Robot conveyor tracking method, robot, and readable storage medium

Abstract

The present invention relates to the technical field of robot control, and provides a robot conveyor tracking method, a robot, and a readable storage medium. The method comprises: when a workpiece is located in a start-up area, determining a target tracking position of a robot, wherein the target tracking position is a real-time position of the workpiece in a robot coordinate system; the robot starting a tracking motion on the basis of the target tracking position, and correcting an end point of a tracking trajectory on the basis of a real-time offset of a conveyor, so that the robot and the workpiece synchronously arrive at the same position; and when it is determined that a tracking effect during the tracking motion does not satisfy a preset requirement, correcting the target tracking position on the basis of a conveyor speed. In the present invention, during the tracking motion, the robot continuously corrects the tracking trajectory, ensures accurate tracking of the workpiece, and if the tracking effect does not satisfy the preset requirement, corrects the target tracking position on the basis of the conveyor speed. Such an adaptive adjustment mechanism improves the tracking accuracy, and ensures that the robot performs an effective operation on the moving workpiece on the conveyor.

Description

Robot conveyor belt tracking method, robot and readable storage medium

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] This disclosure claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 2024119941867, filed with the Chinese Patent Office on December 31, 2024, entitled "Robot Conveyor Belt Tracking Method, Robot and Readable Storage Medium", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This disclosure relates to the field of robot control technology, and more specifically, to a robot conveyor belt tracking method, a robot, and a readable storage medium. Background Technology

[0004] In the field of industrial automation, especially in scenarios such as material handling, palletizing, and welding, conveyor belt tracking systems are widely used to improve workpiece processing efficiency. Circular conveyor belt tracking technology is particularly important on production lines where the equipment layout requires a circular conveyor path. This technology not only meets the tracking needs of non-linear conveying but also flexibly adapts to various complex application scenarios.

[0005] Currently, six-axis articulated robots can perform various tasks on automated production lines, such as automated assembly, painting, material handling, welding, and post-processing. These robots have conveyor belt following capabilities and can acquire workpiece position information through vision systems or sensors. They follow the workpiece moving on the conveyor belt and complete tasks synchronously, such as dynamic gripping and dynamic gluing. They can accurately follow the operator's instructions, ensuring high efficiency and accuracy in the production process.

[0006] However, in disc conveyor tracking systems, robots like six-axis articulated robots are subject to many factors that can cause low tracking accuracy during the tracking process. For example, the time delay in reading the effective signal from the detection sensor and the long acceleration time when the robot starts up can all lead to insufficient tracking accuracy, making it impossible for the robot to effectively process the workpiece.

[0007] Application content

[0008] In view of this, the purpose of this disclosure is to provide a robot conveyor belt tracking method, a robot, and a readable storage medium to improve the tracking accuracy of the robot on workpieces on a conveyor belt and achieve efficient operation and processing. To achieve the above objective, the technical solution of this disclosure is as follows:

[0009] This disclosure provides a robot conveyor belt tracking method, the method comprising: when a workpiece is located in a starting area, determining a target tracking position for the robot; wherein the target tracking position is the real-time position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system; the robot starting tracking motion based on the target tracking position, and correcting the endpoint of the tracking trajectory according to the real-time offset of the conveyor belt, so that the robot and the workpiece reach the same position synchronously; when it is determined that the tracking effect during the tracking motion does not meet preset requirements, correcting the target tracking position according to the conveyor belt speed.

[0010] This disclosure also provides a robot, including: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively connected to the at least one processor; wherein the memory stores a computer program executable by the at least one processor, the computer program being executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform the robot conveyor tracking method as described in the first aspect.

[0011] This disclosure also provides a readable storage medium configured to store a computer program, which, when executed by a processor, is configured to implement the robot conveyor tracking method as described in the first aspect.

[0012] The robot conveyor belt tracking method, robot, and readable storage medium provided in this disclosure include: when a workpiece is located in a start-up area, the robot determines a target tracking position, which is the real-time position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system, laying the foundation for subsequent precise tracking. The robot begins tracking motion based on the target tracking position and corrects the endpoint of the tracking trajectory according to the real-time offset of the conveyor belt to ensure that the robot can accurately track the workpiece. During the tracking motion, the robot continuously evaluates the tracking effect. If the tracking effect does not meet preset requirements, the robot corrects the target tracking position according to the conveyor belt speed. This adaptive adjustment mechanism can cope with possible deviations during the tracking process, further improving the tracking accuracy. The precise control process of this disclosure enables the robot to efficiently and accurately track moving workpieces on the conveyor belt, thereby ensuring that the robot can effectively operate the workpiece.

[0013] To make the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of this disclosure more apparent and understandable, preferred embodiments are described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Attached Figure Description

[0014] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of this disclosure, the accompanying drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly described below. It should be understood that the following drawings only show some embodiments of this disclosure and should not be regarded as a limitation of the scope. For those skilled in the art, other related drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0015] Figure 1 is an application scenario diagram of the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided in the embodiments of this disclosure;

[0016] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the calibration process provided in the embodiments of this disclosure;

[0017] Figure 3 is a schematic flowchart of the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided in the embodiments of this disclosure;

[0018] Figure 4 shows an example diagram of the tracking area in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0019] Figure 5 is a structural block diagram of the robot provided in an embodiment of this disclosure. Detailed Implementation

[0020] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of this disclosure clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of this disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of this disclosure, and not all of them. The components of the embodiments of this disclosure described and shown in the accompanying drawings can generally be arranged and designed in various different configurations. Therefore, the following detailed description of the embodiments of this disclosure provided in the accompanying drawings is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed disclosure, but merely represents selected embodiments of this disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of this disclosure without inventive effort are within the scope of protection of this disclosure.

[0021] Robot conveyor belt following function refers to the robot acquiring the position information of the workpiece through a vision system or sensors, following the workpiece moving on the conveyor belt, and completing the operation in a synchronized state, such as dynamic grasping and dynamic gluing.

[0022] Please refer to Figure 1 first. Figure 1 is an application scenario diagram of the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure. The application scenario includes: a robot 101, a disc conveyor belt 102, a sensor 103, and an encoder 104. The robot 101 includes a robot body and a robot controller. Both the sensor 103 and the encoder 104 are connected to the robot controller.

[0023] When the workpiece 105 passes the front end of the sensor 103, a signal is triggered. After receiving the signal, the robot controller will record the position of the workpiece when it passes the front end of the sensor 103, which is the current encoder value.

[0024] Encoder 104 is fixed to one end of the disc conveyor belt 102. As the disc conveyor belt 102 rotates, encoder 104 also rotates and counts. This count value represents the current position of the disc conveyor belt 102, and thus the position of workpiece 105 on the disc conveyor belt 102 can be deduced. During the process of robot 10 tracking workpiece 105, robot controller obtains the position information of encoder 104 in real time through an external interface.

[0025] When performing operations on workpiece 105, robot 101 includes, but is not limited to, gripping, assembling, painting, handling, and welding. These tasks place high demands on the real-time response capability of robot 101. To ensure accurate tracking, robot 101 acquires the position information of encoder 104 in real time during the tracking process and adjusts its tracking trajectory accordingly. This ensures that robot 101 can continuously and accurately track workpiece 105, achieving efficient and precise operation.

[0026] Considering that existing robot conveyor belt tracking methods have low tracking accuracy, preventing robots from effectively processing workpieces, this disclosure provides a robot conveyor belt tracking method, which is described below through embodiments.

[0027] In Figure 1, when the robot 101 dynamically follows the workpiece 105, the tracking coordinate system first needs to be calibrated, i.e., the tracking coordinate system itself, to complete the calibration of relevant parameters. In this embodiment, the calibration process is shown in Figure 2, which is a schematic diagram of the calibration process provided in this embodiment. The explanation is as follows:

[0028] On the stationary disc conveyor belt 102, a placement point and three different reference points, A, B, and C, are selected. These three reference points do not coincide, and the rotation direction of the disc conveyor belt 102 is set to counterclockwise. It should be understood that the user can choose to set the rotation direction to clockwise according to their actual needs. During calibration, simply refer to the calibration procedure for the counterclockwise direction and make the corresponding adjustments. Therefore, the calibration process for the clockwise direction will not be repeated here.

[0029] First, place workpiece 105 at the designated placement point. Then, start the conveyor belt and rotate it counterclockwise until workpiece 105 reaches reference point A. At this point, stop the conveyor belt and manipulate robot 101 to align its tool central point (TCP) with reference point A. After alignment, record the robot's position P1 and the encoder reading E1 at this time.

[0030] Next, restart the conveyor belt to move workpiece 105 to reference point B. Once reached, stop the conveyor belt and adjust robot 101 to ensure its TCP aligns with reference point B. After alignment, record the robot's new position P2 and the encoder's new reading E2.

[0031] Finally, continue rotating the conveyor belt until workpiece 105 reaches reference point C. After workpiece 105 arrives and stops, move robot 101 so that its TCP aligns with reference point C. After alignment, record the robot's final position P3 and the encoder's final reading E3.

[0032] After obtaining the encoder values ​​and robot position information corresponding to reference points A, B, and C, the encoder ratio can be determined based on this information, as explained below:

[0033] First, the tracking coordinate system, denoted as TrackSysCoord, can be determined based on the robot positions corresponding to reference points B and C. It's easy to understand that three points P1, P2, and P3 in space can define a circle, from which the center point O and radius R can be obtained. For details, please refer to existing technologies; they will not be elaborated upon here.

[0034] Take the center point O as the origin of the tracking coordinate system, take the direction vector from point P1 to the center point O as the X direction of the tracking coordinate system, and then denote the direction vector from point P2 to the center point O as V. The Z direction of the tracking coordinate system is obtained by the cross product of X and V, and the Y direction is obtained by the cross product of Z and X. Thus, the tracking coordinate system (TrackSysCoord) is obtained.

[0035] Optionally, the angle between the vector from point P1 to the center point O and the vector from point P2 to the center point O is calculated and denoted as theta. Then, the encoder difference between points P1 and P2 is obtained using the formula Ediff = fabs(E1 – E2), where fabs(·) represents the absolute value. Finally, the encoder ratio p is obtained using the formula p = Ediff / theta.

[0036] After the tracking coordinate system calibration and related parameter settings are completed, the workpiece 105 on the disc conveyor belt 102 can be accurately tracked according to the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided in this embodiment.

[0037] Next, the robot conveyor belt tracking process provided in this disclosure will be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the aforementioned calibration process is based on the conveyor belt rotating counterclockwise. Therefore, the robot conveyor belt tracking process described below will also be illustrated using counterclockwise tracking as an example.

[0038] It should be understood that users can adjust the robot's parameter settings to specify the conveyor belt's rotation direction as forward or reverse, thereby achieving conveyor belt direction tracking. This eliminates the need for recalibration, enabling conveyor belt direction reversal and improving operational flexibility and efficiency.

[0039] Please refer to Figure 3, which is a schematic flowchart of the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure. The execution subject of this method can be controlled by a robot, and mainly includes steps S301 to S303, which are described below:

[0040] S301: When the workpiece is in the starting area, determine the target tracking position of the robot; where the target tracking position is the real-time position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system;

[0041] S302: The robot starts tracking motion based on the target tracking position and corrects the end point of the tracking trajectory according to the real-time offset of the conveyor belt so that the robot and the workpiece arrive at the same position synchronously.

[0042] S303: When it is determined that the tracking effect during the tracking motion does not meet the preset requirements, the target tracking position is corrected according to the conveyor belt speed.

[0043] In this embodiment, when the workpiece is located in the starting area, the robot determines the target tracking position. This position is the real-time position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system, laying the foundation for subsequent precise tracking. The robot begins tracking motion based on the target tracking position and corrects the endpoint of the tracking trajectory according to the real-time offset of the conveyor belt, ensuring that the robot can accurately track the workpiece. During the tracking motion, the robot continuously evaluates the tracking effect. If the tracking effect does not meet the preset requirements, the robot corrects the target tracking position according to the conveyor belt speed. This adaptive adjustment mechanism can cope with possible deviations during the tracking process, further improving the tracking accuracy. This embodiment achieves efficient and accurate tracking of the moving workpiece on the conveyor belt by the robot through a series of precise control steps, thereby ensuring that the robot can effectively operate the workpiece.

[0044] Next, steps 301 to S303 in the embodiments of this disclosure will be described in detail.

[0045] In step S301, the "starting area" refers to the region extending a certain starting distance from the starting position along the conveyor belt's moving direction. This region is also the working area where specific operations are performed on the workpiece. In this embodiment, a reference point near the sensor during the calibration process, which is also the origin of the conveyor belt base coordinate system (reference point A shown in Figure 2), is called the "starting position." The "starting distance" refers to a predetermined distance from reference point A along the conveyor belt's moving direction.

[0046] When a workpiece enters this starting area, the robot automatically begins tracking it. Simultaneously, if a next workpiece moves beyond this starting area while the robot is operating on the current workpiece, that next workpiece will not be tracked. This design ensures the robot can operate on workpieces efficiently and accurately, while avoiding unnecessary tracking of workpieces that have not entered or have moved beyond the starting area.

[0047] In addition to the ability to preset the start distance, this embodiment of the disclosure also allows users to preset the upper and lower limits of the allowed tracking. To understand this concept more intuitively, please refer to Figure 4, which shows an example diagram of the tracking area in this embodiment of the disclosure.

[0048] In Figure 4, the effective working range refers to the area where the robot can effectively track and manipulate the workpiece. This area is between the upper and lower limits of the allowable tracking range, ensuring that the workpiece can be stably tracked by the system once it enters this area. Furthermore, the rotation direction in the figure indicates the working motion direction of the conveyor belt.

[0049] In Figure 4, the effective working range refers to the area where the robot can effectively track and manipulate the workpiece. This area lies between the upper and lower limits of the allowable tracking range, ensuring that the robot can stably track the workpiece once it enters this area. Figure 4 also indicates the working motion direction of the conveyor belt, i.e., the direction of rotation.

[0050] "Allowable tracking upper limit" refers to a certain distance within which the system can move in the opposite direction from the reference point A along the conveyor belt. This distance can exceed the distance between the reference point A and the sensor, ensuring that the system has enough time and space to adjust when the workpiece approaches the sensor, thus guaranteeing the accuracy and stability of tracking.

[0051] The "allowed tracking lower limit" is a certain distance range set from the reference point A along the conveyor belt's movement direction. This area is also the robot's working area, and it is usually larger than the starting distance. This setting is to ensure that the workpiece can still be effectively tracked by the system after leaving the starting area, in order to deal with unexpected situations such as workpiece loss.

[0052] It should be understood that the above parameter settings are based on the case where the conveyor belt rotates counterclockwise. When the user selects clockwise rotation, the starting distance will be calculated based on the reference point A in a clockwise direction, and the lower limit of allowable tracking will be converted to the upper limit of allowable tracking. Other steps remain unchanged and will not be described in detail here.

[0053] It should also be clarified that before activating the conveyor belt's dynamic tracking function, users need to complete the pre-configuration of relevant parameters. This includes, but is not limited to, distance parameters related to the activation area, the upper limit of allowed tracking, and the lower limit of allowed tracking.

[0054] In one embodiment of this disclosure, when the robot initiates the object tracking program, it first waits for the workpiece to pass the sensor. Once the workpiece passes the sensor, the robot stores the current encoder value and its position in the robot coordinate system into a buffer. One encoder value corresponds to one robot position point, which facilitates the rapid determination of the current tracking position later.

[0055] To make the description clearer, in this embodiment, the encoder value corresponding to the workpiece passing the sensor is defined as the "reference encoder value," denoted by Eo; simultaneously, the position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system is defined as the "reference position," denoted by P. It should be understood that this definition is merely for distinguishing between the real-time encoder value and the real-time position during subsequent workpiece movement, and does not impose any limitation on their functionality.

[0056] In this embodiment of the disclosure, when the workpiece passes the sensor, the aforementioned reference position P is a position obtained by rotating the starting position of the starting area, i.e., the point P1 of the reference point A in Figure 2, in the tracking coordinate system. The specific method is as follows:

[0057] A rotation matrix is ​​constructed based on the difference between the reference encoder value and the encoder value corresponding to the reference point, as well as the encoder ratio. The position after rotating the reference position according to the rotation matrix is ​​used as the reference position.

[0058] The above implementation method can be represented by the following formula: P=Rot(p*(Eo-E1))*P1 (1)

[0059] Rot is a rotation matrix that rotates the Z-axis of the tracking coordinate system by an angle p*(Eo-E1).

[0060] Optionally, after passing the sensor, the workpiece continues to move along the rotation direction of the conveyor belt, and the encoder value changes in real time. Therefore, before the workpiece reaches the starting area, the robot reads the current encoder value in real time to confirm whether the workpiece has reached the starting area.

[0061] As an optional implementation, after the workpiece passes the sensor, the robot can determine whether the workpiece has reached the starting area by: determining whether the workpiece has reached the starting position of the starting area based on the current encoder value; if it has reached the starting position, then determining whether the workpiece has exceeded the starting position based on the current encoder value; if so, then determining that the workpiece is located in the starting area.

[0062] It is easy to understand that the encoder value corresponding to the starting position (i.e., reference point A in Figure 2) and its position in the robot coordinate system have been determined during the calibration process, namely E1 and P1 respectively. Then, similar to the process of determining the reference position P of the workpiece in the previous text, the real-time position Pc of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system can be obtained according to the following formula (2): Pc=Rot(p*(Ec-Eo))*P (2)

[0063] Where Ec is the current encoder value; if Pc equals P1, it means that the workpiece has just reached the start position, and if Pc exceeds P1, it means that the workpiece has reached the start area.

[0064] When the workpiece moves within the start area, the robot can extract the pre-stored reference encoder value Eo and reference position P from the buffer. Then, based on the current encoder value read each time within the start area, and combined with the reference encoder value Eo, the robot calculates the real-time position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system at each moment within the start area using the aforementioned formula (1). This real-time position is used as the target tracking position, enabling the robot to accurately track the workpiece, i.e., executing step S202.

[0065] In step S202, the robot will still read the encoder value in real time during the tracking motion process, and perform real-time calculation with the reference encoder value Eo written to the buffer to obtain the offset of the conveyor belt movement. Then, the robot will correct the endpoint of the tracking trajectory in real time during the robot motion interpolation cycle.

[0066] In this embodiment of the disclosure, step S202 mainly includes the following steps, which are explained below:

[0067] Step a1: Calculate the conveyor belt offset using the encoder values ​​read in real time during the tracking motion and the pre-obtained reference encoder values;

[0068] Step a2: Correct the endpoint within the robot's interpolation cycle based on the conveyor belt offset.

[0069] Understandably, in robot control, the interpolation cycle refers to the time period during which the robot controller calculates and updates the robot's target position. Within each interpolation cycle, the controller adjusts the robot's tracking trajectory as needed.

[0070] In this embodiment, as the workpiece moves on the conveyor belt, the encoder continuously updates its readings. The robot monitors the updated encoder value in real time and, combined with the reference value Eo recorded in the buffer, calculates the workpiece's movement offset. In the robot's next motion interpolation cycle, the robot adjusts its tracking trajectory endpoint based on this offset to ensure accurate workpiece tracking.

[0071] When tracking a workpiece using the above-described method, if it is determined that the tracking effect does not meet the preset requirements, step S203 can be executed.

[0072] In step S203, the preset requirement may be, but is not limited to, any of the following: the tracking accuracy does not reach the preset accuracy; the workpiece cannot be effectively operated during the tracking process.

[0073] To address these issues, users can pre-set a dynamic compensation time. During the tracking process, the robot will perform trajectory superposition compensation based on the conveyor belt speed in each motion interpolation cycle within the set dynamic compensation time, enabling the robot to effectively track the workpiece. Therefore, the main process of correcting the target tracking position based on the conveyor belt speed in this embodiment is as follows:

[0074] To address the above situation, the user can pre-set a dynamic compensation time. During the tracking process, the robot will perform trajectory superposition compensation based on the conveyor belt speed for each motion interpolation cycle within the set dynamic compensation time. This enables the robot to effectively track the workpiece. Therefore, the main process of correcting the target tracking position based on the conveyor belt speed in this embodiment is as follows:

[0075] Step b1: Obtain the current conveyor belt speed.

[0076] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the difference between the encoder value of the current interpolation cycle and the encoder value of the previous interpolation cycle can be determined first, and the product of the encoder ratio can be used. The ratio between the product and the interpolation cycle duration can be used as the conveyor belt speed. The formula (2) for this process is as follows: Espeed=(Ecc-Elast)*p / cyctime (3)

[0077] Where Ecc and Elast are the encoder values ​​for the current interpolation cycle and the previous interpolation cycle, respectively; p is the encoder ratio; and cyctime is the interpolation cycle duration.

[0078] Step b2: Determine the dynamic compensation angle based on the current conveyor belt speed;

[0079] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the dynamic compensation angle is determined by multiplying the current conveyor belt speed calculated in step b1 by the interpolation cycle duration, expressed by the formula angle = Espeed * cyctime.

[0080] Step b3: Compensate the target tracking position based on the dynamic compensation angle.

[0081] In this embodiment of the disclosure, similar to the method of determining the target tracking position mentioned above, after obtaining the dynamic compensation angle, the dynamic compensation angle is superimposed on the tracking offset based on formula (2) to modify the trajectory in real time during interpolation, as shown in formula (4): Pc′=Rot((p*(Ec-Eo))+angle)*P (4)

[0082] This adaptive adjustment mechanism can address potential deviations during the tracking process, further improving tracking accuracy.

[0083] In one embodiment of this disclosure, when the robot is tracking the current workpiece and the next workpiece passes the sensor, the robot records and stores the reference encoder value of the workpiece when it passes the sensor, as well as the reference position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system, in a buffer. After the robot completes the tracking task of the current workpiece, it will access the data in the buffer again to track the next workpiece, ensuring that the robot can seamlessly transition from one workpiece to the next, thus improving the efficiency and continuity of the entire tracking process.

[0084] In the above implementation, after the robot finishes tracking the current workpiece, it can retrieve and discard the reference encoder value and reference position corresponding to the current workpiece that have been written into the buffer, thereby releasing the occupied storage space.

[0085] In one embodiment of this disclosure, if the next workpiece has exceeded the starting area while tracking the current workpiece, the robot can extract the corresponding reference encoder value and reference position of the workpiece from the buffer and discard it. This avoids invalid tracking of workpieces that have exceeded the operating area, thereby improving the accuracy and efficiency of tracking.

[0086] In one embodiment of this disclosure, when the robot is tracking the current workpiece, if the workpiece moves beyond the set allowable tracking lower limit, the robot can issue an alarm notification to the user without stopping operation, promptly reminding the user of possible situations such as workpiece loss, thereby allowing the user to take corresponding measures quickly to prevent potential production interruptions or losses.

[0087] As can be seen from the above embodiments, the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided by this disclosure has the following advantages: The tracking method provided by this disclosure is not only suitable for arc-shaped conveyor belts, but can also be widely applied to workpiece processing processes on arc-shaped conveyor belts in industrial fields such as spraying, welding, and palletizing. Simultaneously, this disclosure can also implement a reverse tracking method, allowing users to quickly achieve reverse operation of the conveyor belt without repeated calibration, thus improving efficiency in the production process. During robot tracking, this disclosure can effectively avoid various factors that may lead to a decrease in tracking accuracy, thereby improving tracking accuracy while ensuring that the robot can effectively operate the workpiece through a dynamic compensation mechanism.

[0088] To perform the corresponding steps in the above embodiments and various possible methods, this disclosure also provides a robot conveyor belt tracking device 40, which can be specific hardware on the device or software or firmware installed on the device. The robot conveyor belt tracking device 40 provided in this disclosure has the same implementation principle and technical effects as the foregoing method embodiments. For the sake of brevity, any parts not mentioned in the device embodiments can be referred to the corresponding content in the foregoing method embodiments. Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can all be referred to the corresponding processes in the above method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0089] Optionally, the robot conveyor tracking device 40 described above can be stored in the memory shown in FIG. 5 in the form of software or firmware, or embedded in the operating system (OS) of the robot 101, and can be executed by the processor shown in FIG. 5. Meanwhile, the data, program code, etc., required to execute the above modules can be stored in the memory.

[0090] This disclosure also provides a robot 101. Referring to Figure 5, which is a structural block diagram of the robot provided in this disclosure, the robot 101 includes a memory 1011, a processor 1012, and a communication interface 1013. The memory 1011, processor 1012, and communication interface 1013 are directly or indirectly electrically connected to each other to achieve data transmission or interaction. For example, these components can be electrically connected to each other through one or more communication buses or signal lines.

[0091] Optionally, the bus can be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, etc. Buses can be categorized as address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is used in Figure 5, but this does not imply that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0092] In this embodiment, the processor 1012 may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components. It can implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in this embodiment. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. The steps of the methods disclosed in this embodiment can be directly implemented by the hardware processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules within the processor. The software modules may be located in the memory 1011. The processor 1012 reads the program instructions from the memory 1011 and, in conjunction with its hardware, completes the steps of the above methods.

[0093] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the memory 1011 may be a non-volatile memory, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), or it may be volatile memory, such as RAM. The memory may also be any other medium configured to carry or store desired program executable code having an instruction or data structure form and accessible by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory in this embodiment of the disclosure may also be a circuit or any other device capable of performing storage functions, configured to store instructions and / or data.

[0094] The memory 1011 can be configured to store software programs and modules, which can be stored in the memory 1011 in the form of software or firmware, or embedded in the operating system (OS) of the robot 101. The processor 1012 executes various functional applications and data processing by executing the software programs and modules stored in the memory 1011. The communication interface 1013 can be configured to communicate with other node devices for signaling or data.

[0095] It is understood that the structure shown in Figure 5 is for illustrative purposes only, and the robot 101 may include more or fewer components than shown in Figure 5, or have a different configuration than shown in Figure 5. The components shown in Figure 5 may be implemented using hardware, software, or a combination thereof.

[0096] Based on the above embodiments, this disclosure also provides a computer program that, when run on a computer, causes the computer to execute the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided in the above embodiments. For specific implementation details, please refer to the method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0097] Based on the above embodiments, this disclosure also provides a chip configured to read a computer program stored in a memory and to execute the robot conveyor belt tracking method provided in the above embodiments. For specific implementation details, please refer to the method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0098] This disclosure also provides a computer program product for a robot conveyor belt tracking method. The computer program product provided in this disclosure includes a computer-readable storage medium storing program code. The instructions included in the program code can be configured to execute the methods in the preceding method embodiments. For specific implementation details, please refer to the method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0099] In the embodiments provided in this disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and methods can be implemented in other ways. The apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of units is only a logical functional division, and there may be other division methods in actual implementation. Furthermore, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed. Additionally, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some communication interface; the indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatuses or units may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

[0100] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0101] In addition, the functional units in the embodiments provided in this disclosure can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit.

[0102] If a function is implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this disclosure, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or a part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods of the various embodiments of this disclosure. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as a USB flash drive, a portable hard drive, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0103] It should be noted that similar labels and letters in the following figures indicate similar items. Therefore, once an item is defined in one figure, it does not need to be further defined and explained in subsequent figures. In addition, the terms "first", "second", "third", etc. are configured only to distinguish descriptions and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

[0104] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are merely specific implementations of this disclosure, used to illustrate the technical solutions of this disclosure, and not to limit it. The protection scope of this disclosure is not limited thereto. Although this disclosure has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that any person skilled in the art can still modify or easily conceive of changes to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or make equivalent substitutions for some of the technical features, within the scope of the technology disclosed in this disclosure; and these modifications, changes, or substitutions do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of this disclosure. All should be covered within the protection scope of this disclosure. Therefore, the protection scope of this disclosure should be determined by the protection scope of the claims. Industrial applicability

[0105] This disclosure provides a robot conveyor belt tracking method, a robot, and a readable storage medium, which enables the robot to efficiently and accurately track moving workpieces on a conveyor belt, thereby ensuring that the robot can effectively operate the workpieces.

Claims

1. A robot conveyor belt tracking method, characterized in that, The method includes: When the workpiece is located in the start area, the target tracking position of the robot is determined; wherein, the target tracking position is the real-time position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system; The robot begins tracking motion based on the target tracking position and corrects the endpoint of the tracking trajectory according to the real-time offset of the conveyor belt, so that the robot and the workpiece arrive at the same position synchronously. If the tracking effect during the tracking process does not meet the preset requirements, the target tracking position is corrected according to the conveyor belt speed.

2. The robot conveyor belt tracking method according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the workpiece is in the starting area, determine the robot's target tracking position, including: Determine the encoder scale during the calibration of the tracking coordinate system; The reference encoder value when the workpiece passes the sensor and the reference position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system are obtained; wherein, the reference position is obtained by rotating the starting position of the starting area in the tracking coordinate system; When the workpiece is in the start area, a rotation matrix is ​​constructed based on the difference between the reference encoder value and the current encoder value and the encoder ratio. The position after rotating the reference position according to the rotation matrix is ​​used as the target tracking position.

3. The robot conveyor belt tracking method according to claim 2, characterized in that, Determining the robot's target tracking position when the workpiece is in the starting area also includes: The starting position is defined as a reference point near the sensor during the calibration process. A rotation matrix is ​​constructed based on the difference between the reference encoder value and the encoder value corresponding to the start position, as well as the encoder ratio. The position after rotating the reference position according to the rotation matrix is ​​used as the reference position.

4. The robot conveyor belt tracking method according to any one of claims 2-3, characterized in that, Determining the robot's target tracking position when the workpiece is in the starting area also includes: After the workpiece passes the sensor, it is determined whether the workpiece has passed the starting position based on the current encoder value; Once the workpiece reaches the starting position, it is determined that the workpiece is located in the starting area.

5. The robot conveyor belt tracking method according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that, The robot begins tracking motion based on the target tracking position and corrects the endpoint of the tracking trajectory according to the real-time offset of the conveyor belt, so that the robot and the workpiece arrive at the same position synchronously, including: The conveyor belt offset is calculated by comparing the encoder values ​​read in real time during the tracking motion with the pre-obtained reference encoder values. The endpoint is corrected within the robot's interpolation cycle based on the conveyor belt offset.

6. The robot conveyor belt tracking method according to any one of claims 1-5, characterized in that, When it is determined that the tracking effect during the tracking motion does not meet the preset requirements, the target tracking position is corrected according to the conveyor belt speed, including: Get the current conveyor belt speed; The dynamic compensation angle is determined based on the current conveyor belt speed. The target tracking position is compensated based on the dynamic compensation angle.

7. The robot conveyor belt tracking method according to claim 6, characterized in that, To obtain the current conveyor belt speed, including: The difference between the encoder value of the current interpolation cycle and the encoder value of the previous interpolation cycle is multiplied by the encoder ratio, and the ratio between the product and the interpolation cycle duration is taken as the current conveyor belt speed.

8. The robot conveyor belt tracking method according to any one of claims 1-7, characterized in that, The method further includes: When the next workpiece passes the sensor during the tracking of the workpiece, the reference encoder value and reference position corresponding to the next workpiece are written into the buffer. When the next workpiece exceeds the start area, the reference encoder value and reference position corresponding to the next workpiece are retrieved from the buffer and discarded.

9. A robot conveyor belt tracking device, characterized in that, The robot conveyor belt tracking device is used to determine the target tracking position of the robot when the workpiece is located in the starting area; wherein, the target tracking position is the real-time position of the workpiece in the robot coordinate system; the robot starts tracking motion based on the target tracking position, and corrects the endpoint of the tracking trajectory according to the real-time offset of the conveyor belt, so that the robot and the workpiece reach the same position synchronously; when it is determined that the tracking effect during the tracking motion does not meet the preset requirements, the target tracking position is corrected according to the conveyor belt speed.

10. A robot, characterized in that, include: At least one processor; And a memory communicatively connected to the at least one processor; wherein the memory stores a computer program executable by the at least one processor, the computer program being executed by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform the robot conveyor tracking method as described in any one of claims 1-8.

11. A readable storage medium configured to store a computer program, characterized in that, When the computer program is executed by a processor, it is configured to implement the robot conveyor belt tracking method as described in any one of claims 1-8.

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