Patent Grant
9415512
The present invention relates generally to robotic systems, and more particularly, to systems and methods for part location during operation of robotic systems including moving conveyors.
Programmable controllers operate elaborate industrial equipment, such as robots, in accordance with a plurality of stored control programs. When executed, each program causes the programmable controller or robot controller to examine the state of the controlled machinery by evaluating signals from one or more sensing devices (e.g., position encoders, temperature sensors, or pressure sensors) and to operate the machinery (e.g., by controlling the output voltage for servo motors, or energizing/de-energizing discrete components) based on a procedural framework, the sensor signals and, if necessary, more complex processing. As an added complexity, the controlled machinery may further include a moving conveyor system that moves work (e.g. a tool or a part to be serviced by a robot) relative to such robot, requiring additional processing to determine work location relative to the robot to facilitate robotic manipulation of the work.
The programmable controller is generally described as a computer-based control unit that is represented by an aggregate of conventional elements. The control unit also supports one or more user interfaces to facilitate operator input of processing programs, commanded positions, and system parameters. Such user interfaces may include teach pendants that allow a programmer to lead a robot through a desired sequence of events by activating the appropriate pendant button or switch, and may include offline PC simulation devices on which a required sequence of functional and positional steps may be written for simulated execution or for actual test execution in combination with a teach pendant.
When establishing a processing program, it is necessary to establish a physical or geometrical relationship between the robot and work to be serviced by the robot. Users want to understand where in the robot envelope a position can and cannot be reached.
To establish physical or geometrical coordinate points precisely within the robot's working envelope using conventional teach pendant systems, an operator typically manually controls the robot, including a conveyor holding the work, and physically teaches the coordinate points by activating an appropriate pendant button or switch. Essentially, a user must manually move work down a conveyor line and then manually move an associated robot to establish a taught position. Program verification and program touch-up also typically require a user to manually lead or walk a robot through the programmed steps. Programming, program verification and program touch-up are typically performed iteratively and may take significant time.
Undesirably, Cartesian conveyor tracking systems may be difficult to use primarily because robot manipulator joint angle locations can change for a given point on the part. A user may teach a point on the work such that the robot can reach that point. However, if the work is moved using the conveyor, the robot must change its posture/joint angles to touch the same point. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the point on the work can be reached by the robot once the work has been moved. And finally, even if a plurality of positions are taught using a teach pendant in the context of establishing a processing program, the teach pendant itself provides no feedback about the viability and acceptability of a processing program so established. Instead, the processing program must be executed to determine acceptability. If the processing program is determined to be unacceptable, then further iterations of teach pendant programming, verification, and touch-up must occur.
Alternatively, a user may utilize a known offline simulation program to develop a processing program for a robot. During execution of the simulation program, data representative of the simulation may be recorded in external files. The user may then manually review and search the data to determine acceptable physical or geometrical coordinate points within the robot's working envelope. However, such data files may be complex and quite large, so that the process of reviewing and searching the data files may require a level of expertise and may further be time consuming. Moreover, existing simulation programs are not capable of capturing data indicative of position for a robot and associated work and using such data for synchronization of the work and the robot for planning and teaching purposes. Lastly, simulation data must be correlated with actual run-time data from a robotic cell to validate that simulated physical and geometrical points are representative of actual points in the work cell.
It is therefore desirable to develop a system and method for enhancing a visualization of physical or geometrical coordinate points within a robot's working envelope, wherein the system and method overcome the shortcomings of the prior art.
Concordant and consistent with the present invention, a system and method for enhancing a visualization of coordinate points within a robot's working envelope has surprisingly been discovered.
In one embodiment of the method, part data associated with a position of a part is read using a teach pendant program. The part data may include part offset from a known position. The part data is automatically stored within a part program instruction of the teach pendant program. The part data may be stored within the part program in a motion instruction associated with a motion line of the teach pendant program. Additionally, the part program instruction may be hidden from a user of the teach pendant program.
In another embodiment, a robot data associated with a position of the robot is read using the teach pendant program. The robot data is automatically stored within a robot program instruction of the teach pendant program, and may be synchronized with the part data. The part and robot data may be extracted from the respective part and robot program instructions by a one of a programmable controller, a teach pendant controller, and an offline simulation having access to the teach pendant program to provide a graphical representation of the position of the part on a display associated with the robot. The part program instruction and the robot program instruction may be executed by a programmable controller to place one of the part and the robot at a location indicated by the part data and the robot data. A user of the teach pendant program may place one of the part and the robot at a desired location by reference to the graphical representation on the display.
In another embodiment, a programmable controller having a robot is disclosed. The programmable controller includes a teach pendant operating pursuant to a teach pendant program. A processor is coupled to the teach pendant for accepting data associated with at least one of a part position of a part and a robot position of the robot. The processor automatically stores the data within a program instruction within the teach pendant program. The data may include a part offset relative to a known position. Additionally, the program instruction may be hidden from a user. The programmable controller may further include a display device, wherein the programmable controller accesses the program instruction, extracts the data from the program instruction, and provides a graphical representation of the data on the display device.
The above, as well as other advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, particularly when considered in the light of the drawings described herein.
The following detailed description and appended drawings describe and illustrate various embodiments of the invention. The description and drawings serve to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any manner.
A representative work cell 10 including a robot 12 and a moving conveyor system 14 moving an item of work 16 relative to the robot 12 is described with reference to
The work cell 10 may be designed for the robot 12 to specifically service a known point 22 on the item of work 16. It is understood that the robot 12 is interconnected to a programmable controller (not shown), and may further be connected to a teach pendant (not shown) useful for allowing a programmer to lead the robot 12 through a desired sequence of events relative to the item of work 16. Such a programmable controller including a teach pendant may take the form as disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,513, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
As noted previously, prior to full operation of a work cell 10, the programmable controller must be properly programmed by a user to operate the robot 12 based on a desired procedural framework. One method of properly programming operation of the robot 12 requires a user, using the teach pendant, to “teach” the known point 22 on the item of work 16 to the programmable controller such that the robot 12 can reach the known point 22, as illustrated in
During programming processes, a user may manually manipulate the robot 12, the moving conveyor 14 and the item of work 16 to identify one or more positions of the known point 22 along the moving conveyor 14 where the robot may service the known point 22. However, a determination of whether the program is acceptable may only be obtained by running the program. As a non-limiting example, if the previously identified position of the known point 22 causes interference between one or more of the robots 12, then the user will be required to iteratively identify additional positions of the known point 22, which may take significant time. Additionally, during the programming process, the ability to identify a position at which the robot 12 may service the known point 22 provides no indication of the validity, operability and/or viability of the program being created.
The programmable controller 62 may include a user interface 68 for allowing a user to enter data or programs into the controller 62 or for accessing the data stored therein. The user interface 68 may include a display 70 for displaying the information to the user and a teach pendant 72.
The programmable controller 62 may be a robot controller, wherein in such a case, the controller 62 is coupled to a robot 74 for actively performing a variety of tasks. It is understood that the robot 74 may include a movable conveyor (not shown) for moving an item of work (not shown). It is further understood that the present invention is not limited to robot controllers. As a non-limiting example, the programmable controller 62 may be a passive controller, such as a monitoring device that monitors predetermined conditions.
To assist in monitoring operation of the programmable controller 62, at least one remote computer 76 is coupled to the programmable controller 62 preferably via a functional network 78. The remote computer 76 may be located in the same room or building as the programmable controller 62, or it may be located in an entirely different building, which may or may not be located in the same geographic vicinity as the controller 62. The network 78 may be a local or wide area network of controllers or may be a direct link between devices.
Coupled to the remote computer 76 is one or more second user interfaces 80, which may include a remote computer device such as a simulation computer for entering information regarding the desired data to be accessed. The remote computer 76 also includes a data exchange facilitator 82, in communication with the user interface 80 and the network 78, for facilitating data interchange with the programmable controller 62.
The programmable controller 62 may include an interface module 84 coupled to the network 78 for receiving requests for data from the remote computer 76. The interface module 84 may be coupled to a data converter module 86, which is in communication with memory 64, for processing the request and converting data into a comprehensible format that is readable by the user of the remote computer 76, such as, text, graphics, audio, or tabular format.
In process block 114, the programmable controller 62 stores data indicative of the node of interest created in process block 112 in a hidden robot motion instruction. In process block 116, the hidden robot motion instruction is stored as a data object 66 within the memory 64, for example. In one embodiment, the hidden robot motion instruction is stored as a motion instruction within the teach pendant program. The hidden robot motion instruction may be added to the part motion instruction, or it may be added discretely adjacent to or associated with the part motion instruction. It is understood that the user may repeatedly create nodes of interest using process steps 110, 112, 114 and 116. In this manner, data indicative of each node of interest may be added to the memory as data objects, or to the teach pendant program as hidden motion instructions. The data indicative of each node of interest is not directly utilized by the user, but may be accessed by any routine, task, interface module or the like interconnected with the programmable controller 62.
According to the embodiment of
At step 122 of
According to an embodiment of the invention, all data indicative of nodes of interest captured and stored within hidden robot motion instructions associated with each node of interest may be stored in the memory 64 and may be accessed by any routine, task, interface module or the like interconnected with the programmable controller 62, which may further process the data. As a result, the data may be used to review the programs and to manipulate the robot 74. For example, as shown in
A flow diagram according to an embodiment of the invention wherein the data indicative of nodes of interest that is captured and stored within hidden robot motion instructions associated with each node of interest may also be used to directly manipulate the robot is shown in
The reachability map 200 may graphically depict all or part of a work cell 210 including a robot 212 and a moving conveyor system 214 moving an item of work 216 relative to the robot 212. The item of work 216 may be shown as a part, a tool, a fixture, or any other item intended to be serviced by the robot 212. One or more articulating arms 218 may be shown, as required. Within the robotic work cell 210, accessible areas may be indicated graphically, as shown at reference number 220 on the reachability map 200 in
While certain representative embodiments and details have been shown for purposes of illustrating the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure, which is further described in the following appended claims.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 20160059414 A1 | Mar 2016 | US |
