Voice-Controlled Teach Pendant for Hands-Free Robot Operation

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

The conventional teach pendant requires workers to interrupt their tasks to operate buttons, dials, and other controls, leading to poor work efficiency, especially in environments where hands are dirty, necessitating hand washing or glove removal.

Innovation Solution

A teach pendant equipped with a voice input unit and a voice recognition unit that allows workers to send commands to a robot controller using voice commands, enabling operations such as starting or stopping a motion program or resetting alarms without manual intervention.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a worker operates buttons and dials on the teach pendant, then the robot can be controlled, but the worker's work must be interrupted and hand preparation is required

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of robot operationVSAvoidwork efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the mechanical button and dial operation system with a voice recognition system. The voice input unit captures spoken commands, the voice recognition unit converts speech to text, and the processing unit executes corresponding robot control commands, eliminating the need for manual button pressing and hand preparation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces voice commands as an intermediary between the worker and the robot control system. Instead of direct hand-to-button interaction, the worker's speech serves as the medium to transmit control intentions to the robot, enabling hands-free operation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Adaptability or versatility

If buttons and dials are arranged on the teach pendant, then robot control functions are available, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverobot control functionalityVSAvoidteach pendant structure

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the control input mechanism from physical buttons and dials to voice-based input. By removing the complex array of mechanical controls while retaining voice recognition, text-to-speech, and processing capabilities, the system achieves simplified hardware with preserved functionality

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The voice recognition system serves multiple control functions that previously required separate buttons and dials. A single voice interface can handle motion program operations, alarm resets, and other robot control tasks, consolidating multiple functions into one universal input method

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS20250033208A1Teaching operation panel and robot control system

Publication Date: 2025.01.30 FANUC LTD

AI summary

This teaching operation panel sends out a command to a robot control device for controlling the actions of a robot. The teaching operation panel comprises a voice input unit by which a user inputs voice commands, and a voice recognition unit for recognizing a voice command acquired by the voice input unit. The teaching operation panel also comprises a processing unit that, on the basis of the result of voice recognition by the voice recognition unit, transmits at least one command from among operations in an action program of the robot and termination of alarms to the robot control device.