Teaching device, teaching system and recording medium

Abstract

The teaching pendant includes: a user interface unit capable of displaying a robot program generation screen; a teach point display control unit for controlling the display of previously taught teach points on the generation screen; a teach point selection unit for selecting a specific teach point from the displayed teach points; and a teach point appropriation unit for appropriating the selected teach point as a new teach point in the generated robot program, wherein the previously taught teach points are at least one of previously taught teach points in the generated robot program and previously taught teach points in other robot programs different from the robot program.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to robot teaching technology, and more particularly to a teaching device, teaching system, and recording medium with teaching point transfer function. Background Art

[0002] Typically, robot teaching or status confirmation is performed via a teaching control panel with an attached display device. For example, in the case of a transport robot, the target position of the robot, known as the teaching point, is taught, followed by the opening and closing of the hand pendant, thereby generating a robot program. The transport is then performed by executing the generated robot program.

[0003] When teaching a new teaching point to a location close to or identical to an already taught point, it's necessary to search which robot program taught the already taught point, reducing the efficiency of the teaching process. Furthermore, if multiple teaching points exist at the same teaching location, and each point is taught as a different teaching point, then if the teaching position of any one of these points is corrected, the other teaching points at the same location also need to be corrected. However, if these corrections are forgotten and the robot moves, an accident may occur. Robot programming techniques related to teaching points are known, as discussed in the literature below.

[0004] Patent Document 1 describes a robot teaching pendant. The robot teaching pendant has a touch panel on the display screen of a graphic display device. By touching any place on the screen with a fingertip, the position information of the screen representing that place can be input into the robot teaching pendant. The teaching point is displayed in three-dimensional graphics on the display screen. If necessary, the current position of the robot can be displayed at the same time. Then, the teaching point can be touched and specified by the finger, and the teaching point can be moved within a predefined plane.

[0005] Patent document 2 describes a control method for a robot with an auxiliary axis. The robot includes: a unit for calculating the distance from the current position of the robot's fingertip and the auxiliary axis to a plurality of teaching points that have been taught; a unit for selecting the nearest teaching point from the plurality of calculated teaching points; and a unit for moving the robot and the auxiliary axis to different teaching points if the selected teaching points are different.

[0006] Patent document 3 describes a teaching point correction device, comprising: a determination unit that determines whether the position data of any teaching point has been corrected for a plurality of different teaching points pre-taught in the operation procedure; and a data correction unit that, when the determination unit determines that the position data of the first teaching point among the plurality of different teaching points has been corrected, corrects the position data of related teaching points that have a relative positional relationship with the first teaching point according to a teaching point rule that predefines the relative positional relationship of the plurality of different teaching points.

[0007] Existing technical documents

[0008] Patent Literature

[0009] Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-85655

[0010] Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-270082

[0011] Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-331188 Summary of the Invention

[0012] The problem that the invention aims to solve

[0013] In view of the aforementioned problems, the present invention aims to improve the efficiency of teaching tasks for robots.

[0014] Methods for solving problems

[0015] One aspect of this disclosure provides a teaching pendant comprising: a user interface unit capable of displaying a robot program generation screen; a teaching point display control unit for controlling the display of previously taught teaching points on the generation screen; a teaching point selection unit for selecting a specific teaching point from the displayed teaching points; and a teaching point appropriation unit for appropriating the selected teaching point as a new teaching point in the generating robot program, wherein the previously taught teaching points are at least one of previously taught teaching points in the generating robot program and previously taught teaching points in other robot programs different from the generating robot program.

[0016] Another aspect of this disclosure provides a teaching system comprising: a teaching device capable of displaying a screen for generating a robot program; and a robot control device capable of controlling the display of previously taught teaching points on the screen, selecting a specific teaching point from the displayed teaching points, and using the selected teaching point as a new teaching point in the generated robot program, wherein the previously taught teaching points are at least one of previously taught teaching points in the generated robot program and previously taught teaching points in other robot programs different from the robot program.

[0017] Another aspect of this disclosure provides a teaching procedure that causes a computer to perform the following steps: controlling the display of previously taught teaching points on a generation screen of a robot program; selecting a specific teaching point from the displayed teaching points; and repurposing the selected teaching point as a new teaching point in the generation robot program, wherein the previously taught teaching points are included in at least one of previously taught teaching points in the generation robot program and previously taught teaching points in other robot programs different from the robot program.

[0018] Invention Effects

[0019] According to one aspect of this disclosure, in addition to previously taught points in the generated robot program, previously taught points in other robot programs different from the robot program can be reused as new taught points, thereby improving the efficiency of teaching operations for the robot. Attached Figure Description

[0020] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a robot system according to one embodiment.

[0021] Figure 2 This is a block diagram of a teaching device according to one embodiment.

[0022] Figure 3 This is a block diagram representing a variation of the teaching device.

[0023] Figure 4 This is a graphic diagram of a teaching point display screen according to one embodiment.

[0024] Figure 5 This is a graphic representation of a robot program generating a screen according to one implementation method.

[0025] Figure 6 This is a graphic diagram of a teaching point display screen according to one embodiment.

[0026] Figure 7 This is a graphic representation of a robot program generating a screen according to one implementation method.

[0027] Figure 8 This is a graphic representation of a teaching posture correction screen in one embodiment. Detailed Implementation

[0028] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same or similar structural elements are given the same or similar reference numerals. Furthermore, the embodiments described below do not limit the technical scope of the invention as described in the patent claim, nor the meaning of the terms used.

[0029] Figure 1This is a schematic diagram of a robot system 1 according to one embodiment. The robot system 1 includes a robot 2, a robot control device 3 capable of controlling the robot 2, and a teaching device 4 capable of generating robot programs executed by the robot control device 3. The robot 2 may be, for example, a multi-joint robot, but it could also be a parallel-link robot, a humanoid robot, or other types of robots. The robot control device 3 may be, for example, a computer device equipped with a processor (CPU), an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), an FPGA (field-programmable gate array), or other processors and integrated circuits. The teaching device 4 may be, for example, a portable terminal such as a tablet computer equipped with a processor and integrated circuits, but it could also be a teaching operation panel of the robot control device 3. The teaching device 4 at least includes a user interface unit 5 (hereinafter referred to as "UI unit") capable of displaying a screen showing the generated robot program. The UI unit 5 can be any device that at least has display functions for displaying various information and input functions for inputting various information. For example, the UI unit 5 could be a touch panel device with a touch panel provided on the display screen of the display unit. Robot 2, robot control device 3 and teaching device 4 are interconnected via wired or wireless means.

[0030] Figure 2 This is a block diagram of a teaching pendant 4 according to one embodiment. In addition to the UI unit 5 described above, the teaching pendant 4 also includes: a teaching point display control unit 6, which controls the display of previously taught teaching points on the generation screen of the robot program being generated; a teaching point selection unit 7, which selects a specific teaching point from the displayed teaching points; and a teaching point transfer unit 8, which transfers the selected teaching point as a new teaching point in the generated robot program. Furthermore, in this specification, a "teaching point" refers to a point on the robot 2's motion path, such as the tool center point (TCP) in a transport robot, i.e., the gripping center point of the hand. Alternatively, a "teaching point" can also be the leading edge of the robot 2, i.e., the center point of the flange on which a tool such as a hand is mounted.

[0031] Furthermore, the teaching pendant 4 may include a teaching point association unit 9 that associates previously taught teaching points with new teaching points. Moreover, the teaching pendant 4 may include a teaching point association correction unit 10 that, when the teaching position of a teaching point is corrected, also reflects the correction in the teaching positions of the remaining teaching points associated with that teaching point. Some or all of these structural elements (teaching point display control unit 6, teaching point selection unit 7, teaching point borrowing unit 8, teaching point association unit 9, and teaching point association correction unit 10) may be installed by a processor such as a CPU, ASIC, or FPGA, or by an integrated circuit, or may be installed as a teaching program executable by a processor.

[0032] The above-described structure of the teaching device 4 is just one example; other methods can also be used, or other structural elements can be added. For example... Figure 3 This is a block diagram illustrating a modified example of the teaching pendant 4. The teaching pendant 4 can also be a teaching operation panel attached to the robot control device 3. In this case, the teaching pendant 4 only has a UI unit 5 capable of displaying the generated robot program screen. Some or all of the other structural elements (teaching point display control unit 6, teaching point selection unit 7, teaching point borrowing unit 8, teaching point association unit 9, and associated teaching point correction unit 10) are installed on the robot control device 3 side. The teaching system 11 composed of such a robot control device 3 and teaching pendant 4 can also adopt a centralized system like a mainframe computer or a distributed system like cloud computing.

[0033] The operation of the teaching device 4 or the teaching system 11 will be described in detail below. Figure 4 This is a graphical representation of a teach point display screen according to one embodiment. For example, suppose robot program A, which is being generated to enable robot 2 to perform transport operations, is being created. Teach points a1-a3, b1-b3, and c1-c3 are teach points that have already been taught in robot programs A, B, and C. In this example, teach points for robot programs A, B, and C are displayed, but only teach points for robot program A, which is being generated, may be displayed, or teach points for robot programs B and C may be displayed, or teach points for other robot programs (not shown) may also be displayed. For example, when robot program A is executed, robot 2 moves from teach point a1 to a3, that is, from the smaller number of the teach point symbol to the larger number. The same applies to other programs B and C. Additionally, point P is the current position of robot 2. Furthermore, in this specification, "the current position of the robot" refers to the tool center point (TCP), such as the gripping center point of the hand, but it can also be the front end point of robot 2, such as the flange center point of the mounting tool.

[0034] In this situation, suppose we add a next teaching point a4 from a teaching point a3 in robot program A. For example, if we want to retrieve a workpiece positioned at teaching point b2 in robot program B at teaching point a4 in robot program A, we can improve the efficiency of the teaching operation if we can teach teaching point a4 at the same position as the previously taught teaching point b2 in robot program B. Therefore, by following the steps below, we can easily relocate the teaching position of teaching point b2.

[0035] Figure 5 This is a graphical representation of a robot program generation screen 12 (hereinafter referred to as "generation screen") according to one embodiment. When a teach point a4 is added to the fourth line of robot program A, the teach position of teach point b2 is used in the following order.

[0036] <1> Position the cursor on the fourth line of robot program A.

[0037] <2> Press the "Point" button, which is the command to add additional teaching point a4.

[0038] <3> Select "3: Search from current position" from the pop-up list of methods for adding teach points. The teach point display control unit 6 then displays the teach points surrounding the current position P of robot 2 on the generated screen 12.

[0039] Figure 6 This is a graphical representation of a teach point display screen according to one embodiment. The teach point display control unit 6 can display all teach points surrounding the current position P on the generation screen 12. However, if the number of teach points is large, the display processing may slow down. Therefore, it searches for teach points close to the robot 2's current position P and only displays teach points a1-a3, b1-b3, and c1-c3 near the current position P on the generation screen 12. Alternatively, the teach point display control unit 6 may not display teach points surrounding the robot 2's current position P on the generation screen 12, but instead display teach points surrounding the user-selected teach point and the user-desired position. That is, the teach point display control unit 6 searches for previously taught teach points near specific positions such as the current position P, the user-selected teach point, and the user-desired position, and displays them on the generation screen 12. Furthermore, in this specification, "nearby" means within a predetermined distance from the specific position.

[0040] Next, proceed with the following steps to repurpose the teaching location of teaching point b2.

[0041] <4> The teaching point b2 can be selected from the pop-up teaching point graphic diagram 13, the pop-up teaching point list 14, and other charts. This selection function is implemented by the teaching point selection unit 7. The teaching point selection unit 7 provides a manual selection function for the user to manually select the teaching point b2, but if nearby teaching points are found, it can also provide an automatic selection function for the computer to automatically select the nearest teaching point b2.

[0042] If teach point b2 is selected, the teach point appropriation unit 8 appropriates the selected teach point b2 of robot program B as a new teach point a4 of robot program A. Specifically, the teach point appropriation unit 8 copies the teaching position of the selected teach point b2 to the teaching position of the new teach point a4. In this case, the teaching position of teach point a4 is the same as that of teach point b2, but it is stored in memory as a different point (not shown). Alternatively, the teach point appropriation unit 8 may directly use the selected teach point b2 as a new teach point. In this case, the number of teach points is reduced, the robot program becomes easier to observe, and thus the efficiency of the teaching operation can be further improved.

[0043] When teaching point b2 is used as another point for teaching point a4, if the teaching position of teaching point b2 or teaching point a4 is modified, the modification needs to be reflected in other teaching points that originally had the same teaching position. Therefore, the following steps can be performed to associate teaching point a4 with teaching point b2.

[0044] <5> Select "1: Yes" from the pop-up list of teach point association requirements 15. The teach point association unit 9 then associates teach point a4 with teach point b2. For example, teach point a4 and teach point b2 can be associated and stored in memory (not shown).

[0045] Then, after correcting the teaching position of teaching point a4, the following steps are performed, and the correction is also reflected in the teaching position of the associated teaching point b2. Figure 7 It is a graphic image of screen 12 generated by the robot program.

[0046] <6> To correct the teach point a4, so that the cursor is aligned with the fourth line of robot program A.

[0047] <7> Press the "Position Correction" button to correct the teaching position of teaching point a4.

[0048] <8> Select "1: Yes" from the pop-up list of whether associated teach point correction is needed. As a result, the associated teach point correction unit 10 reflects the correction of the teach point a4's teach position at the teach position of teach point b2. Conversely, if the teach position of teach point b2 is corrected, the associated teach point correction unit 10 also reflects the correction of teach point b2's teach position at the teach position of teach point a4. Furthermore, when there are three or more associated teach points and any one of them is corrected, the associated teach point correction unit 10 reflects that correction at the teach positions of all remaining teach points. This prevents forgetting to correct teach points at the same teach position, thereby preventing erroneous robot actions.

[0049] In addition, when the teaching position of a teaching point is corrected, the teaching posture of that teaching point and the teaching posture of teaching points associated with that teaching point can also be corrected. Figure 8 This is a graphical representation of a teaching posture correction screen 17 according to one embodiment. Even if the teaching position P of robot 2 is the same, the robot's posture when reaching this position may be different, such as posture A and posture B. If the posture of robot 2 is not properly taught, robot 2 will perform unnecessary actions, and the robot body may collide with obstacles. Therefore, when the teaching position P of a teaching point is corrected, the associated teaching point correction unit 10 can provide a function to summarize and correct the teaching posture of that teaching point and the teaching postures of teaching points associated with that teaching point. Furthermore, the associated teaching point correction unit 10 is not limited to correcting the teaching position P; when the teaching posture of a teaching point is corrected, the correction can also be reflected in the teaching postures of teaching points associated with that teaching point. As a result, it is possible to prevent forgetting to correct teaching points with the same teaching posture, thereby preventing erroneous actions of the robot.

[0050] Based on the above implementation method, the efficiency of teaching operations for robots can be improved. Furthermore, the above-described actions of the teaching device 4 or teaching system 11 are just one example; it should be noted that other actions can also be added. For example, the teaching point appropriation unit 8 can also copy the teaching posture of the teaching point b2 selected by the teaching point selection unit 7 to the teaching posture of the new teaching point a4.

[0051] In addition, the programs executed by the aforementioned processors, integrated circuits, etc., can be provided by recording on a computer-readable non-transient recording medium, such as a CD-ROM, or by distributing them via wired or wireless means from a server device on a WAN (wide area network) or LAN (local area network).

[0052] Various embodiments have been described in this specification, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and it should be understood that various modifications can be made within the scope of the claims.

[0053] Explanation of reference numerals in the attached figures

[0054] 1. Robot system

[0055] 2 robots

[0056] 3. Robot control device

[0057] 4. Teaching device

[0058] 5. User Interface Department (UI Department)

[0059] 6 Teaching Point Display Control Unit

[0060] 7. Teaching point selection section

[0061] 8. Misappropriation of teaching points

[0062] 9 teaching points related departments

[0063] 10 Related Teaching Point Correction Department

[0064] 11 Teaching System

[0065] 12. Robot programming generates images.

[0066] 13 Teaching Points Diagram

[0067] List of 14 teaching points

[0068] A list of whether or not teaching points are associated.

[0069] A list of whether or not corrections to 16 related teaching points are needed.

[0070] 17. Teaching posture correction screen

[0071] Teaching points a1~a4, b1~b3, c1~c3

[0072] P is the current position (teaching position).

Claims

1. A teaching device, characterized in that, have: The user interface section displays the generated screen of the robot program; The teach point display control unit controls the display of previously taught teach points on the generated screen. The teach point selection unit selects a specific teach point from the displayed teach points; The teach point appropriation unit appropriates the selected teach point as a new teach point for the robot program being generated; The teaching point association unit associates the previously taught teaching point with the new teaching point; as well as The associated teach point correction unit, when correcting the teach position of the teach point, also reflects the correction to the teach positions of the remaining teach points associated with the teach point. The previously taught teaching point includes at least one of a previously taught teaching point in the robot program being generated and a previously taught teaching point in another robot program different from the robot program.

2. The teaching device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The teach point display control unit searches for previously taught teach points near a specific location and displays them on the generated screen.

3. The teaching device according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the teaching position of the teaching point is corrected, the associated teaching point correction unit summarizes and corrects the teaching posture at the teaching point and the teaching posture at the teaching points associated with the teaching point.

4. The teaching device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The teaching point appropriation unit copies at least one of the teaching position and teaching posture of the selected teaching point to at least one of the teaching position and teaching posture of the new teaching point.

5. The teaching device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The teaching point appropriation unit directly uses the selected teaching point as the new teaching point.

6. A teaching system, characterized in that, have: A teaching pendant capable of displaying a screen showing the generation of the robot program; and The robot control device performs the following functions: displays previously taught points on the generated screen; selects a specific taught point from the displayed taught points; uses the selected taught point as a new taught point in the generated robot program; associates the previously taught taught points with the new taught points; and, if the taught position of the taught point is corrected, reflects the correction to the taught positions of the remaining taught points associated with that taught point. The previously taught point is included in at least one of the previously taught points in the generated robot program and the previously taught points in other robot programs different from the robot program.

7. A recording medium recording a teaching program, characterized in that, The teaching procedure causes the computer to perform the following steps: The step is to control the display of previously taught points on the generated screen of the robot program. The step of selecting a specific teach point from the displayed teach points; The step of repurposing the selected teaching point as a new teaching point for the robot program being generated; The step of associating the previously taught teaching point with the new teaching point; as well as The step of reflecting the correction to the teaching positions of the remaining teaching points associated with the teaching point after correcting the teaching position of the teaching point. The previously taught teaching point is included in at least one of the previously taught teaching points in the generated robot program and the previously taught teaching points in other robot programs different from the robot program.

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