Mechanical arm feeding device

Abstract

The utility model relates to a mechanical arm feeding device which is applied to the field of battery cell processing equipment. The system comprises a mechanical arm, an image collector, a driving unit, a controller and an identification module, wherein the image collector is used for acquiring tray images corresponding to a plurality of grabbing positions of the mechanical arm; the controller is in communication connection with the driving unit and the image collector and controls the mechanical arm to sequentially run to a plurality of grabbing positions according to a preset grabbing path; and when the mechanical arm reaches a grabbing position, the controller compares the tray image with a standard image, controls the clamping jaws with the battery cells at the corresponding placing positions to clamp the battery cells, and controls the clamping jaws without the battery cells at the corresponding placing positions not to perform clamping operation. According to the invention, the image collector is integrated on the mechanical arm, so that the tray image of the corresponding area of the clamping jaws is collected, and the current arrangement condition of the battery cells on the tray is obtained, so that the mechanical arm can drive the corresponding single clamping jaw to perform clamping operation under the driving of the control unit, and empty grabbing is avoided.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of battery core processing equipment, and in particular to a robotic arm loading device. Background Art

[0002] With the widespread application of power batteries, higher requirements have been placed on the production efficiency of batteries. Automated and intelligent production has become an important solution to improve battery production efficiency. Automated assembly, loading and unloading, etc. have been widely used in battery module production. For example, before loading, the battery cells are placed on a tray. The tray is arrayed with a number of grooves corresponding to the battery cells, and the battery cells are inserted into the grooves. When loading, the robot arm can remove the battery cells from the tray and place them on the production line to achieve rapid loading of the battery cells.

[0003] However, in actual production, the incoming battery cells are unstable. Some battery cell placement positions on the tray have battery cells, while some placement positions do not, that is, the tray is not fully loaded. The existing robot arm can usually only load battery cells to a full tray. When grabbing a not fully loaded battery tray, since the robot arm grabs multiple battery cells at a time, the tray will be empty when it is not fully loaded, resulting in a system error, which will affect the loading progress of the battery cells. What's more, there may be no battery cells at all in some grabbing positions, and the robot arm performs a grabbing operation, resulting in invalid grabbing, which seriously affects the loading progress of the battery cells.

[0004] The existing loading system cannot solve the above problems, which often leads to the accumulation of partially loaded battery cell trays. Therefore, it is urgent to design a loading production tooling that is highly versatile and compatible with most battery cells. Utility Model Content

[0005] Based on this, it is necessary to provide a production tool that is highly versatile and compatible with most battery cell loading, specifically a robotic arm loading device, to address the problem that the feeding system easily causes the gripper to have empty grip when facing a partially loaded battery cell tray.

[0006] The present application provides a robotic arm feeding device, comprising:

[0007] A mechanical arm, comprising a carrier, a plurality of grippers and a plurality of movable connecting members, wherein the movable connecting members are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence with the grippers and are used to movably connect the grippers to the carrier, and the grippers can grasp the battery cells on the tray under the drive of the movable connecting members;

[0008] An image collector, used to obtain images of the tray corresponding to the plurality of gripping positions of the robot arm, wherein the plurality of grippers can grip a plurality of battery cells corresponding to the number of the grippers at each of the gripping positions;

[0009] A driving unit, used for driving the robot arm to move along a preset grasping path to the plurality of grasping positions;

[0010] A controller, which is respectively connected to the driving unit, the image collector and the movable connecting member, and is used to control the driving unit to drive the mechanical arm to move to the plurality of grasping positions in sequence, and control the corresponding movable connecting member to drive the clamp to grasp the battery cell; and an identification module, which includes a plurality of sensors, which are arranged and installed on the clamp in a one-to-one correspondence with the clamp, and all of the sensors are connected to the controller in a communication manner, and are used to detect the distance between the clamp and the current grasping position;

[0011] The clamping jaw comprises a pair of symmetrically arranged clamping plates, and the movable connecting member comprises a first driving portion and a second driving portion, wherein the first driving portion is mounted on the bearing member and movably connected between the pair of clamping plates to drive the pair of clamping plates to move toward or away from each other; the second driving portion movably connects the clamping plates to the bearing member to drive the clamping jaw to approach or move away from the grasping position;

[0012] Each time the robot arm reaches a grasping position, the controller compares the tray image with the standard image, controls the grippers at the corresponding placement positions with battery cells to grip the battery cells, and controls the grippers at the corresponding placement positions without battery cells not to perform the gripping operation.

[0013] In one or more embodiments, the device includes a storage unit, which is connected to the controller. The preset grasping path and the standard image are stored in the storage unit. The robotic arm can move to the plurality of grasping positions in sequence along the preset grasping path under the control of the controller.

[0014] In one or more embodiments, the controller includes a storage unit, and the storage unit stores the preset capture path and the standard image.

[0015] In one or more embodiments, the controller includes a storage unit, which is used to store the preset grasping path and the standard image. The robotic arm can move along the preset grasping path to the plurality of grasping positions in sequence under the control of the controller.

[0016] In one or more embodiments, the tray image at least includes a plurality of battery cell placement positions corresponding to the plurality of grippers at the gripping positions.

[0017] In one or more embodiments, the controller is configured to compare the tray image with the standard image, and when all of the multiple battery cell placement positions corresponding to the grasping position have no battery cells placed, the controller drives the robot arm to move to the next grasping position.

[0018] In one or more embodiments, the controller is configured to capture a target image in the tray image and compare the target image with the standard image; the target image is an image area of ​​the plurality of battery cell placement positions corresponding to the grabbing position.

[0019] In one or more embodiments, the standard image is an image of a single battery cell at the battery cell placement position; or, the standard image is an image of a plurality of battery cells corresponding to the number of the clamps at their respective battery cell placement positions.

[0020] In one or more embodiments, the tray image is configured with a first comparison mark, and the standard image is configured with a second comparison mark, and the first comparison mark can be compared with the second comparison mark by means of the controller.

[0021] In one or more embodiments, the first comparison mark is configured as an explosion-proof valve of the battery cell in the tray image, and the second comparison mark is configured as an explosion-proof valve of the battery cell in the standard image.

[0022] In one or more embodiments, the identification module further includes a detection unit, which is communicatively connected to the controller and integrated with the sensor; the detection unit is used to identify the tray type and / or the battery cell type.

[0023] The robotic arm loading device of the present application can collect the pallet image of the area corresponding to the gripper by setting an image collector, and then drive the robotic arm to move to each grasping position in sequence with the help of a controller and control the image collector to collect the pallet image of the grasping position at the same time, so as to know whether there are battery cells on the current pallet image, and then control the corresponding single gripper to perform a grasping operation according to the arrangement of the battery cells, so as to avoid empty grasping of the gripper, thereby improving the loading speed of the battery cells. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the circuit connection of a robotic arm loading device according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0025] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the circuit connection of a robotic arm loading device according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0026] Figure 3 A schematic structural diagram of a robotic arm in one embodiment of the present application.

[0027] Figure 4 It is a partial schematic diagram of the robot arm gripper in one embodiment of the present application.

[0028] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of a tray fully loaded with battery cells in one embodiment of the present application.

[0029] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of a tray that is not fully loaded with battery cells in one embodiment of the present application.

[0030] Figure 7 This is a flow chart of determining whether there is a battery cell in one embodiment of the present application.

[0031] Notes on the attached drawings:

[0032] 1. Robotic arm; 11. Rotating arm; 12. Gripper; 121. Clamp; 122. Flexible cushion; 13. Mounting piece; 14. Active connector; 2. Driving unit; 3. Image collector; 4. Storage unit; 5. Identification module; 6. Controller; 7. Carrying part; T. Tray; B. Battery cell; C. Battery cell placement position; St1. First grabbing position; St2. Second grabbing position; St3. Third grabbing position; St4. Fourth grabbing position; St5. Fifth grabbing position; St6. Sixth grabbing position; V. Explosion-proof valve. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] In order to make the above-mentioned purposes, features and advantages of the present application more obvious and easy to understand, the specific implementation methods of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present application. However, the present application can be implemented in many other ways different from those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar improvements without violating the connotation of the present application, so the present application is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0034] In the description of the present application, it should be understood that if the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "radial", "circumferential", etc. appear, the orientation or position relationship indicated by these terms is based on the orientation or position relationship shown in the accompanying drawings, which is only for the convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description, and does not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation on the present application.

[0035] In addition, if the terms "first" or "second" appear, these terms are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Therefore, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In the description of this application, if the term "plurality" appears, the meaning of "plurality" is at least two, such as two, three, etc., unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0036] In this application, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, if the terms "installed", "connected", "connected", "fixed" and the like appear, these terms should be understood in a broad sense. For example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integrated connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium, it can be the internal connection of two elements or the interaction relationship between two elements, unless otherwise clearly defined. For ordinary technicians in this field, the specific meanings of the above terms in this application can be understood according to the specific circumstances.

[0037] In the present application, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, if there is a description that a first feature is "above" or "below" a second feature, etc., or similar descriptions appear, it may mean that the first and second features are in direct contact, or that the first and second features are in indirect contact through an intermediate medium. Moreover, the first feature being "above", "above" and "above" the second feature may mean that the first feature is directly above or obliquely above the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is higher in level than the second feature. The first feature being "below", "below" and "below" the second feature may mean that the first feature is directly below or obliquely below the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is lower in level than the second feature.

[0038] It should be noted that if an element is referred to as being "fixed to" or "disposed on" another element, it may be directly on the other element or there may be a central element. If an element is considered to be "connected to" another element, it may be directly connected to the other element or there may be a central element at the same time. If any, the terms "vertical", "horizontal", "upper", "lower", "left", "right" and similar expressions used in this application are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the only implementation method.

[0039] Before loading, the battery cells are placed on a tray, which is arrayed with several battery cell placement positions, such as grooves for placing battery cells, in which the battery cells are inserted and fixed. When loading, the battery cells are taken out of the grooves of the tray by a robotic arm and placed on the production line. However, due to the unstable incoming battery cell situation in actual production, some battery cell placement positions on the tray are filled with battery cells, while some are empty, that is, the tray is not fully loaded.

[0040] However, the existing robot arm can usually only load cells on a full tray. When it is used to grab a partially loaded tray, the robot arm cannot know the incoming material situation. If it grabs multiple cells at a time, it will grab empty cells when the tray is not fully loaded, causing the system to report an error, thus affecting the loading progress of the cells. There may even be a situation where there are no cells at some grabbing positions, but the robot arm has already started the grabbing operation, which seriously affects the loading progress of the cells.

[0041] The existing feeding system cannot solve the above problems, which often leads to the accumulation of partially loaded battery trays. Therefore, how to design a versatile and compatible battery feeding production tooling has become a technical problem that technicians in this field need to solve urgently.

[0042] The following is combined with Figure 1-7 The embodiments of the present application are described in further detail.

[0043] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 The circuit connection diagram of a robot arm loading device of an embodiment of the present application is shown in FIG. This embodiment provides a robot arm loading device, wherein the robot arm 1 comprises a carrier 7, a plurality of clamps 12, and a plurality of movable connecting members 14, wherein the movable connecting members 14 and the clamps 12 are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence, so as to movably mount the clamps 12 on the surface of the carrier 7, and the clamps 12 are used to grab the battery cells B on the tray T.

[0044] The robot arm loading device of this embodiment also includes a driving unit 2, an image collector 3, a controller 6 and an identification module 5. The driving unit 2 is used to drive the robot arm 1 to move to multiple gripping positions, and to drive multiple grippers 12 to grip the battery cells B; the image collector 3 is used to obtain the pallet images corresponding to the multiple gripping positions of the robot arm 1, and can synchronously obtain the pallet image corresponding to each gripping position when the robot arm 1 moves to the gripping position, and the multiple grippers 12 can grip multiple battery cells B corresponding to the number of grippers 12 at each gripping position;

[0045] The controller 6 is respectively connected to the drive unit 2, the image collector 3 and the movable connection member 14 for communication. The controller 6 can control the drive unit 2 to drive the robot arm 1 to move to multiple grabbing positions in sequence according to the preset grabbing path, and control the corresponding movable connection member 14 to drive the gripper 12 to grab the battery cell B. In addition, in some embodiments, the controller 6 can determine the preset grabbing path according to the type of the tray T and / or the type of the battery cell B;

[0046] Among them, the controller 6 can obtain the tray images corresponding to the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping position of the multiple clamps 12 according to the tray image and the standard image corresponding to the grasping position, so as to know whether there is a battery cell B at the battery cell placement position C, thereby controlling each clamp 12 to perform or not perform the clamping operation. The identification module 5 includes a plurality of sensors, which are arranged one by one with the clamps 12 and installed on the clamps. All sensors are communicatively connected to the controller 6. The sensors can emit a detection beam toward the battery cell B to detect the distance between the clamp 12 itself and the current grasping position, and detect whether the clamp 12 is successfully clamped after the clamp 12 performs the clamping operation, so that the movable connection member 14 can control the movement of the clamp 12 according to the current position and spacing information, and realize the grasping operation of the battery cell B at the corresponding grasping position.

[0047] In some other embodiments, such as Figure 2 As shown, the identification module 5 also includes a detection unit, which is communicatively connected to the above-mentioned controller 6 and integrated with the sensor. The detection unit is used to identify the type of tray T and / or the type of battery cell B, and the controller 6 can determine the data of the above-mentioned preset grabbing path according to the type of tray T and / or the type of battery cell B detected by the detection unit.

[0048] Specifically, the identification module 5 can be a scanning device, such as a barcode scanning gun, a scanner, etc. The controller 6 is connected to the identification module 5 and can read the tray T type and / or battery cell B type obtained by the identification module 5 and the spacing information between the battery cell B and the clamp 12, and then determine the preset grasping path and standard image corresponding to the tray T type or the battery cell B type.

[0049] In the embodiment of the present application, the image collector 3 is set to collect the pallet image of the area corresponding to the gripper 12, and then the controller 6 is used to drive the robot arm 1 to move to each grasping position in sequence and simultaneously control the image collector 3 to collect the pallet image of the grasping position, so as to know whether there is a battery cell B on the current pallet image.

[0050] In the present application, the arrangement of the battery cells B is acquired through the setting of the image collector 3, and the corresponding clamping jaws 12 can perform corresponding clamping operations according to the arrangement of the battery cells B with the help of the regulation of the controller 6, so as to avoid the situation where the clamping jaws 12 grab empty grasps, thereby improving the feeding speed of the battery cells B.

[0051] See also Figure 3 In one embodiment of the present application, the robot arm 1 includes a plurality of rotating arms 11 and a plurality of clamps 12 disposed at the ends of the rotating arms 11, and the bearing member 7 is connected to the ends of the rotating arms 11 to provide a mounting position for the clamps 12; Figure 1The robot arm 1 is exemplified by a single-axis robot and eight grippers 12. In other embodiments, the robot arm 1 may be other types of robots, and the number of grippers 12 may also be determined according to actual usage scenarios, and is not limited thereto. In a specific embodiment, a plurality of grippers 12 are fixed to the carrier 7 via a movable connection 14 and a mounting member 13.

[0052] Specifically, the clamping jaw 12 includes a pair of symmetrically arranged clamping plates 121, and the movable connecting member 14 includes a first driving part and a second driving part, wherein the first driving part is installed on the bearing member 7 and is movably connected between the pair of clamping plates 121 to drive the pair of clamping plates 121 to move toward or away from each other; the second driving part movably connects the clamping plates 121 to the bearing member 7 to drive the clamping jaw 12 to approach or move away from the grasping position. The first driving part and the second driving part can be pneumatic driving parts, such as cylinders.

[0053] In some other embodiments, the clamping jaw 12 further includes a flexible pad 122 installed between a pair of clamping plates 121. In the embodiment of the present application, two flexible pads 122 are provided and are installed on opposite surfaces of the clamping plates 121, respectively, to provide buffering and anti-slip effects.

[0054] Combination Figure 2 As shown, Figure 2 The circuit connection diagram of the robot arm loading device of one embodiment of the present application is shown in FIG. Specifically, the driving unit 2 is connected to the robot arm 1, and is used to drive the robot arm 1 to move to multiple gripping positions, and to drive multiple grippers 12 to clamp the battery cell B; in one embodiment, the driving unit 2 can be a servo motor or a stepper motor, etc. The driving unit 2 is connected to multiple rotating arms 11 of the robot arm 1, and can drive the multiple rotating arms 11 to move or rotate.

[0055] Usually, there are a large number of battery cells B on the tray T. Even if the robot arm 1 is provided with multiple grippers 12, it takes multiple times to unload all the battery cells B on the tray T. Therefore, each time the robot arm 1 grabs a battery cell B, it moves to the next grabbing position to clamp and take out the corresponding battery cell B.

[0056] Specifically, the multiple grippers 12 on the robot 1 are driven and controlled by corresponding movable connecting parts 14 respectively. During loading, when there are battery cells B in each battery cell placement position C at the gripping position, several battery cells B can be taken out from the tray T at the same time and placed in the target station. When there are vacancies among the multiple battery cell placement positions C, the grippers 12 corresponding to the vacant battery cell placement positions C are controlled not to perform the clamping operation, and only the battery cells B in the battery cell placement positions C with battery cells B are clamped, taken out and placed in the target station.

[0057] In the embodiment of the present application, the image collector 3 can be a CCD camera, and the image collector 3 can obtain the pallet images corresponding to the robot arm 1 at multiple gripping positions. In a specific embodiment, the image collector 3 is installed at the end of the robot arm 1, and the robot arm 1 can drive multiple grippers 12 to move synchronously. As the robot arm 1 moves to different gripping positions, the image collector 3 takes pictures at different gripping positions and synchronously obtains the corresponding pallet images.

[0058] Specifically, the image collector 3 can be arranged on the mounting member 13 so as to move synchronously with the plurality of grippers 12. Of course, in other embodiments, the image collector 3 may not move synchronously with the robot arm 1, but may be driven to each grasping position by another driving mechanism to obtain the corresponding pallet image.

[0059] In one embodiment, when the robot arm 1 runs to each grasping position, the multiple grippers 12 arranged thereon can grasp a corresponding number of battery cells B, and the tray image acquired by the image acquisition device 3 at least includes a plurality of battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping position, that is, the tray image at least includes a plurality of battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the number of grippers 12, and thus it can be obtained whether there are battery cells B in each battery cell placement position C.

[0060] In one embodiment of the present application, the controller 6 is in communication connection with the driving unit 2 and can control the driving unit 2 to drive the robot arm 1 to move to a plurality of grasping positions in sequence according to a preset grasping path.

[0061] Please refer to Figure 5 , Figure 5 Schematic diagram of a pallet fully loaded with battery cells. A plurality of battery cell placement positions C are provided on the pallet T, and a battery cell B is placed on each battery cell placement position C. When the number of grippers 12 is 8, 6 battery cell B grabbing positions St1, St2...St6 are correspondingly provided on the pallet T (the parts framed by dotted lines in the figure), and each battery cell B grabbing position corresponds to 8 battery cell placement positions C on the pallet T. When the robot arm 1 unloads the fully loaded battery cells B, it will run to the plurality of grabbing positions in sequence according to a certain path, and take the battery cells B corresponding to the grabbing positions from the pallet T, for example, Figure 5 In the figure, the path of the robot arm 1 to grab the battery cell B is: first grab the battery cell B at the first grabbing position St1, then move to the second grabbing position St2 to grab the battery cell B, then move to the third grabbing position St3 to grab the battery cell B, and move in sequence until reaching the sixth grabbing position St6.

[0062] Preferably, the preset grabbing path is a grabbing path for the robot arm 1 to sequentially grab the battery cells B from multiple positions on the tray T when the tray T is fully loaded with battery cells B. Figure 6As shown, the tray T is not fully loaded with battery cells B, and only 4 battery cells B are placed on the 8 battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the fourth grasping position St4, and no battery cells B are placed on the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the fifth grasping position St5 and the sixth grasping position St6. In this embodiment, the preset grasping path can be from St1 to St6 in sequence, that is, the controller 6 controls the drive unit 2 to drive the robot arm 1 according to the path of the robot arm 1 grasping the battery cells B when the tray T is fully loaded with battery cells B, so that the robot arm 1 can reach each grasping position in sequence according to the grasping path when the battery cells B are fully loaded to clamp and remove the battery cells B.

[0063] In one embodiment of the present application, the controller 6 is communicatively connected with the image acquisition device 3. The controller 6 can determine whether there is a battery cell B at the battery cell placement position C corresponding to each clamp 12 based on the tray image and the standard image corresponding to the grasping position, and control each clamp 12 to perform or not perform the clamping operation based on the judgment result.

[0064] The controller 6 is communicatively connected with the drive unit 2 and the image collector 3. The controller 6 can obtain a preset grasping path, and generate corresponding control instructions according to the preset grasping path, and send them to the drive unit 2. The drive unit 2 drives the robot arm 1 to move according to the preset grasping path according to the control instructions, so that it can reach multiple grasping positions in sequence; the image collector 3 obtains the tray image corresponding to each grasping position according to the movement path of the robot arm 1, and the controller 6 obtains each tray image and a standard image corresponding to the tray image, and compares the tray image with the standard image. If the judgment result is that the tray image and the standard image are consistent, it is judged that all the battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the tray image are placed with battery cells B, thereby generating a control instruction to control the drive unit 2 to control all the grippers 12 to grip the battery cell B; conversely, if the judgment result is that the tray image and the standard image are inconsistent, the controller 6 can calculate the specific position of the battery cell placement position C without battery cell B, and generate a control instruction to control the drive unit 2 to control the grippers 12 corresponding to the battery cell placement position C without battery cell B not to perform the gripping operation, and control the grippers 12 corresponding to other battery cell placement positions C to perform the gripping operation of battery cell B. The controller 6 may specifically be a programmable logic controller (PLC) or a single chip microcomputer (MCU).

[0065] Please combine Figure 6 and Figure 7 As shown, Figure 7The figure shows a control flow chart of loading of the robot arm 1 in one embodiment of the present application. In a specific embodiment, after the tray T arrives, the robot arm 1 is driven by the drive unit 2 to move to the first gripping position St1 according to the preset gripping path, and the image collector 3 obtains the tray image of the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the first gripping position St1. The controller 6 obtains the tray image taken by the image collector 3, and obtains the standard image at the same time, and compares the tray image with the standard image. If the comparison result is that the tray image is consistent with the standard image, that is, the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the multiple grippers 12 in the tray image all have battery cells B placed, as shown in FIG. Figure 6 As shown, the controller 6 controls the driving unit 2 to drive the multiple clamps 12 to perform the clamping operation at the same time, and takes out the battery cells B in the multiple battery cell placement positions C from the tray T together, and then places the taken out battery cells B to the target position. If the comparison result is that the tray image is inconsistent with the standard image, that is, not all of the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the multiple clamps 12 in the tray image have battery cells B placed, the controller 6 controls the driving unit 2 to drive the clamps 12 corresponding to the battery cell placement positions C with battery cells B to perform the clamping operation, and the clamps 12 corresponding to the battery cell placement positions C without battery cells B do not perform the clamping operation, and then the clamped battery cells B are taken out from the tray T and placed at the target position.

[0066] Then the controller 6 controls the drive unit 2 to drive the robot 1 to move to the second grasping position St2 according to the preset grasping path, and the image collector 3 captures the pallet image corresponding to the second grasping position St2. The controller 6 compares the pallet image with the standard image again, and controls each clamp 12 to perform or not perform the clamping operation according to the comparison result; the controller 6 controls the drive unit 2 to drive the robot 1 to the third, fourth, i-th, and last grasping positions St6 in sequence, and the image collector 3 obtains the pallet images corresponding to the third, fourth, i-th, and last grasping positions St6 accordingly. After the controller 6 completes the corresponding comparison, it controls multiple clamps 12 to complete corresponding grasping operations at each grasping position. Specifically, at the first grasping position St1 to the third grasping position St3, multiple clamps 12 will grasp all battery cells B at the corresponding grasping positions, and only grasp 4 battery cells B at the fourth grasping position St4, and all clamps 12 do not perform clamping operations at the fifth grasping position St5 and the sixth grasping position St6. In this way, all the battery cells B in the tray T are taken out, and the loading device controls the robot arm 1 to complete a complete loading process.

[0067] The robot arm loading device of the present application can collect the pallet images of the areas corresponding to the multiple grippers 12 by setting up the image collector 3; the controller 6 drives the robot arm 1 to move to a grasping position each time, and controls the image collector 3 to collect the pallet image of the grasping position, and judges whether there is a battery cell B and the specific position of the battery cell B on the pallet image, and controls the grippers 12 to perform a clamping operation according to the judgment result, so as to avoid empty grasping of the grippers 12, thereby speeding up the loading progress of the battery cell B.

[0068] The controller 6 controls the robot arm 1 to move to multiple grasping positions in sequence according to the preset grasping path to grasp the battery cell B, and compares the tray image of each grasping position with the standard image. On the one hand, since only the image of the grasping position is compared each time, the comparison result is more accurate and the calculation time is shorter, which can avoid the deviation of the comparison result of a large area image and the time influence caused by the calculation. When the robot arm 1 reaches the grasping position, the tray image acquisition, image comparison and generation of control instructions for the robot arm 1 and the gripper 12 can be completed, thereby improving the loading efficiency. On the other hand, arriving at each grasping position according to the grasping path of the fully loaded battery cell B can ensure that the fully loaded tray in actual production still follows the original loading process, thereby improving the loading efficiency while not affecting the existing production process.

[0069] In one embodiment, the device includes a storage unit 4, which is connected to a controller 6. Figure 2 As shown, the storage unit 4 is used to store the preset grabbing path and the standard image.

[0070] In one embodiment, the controller 6 includes a storage unit 4, such as Figure 1 As shown, the storage unit 4 is used to store the preset grabbing path and the standard image.

[0071] In a specific embodiment, the controller 6 is communicatively connected to the storage unit 4 so as to be able to read the preset grabbing path and standard image stored in the storage unit 4 .

[0072] In one embodiment, the controller 6 is configured to compare the tray image with the standard image. If the comparison result shows that none of the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping position has battery cells B placed therein, the controller 6 drives the robot arm 1 to move to the next grasping position.

[0073] Specifically, in actual production, there may be a situation where none of the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to a certain grabbing position has a battery cell B placed on them, such as Figure 6The fifth grasping position St5 shown, when the robot arm 1 reaches the grasping position, the controller 6 compares the pallet image obtained by the image collector 3 at the grasping position with the standard image, and can determine that the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping position do not have battery cells B placed. Then the controller 6 drives the robot arm 1 to move to the next grasping position according to the preset grasping path, saving loading time.

[0074] In one embodiment, the tray image at least includes multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the gripping positions of the multiple grippers 12. Specifically, the tray image acquired by the image collector 3 may only include multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to a single gripping position. For example, when the number of grippers 12 is 8, the number of battery cell placement positions C corresponding to each gripping position is 8, and the tray image acquired by the image collector 3 each time only includes the 8 battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the gripping position; in other embodiments, the tray image acquired by the image collector 3 may also cover a larger area on the tray T, for example, in the case of covering the 8 battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the 8 grippers 12, it also covers the 8 or 16 battery cell placement positions C corresponding to one or more adjacent gripping positions, or even covers the entire tray T.

[0075] In one embodiment, the controller 6 is configured to capture a target image in the tray image, and to compare the target image with a standard image to determine whether there are battery cells B in the battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the multiple grippers 12; the target image is an image area of ​​the multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping position.

[0076] In a specific embodiment, the tray image acquired by the image collector 3 includes multiple cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping positions. For example, when the robot 1 includes 8 grippers 12, the tray image covers the 8 cell placement positions C corresponding to the current grasping position and the 8 cell placement positions C corresponding to another adjacent grasping position. The controller 6 intercepts the image area of ​​the multiple cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping position in the tray image according to the current grasping position of the robot 1, and compares the intercepted target image with the standard image to determine whether there are cells B on each cell placement position C at the current grasping position. Only intercepting the target image of the multiple cell placement positions C corresponding to the grasping position and the multiple grippers 12 and comparing them with the standard image can improve the calculation efficiency and calculation accuracy of the controller 6, thereby improving the feeding efficiency.

[0077] In actual production, there may be a large area of ​​battery cell placement position C on the tray T without battery cell B. If the robot arm 1 still searches the entire tray T according to the preset path, there will be multiple grasping positions that do not need to grasp the battery cell B, resulting in low grasping efficiency and affecting production efficiency.

[0078] In some embodiments, the tray image includes the entire tray T, and the controller 6 can change the grasping path according to the tray image and the standard image, and control the robot arm 1 to move to each grasping position with the battery cell B in sequence according to the changed grasping path.

[0079] Specifically, if the image collector 3 does not have battery cells B on the tray images corresponding to two adjacent grasping positions captured according to the preset grasping path, that is, all battery cell placement positions C corresponding to two adjacent grasping positions on the preset grasping path do not have battery cells B placed therein, such as all 24 battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the adjacent grasping positions of the 8 clamps 12 do not have battery cells B placed therein, then the controller 6 will compare the entire tray image in the tray image with the standard image, determine all grasping positions where no battery cells B are placed therein, and change the grasping path. The changed grasping path will no longer pass through all grasping positions where no battery cells B are placed therein, thereby improving the grasping efficiency.

[0080] In one embodiment, the standard image is an image of a single battery cell B at the battery cell placement position C; or the standard image is an image of a plurality of battery cells B corresponding to the number of the clamping jaws 12 at their respective battery cell placement positions C. In some specific embodiments, please refer to Figure 6 The standard image can be an image of a single battery cell B at the battery cell placement position C, or an image of multiple battery cells B corresponding to the number of the grippers 12 at their respective battery cell placement positions C, such as the image of 8 battery cells B corresponding to the first gripping position St1 at their respective battery cell placement positions C as shown in the figure. During the actual operation of the feeding device, the selection of the standard image can be switched at any time according to the actual working conditions, as long as it can be known whether there is a battery cell B at the battery cell placement position C corresponding to the gripper 12 after comparison with the tray image, and the operator can freely choose according to the actual working conditions.

[0081] Further, in some embodiments, the tray image is configured with a first comparison mark, and the standard image is configured with a second comparison mark, and the controller 6 can judge whether there is a battery cell B on the corresponding battery cell placement position C according to the first comparison mark and the second comparison mark. Specifically, the controller 6 obtains the first comparison mark in the images of multiple battery cell placement positions C corresponding to the grabbing position on the tray image, and simultaneously obtains the second comparison mark on the standard image, compares the first comparison mark with the second comparison mark, and judges whether the first comparison mark is consistent with the second comparison mark, so as to judge whether there is a battery cell B on each battery cell placement position C.

[0082] In the embodiment of the present application, the first comparison mark is set to the explosion-proof valve V of the battery cell B in the tray image, and the second comparison mark is set to the explosion-proof valve V of the battery cell B in the standard image. Figure 6As shown, the structural features of the explosion-proof valve V are obvious and easy to identify and compare. By comparing the explosion-proof valve V on the tray image and the standard image, the range of images to be compared can be effectively narrowed, thereby improving the judgment efficiency and speeding up the loading speed. However, this is not limited to the first comparison mark and the second comparison mark can also be other components or marks on the battery cell B, as long as it is easy to compare and identify.

[0083] In some embodiments, the storage unit 4 stores multiple preset grasping paths and corresponding multiple standard images. The grasping paths of the battery cells B may be different depending on the type of tray T or the type of battery cells B. The storage unit 4 stores multiple preset grasping paths and corresponding multiple standard images. The controller 6 can select the corresponding preset grasping paths and standard images according to the type of tray T and / or the type of battery cells B, thereby improving the versatility of the loading device.

[0084] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0085] The above-described embodiments only express several implementation methods of the present application, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be construed as limiting the scope of the patent application. It should be pointed out that, for a person of ordinary skill in the art, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the patent application shall be subject to the attached claims.

Claims

1. A robotic arm feeding device, characterized in that: The feeding device comprises: A mechanical arm, comprising a carrier, a plurality of grippers and a plurality of movable connecting members, wherein the movable connecting members are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence with the grippers and are used to movably connect the grippers to the carrier, and the grippers can grasp the battery cells on the tray under the drive of the movable connecting members; An image collector, used to obtain images of the tray corresponding to the plurality of gripping positions of the robot arm, wherein the plurality of grippers can grip a plurality of battery cells corresponding to the number of the grippers at each of the gripping positions; A driving unit, used for driving the robot arm to move along a preset grasping path to the plurality of grasping positions; a controller, respectively connected to the driving unit, the image collector and the movable connecting member for controlling the driving unit to drive the mechanical arm to move to the plurality of grasping positions in sequence, and controlling the corresponding movable connecting member to drive the gripper to grasp the battery cell; and An identification module, comprising a plurality of sensors, wherein the sensors are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the clamping jaws and installed on the clamping jaws, and all the sensors are communicatively connected to the controller, and the sensors are used to detect the distance between the clamping jaws and the current grasping position; The clamping jaw comprises a pair of symmetrically arranged clamping plates, and the movable connecting member comprises a first driving portion and a second driving portion, wherein the first driving portion is mounted on the bearing member and movably connected between the pair of clamping plates to drive the pair of clamping plates to move toward or away from each other; the second driving portion movably connects the clamping plates to the bearing member to drive the clamping jaw to approach or move away from the grasping position; Each time the robot arm reaches a grasping position, the controller compares the tray image with the standard image, controls the grippers at the corresponding placement positions with battery cells to grip the battery cells, and controls the grippers at the corresponding placement positions without battery cells not to perform the gripping operation.

2. The robot arm feeding device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The device includes a storage unit connected to the controller. The preset grasping path and the standard image are stored in the storage unit. The robot arm can move to the plurality of grasping positions in sequence along the preset grasping path under the control of the controller.

3. The robot arm feeding device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The controller includes a storage unit, and the storage unit is used to store the preset grasping path and the standard image. The robot arm can move to the plurality of grasping positions in sequence along the preset grasping path under the control of the controller.

4. The robot arm feeding device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The tray image at least includes a plurality of battery cell placement positions corresponding to the plurality of grippers at the gripping positions.

5. The robot arm feeding device according to claim 4, characterized in that: The controller is configured to compare the tray image with the standard image, and when all of the plurality of battery cell placement positions corresponding to the grasping position have no battery cells placed therein, the controller drives the robot arm to move to the next grasping position.

6. The robot arm loading device according to claim 4, characterized in that: The controller is configured to capture a target image in the tray image and compare the target image with the standard image; the target image is an image area of ​​a plurality of the battery cell placement positions corresponding to the grabbing position.

7. The robot arm loading device according to claim 4, characterized in that: The standard image is an image of a single battery cell at the battery cell placement position; or, the standard image is an image of a plurality of battery cells corresponding to the number of the clamps at their respective battery cell placement positions.

8. The robot arm feeding device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The tray image is configured with a first comparison mark, and the standard image is configured with a second comparison mark. The first comparison mark can be compared with the second comparison mark by means of the controller.

9. The robot arm loading device according to claim 8, characterized in that: The first comparison mark is configured as an explosion-proof valve of the battery cell in the tray image, and the second comparison mark is configured as an explosion-proof valve of the battery cell in the standard image.

10. The robot arm loading device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The identification module further includes a detection unit, which is communicatively connected to the controller and integrated with the sensor; the detection unit is used to identify the tray type and / or the battery cell type.

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