Intelligent flexible welding robot system and method

Abstract

The present invention discloses an intelligent flexible assembly welding robot system and method, including a precision positioning vision unit connected to the assembly robot, which forms a coarse and fine two-level positioning system with the global vision unit; the assembly robot connects the pick-up welding fixture and the assembly welding fixture through a robot quick-change tool, and controls the magnetism of the pick-up welding fixture and the assembly welding fixture through an electric control system, and completes the picking, precise positioning and assembly of welding structural parts by magnetic attraction; the welding robot locates the weld on the welding component through an intelligent weld sensor to achieve spot welding and full welding operations. Compared with the traditional positioning assembly welding fixture, it saves a lot of manpower and time, and has a high degree of intelligence. The assembly robot and the welding robot are used to cooperate with each other, with a high degree of flexibility, which effectively improves the use efficiency of the robots in the system and the welding production efficiency, and ensures the quality of welding production.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of robot welding automation production, and in particular to an intelligent flexible assembly welding robot system and method, which can realize the assembly of welding structural parts and subsequent welding production. Background Art

[0002] As an important production method closely related to the manufacturing industry, welding has been gradually deepened with the modernization of industrial production, which has continuously expanded the application scope of welded structural parts and has been widely used in transportation, chemical industry, construction and general machinery. These welded structural parts are welded from one or several different parts. The traditional production of welded structural parts is to manually position and spot weld each part, and then weld it manually. The welding quality and consistency are difficult to guarantee, and the labor intensity is high and the working environment is poor. In recent years, with the development of automation technology, welding robots have also been used in the production of welded structural parts. Although they can improve the flexibility of welding production and improve production efficiency, the positioning and spot welding of welded structural parts in the early stage are still completed by manual welding. It is difficult to meet the requirements of continuous high-precision production and fine manufacturing of modern welding production.

[0003] Therefore, designing an intelligent flexible system that can automatically butt weld structural parts has become the key to efficient welding production. Summary of the invention

[0004] In order to solve the above-mentioned defects existing in the prior art, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a welding system of a pair welding robot with intelligent flexibility, simple structure and strong versatility, which utilizes the cooperation between the pair welding robot and the welding robot to effectively improve the utilization efficiency of the robots in the system and the welding production efficiency, and ensure the welding quality.

[0005] The present invention is achieved through the following technical solutions.

[0006] The present invention provides an intelligent flexible assembly welding robot system, including a welding platform, an assembly robot, a picking welding tool, a global vision unit, a welding robot, an electric control system, a positioning assembly welding tool, a material area and a precision positioning vision unit;

[0007] The assembly robot and the welding robot are respectively arranged on the side of the welding platform, and the global vision unit is arranged within the material area and the field of view of the welding platform;

[0008] The assembly robot is connected with a precision positioning visual unit, which forms a coarse and fine two-level positioning system with the global visual unit; the assembly robot is connected to the pick-up welding fixture and the positioning assembly welding fixture through a robot quick-change tool, and the magnetism of the pick-up welding fixture and the positioning assembly welding fixture is controlled by an electric control system, and the picking, precise positioning and assembly of the welding structure are completed by magnetic attraction;

[0009] The welding robot is connected with a welding gun and an intelligent weld sensor to perform positioning, spot welding and full welding operations on the welds on the welding components.

[0010] As a further preference, the electric control system includes a welding robot electric controller, a master controller and a pair robot electric controller.

[0011] As a further preference, the precise positioning visual unit is arranged on the top of the assembly robot and is in the same direction as the positioning assembly welding tooling arranged on the end of the assembly robot.

[0012] As a further preference, the positioning assembly welding tool includes a robot quick-change tool, an upper electric permanent magnetic chuck and a lower electric permanent magnetic chuck. The robot quick-change tool is arranged at the tail of the bracket and connected to the assembly robot. The upper electric permanent magnetic chuck and the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck are respectively arranged at the front and bottom of the bracket.

[0013] The upper electric permanent magnetic chuck and the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck are controlled by an electric control system program so that they are magnetic when they are working normally and non-magnetic when they are not working.

[0014] As a further preference, the upper electric permanent magnetic chuck is vertically arranged or tilted upward.

[0015] As a further preference, the pick-up welding fixture comprises a robot quick-change tool and an electric permanent magnetic chuck connected by a connecting pipe, and the electric permanent magnetic chuck is vertically arranged.

[0016] As a further preference, the end of the welding robot is connected to a welding gun, and the intelligent weld sensor is arranged on the top of the welding gun.

[0017] As a further preference, the welding platform is a platform or a turntable, and the welding robot and the assembly robot are mounted on a ground rail.

[0018] Accordingly, the present invention also provides a method for welding by an intelligent flexible welding robot of the system, comprising:

[0019] 1) Import the three-dimensional model of the finished welding product into the assembly robot system;

[0020] 2) Connect the positioning assembly welding tool to the assembly robot, and place the positioning assembly welding tool on the welding platform; control the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck of the positioning assembly welding tool to be magnetically attracted to the welding platform through the master controller;

[0021] 3) The robot is connected to the welding fixture and then moves to the material in the material area. The welding structure is identified and located through the global vision unit and the precision positioning vision unit carried by the robot. Then, the master controller controls the permanent magnetic chuck of the welding fixture to pick up the welding structure.

[0022] 4) The positioning group welding fixture is identified and positioned through the global positioning vision unit and the precision positioning vision unit. The group robot picks up the welding structure and accurately places it on the positioning group welding fixture on the welding platform. Then, the master controller controls the power-on permanent magnetic chuck of the positioning group welding fixture to magnetically attract the welding structure.

[0023] 5) Repeat steps 2)-4) until all welded structural parts are positioned, assembled and completed;

[0024] 6) The welding robot carries an intelligent weld sensor to locate the weld of the welding structure, and performs spot welding and full welding on the welding structure through the welding gun;

[0025] 7) After full welding is completed, the assembly robot moves to the finished welding product position under the guidance of the global vision unit and the fine positioning vision unit. The master controller controls the electric permanent magnetic chuck of the welding fixture to magnetically pick up the welded structural parts and place them in the material area; the assembly and welding operations are carried out in this cycle.

[0026] The present invention adopts the above technical solution, which has the following beneficial effects:

[0027] 1. The present invention cooperates with the coarse and fine two-level vision unit to connect different assembly positioning tools. The precise positioning assembly of welding structural parts can be completed through program control. Compared with traditional positioning assembly welding tools, it saves a lot of manpower and time and has a high degree of intelligence.

[0028] 2. The present invention can locate and weld the welds of welding structural parts by cooperating with the welding robot and the intelligent weld sensor, and has a high degree of automation;

[0029] 3. The present invention utilizes the coordination of the pairing robot and the welding robot, which has a high degree of flexibility. The precise pairing can effectively improve the utilization efficiency of the robots in the system and the welding production efficiency, and ensure the quality of welding production. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] The drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding of the present invention, constitute a part of the present application, and do not constitute an improper limitation of the present invention. In the drawings:

[0031] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an application scenario of an intelligent flexible welding robot system and method of the present invention;

[0032] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the robot fixed connection positioning assembly welding tooling I of the present invention;

[0033] Figure 3 This is a structural schematic diagram of the positioning assembly welding tool I of the present invention;

[0034] Figure 4 This is a structural schematic diagram of the positioning assembly welding tool II of the present invention;

[0035] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the robot fixed connection picking and welding tooling of the present invention;

[0036] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the welding tooling for picking up the welding tooling of the present invention;

[0037] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram of the end structure of the welding robot of the present invention;

[0038] Figure 8 The present invention is a schematic diagram of a scene with a ground rail and a turntable.

[0039] In the figure: 1. Welding robot electronic controller; 2. Welding platform; 3. Assembly robot; 4. Pick-up welding fixture; 5. Global vision unit; 6. Welding robot; 7. Welding power supply; 8. Master controller; 9. Assembly robot electronic controller; 10. Welded finished product; 11. Material area; 12. Vision fixing rod; 13. Positioning assembly welding fixture I; 14. Welding structural parts; 15. Positioning assembly welding fixture II; 16. Quick change system bracket; 17. Precision positioning vision unit; 18. Robot quick change tool; 19. Upper electric permanent magnetic chuck; 20. Lower electric permanent magnetic chuck; 21. Electric permanent magnetic chuck; 22. Intelligent weld sensor; 23. Welding gun; 24. Turntable; 25. Ground rail. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] The present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. The exemplary embodiments and descriptions of the present invention are used to explain the present invention but are not intended to limit the present invention.

[0041] like Figure 1 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention provides an intelligent flexible assembly welding robot system, including a welding robot electric controller 1, a welding platform 2, an assembly robot 3, a picking welding tool 4, a global vision unit 5, a welding robot 6, a welding power supply 7, a master controller 8, an assembly robot electric controller 9, a material area 11, a vision fixing rod 12, a positioning assembly welding tool I 13, a welding structure 14, a positioning assembly welding tool II 15 and a quick change system bracket 16.

[0042] The assembly robot 3 and the welding robot 6 are respectively arranged on the side of the welding platform 2, and the global vision unit 5 is arranged within the field of view of the material area 11 and the welding platform 2. The assembly robot 3 is connected with a precision positioning vision unit 17, which forms a coarse and fine two-level positioning system with the global vision unit 5; the assembly robot 3 is connected to the picking welding fixture 4 and the positioning assembly welding fixtures Ⅰ13 and Ⅱ15 through a quick-change tool, and the magnetic presence or absence of the picking welding fixture 4 and the positioning assembly welding fixtures Ⅰ and Ⅱ is controlled by the electric control system (welding robot electric controller 1, master controller 8 and assembly robot electric controller 9), and the magnetic attraction is used to complete the picking, precise positioning and assembly of the welding structure 14; the welding robot 6 is connected with a welding gun 23 and an intelligent weld sensor 22, which performs positioning, spot welding and full welding operations on the weld on the welding component 14.

[0043] like Figure 2 As shown, a precision positioning visual unit 17 is installed at the end of the assembly robot 3 and is fixedly connected to the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 through a robot quick change tool 18. The precision positioning visual unit 17 is arranged on the top of the assembly robot 3 and is in the same direction as the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 arranged at the end of the assembly robot 3. The precision positioning visual unit 17 and the global visual unit 5 form a coarse and fine two-level positioning system. The field of view of the global visual unit 5 can cover the material area 11 and the welding platform 2, and cooperate with the precision positioning visual unit 17 to complete the identification and positioning of the welding structure 14.

[0044] like Figure 3 As shown, the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 is composed of a robot quick-change tool 18, an upper electric permanent magnetic chuck 19 and a lower electric permanent magnetic chuck 20; the quick-change tool 18 is arranged at the tail of the bracket and connected to the assembly robot 3, and the upper electric permanent magnetic chuck 19 and the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck 20 are arranged at the front and bottom of the bracket respectively. The upper electric permanent magnetic chuck 19 is arranged vertically. The magnetic suction force of the upper electric permanent magnetic chuck 19 and the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck 20 is controlled by different programs; it is magnetic when working normally and non-magnetic when not working. The program control can adopt the current mature industrial automatic control system (after the robot carries the fixture in place, the connection and disconnection of the electric permanent magnetic chuck is controlled by the I / O signal to achieve the presence or absence of magnetism). The electric permanent magnetic chuck is instantly magnetized or demagnetized by powering on or off, and it will not lose magnetism even if the power is suddenly cut off, which can form a good power-off protection.

[0045] In order to meet the assembly requirements of different types of welded structural parts 14, positioning assembly welding tools including various angle types can be manufactured, such as Figure 4 The positioning group shown is a welding fixture II 15. The upper power permanent magnetic chuck 19 is arranged to tilt upward.

[0046] Furthermore, if Figure 5As shown, in order to conveniently pick up the welded structure 14, the assembly robot 3 is equipped with a precision positioning visual unit 17 at the end thereof and the pick-up welding fixture 4 is installed through the robot quick change tool 18 to pick up the workpiece. In order to firmly pick up the welded structure 14, the assembly robot 3 identifies the position and size of the workpiece according to the global visual unit 5 and the precision positioning visual unit 17, and then carries the pick-up welding fixture 4 to automatically locate to the center of gravity of the welded structure 14 for picking up.

[0047] like Figure 6 As shown, the pick-up welding fixture 4 includes a robot quick-change tool 18 and an electric permanent magnetic chuck 21 connected by a connecting pipe, and the electric permanent magnetic chuck 21 is vertically arranged. Its magnetic suction is also controlled by a program, with magnetism when working normally and without magnetism when not working.

[0048] like Figure 7 As shown, an intelligent weld sensor 22 and a welding gun 23 are installed at the end of the welding robot 6 , and the intelligent weld sensor 22 is arranged on the top of the welding gun 23 .

[0049] The assembly robot 3 and the welding robot 6 are six-degree-of-freedom industrial robots.

[0050] By importing the three-dimensional model of the finished welding product 10 in advance, the assembly robot 3 can fix different positioning assembly welding tools Ⅰ13 and pick-up assembly welding tools 4 on the welding platform 2 according to the structural characteristics of the welding structure 14 under the guidance of the global vision unit 5 and the precise positioning vision unit 17, and use the program to control the magnetic suction of the permanent magnetic chuck on each tool to complete the picking, precise positioning and assembly of the welding structure 14; the quick-change system bracket 16 can place different tools for the assembly robot 3 to call. After the positioning and assembly of the welding structure 14 is completed, the welding robot 6 locates the weld on the welding component 14 under the guidance of the intelligent weld sensor 22, and then performs spot welding and full welding operations; after the welding is completed, the assembly robot 3 picks up the welding tool 4, and controls the magnetic suction generated by its permanent magnetic chuck 21 through the program to pick up the welding product 10 and place it on the material area 11.

[0051] like Figure 8 As shown, in another embodiment, considering that the welding structure 14 has various forms and types, the welding platform 2 can be replaced with a turntable 24 to adapt to different types of welding structures 14. At the same time, in order to expand the working range of the welding robot 6 and the assembly robot 3, a ground rail 25 is added to the two robots respectively. The entire assembly and welding operation is more flexible and automated.

[0052] The following is a method for butt welding using an intelligent flexible butt welding robot using the above system, including:

[0053] 1) Importing the three-dimensional model of the finished welding product 10 into the assembly robot 3 system in advance;

[0054] 2) The assembly robot 3 is connected to the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 from the quick-change system bracket 16 and placed on the welding platform 2; through program control, the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck 20 of the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 generates magnetic suction and is fixed on the welding platform 2;

[0055] 3) The assembly robot 3 is connected to pick up the welding fixture 4 from the quick-change system bracket 16, and then moves to the material in the material area 11, identifies and locates the welding structure 14 through the global vision unit 5 and the precision positioning vision unit 17 it carries, and then moves to the position where the welding structure 14 is located and adjusts the picking posture, and then the electric permanent magnetic chuck 21 of the welding fixture 4 is controlled by the program to generate magnetic suction to pick up the welding structure 14;

[0056] 4) The assembly robot 3 picks up the welding structure 14 and moves it to the vicinity of the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 on the welding platform 2. After the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 is identified and positioned by the global positioning vision unit 5 and the fine positioning vision unit 17, the welding structure 14 is accurately placed at the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13. Then, the power-on permanent magnetic chuck 19 of the positioning assembly welding fixture Ⅰ13 is controlled by the program to generate magnetic suction to fix the welding structure 14;

[0057] 5) Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 until all the welded structural parts 14 are positioned, assembled and completed;

[0058] 6) The welding robot 6 carries an intelligent weld seam sensor 22 to locate the weld seam of the welding structure 14. After the location is located, the welding robot 6 performs spot welding and full welding operations on the welding structure 14 through the welding gun 23;

[0059] 7) After the welding of the welding structure 14 is completed, the assembly robot 3 moves to the position of the welded product 10 under the guidance of the global vision unit 5 and the precise positioning vision unit 17 and adjusts the position and posture. Then, the program control is used to make the electric permanent magnetic suction cup 21 of the picking welding tool 4 generate magnetic suction to pick up the welding structure 14 and place it in the material area 11; the assembly and welding operation is carried out in this cycle.

[0060] Among them, in the assembly step 2), according to the assembly requirements of the welding structure 14, the assembly robot 3 can call the positioning assembly welding tool II 15 at any time to perform operations.

[0061] The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments. On the basis of the technical solution disclosed in the present invention, technicians in this field can make some substitutions and deformations to some technical features therein according to the disclosed technical content without creative labor, and these substitutions and deformations are all within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An intelligent flexible welding robot system, characterized in that: It includes a welding platform (2), a pairing robot (3), a picking welding tool (4), a global vision unit (5), a welding robot (6), an electric control system, positioning pairing welding tools I and II (13, 15), a material area (11) and a precision positioning vision unit (17); The positioning assembly welding fixtures I and II (13, 15) comprise a robot quick-change tool (18), an upper electric permanent magnetic chuck (19) and a lower electric permanent magnetic chuck (20); the robot quick-change tool (18) is arranged at the rear of the bracket and connected to the assembly robot (3); the upper electric permanent magnetic chuck (19) and the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck (20) are arranged at the front and bottom of the bracket respectively; The upper electric permanent magnetic chuck (19) and the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck (20) are controlled by an electric control system program so that they are magnetic when working normally and non-magnetic when not working; The upper electric permanent magnetic chuck (19) is arranged vertically or tilted upward; The pick-up welding fixture (4) comprises a robot quick-change tool (18) and an electric permanent magnetic chuck (21) connected via a connecting pipe, wherein the electric permanent magnetic chuck (21) is arranged vertically; The assembling robot (3) and the welding robot (6) are respectively arranged on the side of the welding platform (2), and the global vision unit (5) is arranged within the field of view of the material area (11) and the welding platform (2); The assembly robot (3) is connected to a precision positioning visual unit (17), which forms a coarse and fine two-level positioning system with the global visual unit (5); the assembly robot (3) is connected to the pick-up welding fixture (4) and the positioning assembly welding fixtures I and II (13, 15) through a robot quick-change tool, and the presence or absence of magnetism of the pick-up welding fixture (4) and the positioning assembly welding fixtures I and II is controlled by an electric control system, so as to complete the picking, precise positioning and assembly of the welding structure (14) by magnetic attraction; The welding robot (6) is connected to a welding gun (23) and an intelligent weld seam sensor (22) to perform positioning, spot welding and full welding operations on the weld seam on the welding component (14).

2. The intelligent flexible welding robot system according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The electric control system comprises a welding robot electric controller (1), a master controller (8) and a pairing robot electric controller (9).

3. The intelligent flexible welding robot system according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The precise positioning visual unit (17) is arranged on the top of the assembly robot (3) and is in the same direction as the positioning assembly welding fixtures I and II (13, 15) arranged at the end of the assembly robot (3).

4. The intelligent flexible welding robot system according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The end of the welding robot (6) is connected to a welding gun (23), and the intelligent weld seam sensor (22) is arranged on the top of the welding gun (23).

5. The intelligent flexible welding robot system according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The welding platform (2) is a platform or a turntable (24), and the welding robot (6) and the assembly robot (3) are mounted on a ground rail (25).

6. An intelligent flexible welding robot welding method based on the system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: include: 1) Import the three-dimensional model of the finished welding product into the assembly robot system; 2) Connect the positioning assembly welding tooling to the assembly robot, and place the positioning assembly welding tooling on the welding platform; control the lower electric permanent magnetic chuck of the positioning assembly welding tooling to be magnetically attracted to the welding platform through the master controller; 3) The pair robot connects to the welding fixture and moves to the material in the material area. The global vision unit and the precision positioning vision unit carried by the pair robot are used to identify and locate the welded structural parts. The master controller is then used to control the permanent magnetic chuck of the welding fixture to pick up the welded structural parts. 4) The positioning group welding fixture is identified and positioned through the global positioning vision unit and the precision positioning vision unit. The group robot picks up the welding structure and accurately places it on the positioning group welding fixture on the welding platform. Then, the master controller controls the power-on permanent magnetic chuck of the positioning group welding fixture to magnetically attract the welding structure. 5) Repeat steps 2)-4) until all welded structural parts are positioned, assembled and completed; 6) The welding robot carries an intelligent weld sensor to locate the weld of the welding structure, and performs spot welding and full welding on the welding structure through the welding gun; 7) After full welding is completed, the assembly robot moves to the finished welding product position under the guidance of the global vision unit and the fine positioning vision unit. The master controller controls the electric permanent magnetic chuck of the welding fixture to magnetically pick up the welded structural parts and place them in the material area; the assembly and welding operations are carried out in this cycle.

Images