초록 ▼

A robot, particularly an industrial robot for performing predetermined tasks in accordance with given programs. When an operating portion of the robot encounters an unexpected obstacle, the robot must immediately stop the motion of the operating portion to prevent the collision with obstacle. For th

A robot, particularly an industrial robot for performing predetermined tasks in accordance with given programs. When an operating portion of the robot encounters an unexpected obstacle, the robot must immediately stop the motion of the operating portion to prevent the collision with obstacle. For this purpose, the robot is provided with subcontrol units for individually controlling each operating portion of the robot as well as a main control unit for performing overall control of the robot. The subcontrol units serve to control such extra operations other than the inherent operations to carry out the prescribed tasks. Each operating portion is equipped with various detecting devices for sensing obstacles. The subcontrol units are made operative in accordance with outputs from the corresponding detecting devices. As obstacles, there are included humans, gases, radiation, etc. in addition to various objects. This invention can be applied to a robot having a learning function.

대표청구항 ▼

A robot comprising: a plurality of operating portions, said robot having overall movements and individual movements of the respective operating portions, a main control means for controlling overall movements of the robot; at least one detecting means in each operating portion of the robot for detec

A robot comprising: a plurality of operating portions, said robot having overall movements and individual movements of the respective operating portions, a main control means for controlling overall movements of the robot; at least one detecting means in each operating portion of the robot for detecting the exterior environment around each of said operating portions; and at least one subcontrol means for individually controlling the operations of each of said operating portions in accordance with output from said main control means and output from the respective said detecting means, means associated with at least one of said main control means and said subcontrol means for providing a learning function for the associated means by which when said operating portions of the robot are initially moved by an external force, the course of movement is memorized and thereafter the same motion can be repeatedly carried out, said means for providing a learning function when the operating portions of the robot are initially moved by an external force comprising means for producing a plot of the course of travel of a specific point on said operating portion during movement of said operating portion; means for dividing said course into a number of intervals; means for replacing the course of travel in each interval by an approximation of a straight line or a circular arc to produce an approximation course of travel consisting of straight lines and circular arcs; and means for memorizing the travel of said specific point along said approximation course of travel, said means for dividing said course of travel of the specific point into a number of intervals and said means for replacing the course of travel of each interval by the straight line or circular arc comprising: (a) means for calculating and temporarily recording locations (designated as passing points) of said specific point corresponding to each state of the robot in the course of its motion, each of said states being sequentially and time-divisionally recorded to define the motion of the robot; (b) means for effecting a straight line checking step in which the longest approximation line segment is determined, said segments connecting the starting point of the course of travel (Xo, Yo, Zo) and the “i”th passing point (Xi, Yi, Zi), (wherein “i”is larger than a predetermined minimum limit value i-min), said passing points being successively located on the course of travel from the starting point (Xo, Yo, Zo) to the end point (Xz, Yz, Zz), wherein all of deviation distances Lij do not exceed a permissive error E and the value of i is maximum, said distances Lij being defined by the distances between said longest segment and each passing point (Xj, Yj, Zj) which is located between said two points, (wherein j=1, 2, . . . , (i-1)); (c) means for effecting a straight line interval setting step when the solution i=n is obtained in means (b), wherein the segment which connects the starting point (Xo, Yo, Zo) and the point (Xn, Yn, Zn) is set as the interval for the straight line, the data of said segment being recorded; (d) means for effecting a circular arc checking step when no solution is obtained in means (b), wherein an optimum circular arc is obtained, in which all of the deviation distances Dkl do not exceed the permissive error E and the value of j is maximum, said optimum circular arc being selected from circular arcs which are defined by three points consisting of the starting point (Xo, Yo, Zo), the “k”th passing point (Xk, Yk, Zk) from said starting point (Xo, Yo, Zo), (wherein k is larger than a predetermined minimum limit value k-min), and an arbitrary passing point (Xs, Ys, Zs) which is located between said two points, said distances Dk1 being defined by the distances between said circular arc and other passing points (Xl, Yl, Zl) which are located between said two points; means for effecting a circular arc interval setting when the solution j=m is obtained in means (d), wherein the circular arc which connects said starting point (Xo, Yo, Zo), and said passing points (Xs, Ys, Zs) and (Xm, Ym, Zm) is set as the interval for the circular arc, and the data of said circular arc are recorded; and (f) means for repeating the calculations to set the course of travel continuously over the entire interval, in which the end point (Xn, Yn, Zn) or (Xm, Ym, Zm) of the interval which is obtained by means (c) or (e) is set as the successive starting point, and the same calculations by means (b)-(e) are executed, and repeated successively for the passing points from said starting point to the final end point (Xz, Yz, Zz), to produce the continuous approximation course of travel.