Method and system for persistent storage and later visualization of the internal operating state of a robot

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for permanently storing internal operating states (20) and for visualizing a temporally preceding process sequence, and to a robot (5) and / or a robot controller (17), wherein the robot (5) is preferably mounted on or next to a processing machine, in particular an injection molding machine (4), and is used for removing, handling, manipulating or further processing of injection molded parts (3) that have just been produced. The robot controller (17) records data (20), in particular state changes, positions, internal parameters, time stamps, etc., and in the event of a fault (24), associates this most recently recorded information with the fault (24) and stores it, so that the state changes before the corresponding fault (24) are adjusted for analysis based on a virtual model (21) of the physical robot and are presented visually.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a method for permanently storing internal operating states and for visualizing a temporally preceding process sequence, as well as a robot and / or a robot controller therefor. Background Art

[0002] Systems are known in which all data are recorded in the workstation by corresponding activations over the entire period of time. These data are then transmitted and stored on a laptop or computer by connecting the workstation to the laptop or computer, where they can then be analyzed externally.

[0003] Disadvantage in this case is: in the case of this approach, the fault analysis cannot be carried out immediately, and therefore the installation cannot be operated for a long period of time before the cause of the fault can be found and eliminated. Large data volumes are also stored in the case of long operating cycles, which causes significant analysis costs. Summary of the invention

[0004] The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a method for a robot and / or a robot controller of the type mentioned at the outset, with which the disadvantages described above are avoided on the one hand and the user-friendliness is significantly increased on the other hand. In this case, it is necessary to draw complex conclusions about the movement process of the installation from the stored data, which often makes it difficult to find the cause of the fault.

[0005] This object is achieved by the present invention.

[0006] The device according to the present invention is characterized in that the robot controller records data, especially state changes, positions, internal parameters, timestamps, etc., and in the event of a fault, associates the latest recorded information with the fault and stores it, so that the state changes before the corresponding fault occur can be reconstructed and presented visually based on the virtual model of the physical robot for analysis.

[0007] In this case, it is advantageous that a visual simulation of one or more occurring faults can be performed directly on the facility based on a virtual image, preferably on the output unit of the robot controller; that is, after the fault is triggered, the maintenance personnel pick up the robot controller and can trace the process of the fault occurrence directly on the robot controller based on the stored data. Therefore, the cause of the triggering of the fault can be determined with a high probability directly on the facility and corresponding countermeasures can be taken. Therefore, it is not necessary to transfer these data to a PC or laptop so that the fault identification and elimination can be carried out as quickly and safely as possible. It is also possible that after eliminating one or more faults and re-commissioning the facility, the virtual process of the one or more faults can be played again or more frequently on the robot controller during the working cycle of the facility, so that other details can also be analyzed, which may be useful for improving the facility. Similarly, these data can also be loaded from the robot controller to a laptop or computer or other robot controller or a superordinate network so that these data can be analyzed quietly away from the robot controller.

[0008] In the case of measures in which data is stored directly in the robot controller and a visualization of the process is presented on the output unit of the robot controller by means of a virtual robot model, it is advantageous that the association of important data is thus carried out automatically and in real time, and no further intervention by a specialist is required. At the same time, the process can be viewed visually as often as desired, so that a corresponding fault analysis can be carried out. Since no data has to be reloaded, the storage of data on the robot controller also makes it possible to achieve a smooth simulation of the process. By storing it on site on the robot controller, it is also achieved that the maintenance personnel do not need other auxiliary devices to download data from the database of the facility, but can complete the simulation very simply on site. This achieves as little downtime / downtime of the facility as possible before the facility can be used again.

[0009] It is of course possible to download these data at a later point in time or also immediately or to upload them to a higher-level network.

[0010] The following measure is advantageous, in which the virtual robot model can make the robot's movements at any speed, in particular in slow motion. Thus, the formation process can be analyzed or viewed in detail, for example by slowing down or even stopping the speed of the virtual robot model shortly before the occurrence of a fault, so that all details can be viewed. In this case, the maintenance personnel can simply select different speeds by operating defined buttons on the robot controller. There is also the possibility of marking / defining corresponding time points during the operation of the robot model, at which the preset speed is automatically changed by the robot controller during the replay process. Thus, the maintenance personnel do not need to focus on the activation of the so-called slow motion process, but can follow the details of the virtual operation.

[0011] Measures are advantageous in which the operating states and the corresponding changes in important data are stored before the occurrence of a fault within a defined freely adjustable time period between 100 ms and one minute, preferably within a spraying cycle of the processing machine. This ensures that optimal tracking of the occurrence of a fault is possible. For the sake of completeness, it is mentioned that in the case of a fault, even longer storage is possible if the robot controller is designed accordingly with a correspondingly large storage element.

[0012] The following measures are advantageous in which the data storage is performed or executed independently of the operating state of the robot. Thus, even during the setup work, if maintenance personnel make erroneous inputs when setting up the facility, they can already be stored, so that when the facility is commissioned, a fault is output and the cause of the fault, in particular an erroneous setting, can be immediately ascertained by the robot controller. Thus, the storage or recording of these data is ensured independently of the operating state of the machine, so that erroneous inputs can also be found as quickly as possible.

[0013] It is also possible to introduce a stored process, for example by activating a storage button on the robot controller. This allows maintenance personnel to observe a work cycle, for example, and to manually record or store the current and / or previous work processes at a desired point in time during a renewed work cycle for a preset period of time. Thus, suspicious processes of the plant that may lead to fault states in the future can already be recorded and analyzed in advance.

[0014] However, measures are also advantageous in which other states or state changes of the robot, such as digital or analog inputs and outputs or their changes, are faded in in the virtual model. This makes it possible to check or view electrical signals simultaneously with the mechanical position of the machine or the installation. It is therefore not necessary to constantly switch back and forth between the mechanical position of the installation and the view of the associated electrical state in order to find the cause of the fault.

[0015] Measures are advantageous in which the travel parameters, equipment features and functionality of the robot are stored in a configuration file, which the robot accesses on the controller side, wherein the robot controller creates a virtual robot model based on the configuration file, which is displayed directly on the robot controller for verification or visualization of the process sequence. This makes it possible to provide a representation of the mechanical structure of the virtual robot model with the processing device that is as accurate as possible.

[0016] Furthermore, the present invention is solved by a robot and / or a robot controller, wherein the robot controller is constructed to record and store state changes, positions, internal parameters, timestamps, etc., wherein in the event of a fault, the robot controller is constructed to associate the most recently recorded information with the fault and store the information, whereby the state changes before the occurrence of the corresponding fault are reconstructed for analysis based on a virtual model of the physical robot and can be presented visually.

[0017] The advantage in this case is that the downtime of the processing equipment and the entire facility or work unit in the event of a fault is significantly reduced as a result, since the data can be analyzed directly at the machine site via the virtual robot model on the robot controller. In the case of such facilities, it is important to keep the downtime as short as possible in the event of a plant failure in order to avoid high failure costs.

[0018] By means of a virtual review of the recorded working process, the cause of the fault can often be easily and quickly ascertained, so that corresponding countermeasures or repairs can be carried out.

[0019] For the sake of completeness, it is mentioned that the robot controller can record a plurality of faults with the associated data, in particular state changes, positions, internal parameters, time stamps, etc., and that the number of faults and associations is limited only by the memory size of the robot controller.

[0020] In principle, it can be said that the solution according to the invention ensures that in the event of a system failure the downtime can be kept as short as possible, since the cause of the error can preferably be quickly found on the robot controller by means of a virtual process. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The invention is explained in greater detail with reference to the exemplary embodiments represented in the drawings, wherein the invention is not restricted to the illustrated illustrations, in particular to the design and composition of the installation.

[0022] in:

[0023] Figure 1An overview of an industrial facility for plastics processing in a work cell is shown in a simplified schematic diagram;

[0024] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a virtual robot model or twin on a robot controller is shown in a simplified schematic diagram;

[0025] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a virtual robot model or twin with an attached data list on a robot controller is shown in a simplified schematic diagram;

[0026] Figure 4 In a simplified schematic diagram, a schematic enlargement of a virtual robot model or twin on a robot controller is shown with data present at the individual components, in particular stored actual values ​​of sensors. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] First of all, it should be noted that in different embodiments, the same parts are provided with the same reference numerals or the same component names, wherein the disclosure contained in the entire description can be transferred to the same parts with the same reference numerals or the same component names by comparison. The selected orientation descriptions in the description, such as top, bottom, side, etc., also refer to the described drawings and should be transferred to the new orientation by comparison when the orientation changes. Individual features or feature combinations from the illustrated and described embodiments can also represent independent solutions of the invention individually.

[0028] exist Figure 1 1 shows an industrial facility 1, in particular a work cell 2 for injection molding applications, in which individual components / devices are connected in the work cell 2 to produce one or more products / semi-finished products or injection molded parts 3. Preferably, an injection molding machine 4 is used as a processing machine, which is assigned a robot 5 or a handling machine for removing the produced injection molded parts 3. In this case, the injection molded parts 3 are removed from an open injection mold 7 by a removal device 6, in particular using a gripper equipped with grippers and / or suction nozzles, and placed on a device, in particular a conveyor belt 8.

[0029] For example, it is possible that, in order to produce the injection molded part 3, the plastic granules 9 are fed to the processing machine 4 via a granule conveying device 10 and possibly via a metering device 11 or from a storage warehouse. The injection mold 7 can be kept at the operating temperature or heated or cooled accordingly by feeding a temperature control medium via a temperature control device 13 and / or a cooling device, so that the plastic granules 9, which must be plasticized for injection into the injection mold 7, can be optimally processed.

[0030] In addition, the facility may have a monitoring device 15, in particular a camera system, so that an automated quality control of the produced product 3 can be performed. It is also very common to have upstream or downstream automated facilities 18, such as gate cutting stations 19, centering stations, separation stations, conveying stations, boxing stations, pallet stacking stations, etc., which are directly integrated into the robot controller or industrial facility 1 and controlled by the robot controller or the industrial facility via digital or analog signals or other communication interfaces. Usually, the process and control logic for the robot 5 or the handling machine 5 and the possible connected automation components 18 are created during the teach-in process. Similarly, the programming of the process and control logic can first be performed offline on a PC. Then, the facility-specific values, such as the actual position of the axis, are supplemented again during the teach-in process.

[0031] In order to be able to set up or program the individual devices, these devices preferably have control electronics (not shown), wherein the settings or programming are input and displayed via a display 16 arranged on the devices or a robot controller 17. In this case, a connection can be established with the individual components, preferably wirelessly, via the robot controller 17, so that the interface stored accordingly for the device is called up. Of course, it is also possible that the programming or setting can be carried out via external components, which are connected to the devices via interfaces.

[0032] For the sake of completeness, it is also mentioned that all devices are connected to corresponding lines, in particular power supply, network and connection lines, liquid supply lines, material lines, etc., which are not shown in the diagram shown for the sake of clarity.

[0033] According to the present invention, according to Figures 1 to 4 , shows a method for permanently storing internal data 20 of a robot 5 or possibly connected automation components 18 or automation systems 6 , 8 , 15 , 19 in a robot controller 17 , in particular for visualizing temporally preceding processes and logical sequences therefor.

[0034] The robot controller 17 is designed to reproduce a virtual twin or robot model 21, in particular a virtual representation of a facility or work cell 2, on an output point, in particular a touch screen 22, wherein all connected automation components 18 or automation systems 6, 8, 15, 19 of the work cell 2 or industrial facility 1 are automatically read in via a configuration file 27 or manually embedded into the model and presented.

[0035] The data 20 that are important for the fault analysis and the virtual representation of the operating state are directly read in by the robot controller 17 and stored in the log file 23. The robot controller 17 creates the virtual robot model 21 based on the configuration file 27 and the corresponding process sequence and operating state of the virtual robot model 21 based on the log file 23, which are displayed directly on the robot controller 17 for verification or visualization. In this case, the virtual twin or virtual robot model 21 presented on the display 22 can be enlarged or reduced as desired and can be changed in terms of the viewing position, for which purpose the display is preferably designed as a touch display 22. Thus, the user, in particular the maintenance personnel, can operate and set the virtual robot model 21 in a simple manner via the robot controller 17.

[0036] In the case of such an automatically operated facility or work cell 2, it may happen that during operation, various faults 24 may occur, for example due to faulty signal transmission in the communication between the machine 4 and the robot 5, time offsets in the execution of functions, non-constant injection parameters that, for example, cause the injection molding granules 3 to be removed to get stuck, or worn components in the mechanical interface between the injection molding granules 3 and the automation component 18 or the automation system 6, 8, 15, 19, etc., so that the facility is automatically stopped, wherein when a fault state occurs, a fault report or fault 24, in particular one or more fault notifications, is usually output. Maintenance personnel or specialists can often find which fault 24 and what its cause is in the corresponding fault list 24. However, this is often useless, because the fault 24 can often have various causes, or is caused only by a specific state combination of the robot 5 and / or the injection molding machine 4 and / or the automation component 6, 8, 15, 18, which must be found out by the maintenance personnel themselves in order to achieve subsequent trouble-free operation. It is very important here to keep the downtime or failure time of the entire working unit 2 as short as possible in order to keep production losses and lost production capacity as small as possible.

[0037] To this end, the invention provides that the robot controller 17 records data 20, in particular state changes, positions, internal parameters, time stamps, etc., in a log file 23 and, in the event of a fault 24, associates the data 20 with the fault 24, in particular a fault message, so that the state changes before the occurrence of the respective fault 24 can be reconstructed for analysis and presented visually on the basis of the virtual model 21 of the physical robot 5. That is, during the normal production process of the working cell 2, the data 20 that are constantly defined by the device, preferably the robot controller 17, or all available data 20 are stored together for a short time, in particular continuously for a defined time period. If a fault 24 suddenly occurs in the facility, the short-term stored and important data 20 are associated with the fault 24, wherein preferably a fault message is output at the same time. If the fault 24 is serious, the entire facility, in particular the working cell 2, is stopped.

[0038] In order to be able to identify the cause of the fault as quickly as possible, it is now possible to play a simulation on the robot controller 17 using the stored data 20, that is, to call up a so-called virtual twin or robot model 21 on the robot controller 17, which accesses the stored data 20 in the log file 23 with the fault code 24 and loads these data for the simulation. Thus, the maintenance personnel can observe how the fault 24 occurs through a virtual process and can take corresponding countermeasures quickly so that the plant is available again at any time.

[0039] It has proven to be very helpful if, in addition to the virtual process, further data 20 are displayed, in particular the currently ongoing process with the associated actual status and control sequences, such as Figure 3 and 4 As presented in . This allows the mechanical position to be compared with the electrical and digital actual values ​​of the encoders and sensors. For the sake of completeness, it is pointed out that the robot controller 17 can switch between the virtual robot model 21 and the real robot 5 at any time and at any arbitrary time.

[0040] In order to enable accurate fault detection, it is also possible that the virtual robot model 21, in particular the virtual twin 21, can move the robot 5 at any speed, in particular in slow motion. In this case, the speed is preferably reduced so that the exact movement process on the robot model 21 can be observed. In this case, it is possible to: Figure 4, one or more speed buttons 26 are provided in order to enable a simple and quick reduction in the playback speed of the robot model 21. Thus, the observer can reliably detect the smallest changes in the virtual robot model 21 or also short-term changes in inputs and outputs, sensor or encoder values, etc.

[0041] It is also possible that the user can select any states of the input and output data 20, sensors or encoders that are displayed during operation. This is advantageous if, after the operation, it is considered that no fault cause of the fault 24 has been found, so that other or additional data 20 for another operation are displayed in order to identify possible errors in the actual values. For this purpose, it is possible that the robot controller 17 can call up a submenu, from which data 20 can be selected.

[0042] In order to enable fast access to the stored data 20, the data 20 are stored directly in the robot controller 17. Of course, it is also possible to store the data 20 on an external storage medium, for example a PC or a laptop, in order to ensure long-term storage.

[0043] For the sake of completeness, it is mentioned that in the case of the recorded data 20, these data are preferably recorded within a defined time period in order to limit the data volume accordingly. It is also important that these data are automatically provided with a time stamp so that the values ​​occurring at the corresponding time are always present and displayed during the simulation. For this purpose, the maintenance personnel or the specialist can freely set the duration for the recording points, i.e. the time between two storages, wherein a higher accuracy of the presentation is achieved in the case of shorter time intervals, but a larger amount of data must be stored.

[0044] It is also possible to carry out or execute the data storage independently of the operating state of the robot 5, that is, for example, the maintenance personnel can initiate a manual triggering of the data storage, and then the data recording is carried out for a defined period of time even in the absence of a fault 24. In this case, it is also possible that the manually started data recording is only terminated again by a manual stop, so that the maintenance personnel always records the data, as this is necessary for the data.

[0045] For the sake of clarity, it is pointed out that the invention is not limited to the embodiment variants presented but can also encompass other configurations.

Claims

1. A method for a robot (5) and / or a robot controller (17) for permanently storing internal operating states (20) and for visualizing a temporally preceding process sequence, wherein the robot (5) is mounted on or next to an injection molding machine (4) and performs the removal, handling or further processing of a just produced injection molded part (3), characterized in that The robot controller (17) continuously records internal data of the robot (5), the injection molding machine (4) and the connected automation components (18) or automation systems (6, 8, 15, 19) and, in the event of a fault (24), associates the latest recorded information with the fault (24) and stores it, whereby the state changes before the occurrence of the respective fault (24) are reconstructed for analysis based on the virtual robot model (21) of the physical robot (5) and presented visually, The data are stored directly in the robot controller (17) and the visualization is presented on an output unit of the robot controller (17) by means of a virtual robot model (21), wherein the virtual robot model (21) enables the movement of the robot (5) to be carried out at any desired speed.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The internal data are status changes, positions, internal parameters, and time stamps of the robot (5), the injection molding machine (4), and the connected automation components (18) or automation systems (6, 8, 15, 19).

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The virtual robot model (21) enables the movement of the robot (5) to be performed in slow motion.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The corresponding changes in the operating state and important data in the time period between 100 ms and one minute before the occurrence of the fault (24) are stored.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The time period is the spraying cycle of the processing machine.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The data storage is performed or executed independently of the operating state of the robot (5).

7. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: Other states or state changes of the robot (5) are faded into the virtual robot model (21).

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that The other states or state changes are digital or analog inputs and outputs or changes thereof.

9. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The travel parameters, equipment features and functionality of the robot are stored in a configuration file (23), which is accessed by the robot (5) on the controller side, wherein the robot controller creates a virtual robot model (21) based on the configuration file (23), and the virtual robot model is displayed directly on the robot controller (17) for verification and / or visualization of process sequences.

10. A robot controller (17) for permanently storing internal operating states (20) and for visualizing a temporally preceding process sequence, wherein the robot (5) is mounted on or next to a processing machine and is designed for removing, handling or further processing of injection molded parts (3) that have just been produced, characterized in that The robot controller (17) is designed to carry out the method according to any one of the preceding claims 1 to 9.

11. The robot controller (17) according to claim 10, characterized in that: The processing machine is an injection molding machine (4).

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