Wire body fixing member, wire body additional fixing member, and wire body installation method

Abstract

The present invention is a filament body fixing member (1) comprising a first fixing member body that is fixed to an outer surface of a robot (100) and binds a first filament body (10), and first protective member that are disposed so as to protrude further to the outside than the outside diameter of a first filament (10) in a state in which the first filament (10) is bound, and that respectively cover both end surfaces of the first fixing member body, at least one of the first protective members being detachably fixed to the first fixing member body by a bolt fastened into a threaded hole provided in one end surface of the first fixing member body.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a filament fixing member, a filament additional fixing member, and a filament installation method. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, a wire body fixing member for fixing a basic cable to the outer surface of a robot has been known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). By connecting a wire body adding fixing member to the end of this wire body fixing member, it is possible to wire an additional wire body along the same path as the basic cable. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6985309 specification Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] For collaborative robots that operate in close proximity to humans, flexible protective members must be provided in locations where contact pressure is high when the robot comes into contact with a human. Therefore, it is desirable for the wire fixing member that externally attaches the basic cable to the collaborative robot to have its end covered by a protective member and be able to easily connect additional wire fixing members. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The wire body fixing member comprises a first fixing member main body that is fixed to the outer surface of a robot and fastens a first wire body, and first protective members that cover both end faces of the first fixing member main body that are positioned so as to protrude outward from the outer diameter of the first wire body when the first wire body is fastened, and at least one of the first protective members is detachably fixed to the first fixing member main body by a bolt that is fastened to a screw hole provided on one end face of the first fixing member main body. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0006] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a side view illustrating a collaborative robot including a filament fixing member according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the umbilical member fixing member of FIG. 1. [Figure 3] 3 is a front view showing a state in which a first umbilical member is fixed to the umbilical member fixing member of FIG. 2.

[0023] FIG. [Figure 4] 10 is a partial side view illustrating a case where a second umbilical member is added using a umbilical member addition fixing member according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. [Figure 5] 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the umbilical member additional fixing member of FIG. 4 attached to the umbilical member fixing member of FIG. 1. FIG. [Figure 6] 6 is a front view showing a state in which a second umbilical member is fixed in parallel with a first umbilical member by the umbilical member additional fixing member of FIG. 5. FIG. [Figure 7] 1. FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing a modified example of the umbilical member additional fixing member of FIG. 4, which is attached to the umbilical member fixing member of FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0007] A filament fixing member 1, a filament additional fixing member 60, and a filament installation method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings. The filament fixing member 1 of this embodiment is a member that is fixed to the outer surface of a collaborative robot (robot) 100, as shown in Figure 1, and is used to attach a first filament such as a cable along the outer surface of the collaborative robot 100.

[0008] The collaborative robot 100 is, for example, a vertical six-axis articulated robot, and includes a base 110 installed on an installation surface, and a rotating body 120 supported rotatably relative to the base 110 about a vertical first axis A. The collaborative robot 100 also includes a first arm 130 supported rotatably relative to the rotating body 120 about a horizontal second axis B, and a second arm 140 supported at the tip of the first arm 130 rotatably about a third axis C parallel to the second axis B. The collaborative robot 100 also includes a three-axis wrist unit 150 supported at the tip of the second arm 140.

[0009] Collaborative robot 100 includes first umbilical member 10, which is a basic cable for transmitting power and control signals to the motors that drive each joint. As shown in Fig. 1, first umbilical member 10 enters base 110 from distribution board 111 on the back of base 110, is pulled out above rotating body 120, is fixed to rotating body 120 below first arm 130, and is then curved upward at a position facing the front of first arm 130. After being curved, first umbilical member 10 is disposed along the side of first arm 130 and is fixed to first arm 130 at two locations midway along the longitudinal direction of first arm 130.

[0010] Two wire body fixing members 1 are fixed to the side of the first arm 130 at intervals in the longitudinal direction of the first arm 130, and a first wire body 10 such as a basic cable is fastened to each wire body fixing member 1 with a binding device 11 such as a nylon band. As shown in Figure 2, the filament fixing member 1 comprises a fixing member main body (first fixing member main body) 2 fixed by bolts (not shown) to a seat (not shown) provided on the outer surface of the first arm 130, and protective members (first protective members) 3 removably fixed by bolts 4 to both ends of the fixing member main body 2.

[0011] As shown in Fig. 2, the fixing member body 2 is formed by pressing a metal flat plate into a box shape having four side walls 2a, 2b that are curved at approximately right angles toward the back surface of the four sides of the rectangular fastening surface 5. The side walls 2a extending along the two long sides of the fixing member body 2 are further curved at their ends parallel to the fastening surface 5 and are provided with through holes 6 that penetrate through the plate thickness, thereby forming fixing portions 7 for fixing the fixing member body 2 to the seat surface of the first arm 130 with two bolts. The side walls (one end faces) 2b extending along the two short sides of the fixing member body 2 extend parallel to each other and are each provided with a screw hole 8 that penetrates through the plate thickness, thereby forming mounting portions 9 for detachably mounting the protective member 3 with bolts 4.

[0012] The fastening surface portion 5 is provided with two pairs of four through holes 5a that penetrate in the plate thickness direction. As shown in Figure 3, a first umbilical cord 10 is placed along the short side between two pairs of through holes 5a that are spaced apart along the long side, and a fastener 11 is passed through each pair of through holes 5a and fastened. This causes the first umbilical cord 10 to be fastened to the surface of the fastening surface portion 5 by the fastener 11. Since no edge is formed along the entire outer periphery of the fastening surface portion 5 of the fixing member main body 2, which is formed into a box shape by curving a metal flat plate toward the back side, the fastened first umbilical cord 10 will not be damaged by the edge.

[0013] 2, the protective member 3 is constructed by adhering a metal flat plate 32 to one surface of a urethane protective member main body 31. Through holes 33, 34 are provided in the protective member main body 31 and the metal flat plate 32, and bolts 4 passed through the through holes 33, 34 can be fastened to the screw holes 8 of the mounting parts 9 of the fixing member main body 2, thereby detachably fixing the protective member 3 to both ends of the fixing member main body 2.

[0014] 2 and 3, by fixing protective members 3 to the mounting portions 9 at both ends of the fixing member main body 2 in a state in which the first umbilical member 10 is fastened, both ends of the fixing member main body 2 that are exposed in the radial direction of the first umbilical member 10 in a state in which the first umbilical member 10 is fastened are covered by the protective members 3. In this way, in a collaborative robot 100 that operates in the presence of a person, both ends of the fixing member main body 2, where contact pressure becomes high when the robot comes into contact with a person, are covered by the flexible protective members 3, and high contact pressure can be prevented from being applied to the person who comes into contact with the fixing member main body 2.

[0015] Next, a case where the second extension umbilical member 40 is retrofitted to the collaborative robot 100 configured in this manner will be described. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a post-installation umbilical unit 50 is prepared in which an umbilical extension fixing member 60 is fixed to the second umbilical body 40 in advance, and the first umbilical body 10, which is fixed to the first arm 130 by the umbilical body fixing member 1, is added without removing it.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 5, the wire extension fixing member 60 includes a fixing member main body (second fixing member main body) 61 and a protection member (second protection member) 62. The fixing member main body 61 is formed by pressing a metal flat plate into a box shape having three side walls 61a, 61b curved at right angles in the same direction on three sides of the rectangular fastening surface portion 63.

[0017] Similar to the filament fixing member 1, the fastening surface portion 63 is provided with two pairs of four through holes 63a, 63b that penetrate in the plate thickness direction. Each through hole 63b is formed by a notch. As shown in FIG. 6 , the second filament 40 is placed along the short side direction between two pairs of through holes 63a, 63b that are spaced apart along the long side, and the binders 11 that pass through each pair of through holes 63a are fastened. This allows the second filament 40 to be fixed in a state where it is bound to the surface of the fastening surface portion 63 by the binders 11.

[0018] The side walls 61a extend parallel to each other along the two long sides of the fixing member main body 61. A through-hole (not shown) penetrating in the thickness direction is provided in the side wall (one end) 61b extending along one short side of the fixing member main body 61, and a protective member 62 is adhered to the end face (other end) along the other short side.

[0019] The through holes provided in one side wall 61b are formed at the same pitch as the screw holes 8 formed in the mounting portion 9 of the wire body fixing member 1. By bringing one side wall 61b into close contact with the mounting portion 9 of the wire body fixing member 1 from which the protective member 3 has been removed, and fastening the bolts 4 that have passed through the through holes into the screw holes 8, the fixing member main body 61 of the wire body extension fixing member 60 can be fixed to the mounting portion 9 of the wire body fixing member 1.

[0020] The fastening surface 63 of the wire body addition fixing member 60 forms a preset angle with respect to the fastening surface 5 of the wire body fixing member 1. When the fixing member main body 61 of the wire body addition fixing member 60 is fixed to the mounting portion 9 of the wire body fixing member 1, the fastening surface 63 of the wire body addition fixing member 60 and the fastening surface 5 of the wire body fixing member 1 are fixed at an angle relative to each other.

[0021] By fixing the wire body extension fixing member 60 to the mounting portion 9 of the wire body fixing member 1, the second wire body 40 fastened to the wire body extension fixing member 60 is arranged in parallel with the first wire body 10 fastened to the wire body fixing member 1, and is installed via a path approximately the same as that of the first wire body 10.

[0022] In this state, the side wall 61b of the fixing member for additionally installing a wire body 60 is fixed to one side wall 2b of the fixing member main body 2 of the wire body fixing member 1, and is disposed between the first wire body 10 and the second wire body 40, and is not exposed radially outward from the first wire body 10 and the second wire body 40. Meanwhile, the other end of the fixing member for additionally installing a wire body 60 is also covered by the protective member 62. As a result, in a collaborative robot 100 that operates in close proximity to a person, both ends of the fixing member main body 2, 61, where contact pressure increases when the robot comes into contact with a person, are covered by the flexible protective members 3, 62, and this can prevent the contact pressure from increasing.

[0023] According to the umbilical member fixing member 1 of this embodiment, when the first umbilical member 10 is attached to the outer surface of the collaborative robot 100 by the umbilical member fixing member 1, the protective member 3 can reduce the contact pressure on a person coming into contact with the first umbilical member 10 from the outside. Furthermore, when adding a second umbilical member 40, there is an advantage that the second umbilical member 40 can be easily added by simply removing the protective member 3 at one end of the fixing member main body 2, without having to remove the first umbilical member 10 that is already installed, and by using the screw hole 8 to which the protective member 3 was attached.

[0024] Furthermore, the umbilical member-addition fixing member 60 according to this embodiment can be connected to the fixing member main body 2 by utilizing the screw hole 8 at one end of the fixing member main body 2 from which the protective member 3 has been removed. This allows the second umbilical member 40 to be installed via the same route as the first umbilical member 10, without removing the first umbilical member 10.

[0025] In this case, even when the second umbilical member 40 is added, the protective members 3, 62 can reduce the contact pressure on a person coming into contact with the collaborative robot 100 from outside. Furthermore, by installing the second umbilical member 40 in the form of an add-on umbilical member unit 50 with the umbilical member addition fixing member 60 attached, the twisting and bending to be applied to the second umbilical member 40 can be easily reproduced and installed simply by fixing the umbilical member addition fixing member 60 to the umbilical member fixing member 1. Furthermore, by providing an angle between the fastening surface 63 of the umbilical member addition fixing member 60 and the fastening surface 5 of the umbilical member fixing member 1, the second umbilical member 40 can be fixed near the first umbilical member 10 at an appropriate angle.

[0026] That is, the wire body outfitting method according to this embodiment is a wire body outfitting method for adding a second wire body 40 to a collaborative robot 100 that has a first wire body 10 equipped thereto using a wire body fixing member 1. In this method, first, an after-installation wire body unit 50 is prepared, which fastens the second wire body 40 to the fixing member main body 61 of the fixing member 60 for adding a wire body.

[0027] Then, the protective member 3 is removed from the side wall 2b, which is one end face of the fixing member main body 2 of the wire body fixing member 1, and the side wall 61b, which is one end of the fixing member main body 61 of the wire body additional fixing member 60, is brought into close contact with the side wall 2b of the fixing member main body 2, and the bolt 4 is passed through the through hole in the side wall 61b and fastened to the screw hole 8 of the attachment part 9. In this way, by connecting the wire body additional fixing member 60 to the wire body fixing member 1, the second wire body 40 can be mounted on the outer surface of the collaborative robot 100 via the same path as the first wire body 10, without removing the first wire body 10.

[0028] Here, the retrofitting umbilical member unit 50 is manufactured in a factory by, for example, actually installing it on a model in which the same umbilical member fixing member 1 is installed in the same position as the collaborative robot 100 to which it is to be attached. That is, during actual installation, the length of the movable portion of the second umbilical member 40 is determined taking into consideration the range of motion of the first arm 130 relative to the rotating body 120, the range of motion of the second arm 140 relative to the first arm 130, etc. Furthermore, by applying an appropriate bend or twist to the second umbilical member 40, when the movable portion of the second umbilical member 40 performs a bending motion, it can operate without coming into contact with the first umbilical member 10 or surrounding structures such as the rotating body 120.

[0029] In this way, the second umbilical member 40, which has been bent and twisted in the same manner as in the actual rigging, is fastened to the umbilical member extension fixing member 60 using the fasteners 11, and then removed from the model umbilical member fixing member 1, thereby producing the retrofit umbilical member unit 50. Therefore, simply by connecting the umbilical member extension fixing member 60 of this retrofit umbilical member unit 50 to the umbilical member fixing member 1 of the collaborative robot 100, the second umbilical member 40 can be rigged in a state where the length, bend, and twist of the movable part imparted during manufacturing are reproduced.

[0030] If a second filament 40 is added in advance to the filament fixing member 1 that fastens the first filament 10 to provide a portion that can be fastened, it is necessary to rig the structure on site while adjusting the length, bending, and twist of the movable portion. According to this embodiment, such inconvenience does not occur, and there is an advantage that the work of adding the second umbilical member 40 on-site can be facilitated, thereby reducing the number of work steps.

[0031] Furthermore, when adding a second umbilical member 40, it is also possible to remove the first umbilical member 10 and replace the entire retrofitting umbilical member unit 50 in which the first umbilical member 10 and the second umbilical member 40 are fixed to the umbilical member fixing member 1. In this case, it is not necessary to adjust the length, bending, and twist of the movable parts while installing the unit on site, but there is the disadvantage of high costs because the first umbilical member 10 must also be replaced. According to this embodiment, the work of adding the second umbilical member 40 on site can be easily performed without removing the first umbilical member 10, which has the advantage of significantly reducing costs.

[0032] In the umbilical member fixing member 1 according to this embodiment, a protective member 3 covering the side walls 2b, which are both end faces of the fixing member main body 2, is provided detachably with bolts 4. Although the case where the protective member 3 on the side wall (one end face) 2b of the fixing member main body 2 is removed and the fixing member 60 for adding an additional umbilical member is attached has been described, it is also possible to remove the protective members 3 on both side walls (both end faces) 2b of the fixing member main body 2 and add two second umbilical members 40 to both sides of the fixing member main body 2 using two fixing members 60 for adding an additional umbilical member.

[0033] In addition, although an example has been given in which the protective member 3 covering both side walls (end faces) 2b of the fixing member main body 2 is removably attached using bolts 4, when the fixing member 60 for adding a wire body is connected to only one side wall (one end face) 2b, the protective member 3 on the other side wall (other end face) 2b may be non-removably adhered to the fixing member main body 2.

[0034] Furthermore, although the example has been given in which the protective member 62 is adhered to the side wall (one end) 61b of the fixing member main body 61 of the umbilical member additional fixing member 60, this protective member 62 may be detachably fixed to a screw hole 8 provided in the side wall (end face) 2b of the fixing member main body 2 with a bolt 4. This makes it possible to remove the protective member 62 of the umbilical member additional fixing member 60 connected to the umbilical member fixing member 1, and to further connect another umbilical member additional fixing member 60.

[0035] Also, as shown in Figure 7, a bolt 4 may be used to fix the fixing member body 61 of the fixing member for adding a wire body 60 to the fixing member for adding a wire body 1, and a protective member 62 may be positioned so as to cover the other end of the fixing member for adding a wire body 60 using a separate member 64. Furthermore, according to the filament fixing member 1 of this embodiment, an example has been given in which the basic cable is the first filament 10, but instead, the basic cable may be built into the first arm 130, etc., and a later-installed filament may be attached externally as the first filament 10. [Explanation of symbols]

[0036] 1. Stratum fixing member 2 Fixing member body (first fixing member body) 2b Side wall (one end surface) 3 Protective member (first protective member) 4 bolts 8 screw holes 10 Basic cable (first conductor) 40 Second striatum 50 Retrofit Striatum Unit 60 Fixing member for adding wire 61 fixing member body (second fixing member body) 61b Side wall (one end) 62 Protective member (second protective member) 100 Collaborative Robots (Robots)

Claims

1. a first fixing member body that is fixed to an outer surface of the robot and fastens a first filament; and first protection members that cover both end faces of the first fixing member body that are disposed to protrude outward beyond the outer diameter of the first filament when the first filament is fastened, a wire-body fixing member in which at least one of the first protective members is detachably fixed to the first fixing member body by a bolt fastened to a screw hole provided on one end surface of the first fixing member body, while the first wire body remains fastened to the first fixing member body.

2. A wire member fixing member for adding an additional wire member, which is used in combination with the wire member fixing member according to claim 1 and for fixing a second wire member to be added, a second fixing member body having a through hole through which the bolt can pass at one end that is positioned in close contact with the one end surface of the first fixing member body from which the first protective member has been removed, and to which the second fixing member body to be added later is fastened; and a second protective member that covers the other end of the second fixing member body.

3. A method for installing a wire body, comprising the steps of: adding the second wire body to the robot to which the first wire body is installed using the wire body fixing member according to claim 1; a post-installation wire body unit for fastening the second wire body to the second fixing member body of the wire body additional fixing member according to claim 2; removing the first protective member from the one end surface of the first fixing member body of the wire body fixing member while the first wire body remains fastened to the first fixing member body; A wire body outfitting method for connecting the wire body additional fixing member to the wire body fixing member by tightening the bolt into the screw hole while bringing the one end of the second fixing member body of the retrofit wire body unit into close contact with the one end surface of the first fixing member body.

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