Display control device

Abstract

A display control device according to the present disclosure comprises: a position information acquiring unit that acquires position information relating to a positional relationship between a workpiece and a contacting object that is brought into contact with the workpiece; a positional relationship determining unit that determines the positional relationship between the workpiece and the contacting object from the position information acquired by the position information acquiring unit; a visual information acquiring unit that acquires visual information for visually presenting the positional relationship determined by the positional relationship determining unit to a user; and a visual information display unit that causes a display device to display the visual information acquired by the visual information acquiring unit.

Description

Display Control Device

[0001] The present invention relates to a display control device.

[0002] In industrial machinery such as machine tools, a user may perform work such as changing tools, but the user may not understand the correct work procedure. For this reason, a technology has been proposed that guides the user through the necessary work by displaying the work procedure on a display device using schematic diagrams of the tools, etc. (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

[0003] Furthermore, when a workpiece, a tool, or a chuck that holds them is replaced in a machine tool, the user may need to operate a manual handle or the like to bring the tool or measurement probe into contact with the workpiece and check their relative positions in order to change the machine tool's settings such as the workpiece coordinate system and tool offset. Depending on the type of contacting object or the content of the work to be performed, there may be restrictions on, for example, the orientation of the contacting object relative to the workpiece, the approach direction of the contacting object relative to the workpiece, etc.

[0004] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-212221

[0005] When guiding the user through the details of a task to change settings of a machine tool, such as the work coordinate system or tool offset, by displaying a schematic diagram or the like including the tool, if the orientation of the tool as seen by the user differs from the orientation of the tool shown in the schematic diagram, it may be difficult for the user to properly understand the details of the task. For this reason, it is desirable to provide a guidance function that allows the user to easily understand the details of the task.

[0006] A display control device according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information regarding the positional relationship between a workpiece and a contact object that is brought into contact with the workpiece, a positional relationship determination unit that determines the positional relationship between the workpiece and the contact object from the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit, a visual information acquisition unit that acquires visual information that visually presents the positional relationship determined by the positional relationship determination unit to a user, and a visual information display unit that displays the visual information acquired by the visual information acquisition unit on a display device.

[0007] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a machine tool equipped with a display control device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is a first diagram illustrating a table of visual information used in the display control device of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a second diagram illustrating a table of visual information used in the display control device of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a fourth diagram illustrating a table of visual information used in the display control device of FIG. 1. FIG. 5 is a fifth diagram illustrating a table of visual information used in the display control device of FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a seventh diagram illustrating a table of visual information used in the display control device of FIG. 1. FIG. 8 is an eighth diagram illustrating a table of visual information used in the display control device of FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a display screen of the display control device of FIG. 1.

[0008] 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a machine tool 1 equipped with a display control device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The machine tool 1 includes a drive mechanism 2 that moves a contact object C, such as a tool or a measurement probe, relative to a workpiece W, and a numerical control device 3 that controls the drive mechanism 2.

[0009] The display control device 10 of this embodiment is realized as one function of the numerical control device 3, but it may be an independent device, or may be configured integrally with other devices, such as a teaching terminal (not shown) of the machine tool 1. The display control device 10 may be realized by one or more computer devices that have a memory, a processor, an input / output interface, etc., and execute appropriate control programs. Note that the display control device 10 is conceptualized by its functions, and does not necessarily have to be clearly distinguishable from other components in terms of physical configuration and program configuration.

[0010] In this embodiment, the numerical control device 3 may be configured to include a drive control unit 20 that controls the operation of the drive mechanism 2, a visual information storage unit 30 that stores visual information referenced by the display control device 10 as described below, and a display device 40 that can display information in accordance with instructions from the display control device 10. The drive control unit 20 may perform well-known numerical control that controls the operation of the drive mechanism 2 in accordance with a machining program. The visual information storage unit 30 may be realized as a storage area secured in a storage device such as a memory or a disk drive. The display device 40 may be configured as a well-known device such as a liquid crystal display panel.

[0011] The display control device 10 includes a position information acquisition unit 11, a positional relationship determination unit 12, a visual information acquisition unit 13, and a visual information display unit 14. Note that these components categorize the functions of the display control device 10, and do not necessarily have to be clearly distinguishable in terms of physical configuration and program configuration.

[0012] The position information acquisition unit 11 acquires position information regarding the positional relationship between the workpiece W and the contact object C that is to be brought into contact with the workpiece W. The position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit 11 may be one or more of the position of at least one of the workpiece W and the contact object C, a signal specifying the operation of the contact object C, the shape of the contact object C, the movement direction of the contact object C, an offset amount for correcting the position of the contact object C, and camera images of the workpiece W and the contact object C. It is preferable that the position information includes the position of at least one of the workpiece W and the contact object C. Note that the "position" in the position information may be given as information such as the coordinate position in the coordinate system of the drive mechanism 2 of the position of a reference point of a component that holds the workpiece W or the contact object C of the drive mechanism 2, the rotational position of the drive shaft that positions the reference point, etc.

[0013] The positional relationship determination unit 12 determines the positional relationship between the workpiece W and the contacting object C from the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit 11. The positional relationship determination unit 12 may be configured to be able to identify the positional relationship between the workpiece W and the contacting object C in a specific coordinate system, but is preferably configured to identify the position of the contacting object C relative to the workpiece W from a viewpoint seen from the position of the display device 40. The positional relationship determination unit 12 may be configured to roughly classify and identify the position of the contacting object C relative to the workpiece W, for example, to classify and identify in which of four directions, up, down, left, right, or both, the contacting object C is located. Furthermore, when multiple workpieces W are held, the positional relationship determination unit 12 may be configured to identify which workpiece W the contacting object C should be brought into contact with.

[0014] The positional relationship determination unit 12 may determine the positional relationship based on the orientation of the contacting object C. The orientation of the contacting object C referenced for determining the positional relationship may be selected mainly depending on the type of the contacting object C. For example, if the contacting object C is a non-rotating tool having a cutting tool, the orientation of the contacting object C may be the cutting direction or feed direction of the cutting tool. Specifically, the orientation of the contacting object C may be determined from the rotational position of the drive shaft that rotates the holder H that holds the contacting object C, the rotational positions of one or more drive shafts that determine the attitude of the holder H, etc. Furthermore, the positional relationship determination unit 12 can determine that the workpiece W that can be appropriately brought into contact with the contacting object C while maintaining the orientation of the contacting object C is the workpiece W to which the contacting object C should be brought into contact.

[0015] Note that there are cases where the rotational position of the contact object C relative to the holder H cannot be identified, such as when the holder H does not have a means for determining the rotational angle position of the contact object C when holding the contact object C. In such cases, the positional relationship determination unit 12 may identify the orientation of the contact object C from a change in the position of at least one of the workpiece W and the contact object C acquired by the position information acquisition unit 11. It is considered that the user separates the holder H from the workpiece W, attaches the contact object C to the holder H in a state where it is oriented in the direction in which it should approach the workpiece W, and operates the drive mechanism 2 to bring the contact object C closer to the workpiece W. For this reason, the positional relationship determination unit 12 may be configured to identify the orientation of the contact object C from a change in the position of at least one of the workpiece W and the contact object C acquired by the position information acquisition unit 11. Note that when the approach direction is identified, it is sufficient to focus only on the movement in the approach direction and confirm only the orientation (positive or negative) of that direction.

[0016] When identifying the orientation of the contacting object C from changes in the positions of the workpiece W and the contacting object C, the positional relationship determination unit 12 may be configured to consider that the positions of at least one of the workpiece W and the contacting object C have not changed if the change in the positions of the workpiece W and the contacting object C acquired by the position information acquisition unit 11 is within a threshold, and to exclude slight movements due to unintentional slight handle operations by the user, etc. The positional relationship determination unit 12 may be configured to allow the threshold for positional changes to be externally designated, for example, via input to an input device included in the numerical control device 3, or a designation signal from a server or machine operation panel connected to the numerical control device 3, etc.

[0017] The positional relationship determination unit 12 may identify the orientation of the contacting object C based on a signal that specifies the movement of the contacting object C. As described above, the user attaches the contacting object C to the holder H by aligning the orientation of the contacting object C with the direction in which the workpiece W should be moved. The subsequent relative movement of the workpiece W and the contacting object C may be determined by a setting signal such as a mirror image signal. Therefore, the orientation of the contacting object C may be identified from such a setting signal and a change in coordinate values.

[0018] The positional relationship determination unit 12 may identify the positional relationship between the workpiece W and the contacting object C by analyzing a camera image of the workpiece W and the contacting object C.

[0019] The visual information acquisition unit 13 acquires visual information that visually presents the positional relationship determined by the positional relationship determination unit to the user. The visual information may include at least one of a diagram and text used to instruct the user on an operation using the workpiece W and the contacting object C. Typically, the visual information may be a schematic diagram including an image that schematically shows the workpiece W and an image that schematically shows the contacting object C. As a specific example, the visual information acquired by the visual information acquisition unit 13 may be one of 32 schematic diagrams, as shown in FIGS. 2A to 2H , classified according to the left-right position of the contacting object C relative to the workpiece W from the viewpoint of the display device 40, the up-down position of the contacting object C, the axial direction (vertical / horizontal) of the workpiece W, the surface (end face / side face) of the workpiece W that should come into contact with the contacting object C, and the axial direction (vertical / horizontal) of the contacting object C.

[0020] Furthermore, examples of text that may be included in the visual information include sentences that guide the user on the operation that should be performed depending on the positional relationship between the workpiece W and the contacting object C. For example, a message such as "Move the tool to the left and place it against the end face of the workpiece." Furthermore, the text of the visual information may include sentences that explain the positional relationship between the workpiece W and the contacting object C. For example, a message such as "The workpiece is located on the left side, the tool is located on the right side of the workpiece, and the tool is facing downwards" may be included.

[0021] The visual information display unit 14 displays the visual information acquired by the visual information acquisition unit on a display device. As shown in Fig. 3, the visual information display unit 14 may display not only the results of the measurement performed using the contact object C, but also an input box for instructing machine operations for preparation before the measurement, such as tool replacement, and an input box for setting the amount of correction for the measurement value, along with the visual information.

[0022] As described above, visual information showing the positional relationship between the workpiece W and the contact object C from the user's perspective is used to guide the user on the operations to be performed, so even a novice user can properly understand the content of the operations to be performed.

[0023] The following supplementary notes are further disclosed regarding the above-described embodiments and modifications. (Supplementary Note 1) A display control device (10) includes a position information acquisition unit (11) that acquires position information related to the positional relationship between a workpiece (W) and a contacting object that is to be brought into contact with the workpiece (W), a positional relationship determination unit (12) that determines the positional relationship between the workpiece (W) and the contacting object (C) from the positional information acquired by the positional information acquisition unit (11), a visual information acquisition unit (13) that acquires visual information that visually presents the positional relationship determined by the positional relationship determination unit (12) to a user, and a visual information display unit that displays the visual information acquired by the visual information acquisition unit (13) on a display device.

[0024] (Supplementary Note 2) In the display control device (10) of Supplementary Note 1, the positional relationship determination unit (12) may determine the positional relationship based on the orientation of the contacting object (C).

[0025] (Supplementary Note 3) In the display control device (10) of Supplementary Note 2, the position information may include one or more of the position of at least one of the workpiece (W) and the contacting object (C), a signal specifying the operation of the contacting object (C), the shape of the contacting object (C), an offset amount for correcting the position of the contacting object (C), and camera images of the workpiece (W) and the contacting object (C).

[0026] (Appendix 4) In the display control device (10) of Appendix 2, the position information includes the position of at least one of the workpiece (W) and the contacting object (C), and the positional relationship determination unit (12) may identify the orientation of the contacting object (C) from a change in the position of at least one of the workpiece (W) and the contacting object (C) acquired by the positional information acquisition unit (11).

[0027] (Appendix 5) In the display control device (10) of Appendix 4, the positional relationship determination unit (12) may consider that the positions of at least one of the workpiece (W) and the contacting object (C) have not changed if the change in the positions of the workpiece (W) and the contacting object (C) acquired by the position information acquisition unit (11) is within a threshold value.

[0028] (Supplementary Note 6) In the display control device (10) of Supplementary Note 5, the positional relationship determination unit (12) may be able to externally specify the threshold value.

[0029] (Appendix 7) In the display control device (10) of any of Appendices 1 to 6, the visual information may include at least one of a diagram and text used to guide the user through an operation using the workpiece (W) and the contact object (C).

[0030] Although the present disclosure has been described in detail above, the present disclosure is not limited to the individual embodiments described above. Various additions, substitutions, modifications, partial deletions, etc. are possible in these embodiments without departing from the gist of the present disclosure or the gist of the present disclosure derived from the content of the claims and their equivalents. For example, in the above-described embodiments, the order of each operation and the order of each process are shown as examples and are not limited to these.

[0031] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 machine tool 2 drive mechanism 3 numerical control device 10 display control device 11 position information acquisition unit 12 positional relationship determination unit 13 visual information acquisition unit 14 visual information display unit 20 drive control unit 30 visual information storage unit 40 display device C contact object H holder W workpiece

Claims

1. A display control device comprising: a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information regarding a positional relationship between a workpiece and a contacting object that contacts the workpiece; a positional relationship determination unit that determines the positional relationship between the workpiece and the contacting object from the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit; a visual information acquisition unit that acquires visual information for visually presenting the positional relationship determined by the positional relationship determination unit to a user; and a visual information display unit that causes the display device to display the visual information acquired by the visual information acquisition unit.

2. The display control device according to claim 1, wherein the positional relationship determination unit determines the positional relationship based on the orientation of the contacting object.

3. The position information includes one or more of at least either the position of the workpiece and the contacting object, a signal for designating the operation of the contacting object, the shape of the contacting object, the offset of the contacting object, and a camera image capturing the workpiece and the contacting object. The display control device according to claim 2.

4. The position information includes at least either the position of the workpiece and the contacting object, and the positional relationship determination unit specifies the orientation of the contacting object from a change in at least either the position of the workpiece and the contacting object acquired by the position information acquisition unit. The display control device according to claim 2.

5. The display control device according to claim 4, wherein the positional relationship determination unit assumes that at least either the position of the workpiece and the contacting object has not changed if a change in the positions of the workpiece and the contacting object acquired by the position information acquisition unit is within a threshold value.

6. The display control device according to claim 5, wherein the threshold value can be specified from the outside.

7. The visual information includes at least one of a figure and text used to guide a user in an operation using the workpiece and the contacting object. The display control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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