JPH03126102A - Device and method for robot control - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the complication of program generation and to improve the reliability of a program by sending the program in a standardized form to a controller as a program in an individualized form for each robot or arm. CONSTITUTION:The program where the control of plural robots or arms 13 and 14 is described in the standardized form is read out from a storage part 5. According as the program is related to a cooperative operation or an independent operation, the program of the standardized form is sent to controllers 11 and 12 as the program in the individualized form for each of robots or arms 13 and 14. Thus, it is unnecessary to insert an instruction for synchronous adjustment after each operation instruction when the program part related to the cooperative operation is described at the time of generating the program in the standardized form, and a programmer is released from the complication of program generation, and the reliability of the program is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The details of the robot control device of the present invention will be explained according to the following items.

A. Industrial field of application B1 Overview of the invention C1 Prior art a. - Background of boat fishing, prior art example [Figure 5] D9 Problem to be solved by the invention E1 Means for solving the problem F. Examples [ 1 to 4] a. Configuration [Fig. 1] b. Operation [Fig. 2 C6 Specific example [Fig. 4] c-1. Appearance [Fig. 4] c-2. Program example c- 2-a, unified format c-2-b, individual format 61 Effects of the invention (A, field of industrial application) The present invention relates to a novel robot control device and method. Specifically, in a robot control device that sends a control program to a control device provided to independently control multiple robots or arms, and controls the cooperative operation or independent operation of each robot or arm, Read the program in which the control of A new robot control device that frees the programmer from the complexity of creating a program and increases the reliability of the created program by sending it to the control device as an individualized program. This is what we are trying to provide.

(B. Summary of the Invention) The robot control device of the present invention sends a control program to each control device provided to independently control a plurality of robots or arms, and allows each robot or arm to perform cooperative or independent operations. A robot control device for controlling a plurality of robots or arms, which includes a program storage section provided for storing a program that describes the control of multiple robots or arms in a unified format, an interpretation section for interpreting commands, and a readout section. A judgment unit that determines whether the program is related to cooperative motion or independent motion, and a judgment unit that determines whether the program is related to cooperative motion or independent motion, and when the program is related to cooperative motion, the commands written in a unified format are sent to individual robots or arms. a conversion means for converting the commands into commands in a given format; an additional means for adding communication commands between control devices to the program when the program is related to cooperative operation; and a means for distributing the individualized program to each robot or arm to control each In addition, the robot control method of the present invention includes sending a control program to each control device provided for independently controlling a plurality of robots or arms, and transmitting a control program to each robot or arm. A robot control method for controlling coordinated or independent movements of arms, which reads a program in which the control of multiple robots or arms is written in a unified format from a program storage unit and interprets commands. Is the read program related to cooperative operation?
As a result of determining whether the program is related to independent motion, if the program is related to cooperative motion, the commands written in a unified format are converted to instructions in an individualized format for each robot or arm, and the instructions are exchanged between control devices. In this method, communication commands are added to the program and then sent to each control device, and if the program relates to independent movements of the robot or arm, the program is sent to the control device of the vehicle. It is possible to eliminate the complexity of creating a program in which descriptions of cooperative motions and independent motions of multiple robots or arms are mixed, and to reduce the occurrence of programming errors.

(C, Prior Art) (a, - Background of Boat Fishing) In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for various electronic devices to be lighter and smaller, and their production equipment has also been forced to be smaller.
For this reason, even higher processing precision is required. Furthermore, electronic equipment for general consumers is becoming increasingly individualized, which requires high-mix, low-volume production, and flexibility in production equipment.

Due to these circumstances, production equipment lines using robots are often set up as production equipment, and for high-precision machining, horizontal articulated robots are used as relatively compact robots in the same way as vertical articulated robots. It started to be done.

For this reason, the number of production sites where several robots operate on a single production line has increased, but in order to handle a wide variety of products, multiple types of workpieces are run simultaneously on the same line, and each robot is required to identify the type of workpiece. Increasingly, it is being used in such a way that the process is switched to one that corresponds to the work. The advantage of this method is that multiple types of products can be produced almost simultaneously on a single line, but if the robot has to perform completely different tasks depending on the type of workpiece, it may be necessary to change processing tools, etc. As a result, the throughput per line (the amount of work done in a certain amount of time) may drop significantly, and the robot's operating range may have to be changed due to changes in the parts supply location during installation. There are drawbacks.

Furthermore, if only one type of workpiece is passed through the same line during a predetermined period of time in order to prevent a drop in throughput, the number of products that can be produced will be limited.

(b, conventional example) [Figure 5] Therefore, as a solution to the above-mentioned problem, a so-called dual-arm robot with two arms was installed to increase the operating efficiency of each station in the production line. Measures are being taken to shorten the overall length of the factory and increase the overall operating rate of the factory by adding more lines.

In this case, the control device a of the dual-arm robot operates each arm b, , b, instead of operating each arm by the - control device as shown in FIG.

Control devices C1 and C2 are provided in each arm, and coordination between the arms b and b2 is achieved through communication between these control devices C1 and C2. And the control device CI
, C2 is adapted to control each of the arms Ab, , b, according to a control program stored in the program device d of -.

Such a control device a has the advantage that even if it is not easy to use, the control device of a single-arm robot can be used as the control devices C1 and C2, and thereby it can be realized at a low cost.

(D. Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above-mentioned device, when two arms perform cooperative operations, synchronization is required to adjust the relationship between the arms, such as their positions and speeds. It is necessary to write adjustment commands, etc. for each operation in the program, making it easy for programming mistakes to occur and reducing the reliability of the program. Also, it is difficult to create programs because it is necessary to write synchronous adjustment commands for each operation sequentially. There is a problem in that the above complexity cannot be avoided.

For example, when installing cable connectors, arm b
, and b2 grip a connector provided at the end of a cable and move it from one position to another while constantly maintaining a constant distance between the connectors.

The program in this case has a format as shown in Table 0 below, for example.

Table 0 Note that the command rllllOVJ in Table 0 above is a command to move the arm to the next position, so arm b1 is moved from start point 1 to point 2 to point 3 to end point 4, and the arm b2 is moved from starting point 5 to point 6 to point 7 to ending point 8.

As is clear from the table above, from a certain movement command, the next 8! During the transition to the vJ command, a command for synchronization called r5ynCrOJ is written, and this command synchronizes the arm control through communication between the control devices C1 and C02.

In this way, in the case of a dual-arm robot, or when multiple robots are controlled by their own control devices and are made to perform cooperative movements, the above control method does not make programming complicated. It is understood that the more complex the content of the cooperative action, the worse it becomes.

(E. Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the robot control device of the present invention sends a control program to each control device provided to independently control a plurality of robots or arms. , a robot control device that controls the cooperative or independent movements of each robot or arm, comprising a program storage unit provided for storing a program that describes the control of multiple robots or arms in a unified format; , an interpretation unit that interprets instructions, a judgment unit that determines whether the read program is related to cooperative operation or independent operation, and a program that is written in a unified format when the program is related to cooperative operation. a converting means for converting commands into commands in an individualized format for each robot or arm; an additional means for adding communication commands between control devices to the program when the program relates to cooperative operation; The robot is equipped with a distribution means for distributing the program to each robot or arm and sending it to each control device.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a program that describes the control of multiple robots or arms in a unified format is read out, and the program is unified depending on whether the program is related to cooperative motion or independent motion. Since a program in a standardized format is sent to the control device as an individualized program for each robot or arm, when a program in a unified format is created, programs related to cooperative operation are When writing a program, there is no need to insert instructions for synchronization adjustment into the commands one by one, eliminating the occurrence of programming errors such as missing communication commands including synchronization adjustment instructions, and freeing the user from the complexity of program creation. , the created program will also be reliable.

(F. Embodiment) [FIGS. 1 to 4] Details of the robot control device of the present invention will be described below according to the illustrated embodiment 1.

The basic concept of the robot control device of the present invention is to write a program for cooperative operation by a plurality of robots or robot arms by treating the position of the robots (or arms) as a variable. The advantage is that the motion control can be described in a unified manner as a program for (or arm).

For example, consider a cooperative operation by two 4-axis horizontally articulated robots as shown in FIG. In addition, 0 in the figure
1 is the rotation angle of the first arm 2 with respect to the base, θ2 is the rotation angle of the second arm 3 with respect to the first arm 2, Z is the movement distance of the robot in the vertical movement axis direction, and R is the vertical movement of the tool tip 4 The distance traveled in the axial direction is shown in each figure.

In this case, the position of the first robot arm is determined by a set of variables (θ11, θ21
, Zl, R1), and the position of the second robot arm is expressed by a set of variables (θ
12, θ22, Z2, R2).

Therefore, the positions of these two robot arms are collectively 8.
A set of variables, (θ11, θ21, Zl, R1, θ12
, θ22, Z2, R2), the positions of the two robot arms can be represented as one comprehensively combined position.

In this way, programs related to cooperative movements are written in a unified format (hereinafter referred to as "unified format"), and then broken down into control programs for each robot arm, and then individually written for each robot control section. If the program is sent as a program in a standardized format (hereinafter referred to as "individual format"), the efficiency of the program creation work will be improved.

(a, Configuration) [FIG. 1] FIG. 1 shows the basic block configuration of the robot control device 1. As shown in FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 5 denotes a unified program storage section, which stores a program (hereinafter referred to as "unified program") that uniformly describes the operations of a plurality of robots (or arms).

Reference numeral 6 denotes a program interpretation section, which interprets instructions read out from the unified program storage section 5.

7 is an internal state storage unit, and the unified program is separated into programs for each robot control device (hereinafter referred to as “individual programs”) in a program distribution unit, which will be described later. Instructions are memorized.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a synchronization adjustment command storage unit, in which commands for synchronization between control devices regarding cooperative operation commands (hereinafter referred to as "synchronization adjustment commands") are stored.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a program adding section, which adds a synchronization adjustment command from the synchronization adjustment command storage section 8 immediately after the cooperative operation command instructed by the program interpretation section 6. Note that such synchronization adjustment commands are not added to the independent operations of each robot (or arm).

Reference numeral 10 denotes a program distribution unit, which sorts commands related to cooperative motion and independent motion for each robot (or arm) and transfers them to each robot control device 11 and 12. Incidentally, communication between the mouth pot control devices 11 and 12 is performed by a pass line, and thereby synchronization of the movements of the robot arms during cooperative movement is achieved.

The movements of the robots (or arms) 13.14 are controlled by robot control devices 11.12 corresponding to these robots (or arms) 13.14.

(b. Operation) [FIG. 2] FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation centered on the program interpretation section 6.

a) Interpret the command indicating the type of r operation. ” The program interpreting unit 6 interprets the command indicating the type of operation (cooperative operation, independent operation) from the unified program storage unit 5, and stores the command in the internal state storage unit 7.

b) “Do we perform a cooperative movement?” You are asked whether the result of the interpretation in step a) above means the start of a cooperative movement, and if so, proceed to the next step C) and perform an independent movement. If the command is the one shown in FIG.

c) Convert r unified format instructions to individual format instructions. ” Since the commands interpreted by the program interpreter 6 are written in a unified format, they cannot be used in the robot control devices 11 and 12 in this form. For this purpose, operation commands, etc. are converted into individual format commands by commands stored in the internal state storage unit 7 in advance, and the robot control device 1
1.12, it is sent to the program addition unit 9 as a usable command format.

d) Insert r synchronization adjustment instruction. ” The program interpretation unit 6 gives an instruction to the synchronization adjustment command storage unit 8 and causes the synchronization adjustment command to be sent to the program addition unit 9.

As a result, the synchronization adjustment command sentence is inserted immediately after the cooperative operation command.

e) Distribute the r program. ” After steps c) and d), the individual format programs to which the synchronization adjustment commands have been attached are distributed by the program distribution section 10 to the robot control devices 11 and 12, respectively.

Further, since the program determined in step b) to be related to independent operation can be used as an instruction for the robot control device as it is, it is distributed to each robot control device 11, 12, respectively.

f) "Transfer commands to each robot control device." The programs sorted for each robot control device by the program distribution unit 10 are transferred to these robot control devices 11.12, and then transferred to the robot (or arm) 13.
It is used as a command for controlling the operation of 14.

Then, the series of program processing is completed and the process returns to step a) again.

(c, specific example) [Figure 4] Figure 4 shows the above robot control device 1 as a dual-arm robot 15.
The following is an example of how this method is applied.

(c-1, external appearance) [Figure 4] Figure 4 (A) shows the two arms 16 and 17 of the robot 15.
Due to the cooperative operation, the cable connector 18.18,...
are taken out from the component supply section 19, and the boards 20, 20,...
・Shows the status of the work of inserting it into the specified position. In this case, hands 16a and 17a provided at the tip of each arm
The connector parts 18a, 18a gripped by the connector parts 18a are always moved so that the distance between them does not exceed a certain distance. Such movement may be accomplished by moving the hands 16a, 17a in parallel.

Figure 4 (B) shows arms 16 and 17 of the dual-arm robot 15.
This shows a situation in which each of these is controlled to perform completely independent operations.

That is, the hand 16a of one arm 16 takes out a predetermined electronic component 21 from the component pallet 22 and places it on the assembly board 23.
In this example, the hand 17a of the other arm 17 takes out another electronic component 24 from the component pallet 25 and mounts it on another assembly board 26, which is performed in parallel. be.

As described above, depending on the content of the work on the line, work performed by the cooperative movement of the two arms 16, 17 and work performed by the independent movement of each arm 16, 17 may be alternately repeated.

Table (c-2, program example) (c-2-a, unified format) Table 1 below shows an example of a work program written in the unified format, which is recorded in the unified program storage unit 5. It is.

The command rCOrJ in Table 1 is a command to declare that the following command is related to cooperative operation, and the function m1
x(A, B) is a combination of the positions of arm 16 and arm 17 to generate a position of -, which is defined as a new position. In this case, points A and B are A (θ11, θ21, R1), B (θ12, θ
(θ11. θ21. R1), (θ12.
θ22. R2) w+1x = (θ11. θ21. 'R1, θ12. θ22.
This corresponds to the operation R2). As a result, in steps 2 to 5, the position of the arm 16 paint 1
-4 and the positions paint5-8 of the arm 17 are combined to define new positions paint10-13.

Further, following this (rmov J is an arm movement command, and as steps 6 to 9 proceed, the arms 16 and 17 are moved to each position relative to the composite positions paint 10 to 13. For example, if the cable The position where the connector 18 is taken out from the component supply section 19 is paint 10, the preparation position before inserting the cable connector 18 into a predetermined position on the board 20 is paint 11, the insertion position of the cable connector 18 is pofnt 12, and the position after insertion is pofnt 12. The standby position is pai
nt 13, the connector parts 18a and 18a
Paint 1 to insert the cable connector 18 into a predetermined position on the board 20 while maintaining a constant distance from the
The coordinates of each point may be set so that the distances between -5, 2-6, 3-7, and 4-8 are always constant.

In Table 1 above, the focus is on the movement of the arm position, and detailed commands required for control such as opening/closing commands for the hunts 16a and 17a and arm movement speed are omitted.

Thereafter, in step 10, the independent operation of each arm is declared by the rforJ command.

rrobot(i) in step 11.14
J (i=1.2) uses ID number i for distinguishing each robot (or arm) to clarify which robot (or arm) the following command relates to.

Therefore, for example, after the movement of the arm 16 is declared in step 11, the movement of the arm 16 is declared in step 12.13.
only is moved into place. For example, electronic component 21
pain when taking out from the parts pallet 22
The electronic component 21 taken out as t 101 is assembled on the assembly board 2.
Paint the position when mounting at the specified location in 3.
102, in steps 11 to 13, the arm 16 mounts the electronic component 21 onto the assembly board.

Similarly, in steps 14 to 16, after the arm 17 declares its operation, the arm is moved to paint 202, 203, and the electronic component 24 is mounted at a predetermined position on the assembly board 26.

r forken J in step 17 is a command that declares the end of the independent operation and also means the restart of the cooperative operation.

As described above, in the above program example, r C0rpJ and rforJ are used as instructions indicating the type of operation, and these are interpreted in step a) of the flowchart described above. Note that it is not necessary to start a cooperative operation or an independent operation by a declaration command corresponding to each. For example, since the instruction rrobot (i) J is always used during an independent operation, this instruction can be used as an independent operation. Alternatively, you can always give priority to the cooperative operation when writing it, so that there is no need to write a declaration command for this purpose, and only when it is an independent operation, you can write the start step using some declaration command. It is also possible to use a method that determines the end step.

(c-2-b, individual format) The program in Table 1 above is converted from a unified format to an individual format by the program interpreter 6 depending on whether the command is related to cooperative operation or independent operation. A command statement is added.

Thereafter, the program distribution unit 10 separates the program into programs for each arm. Table 2.3 below shows an example in which the program for the garment 1 is separated into individual programs; Table 2 is a program for arm 16, and Table 3 is a program for arm 17.

Table 2 Table 3 As shown in Table 2.3, the synchronization adjustment command r 5ynCr is used immediately after a command related to cooperative operation or when restarting cooperative operation.
OJ has been inserted, and these programs will function as arm control programs in the robot control devices 11 and 12, as in the past.

(d. Effect) According to the robot control device 1, programs related to multiple robots (or arms) can be written in a unified format, so that the outlook for program creation is improved, and instructions can be coordinated. After determining whether the program is related to motion or independent motion, the program for each robot control device is converted from the unified format to the individual format and the addition of synchronization adjustment command statements is done accordingly. Since the procedure of decomposing the program into two parts is taken, the program creation process is not complicated and errors are reduced.

In addition, depending on the system, programming is performed using a personal computer, and then translated into a low-level language (machine language) etc. using a compiler before being transferred to the robot control device. By creating a pre-processor format using a method in which a written program is created, individual format programs are created, and these are translated into the language used by each robot control device. This makes it possible to use this without requiring any changes to the compiler.

(G Effect of the Invention) As is clear from the above description, the robot control device of the present invention sends a control program to each control device provided to independently control a plurality of robots or arms, and or a robot control device for controlling cooperative or independent movements of arms, comprising a program storage unit provided for storing a program that describes the control of multiple robots or arms in a unified format;
an interpreter that interprets commands, a judgment unit that determines whether the read program is related to cooperative motion or independent motion, and a program that is written in a unified format when the program is related to cooperative motion. Conversion means for converting commands into commands in an individualized format for each robot or arm; additional means for adding communication commands between control devices to the program when the program relates to cooperative operations; and an individualized program. The robot control method of the present invention is characterized by comprising a distributing means for distributing a plurality of robots or arms to each robot or arm and sending it to each control device. A robot control method in which a control program is sent to a control device that controls the cooperative or independent movements of each robot or arm, and the program describes the control of multiple robots or arms in a unified format. is read from the program storage unit, the instructions are interpreted, and it is determined whether the read program is related to cooperative operation or independent operation.If the program is related to cooperative operation, it is written in a unified format. The commands are converted into individualized commands for each robot or arm, and communication commands between control devices are added to the program and then sent to each control device. The present invention is characterized in that the program is sent to the control device of the vehicle when the program is related to the operation.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a program that describes the control of multiple robots or arms in a unified format is read out, and the program is unified depending on whether the program is related to cooperative motion or independent motion. Since a program in a standardized format is sent to the control device as an individualized program for each robot or arm, when a program in a unified format is created, programs related to cooperative operation are When writing a part, there is no need to insert synchronization adjustment commands after each operation command, eliminating the occurrence of programming errors due to missing communication commands including synchronization adjustment commands, and eliminating the complexity of program creation. The resulting program will also be reliable.

The above-mentioned embodiments are merely examples of implementation of the robot control device of the present invention, and the technical scope of the robot control device of the present invention should not be construed to be limited thereby. After creating a unified format program using a personal computer, a preprocessor format program is used to separate the unified format program into individual format programs, thereby changing the hardware configuration of a conventional robot system. This may be done by software processing without any changes. Further, it is not necessary to directly communicate between the control devices of the robot or the arm using the path line as in the above embodiments, but the device shown by the broken line in FIG. 1 also performs communication-related processing such as synchronization. It is possible to implement it in various ways such as.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 4 show an example of the implementation of the robot control device of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the robot control device, FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation, and FIG. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of how to select coordinates.
Figure 4 shows an example of how the robot control device of the present invention is applied to a dual-arm robot, where (A) is a schematic perspective view showing how it is used during cooperative operation, and (B) is a schematic perspective view when it is used in independent operation. FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing the usage situation, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional robot control device. 11.12...Control device, 13.14...Robot (or arm) Applicant Sony Corporation Code explanation 1...Robot control device, 5...Program storage unit, 6...Interpretation part, judgment part, 6.7... Conversion means, 8.9... Addition means, 10... Distribution means, Schematic diagram (Figure 6, Figure 4 CA')

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A robot control device that sends a control program to each control device provided to independently control a plurality of robots or arms, and controls the cooperative movement or independent movement of each robot or arm. A program storage section provided to store a program that describes the control of the robot or arm in a unified format, an interpretation section that interprets instructions, and whether the read program is related to cooperative operation or independent. a determination unit that determines whether the program is related to a motion; a conversion unit that converts instructions written in a unified format into instructions in an individualized format for each robot or arm when the program is related to a cooperative motion; The present invention includes an additional means for adding communication commands between control devices to the program when the robot is related to cooperative operation, and a distribution means for distributing the individualized program to each robot or arm and sending it to each control device. Characteristic robot control device (2) A robot control method in which a control program is sent to a control device provided for independently controlling a plurality of robots or arms, and the cooperative or independent movements of each robot or arm are controlled. , reads a program that describes the control of multiple robots or arms in a unified format from the program storage unit, interprets the instructions, and determines whether the read program is related to cooperative movement or independent movement. As a result, when a program involves cooperative movement, the instructions written in a unified format are converted into instructions in an individualized format for each robot or arm, and communication instructions between control devices are added to the program. A robot control method characterized in that the program is then sent to each control device, and when the program relates to an independent movement of the robot or the arm, the program is simply sent to the control device.