Robot Image Capture Control Using Simulated Retraction Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In pick-and-place devices, it is challenging to reduce cycle time due to uncertainty in the timing of the robot arm's retraction from the image capture space, leading to increased costs and complexity with additional sensors.
Innovation Solution
A robot control device that includes an obtaining unit, simulation unit, and control unit to simulate the robot's operation and control image capture based on defined image capture forbidden spaces, ensuring the robot is retracted from areas where it overlaps with the workpiece group, allowing for precise timing of image capture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If image capture is started at a fixed timing (e.g., a few seconds after workpiece pickup), then the robot arm is clearly not present above the workpieces, but the cycle time cannot be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary simulation of the robot arm's movement trajectory and calculates the exact timing when the robot arm will be retracted from the image capture forbidden space. This allows the image capture timing to be determined in advance with high precision, rather than using fixed delayed timing, thus reducing cycle time while ensuring accurate capture timing.
2Measurement precision
If a separate sensor is added to specify the timing when the robot arm is retracted, then the timing can be accurately detected, but the number of constituent components increases and the cost becomes high
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of adding a separate physical sensor to detect the robot arm's position, the system creates a virtual model (simulation) of the robot arm's movement and uses this digital copy to determine when the arm will be retracted from the forbidden space. This virtual simulation approach provides accurate timing detection without requiring additional physical sensors, thus maintaining device simplicity while achieving precise timing measurement.
3Productivity
If image capture is performed when the robot arm is present above the workpiece group, then the cycle time can be reduced, but the robot arm appears in the captured image overlapping the workpiece group
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a temporal dimension to the problem by simulating the robot arm's movement through time and calculating the specific moment when the arm exits the image capture forbidden space. This allows the system to determine the optimal image capture timing in the time dimension, ensuring both high-speed capture and clean images without the robot arm overlapping the workpieces.
Data Source
AI summary
A robot control device includes an obtaining unit that obtains, from an image sensor that captures a workpiece group to be handled by a robot, a captured image, a simulation unit that simulates operation of the robot, and a control unit that performs control such that the captured image is obtained if, in the simulation, the robot is retracted from an image capture forbidden space, in which an image is potentially captured with the workpiece group and the robot overlapping each other, and which is set based on either or both a first space being the visual field range of the image sensor, and a columnar second space obtained by taking a workpiece region including the workpiece group or each of divided regions into which the workpiece region is divided, as a bottom area, and extending the bottom area to the position of the image sensor.