A robot and numerical control system coupling control method and system

Abstract

This invention belongs to the field of CNC technology, specifically providing a method and system for coupled control of a robot and a CNC system. The method includes: inputting commands to each NML communication channel through an operating user interface; transmitting the commands from each channel interface to a task controller via their respective NML communication mechanisms; the task controller first interprets and converts the G-code of each channel, then processes the channel specifications and alarm information, finally decomposes the commands of each channel and transmits instructions to their respective I / O controllers, and then transmits them to the motion controller via shared memory; finally, the motion controller completes the motion planning for each channel. By combining the multi-channel technology of the Linux CNC system, multi-channel parameter configuration and EtherCAT fieldbus communication are achieved. The application of multi-channel CNC technology in robotic equipment is successfully realized, forming a system capable of simultaneously coupling and controlling two or more robots with the CNC system.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of numerical control technology, and more specifically, to a method and system for coupling control of a robot and a numerical control system. Background Technology

[0002] Since the beginning of the 21st century, various types of industrial robots have been developed. Their widespread application not only replaces human labor in harsh environments, reducing the labor intensity of workers, but also improves product quality. However, robots have their own dedicated control systems, and CNC machine tools have their own CNC systems. Generally speaking, these are different systems and cannot be integrated or used interchangeably.

[0003] However, CNC machine tools and robots share many similarities; both are automated mechanisms where a control system performs logic and calculations, and servo motors drive the working device to achieve precise positional movement. Currently, domestic CNC system manufacturers have not yet developed a single CNC system to achieve synchronous control of CNC machine tools and robots, and research on CNC systems controlling robots is also scarce. Therefore, this paper proposes the development of a coupled control system for CNC systems and robots, attempting synchronous control algorithms and technologies for multiple robots using CNC systems. This aims to achieve motion control of robots, not only improving the automation level of robots but also broadening the application scope of CNC systems and promoting their flexible development.

[0004] Currently, China's intelligent manufacturing initiatives advocate for automation, integration, and intelligence. CNC machine tools and industrial robots are prerequisites for achieving these conditions. However, domestic CNC systems rarely collaborate with robots, resulting in low processing efficiency. Furthermore, information exchange within CNC machining centers suffers from high latency. Summary of the Invention

[0005] This invention addresses the technical problem that existing CNC systems cannot control robots.

[0006] This invention provides a method for coupling control of a robot and a numerical control system, comprising:

[0007] Commands are input to each NML communication channel through the user interface, and the commands transmitted from each channel interface are transmitted to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms.

[0008] The task controller first interprets and converts the G-code of each channel, then processes the specifications of each channel and handles alarm information. Finally, it decomposes the commands of each channel and transmits the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as to the motion controller via shared memory. The motion controller then completes the motion planning for each channel.

[0009] Preferably, the communication mechanism of the NML communication channel includes: the configuration of the number of NML communication channels is determined by multiple channels opened in the configuration file, and each channel corresponds to N robots controlled simultaneously; each robot includes three NML communication channels, namely command channel, status channel and error channel.

[0010] Preferably, while the motion controller completes motion planning for each channel, the system monitors the actual operation of the controller and reads the status information to feed back to the user interface.

[0011] Preferably, each I / O controller communicates with the task controller through an NML communication channel, continuously receiving command messages transmitted by the task controller; for different I / O controllers, commands, status, and error information of their respective channels are transmitted respectively.

[0012] Preferably, the information interaction between each I / O controller and the hardware device is accomplished by exporting it as a HAL pin. The I / O controller inputs I / O information and outputs I / O information through HAL by setting the pins. The I / O controller accesses the hardware device through the HAL interface.

[0013] Preferably, multi-channel motion control is achieved at the task layer by improving the array-based approach of the task controller. Based on the characteristics of the kernel-mode module of the Linux CNC numerical control system, the virtual function method is adopted to realize function polymorphism in the Linux kernel and complete the overloading of functions with the same name in the multi-channel task controller.

[0014] Preferably, each of the NML communication channels corresponds to a type of industrial robot. For each NML communication channel, a robot forward and inverse kinematics module is written, and the corresponding channel information is added to generate a module corresponding to the channel number.

[0015] Then, a virtual module (dummy) is written, which selects and loads the corresponding dynamic library based on the robot type to be configured according to the NML communication channel during configuration.

[0016] Preferably, the HAL control scheme of the EtherCAT master station combines the LinuxCNC numerical control system and the EtherCAT protocol. The hardware abstraction layer HAL writes the information processed by each NML communication channel into the hardware program, and combines them into an interface layer according to the requirements through loading and connection methods to realize the communication between the LinuxCNC numerical control system and the EtherCAT industrial bus.

[0017] At the interface of the EtherCAT data domain, the data from multiple NML communication channels are encapsulated into a single transmit / receive thread and written into the information exchange function of the same data domain. Some EtherCAT functions are modified to enable data interaction between multiple channels.

[0018] Preferably, IghEtherCAT is selected as the master program to serve as the hardware protocol for the LinuxCNC multi-channel robot numerical control coupling control system; an x86 architecture industrial computer is used to control the I / O board devices and the digital and analog inputs and outputs of the I / O devices via Ethernet cable; the HAL secondary development module of the LinuxCNC numerical control system is used to configure the device drivers, realize the master-slave configuration, and establish communication between the industrial computer and the hardware I / O, servo drivers, and motors.

[0019] The present invention also provides a robot-numerical control system coupling control system, the system being used to implement a robot-numerical control system coupling control method, comprising:

[0020] The user interface is used to input commands to each NML communication channel and transmit the commands from each channel interface to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms.

[0021] The task controller is used to first interpret and convert the G code of each channel, then process the specifications of each channel and the alarm information, and finally decompose the commands of each channel and pass the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as pass them to the motion controller through shared memory.

[0022] The motion controller is used to perform motion planning for each channel.

[0023] Beneficial Effects: This invention provides a method and system for coupled control of a robot and a CNC system. The method includes: inputting commands to each NML communication channel through an operating user interface; transmitting the commands from each channel interface to a task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms; the task controller first interprets and converts the G-code of each channel, then processes the specifications of each channel and handles alarm information; finally, it decomposes the commands of each channel and transmits the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, and transmits them to the motion controller via shared memory; then, the motion controller completes the motion planning for each channel. By combining the multi-channel technology of the Linux CNC system, multi-channel parameter configuration and EtherCAT fieldbus communication are achieved. The application of multi-channel CNC system technology in robotic equipment is successfully realized, forming a system capable of simultaneously coupling and controlling two or more robots with the CNC system. Attached Figure Description

[0024] Figure 1 A block diagram illustrating the principle of a robot-numerical control system coupling control system provided by the present invention;

[0025] Figure 2 The communication architecture diagram between the Linux CNC numerical control system and EtherCAT provided by this invention;

[0026] Figure 3 The hardware structure diagram of the robot and CNC system coupling control system provided by the present invention;

[0027] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a possible electronic device provided by the present invention;

[0028] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a possible computer-readable storage medium provided by the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0029] The specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. The following examples are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

[0030] Explanation of terms that may be used in this invention:

[0031] CNC system coupled control of robot: realizes synchronous control of industrial robot by CNC system.

[0032] Task Controller: The Task Control Module (TASK) coordinates command scheduling between modules in the Linux CNC system, as well as the initialization of the entire system, ensuring its normal operation.

[0033] Motion Controller: The motion controller (MOTION) is the core module of the entire Linux CNC system, running in the kernel's real-time space. It realizes the trajectory planning and control between the workpiece and the tool in each channel, including functions such as sampling the position of each axis, basic motion interpolation, and motion trajectory speed planning.

[0034] IO Controller: Primarily responsible for handling the input and output devices of various channels in the Linux CNC system. This includes auxiliary operations such as emergency start / stop and coolant switching.

[0035] Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL): The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) serves as a bridge for software and hardware communication in the Linux CNC system. Its main function is to abstract the underlying hardware into interfaces.

[0036] EtherCAT Communication: This method combines the Linux CNC system with the EtherCAT protocol. Information processed by each channel of the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) module is written into the hardware program. Simple modules are combined into an interface layer for a complex system through loading and connecting, enabling communication between the Linux CNC system and the EtherCAT industrial bus. For hardware-based EtherCAT industrial bus communication protocols, NCUC, PROFINET, and TC-net can be used as alternatives to EtherCAT.

[0037] NML Channel: NML is responsible for encoding and decoding data to enable cross-platform communication. It is provided by the Real-Time Control System (RCS) development library.

[0038] Figure 1 The present invention provides a robot and numerical control system coupling control method, comprising:

[0039] Commands are input to each NML communication channel through the user interface, and the commands transmitted from each channel interface are transmitted to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms.

[0040] The task controller first interprets and converts the G-code of each channel, then processes the specifications of each channel and handles alarm information. Finally, it decomposes the commands of each channel and transmits the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as to the motion controller via shared memory. The motion controller then completes the motion planning for each channel.

[0041] This solution uses the NML communication mechanism of the RCS development library to realize communication between various modules of the robot's CNC system. Specifically, it achieves system communication through the NML communication mechanism and the EtherCAT industrial protocol, thereby realizing the coupled control technology of the CNC system over the robot.

[0042] On the other hand, traditional single-channel CNC systems can only control one robot. This solution achieves coupled control between the CNC system and the industrial robot. It can expand the number of task layer channels according to the array of task controllers, and realize the CNC system to control multiple robots collaboratively. That is, the collaborative motion of two or more robots can be controlled simultaneously by one IPC.

[0043] The control method flow of this invention embodiment is as follows:

[0044] Users send commands and retrieve status information from the CNC system through the user interface. The task controller transmits these commands, status information, and error information to the user interface via the NML communication channel, providing feedback to the user.

[0045] Users determine the status through interface information to decide which specific operation to perform. The Real-Time Control System (RCS) defines an NML communication mechanism. The NML communication mechanism is as follows: the number of NML communication channels is determined by the N channels opened in the configuration file, and these N channels correspond to the N robots being controlled simultaneously. Each robot system includes three NML communication channels: a command channel, a status channel, and an error channel. The NML communication mechanism implements communication between the task controller (TASK) and the user interface, as well as between the task controller and the I / O controller. Shared memory implements communication between the task module and the motion control module; that is, shared memory enables communication between the task controller and the motion controller.

[0046] The user interface inputs commands to each channel, which are then transmitted to the task controller via their respective NML communication mechanisms. The interpreter in the task controller interprets and converts the G-code for each channel, processes the channel specifications, handles alarm information, and finally decomposes the commands for each channel, sending instructions to their respective I / O controllers and, via shared memory, to the motion controller. The motion controller then completes the motion planning for each channel. Simultaneously, the system monitors the actual operation of the task controller and reads status information, feeding it back to the user interface.

[0047] In the preferred embodiment, the I / O controller communicates with the task controller via an NML communication channel, continuously receiving command messages from the task controller. For different I / O controllers, commands, status, and error information for their respective channels are transmitted. Simultaneously, information exchange between the I / O controller and the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), i.e., the hardware devices, is accomplished through HAL pinouts. The I / O controller inputs I / O information and outputs I / O information via the HAL by configuring pin settings, and accesses hardware devices through the HAL interface. Therefore, the development of a dual-channel I / O controller requires adding index numbers to these relevant pins to handle information from each channel.

[0048] The preferred solution achieves multi-channel motion control at the task layer by arraying the task controller. At the same time, channel numbers are added inside the motion controller, so the loading sequence is loaded twice in one cycle of the motion layer, simulating multi-channel control. The communication method NML between the modules and the shared memory also need to be allocated in duplicate accordingly.

[0049] The motion controller (MOTION) is the core module of the entire coupled control system, running in the kernel's real-time space. It realizes the trajectory planning and control between the workpiece and the tool in each channel, including functions such as sampling the position of each axis, basic motion interpolation, and motion trajectory speed planning.

[0050] Based on the characteristics of the kernel-mode modules of the Linux CNC numerical control system, the method of virtual functions (dummy functions) is adopted to implement function polymorphism in the Linux kernel, and to complete the overloading of functions with the same name in the multi-channel task controller in the robot numerical control coupling control system. In this way, the kinematic module configuration of different robots is realized by transforming the task controller into an array.

[0051] Each NML communication channel corresponds to a type of industrial robot. Therefore, it's necessary to write forward and inverse kinematics modules for each channel, adding the corresponding channel information, and compiling to generate modules corresponding to the channel numbers. Then, a virtual module (dummy) is written. During configuration, it can select and load the corresponding dynamic library based on the desired robot type for each channel, resolving function symbol table conflicts. In the CNC system coupled control robot designed in this method, channel 1 loads robot 1, and channel 2 loads robot 2 modules. To enable the development of more channels, robot forward and inverse kinematics module programs and their corresponding numbers are added according to the corresponding robot model.

[0052] Secondly, the motion control method of CNC system coupled control robot is based on shared memory communication and time-driven execution mode. It is mainly to realize the connection of each channel to the robot to process the workpiece, and at the same time, it is also necessary to complete the concurrent operation of two or more channels, realizing the simultaneous operation of two or more robots by one industrial control computer (IPC).

[0053] Finally, the HAL control scheme of the EtherCAT master station combines the Linux CNC system and the EtherCAT protocol. The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) writes the processed information from each channel into the hardware program, and combines simple modules into the interface layer of a complex system through loading and connecting as needed, realizing communication between the Linux CNC system and the EtherCAT industrial bus. At the interface of the EtherCAT data domain, the data from multiple channels is encapsulated into a single transmit / receive thread, i.e., written into the information exchange function of the same data domain. Some EtherCAT functions are modified to perform data interaction between multiple channels. This realizes the data transmission of a multi-channel CNC system in single-port mode. Therefore, the master-slave control structure is used to control Robot 1 and Robot 2. Data interaction between the Linux CNC system and EtherCAT is realized, and the communication architecture between them is as follows. Figure 2 As shown.

[0054] Based on the existing Linux CNC numerical control system, bus communication is achieved through real-time industrial Ethernet technology EtherCAT, such as... Figure 3As shown, EtherCAT is used as the communication protocol between the CNC system software and the underlying hardware devices. EtherCAT mainly consists of two parts: a master station and slave stations. The establishment of the master station is the core of EtherCAT communication. This method selects IghEtherCAT as the master station program to serve as the hardware protocol for the LinuxCNC multi-channel robot CNC coupling control system. An x86 architecture industrial PC (IPC) is used, which can control the I / O board devices and the digital and analog input / output of I / O devices via Ethernet cable. The device driver is configured using the HAL secondary development module of the LinuxCNC CNC system to realize the configuration of the master and slave stations, establish communication between the industrial PC and the hardware I / O, servo drivers, and motors, and control the servo drivers by following the forward and inverse kinematic transformations of Robot 1 and Robot 2, thereby moving Robot 1 and Robot 2, which are used in the robot CNC system, to the target position.

[0055] This invention also provides a robot-numerical control system coupling control system, the system being used to implement the robot-numerical control system coupling control method described above, including:

[0056] The user interface is used to input commands to each NML communication channel and transmit the commands from each channel interface to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms.

[0057] The task controller is used to first interpret and convert the G code of each channel, then process the specifications of each channel and the alarm information, and finally decompose the commands of each channel and pass the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as pass them to the motion controller through shared memory.

[0058] The motion controller is used to perform motion planning for each channel.

[0059] like Figure 1 As shown, the coupling control system of this CNC system uses the LinuxCNC CNC system as its platform. This system supports fully digital open CNC devices using NCUC and EtherCAT fieldbus, and features a modular and open architecture. The coupling control flow between the CNC system and the robot in this method is as follows: Figure 1 As shown, the CNC system coupled control robot system framework is divided into user-mode modules and kernel-mode modules according to the module operating environment. The user-mode modules mainly consist of an operation user interface module, a task control module, and an I / O module, while the kernel-mode modules mainly include a motion controller and a hardware abstraction layer. In the multi-channel CNC system and robot coupled control system, system communication via RCS communication mechanism and EtherCAT fieldbus is used to achieve coupled control between the CNC system and the industrial robot.

[0060] Please see Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of the electronic device provided in this invention. For example... Figure 4 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, including a memory 1310, a processor 1320, and a computer program 1311 stored in the memory 1310 and executable on the processor 1320. When the processor 1320 executes the computer program 1311, it performs the following steps: inputting commands to each NML communication channel through the user interface, and transmitting the commands from each channel interface to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms.

[0061] The task controller first interprets and converts the G-code of each channel, then processes the specifications of each channel and handles alarm information. Finally, it decomposes the commands of each channel and transmits the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as to the motion controller via shared memory. The motion controller then completes the motion planning for each channel.

[0062] Please see Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of a computer-readable storage medium provided by the present invention. (See diagram below.) Figure 5 As shown, this embodiment provides a computer-readable storage medium 1400, on which a computer program 1411 is stored. When the computer program 1411 is executed by the processor, it performs the following steps: inputting commands to each NML communication channel through the user interface, and transmitting the commands from each channel interface to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms.

[0063] The task controller first interprets and converts the G-code of each channel, then processes the specifications of each channel and handles alarm information. Finally, it decomposes the commands of each channel and transmits the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as to the motion controller via shared memory. The motion controller then completes the motion planning for each channel.

[0064] It should be noted that the descriptions of each embodiment in the above embodiments have different focuses. For parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, please refer to the relevant descriptions in other embodiments.

[0065] Those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of the present invention can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present invention can take the form of a completely hardware embodiment, a completely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention can take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code.

[0066] This invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, embedded computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, generate instructions for implementing the flowchart illustrations. Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A device that provides the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0067] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means, which are implemented in a process Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The function specified in one or more boxes.

[0068] These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable equipment to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby providing instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable equipment for implementing the process. Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The steps of the function specified in one or more boxes.

[0069] Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described, those skilled in the art, upon learning the basic inventive concept, can make other changes and modifications to these embodiments. Therefore, the appended claims are intended to be interpreted as including both the preferred embodiments and all changes and modifications falling within the scope of the invention.

[0070] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this invention without departing from its spirit and scope. Therefore, if these modifications and variations fall within the scope of the claims of this invention and their equivalents, this invention also intends to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of coupling control of a robot and a numerical control system, characterized by, include: Commands are input to each NML communication channel through the user interface, and the commands transmitted from each channel interface are transmitted to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms. The task controller first interprets and converts the G code of each channel, then processes the specifications of each channel and handles the alarm information. Finally, it decomposes the commands of each channel and transmits the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as to the motion controller through shared memory. Then the motion controller completes the motion planning for each channel. Each NML communication channel corresponds to a type of industrial robot. For each NML communication channel, a robot forward and inverse kinematics module is written, and the corresponding channel information is added. The module corresponding to the channel number is then compiled and generated. Then, a virtual module (dummy) is written, which selects and loads the corresponding dynamic library based on the robot type to be configured according to the NML communication channel during configuration.

2. The robot and CNC system coupled control method of claim 1, wherein, The communication mechanism of the NML communication channel includes: the number of NML communication channels is determined by multiple channels opened in the configuration file, and each channel corresponds to N robots controlled simultaneously; each robot includes three NML communication channels, namely command channel, status channel and error channel.

3. The robot and CNC system coupling control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, While the motion controller completes motion planning for each channel, the system monitors the actual operation of the motion controller and reads the status information to feed back to the user interface.

4. The robot and CNC system coupling control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Each I / O controller communicates with the task controller through an NML communication channel, continuously receiving command messages transmitted by the task controller; for different I / O controllers, it transmits commands, status, and error information through its respective channel.

5. The robot and CNC system coupling control method according to claim 4, characterized in that, The information interaction between each I / O controller and the hardware device is accomplished by exporting it to HAL pins. The I / O controller inputs I / O information and outputs I / O information through HAL by setting the pins. The I / O controller accesses the hardware device through the HAL interface.

6. The robot and CNC system coupling control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Multi-channel motion control was implemented at the task layer by improving the array-based approach of the task controller. Based on the characteristics of the kernel-mode module of the Linux CNC numerical control system, the virtual function method was adopted to implement function polymorphism in the Linux kernel and complete the overloading of functions with the same name in the multi-channel task controller.

7. The robot and CNC system coupling control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The HAL control scheme of EtherCAT master station combines LinuxCNC numerical control system and EtherCAT protocol. The hardware abstraction layer HAL writes the information processed by each NML communication channel into the hardware program, and combines them into interface layer according to requirements through loading and connection methods to realize communication between LinuxCNC numerical control system and EtherCAT industrial bus. At the interface of the EtherCAT data domain, the data from multiple NML communication channels are encapsulated into a single transmit / receive thread and written into the information exchange function of the same data domain. Some EtherCAT functions are modified to enable data interaction between multiple channels.

8. The robot and CNC system coupling control method according to claim 7, characterized in that, IghEtherCAT was selected as the master program for the hardware protocol of the LinuxCNC multi-channel robot numerical control coupling control system. An x86 architecture industrial computer was used to control the I / O board devices and input / output of digital and analog signals via Ethernet cable. The HAL secondary development module of the LinuxCNC numerical control system was used to configure the device drivers, realize the master-slave configuration, and establish communication between the industrial computer and hardware I / O, servo drivers, and motors.

9. A robot-numerical control system coupled with a numerical control system, characterized in that, The system is used to implement the robot and CNC system coupling control method as described in any one of claims 1-6, including: The user interface is used to input commands to each NML communication channel and transmit the commands from each channel interface to the task controller through their respective NML communication mechanisms. The task controller is used to first interpret and convert the G code of each channel, then process the specifications of each channel and the alarm information, and finally decompose the commands of each channel and pass the instructions to their respective I / O controllers, as well as pass them to the motion controller through shared memory. Motion controller, used to perform motion planning for each channel; Each NML communication channel corresponds to a type of industrial robot. For each NML communication channel, a robot forward and inverse kinematics module is written, and the corresponding channel information is added. The module corresponding to the channel number is then compiled and generated. Then, a virtual module (dummy) is written, which selects and loads the corresponding dynamic library based on the robot type to be configured according to the NML communication channel during configuration.

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