ROBOT COORDINATED CONTROL METHOD AND SYSTEM

• US 20070050085A1
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fanuc Ltd (Fanuc Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fanuc Ltd (Fanuc Corporation)
• Inventors: HASHIMOTO, Yoshiki, OHYA, Tomoki
• Granted Patent: US 7,330,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/245
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1682 Dual arm manipulator; Coordination of several manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0667 Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864

Abstract

A reference signal is transmitted from one of a plurality of robot control devices connected by communication connecting means to the other robot control device. The timing of generation of an operation basic period signal in each of the other robot control devices is synchronized with the timing of generation of an operation basic period signal in the one of the plurality of robot control devices, based on a time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal until transmission of the reference signal in the one of the plurality of robot control devices, a time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal until reception of the reference signal in each of the other robot control devices, and a communication delay time required for communication between the one of the plurality of robot control devices and each of the other robot control devices.

Claims

1. A robot coordinated control method comprising steps of communicating among a plurality of robot control devices each generating an operation basic period signal at a predetermined period and controlling at least one robot synchronized with the operation basic period signal, and making said robots controlled by said plurality of robot control devices coordinately operate,

wherein said robot coordinated control method further comprises steps of:

transmitting a reference signal from one of said plurality of robot control devices to the other robot control devices; and

synchronizing the timing of generation of the operation basic period signal in each of said other robot control devices with the timing of generation of the operation basic period signal in said one of said plurality of robot control devices, based on a time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal until transmission of the reference signal in said one of said plurality of robot control devices, a time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal in each of said other robot control devices until reception of the reference signal by each of said other robot control devices, and a communication delay time required for communication between said one of said plurality of robot control devices and each of said other robot control devices.

2. The robot coordinated control method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of obtaining the communication delay time required for communications between said one of said plurality of robot control devices and each of said other robot control devices by making each of said other robot control devices receive the reference signal transmitted from said one of said plurality of robot control devices and then making said one of said plurality of robot control devices receive a response signal transmitted from each of said other robot control devices.

3. The robot coordinated control method according to claim 2, further comprising steps of;

making each of said other robot control devices receive the reference signal from said one of said plurality of robot control devices and then, after a predetermined delay time elapses, transmit the response signal to said one of said plurality of robot control devices; and

using half of the time interval comprised of the time interval from when said one of said plurality of robot control devices transmits the reference signal to when it receives the response signal from each of said other robot control devices minus said predetermined delay time as the communication delay time.

4. The robot coordinated control method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of adjusting the timing of generation of the operation basic period signals in each of said other robot control devices so that the time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal in each of said other robot control devices until reception of the reference signal by each of said other robot control devices is equal to the time interval comprised of the time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal until transmission of the reference signal in said one of said plurality of robot control devices plus the communication delay time.

5. The robot coordinated control method according to claim 1, wherein said one of said plurality of robot control devices is a master control device, and said other robot control devices are slave control devices.

6. A robot coordinated control system comprising a plurality of robot control devices each generating an operation basic period signal at a predetermined period and controlling the operation of at least one robot synchronized with the operation basic period signal, and a communication connecting means for connecting said plurality of robot control devices to each other, said plurality of robot control devices communicating with each other through said communication connecting means to coordinately operate said robots controlled by said plurality of robot control devices,

wherein each of said plurality of robot control devices comprises a reference signal transmitting means for transmitting a reference signal through said communication connecting means to the other robot control devices, a reference signal receiving means for receiving the reference signals transmitted from said other robot control devices through said communication connecting means, and a timer means;

the reference signal transmitted from said reference signal transmitting means of said one of said plurality of robot control devices is received by said reference signal receiving means of said other robot control devices;

the timing of generation of the operation basic period signal in each of said other robot control devices is synchronized with the timing of generation of the operation basic period signal in said one of said plurality of robot control devices, based on a time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal until transmission of the reference signal in said one of said plurality of robot control devices measured by said timer means of said one of said plurality of robot control devices, a time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal in each of said other robot control devices until reception of the reference signal by each of said other robot control devices measured by said timer means of each of said other robot control devices; and

a communication delay time required for communication between said one of said plurality of robot control devices and each of said other robot control devices.

7. The robot coordinated control system according to claim 6, wherein said other robot control devices adjust their own timings of generation of the operation basic period signal so that the time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal in each of said other robot control devices until reception of said reference signal by each of said other robot control devices is equal to the time interval comprised of the time interval from generation of the operation basic period signal until transmission of the reference signal in said one of said plurality of robot control devices plus the communication delay time.