difference 97 is the difference between the state of the robot 130 obtained from the robot 130 and the state of the robot 130 in the command 11, so the smaller the value of the state difference 97, the more the current state of the robot 130 is in the command 11. It can be said that the state is close to that of the robot 130. That is, depending on the magnitude of the value of the state difference 97, it is possible to determine at what time the robot 130 has completed the command among the commands 11.

For example, the command completion determination unit 100 uses an index indicating how close the state of a specific part of the robot 130 (in this example, the axis) is to the state in command 11 at each time in command 11, and It is possible to determine at what time in the command 11 the state of 130 corresponds to the state at which time in the command 11 (that is, at what time in the command 11 the command was completed). The value of this index can be obtained from the value of the state difference 97. For example, the command completion determination unit 100 compares the value of this index with a predetermined threshold value to determine whether the state of the robot 130 (the state indicated by the timed state information 61) is at any time in the command 11. You can find out whether it corresponds to the state in .

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the completion determination result 101 of the command completion determination unit 100 in this embodiment. The completion determination result 101 is the result of the command completion determination unit 100 determining, using the state difference 97, at which time the robot 130 has completed the command among the times in the command 11.

The command completion determination unit 100 determines, for each time in the command 11, whether the robot 130 has completed or not completed the command. The completion determination result 101 in FIG. 7 shows the time in the command 11, the distance determined by the command completion determination section 100, and the result (completed or incomplete) determined by the command completion determination section 100 based on the distance. There is. The distance is an index indicating how close the state of the axis of the robot 130 is to the state in command 11 at each time in command 11.

In this embodiment, the command completion determination unit 100 sums up the absolute values of the state differences 97 for the axes of the robot 130 for each time in the command 11, and uses the calculated total value as the distance. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the command completion determination unit 100 determines the absolute value (1) of the state difference 97 of axis 1 and the absolute value (1) of the state difference 97 of axis 2 for a time of 10 ms among the times in command 11. The absolute value (29) of the value and the absolute value (29) of the value of the state difference 97 of the axis 10 are summed, and the distance is determined to be 59. The command completion determination unit 100 similarly determines that the distances are 47, 27, 3, and 3 for times 20 ms, 30 ms, 40 ms, and 50 ms in command 11, respectively.

Then, the command completion determination unit 100 determines that the robot 130 has completed the command at that time when the calculated distance is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold. That is, the command at the time determined to be completed in the completion determination result 101 of FIG. 7 can be considered to have been completed by the robot 130. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the command completion determination unit 100 determines that the distance is not completed at times 10ms, 20ms, and 30ms among the times in command 11 because the distance is greater than the threshold, and the distance is less than the threshold at times 40ms and 50ms. Therefore, it is determined that the process is complete. In other words, the command completion determining unit 100 determines that the state of the robot 130 (the state indicated by the timed state information 61) corresponds to the state at time 40 ms and time 50 ms among the times in the command 11.

The command completion determination unit 100 can determine that one or more of the times in the command 11 are completed, or can determine that all the times are incomplete.

The delay time specifying section 70 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The delay time specifying unit 70 determines the delay time, which is the time from when the command transmitting unit 40 transmits a command to the robots 130a to 130c until the robots 130a to 130c complete the command, for each of the robots 130a to 130c.

The delay time specifying unit 70 determines the time of the timed status information 61 (i.e., the time when the status information receiving unit 50 acquired the status information 51) and each time in the completion determination result 101 (i.e., each time in the command 11). ) is calculated as a time difference. Of the calculated time differences, the delay time identifying unit 70 sets the time difference at the time when the command completion determination unit 100 determines completion among the times of the completion determination result 101 as the delay time. When there are multiple times when completion is determined, the delay time specifying unit 70 sets the time difference between the earliest times among the times when completion is determined as the delay time.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the time difference 71 and delay time 72 determined by the delay time specifying unit 70 in this embodiment.

For example, the delay time specifying unit 70 calculates the difference between the time of 200 ms in the timed status information 61 and the time of 10 ms in the completion determination result 101 as a time difference of 190 ms. Similarly, the delay time specifying unit 70 determines the difference between the time of 200 ms in the timed status information 61 and the times of 20 ms, 30 ms, 40 ms, and 50 ms in the completion determination result 101 as time differences of 180 ms, 170 ms, 160 ms, and 150ms. In this way, the delay time identifying unit 70 can determine the time difference 71 for each time in the completion determination result 101.

Then, the delay time specifying unit 70 determines the time difference of 160 ms at the time 40 ms at which the command completion determination unit 100 determines completion among the time differences of 190 ms, 180 ms, 170 ms, 160 ms, and 150 ms, as follows: The delay time is assumed to be 72. In the example shown in FIG. 8, since there are two times when it is determined to be complete (time 40 ms and time 50 ms), the delay time specifying unit 70 determines that the time 40 ms is the earliest of the times when it is determined to be complete. Let the time difference of 160 ms be the delay time 72.

In this way, the delay time specifying unit 70 determines the delay time 72 for each of the robots 130a to 130c. Note that when the command completion determination unit 100 determines that all times of the completion determination result 101 (or the command 11) are incomplete, the delay time specifying unit 70 does not calculate the delay time 72. The delay time specifying unit 70 calculates the delay time 72 when the completion determination result 101 includes a time at which completion was determined.

The time difference 71 and delay time 72 determined by the delay time specifying unit 70 will be described in the case where there are multiple times when the command completion determining unit 100 determines completion.

Similar to FIG. 8, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the time difference 71 and delay time 72 determined by the delay time specifying unit 70 in this embodiment. However, FIG. 9 shows the timed state information 62 at a time of 210 ms. Therefore, the time difference 71 shown in FIG. 9 is larger than the time difference 71 shown in FIG. 8 by 10 ms.

The state information 62 with time shown in FIG. 9 differs from the state information 61 with time shown in FIG. 8 in the time at which the state information receiving unit 50 acquires the state information 51, 2 and the angle of axis 10) are the same. That is, the robot 130a is stationary at time 200 ms and time 210 ms, and is in the same state. Furthermore, in the time difference 71 shown in FIG. 9, the time 40 ms is considered to have been used.

As explained using FIG. 8, when the delay time 72 was calculated using the timed state information 61 at the time 200 ms, the time difference 160 ms at the time 40 ms was set as the delay time 72. Therefore, when calculating the delay time 72 using the timed state information 62 at the time 210ms shown in FIG. is the delay time 72.

The delay difference calculation unit 80 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The delay difference calculation unit 80 uses the delay times 72 determined for each of the robots 130a to 130c by the delay time specifying unit 70 to determine the difference in the delay times 72 between the robots 130a to 130c as a delay difference time. The delay difference calculation unit 80 calculates the delay difference time for each of the robots 130a to 130c. The delay difference calculation unit 80 calculates the delay difference time by subtracting the delay time of each of the robots 130a to 130c from the delay time of the robot 130a to 130c having the largest delay time, for example.

The delay difference time can be considered to be the difference in time required for the robots 130a to 130c to complete the commands between the robots 130a to 130c after the control device 110 sends the commands to the robots 130a to 130c. I can do it. In other words, the delay difference time can be considered to be the difference in time when instructions are completed between the robots 130a to 130c when the control device 110 simultaneously sends the instructions to the robots 130a to 130c.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the delay difference time 81 calculated by the delay difference calculation section 80.

The delay difference calculation section 80 receives the delay time 72 for each of the robots 130a to 130c (robots A to C) from the delay time specifying section 70. In the example shown in FIG. 10, the delay time of robot A is 160 ms, and the delay time of robots B and C is 200 ms. Therefore, among the robots A to C, the delay time of robot B and robot C is the largest.

Therefore, the delay difference calculation unit 80 calculates the delay difference time 81 for each of the robots A to C by subtracting the delay time of each of the robots A to C from the delay time of robot B (or robot C). In the example shown in FIG. 10, the delay difference calculation unit 80 subtracts the respective delay times 160ms, 200ms, and 200ms of robots A to C from the delay time of robot B of 200ms, and calculates the delay difference of each of robots A to C. The times are determined to be 40 ms, 0 ms, and 0 ms.

Here, the control device 110 according to the present embodiment calculates the delay time 72 and the delay difference time 81 for a plurality of devices (for example, robots A to C), and changes the time at which a command is sent to the device by the delay difference time 81. A description will be given of adjusting (for example, delaying) the times at which multiple devices complete commands at the same time and synchronizing the operations of multiple devices.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a time chart illustrating the delay time 72 and delay difference time 81 of robot A and robot B, and an example of a method for synchronizing the operations of robot A and robot B. The control device 110 determines the delay time 72 and delay difference time 81 of the robots A and B during the calibration period.

The control device 110 transmits commands A and B to the robots A and B, respectively, at time t0 during the calibration period. Robot A completes execution of command A at time t1, and robot B completes execution of command B at time t2. Therefore, the delay time tdA of robot A is (t1-t0), and the delay time tdB of robot B is (t2-t0). In this example, the delay time tdA of robot A is 160 ms, and the delay time tdB of robot B is 200 ms.

The delay time tdB of robot B is larger than the delay time tdA of robot A (tdB>tdA). Therefore, the delay time difference ΔtdA of robot A is (tdB-tdA), and the delay time difference ΔtdB of robot B is (tdB-tdB), that is, zero. Therefore, when the control device 110 simultaneously sends commands to robots A and B, robot B completes the command later than robot A by the delay difference time ΔtdA. In this embodiment, the delay difference time ΔtdA is 40 ms.

Since the delay difference times ΔtdA and ΔtdB of the robots A and B have been determined, the control device 110 adjusts the times at which commands are sent to the robots A and B by the delay difference times ΔtdA and ΔtdB, respectively. In this example, since ΔtdB=0ms, the delay difference time ΔtdB is not considered, and the time at which command A is sent to robot A is delayed by the delay difference time ΔtdA (40ms) from the time at which command B is sent to robot B. .

By adjusting the time to transmit the command in this way, the control device 110 transmits command B to robot B at time t3, and to robot A at time t4 (= Command A is transmitted at t3+ΔtdA). Robot B completes command B at time t5 (=t3+tdB), which is a delay time tdB after time t3. Robot A completes command A at time t6 (=t4+tdA), which is a delay time tdA after time t4. Since t4=t3+ΔtdA and ΔtdA=tdB−tdA, time t6 is equal to time t5. That is, robot A and robot B complete their commands at the same time.

By adjusting the times at which the commands are transmitted in this way, the control device 110 can synchronize the operations of the robots A and B by making the times at which the robots A and B complete their commands the same.

The command correction section 20 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The command correction unit 20 corrects the command 11 (FIG. 2) generated by the command generation unit 10 by changing the time included in the command 11 using the delay time 72 and delay difference time 81 of the robot 130. do. In the present embodiment, the control device 110 transmits to the robot 130 a command to be completed at a time that is the sum of the delay time 72 and the delay difference time 81 from the current time, at a time that is the delay difference time 81 from the current time. Therefore, the command correction unit 20 changes the command to a command at a later time by the sum of the delay time 72 and the delay difference time 81.

An example of correction of the command 11 executed by the command correction unit 20 to the robot A will be described using the time chart shown in FIG.

The control device 110 sends a command A that the robot A completes execution at a time after time t3 by the sum of the delay difference time ΔtdA and delay time tdA (ΔtdA+tdA), and causes the robot A to complete the execution at a time after time t3 by the delay difference time ΔtdA. Send to A. That is, the control device 110 transmits a command A for robot A to complete at time t6 to robot A at time t4.

Therefore, the command correction unit 20 changes the command A at time t3 to the command A at a time after time t3 by the sum of the delay difference time ΔtdA and the delay time tdA (ΔtdA+tdA). That is, the command correction unit 20 performs a correction to change the command A at time t3 to the command A at time t6.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating the correction executed by the command correction section 20.

In FIG. 12, the table on the left side shows an example of the command 15 for the robot A generated by the command generation unit 10. In command 15, time 0 ms corresponds to time t3 in the time chart of FIG. 11, and time 200 ms corresponds to time t6 in the time chart of FIG.

The command correction unit 20 converts the command at time 0ms (time t3) to a time 200ms later, which is the sum of delay difference time ΔtdA (40ms) and delay time tdA (160ms) from time 0ms, that is, time 200ms (time t6). ) to change the command. With this correction, the control device 110 does not transmit a command to the robot A at a time of 0 ms, but transmits a command at a time of 200 ms. Further, as already explained, the control device 110 transmits the command at the time of 200 ms to the robot A at the time t4.

In FIG. 12, the table on the right side shows the command that the control device 110 will send to the robot A at time t4 due to the correction by the command correction unit 20, that is, the command at the time 200 ms.

The timing adjustment section 30 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the configuration of the timing adjustment section 30. The timing adjustment unit 30 includes a delay difference time acquisition unit 31, a command acquisition unit 32, a command holding unit 33, and a timer 34, and adjusts the time at which the command is sent to the robot 130 by the delay difference time 81.

The delay difference time acquisition unit 31 acquires the delay difference times 81 (FIG. 10) of each of the robots 130a to 130c (robots A to C) from the delay difference calculation unit 80.

The command acquisition unit 32 acquires commands for each of the robots 130a to 130c. When the command correction unit 20 corrects the command, the command acquisition unit 32 acquires the corrected command from the command correction unit 20. If the command correction unit 20 has not corrected the command, the command acquisition unit 32 acquires the command generated by the command generation unit 10 from the command generation unit 10.

The command holding unit 33 delays the transmission time of the command acquired by the command acquisition unit 32 for each of the robots 130a to 130c by the delay difference time 81 acquired by the delay difference time acquisition unit 31, and outputs the command to the command transmission unit 40. do.

In this way, the timing adjustment unit 30 adjusts the timing at which the command to the robot 130 is output to the command transmission unit 40, and adjusts the time at which the command is transmitted to the robot 130 by the delay difference time 81.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, the delay difference times of the robots 130a to 130c (robots A to C) are 40 ms, 0 ms, and 0 ms, respectively, so the command holding unit 33 does not issue the command to the robot 130a. , the commands to the robots 130b to 130c are adjusted by 40ms (that is, delayed by 40ms), and then output to the command transmitter 40.

The command holding unit 33 can measure the length of time for adjusting the command using the timer 34.

The command transmitter 40 shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

The command transmitter 40 is an output interface and transmits the command output from the timing adjuster 30 to the robot 130. The robot 130 receives commands transmitted from the command transmitter 40 and is controlled by the control device 110.

In the above embodiment, an example has been described in which the command 11 generated by the command generation unit 10 and the status information 51 acquired by the status information reception unit 50 are expressed by angles of joints (axes) included in the robot 130.

Even if one or both of the command 11 generated by the command generation unit 10 and the status information 51 acquired by the status information reception unit 50 are expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot 130, the control device 110 The delay time 72 and the delay difference time 81 can be obtained in the same manner as when expressed by the angle of the axis. The position of the specific part of the robot 130 is, for example, the position of the tip of the arm provided to the robot 130.

Below, as an example, a case will be described in which the command 11 is expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot 130, and the state information 51 is expressed by the angle of the axis of the robot 130.

The status information receiving unit 50 can convert the acquired status information 51 expressed by the angle of the axis of the robot 130 into status information expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot 130. The status information receiving unit 50 holds information regarding the structure of the robot 130 (for example, the length of the arms connected to each axis), and can convert the status information 51 using this information. .

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of state information 51 expressed by the angle of the axis of the robot 130 and state information 55 expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot 130. The status information 55 is obtained by the status information receiving unit 50 converting the status information 51. FIG. 14 shows, as an example of the state information 55, the coordinates (X, Y, Z) of the position of the tip of the arm included in the robot 130a.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of the state difference 99 expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot 130. The time information adding unit 60 obtains the timed state information 65 by adding the time when the state information receiving unit 50 acquired the state information 51 to the state information 55 (FIG. 14). The command generating unit 10 generates a command 16 expressed by the coordinates (X, Y, Z) of the position of a specific part of the robot 130. The state comparison unit 90 obtains a state difference 99 from the timed state information 65 and the command 16. The state comparison unit 90 calculates the value of the state difference 99 for each of the X, Y, and Z coordinates.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a result (completion determination result 105) made by the command completion determination unit 100 using the state difference 99 expressed in coordinates. The distance of the completion determination result 105 is obtained by summing the absolute value of the value of the state difference 99 for the X coordinate, Y coordinate, and Z coordinate for each time in the command 16, that is, for each time in the state difference 99.

One or both of the command 11 and the status information 51 may be expressed by the velocity or acceleration of the position of a specific part of the robot 130. The velocity and acceleration of a position can be obtained by differentiating the coordinates of the position with respect to time (or by determining the difference with respect to time).

Therefore, the state information 51 of the robot 130 includes at least one of the position angle (angle from a predetermined reference position), coordinates, velocity, and acceleration of a predetermined specific part of the robot 130. . The velocity and acceleration include the velocity and acceleration of angle change and the velocity and acceleration of coordinate change.

When the status information 51 is the velocity or acceleration of the position (including angle) of a specific part of the robot 130, the command completion determination unit 100 sets the threshold value used to determine the completion of the command according to this velocity or acceleration. It can also be changed. For example, when the speed is high, the command completion determination unit 100 can increase the threshold value in order to cope with a large change in the position of a specific part of the robot 130.

In addition, when the state information 51 is expressed by the coordinates of the position of a specific part of the robot 130 (FIGS. 14 to 16), the state difference 99 (FIG. 15) can be determined by arbitrarily predetermined coordinates rather than the coordinates. It is also possible to use the distance between the two points. The distance between these two points may be a distance in a two-dimensional space (a distance in an XY plane, a distance in a YZ plane, or a distance in a ZX plane) or a distance in a three-dimensional space.

When there are multiple times at which the status information receiving unit 50 acquires the status information 51 (for example, time 200ms in FIG. 8 and time 210ms in FIG. 9), the delay time specifying unit 70 determines the delay time obtained at the multiple times. The average value, median value, or mode of the time 72 can also be used as the delay time 72. These multiple times can be times within a predetermined time interval. Furthermore, as time progresses, earlier times can be replaced with later times. For example, a set of times 200ms, 210ms, and 220ms can be changed to a set of times 210ms, 220ms, and 230ms by replacing 200ms with 230ms.

As explained above, the control device according to the present embodiment calculates the delay time 72 using the timed state information 61 and the command 11 sent to the robot 130, and calculates the difference in the delay time 72 between the plurality of robots 130. is determined as the delay difference time 81, and the time at which the command is sent to the robot 130 is adjusted by the delay difference time 81, thereby making the time at which the plurality of robots 130 complete their commands the same and synchronizing the operations of the plurality of robots 130. be able to.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications are possible. For example, the above embodiments have been described in detail to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and the present invention is not necessarily limited to embodiments having all the configurations described. Furthermore, it is possible to replace a part of the configuration of one embodiment with the configuration of another embodiment. Further, it is also possible to add the configuration of another embodiment to the configuration of one embodiment. Further, it is possible to delete a part of the configuration of each embodiment, or add or replace other configurations.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Command generation part, 11... Command, 15... Command, 16... Command, 20... Command correction part, 30... Timing adjustment part, 31... Delay difference time acquisition part, 32... Command acquisition part, 33... Command holding part, 34...Timer, 40...Command transmission section, 50...Status information receiving section, 51...Status information, 55...Status information, 60...Time information giving section, 61...Status information with time, 62...Status information with time, 65... Status information with time, 70...Delay time identification unit, 71...Time difference, 72...Delay time, 80...Delay difference calculation unit, 81...Delay difference time, 90...State comparison unit, 91...Received data acquisition unit, 92...Command Group acquisition section, 93... State difference calculation section, 94... State difference output section, 97... State difference, 99... State difference, 100... Command completion determination section, 101... Completion determination result, 105... Completion determination result, 110... Control Devices, 120a to 120c...Robot controllers, 130, 130a to 130c...Robots.

Claims (10)

a command generation unit that generates a command for a plurality of devices specifying the state of the device at a plurality of times;
a command transmitter that transmits the command to the device;
a status information receiving unit that acquires status information that is information indicating the status of the device;
a state comparison unit that calculates a state difference, which is a difference between the state of the device in the command and the state of the device in the state information, for each time in the command;
a command completion determination unit that uses the state difference to determine at which time the device has completed the command among the times in the command;
a delay time specifying unit that calculates, for each of the devices, a delay time that is the time from when the command transmitting unit transmits the command to the device until the device completes the command;
a delay difference calculation unit that uses the delay time of each of the devices to calculate a delay difference time that is the difference in delay time between the devices;
a timing adjustment unit that adjusts the time at which the command is sent to the device by the delay difference time;
A device control device comprising: comprising a time information adding unit that adds a time when the status information receiving unit acquired the status information to the status information;
A device control device according to claim 1. comprising a command correction unit that corrects the command by changing the time included in the command using the delay time and the delay difference time;
A device control device according to claim 2. The command completion determination unit uses the state difference to determine at what time in the command the state information corresponds to, thereby determining at what time the device completed the command.
A device control device according to claim 2. The command completion determination unit determines which time in the command the state information corresponds to by comparing the value of the index obtained from the value of the state difference with a predetermined threshold value. seek,
The device control device according to claim 4. The delay time specifying unit includes:
Calculating the difference between the time when the state information receiving unit acquired the state information and each time in the command as a time difference,
Among the calculated time differences, a time difference at a time when the command completion determination unit determines that the device has completed the command is set as the delay time.
The device control device according to claim 4. The timing adjustment unit adjusts the time at which the command is transmitted to the device by delaying the transmission time by the delay difference time and outputting the command to the command transmission unit.
A device control device according to claim 2. The state information includes at least one of a position angle, coordinates, velocity, and acceleration of a predetermined portion of the device.
A device control device according to claim 1. A control device according to claim 1;
a plurality of the devices controlled by the control device;
An equipment control system comprising: Executed by a control device that controls multiple devices,
a command generation step of generating a command for a plurality of the devices specifying the states of the devices at a plurality of times;
a command sending step of transmitting the command to the device;
a status information receiving step of acquiring status information that is information indicating the status of the device;
a state comparison step of determining a state difference, which is a difference between the state of the device in the command and the state of the device in the state information, for each time in the command;
a command completion determination step of determining at which time the device has completed the command among the times in the command, using the state difference;
for each of the devices, a delay time specifying step of determining a delay time that is the time from when the command is sent to the device in the command sending step until the device completes the command;
a delay difference calculation step of calculating a delay difference time, which is a difference in delay time between the devices, using the delay time of each of the devices;
a timing adjustment step of adjusting the time at which the command is sent to the device by the delay difference time;
A method for controlling a device, comprising:

Images