HANDLING APPARATUS, CONTROL DEVICE, CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM

• US 20110082586A1
• Filed: 06/03/2009
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Nishihara, Yasunori
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,585 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/259
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0093 co-operating with conveyor means
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1697 Vision controlled systems
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/39102 Manipulator cooperating with conveyor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49769 Using optical instrument [excludes mere human eyeballing]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53039 with control means energized in response to activator stimulated by condition sensor

Abstract

A handling apparatus having a belt conveyor (2) for conveying a work (10), a robot (4) for performing a predetermined operation for the work (10), a visual sensor (3) for photographing the work (10) being conveyed to produce work data indicating each work (10) in the photographed image, and a robot controller (5) for gathering the work data for each image thereby to produce a tracking data, and for storing the tracking data in a database, thereby to control the robot (4) with the database so that a predetermined operation is performed on the work (10) transferred to the position of the robot (4). The robot controller (5) performs a predetermined calculation on the work data read out from the database, detects the overlapped work data, and cancels the control of the actions of the robot (4) based on the overlapped work data. The robot controller (5) rearranges the sequences, in which the robot (4) performs the operation, on each work (10).

Claims

1. A handling system comprising:

a conveying means for conveying a workpiece;

a robot performing a predetermined work to the workpiece;

a visual sensor capturing an image of the workpiece being conveyed and producing workpiece data indicating every each workpiece in the captured image, and

a controlling means for gathering the workpiece data for each of the images thereby to produce tracking data, accumulating tracking data in a database, and using the database so as to control the robot so as to perform the predetermined work on a workpiece conveyed to a position of the robot,

the controlling means processing the tracking data accumulated in the database, recognizing an actual state of each of the workpieces conveyed by the conveying means, and makes the robot operate in accordance with an actual conveyance state of each of the workpieces.

2. The handling system according to claim 1, wherein the controlling means reads out the workpiece data stored in the database to perform a predetermined processing, and rearranges a sequence by which the robot performs work on a plurality of workpieces.

3. The handling system according to claim 2, wherein the controlling means controls so as to start the work from which the workpiece is positioned at a downstream side of conveyance of the conveying means.

4. The handling system according to claim 3, wherein the controlling means comprises:

a storage part storing, as the database, tracking data which are captured the workpiece data and transmitted from the visual sensor, and are gathered the same as each image captured by the visual sensor,

a processing part finding a scalar quantity of a mapping vector of each workpiece from each workpiece data included in the tracking data and rearranging a work sequence to be performed by the robot based on the scalar quantity of the mapping vector of each of the workpieces, and

a drive control part controlling the robot so as to perform the work of each of the workpieces in accordance with the sequence rearranged by the processing part.

5. The handling system according to claim 4, wherein the processing part performs processing to find an inner product of a vector (P) and a vector (Cν

), to result in the scalar quantity of the mapping vector of each of the workpieces, where the vector (P) is defined as a vector from any reference point to each workpiece, and the vector (Cν

) is defined as a reference vector indicating the conveyance direction of the conveying means from that any reference point the vector (Cν

).

6. The handling system according to claim 1, wherein the controlling means performs predetermined the processing for the workpiece data for every each tracking data read out from the database to detect the overlapping workpiece data, and cancels the control of the operation of the robot based on the overlapping workpiece data.

7. The handling system according to claim 6, wherein the controlling means comprises:

a storage part storing each tracking data produced for each of the images as the database,

a processing part finding a distance between workpieces from the workpiece data included in the tracking data and judging whether the workpiece data overlap based on the distance between the workpieces, and

a drive control part controlling the robot so as to perform work for each of the workpieces in accordance with the judged result of the processing part.

8. The handling system according to claim 7, wherein, when the distance between workpieces found from the workpiece data is smaller than a predetermined value, the processing part judges that the workpiece data corresponding to the workpieces having the distance do not overlap.

9. A control device comprising:

a storing means;

a processing means for

gathering a plurality of workpiece data which are transmitted from a visual sensor for capturing images of a plurality of workpieces being conveyed by a conveying means and correspond to the workpieces for each image captured by the visual sensor to produce tracking data, making the storing means store each tracking data of each of the images,

reading out each of the tracking data from the storing means in accordance with the conveyance operation of the conveying means,

performing predetermined processing on each workpiece data included in each of the tracking data, and

recognizing an actual state of each of the workpieces being conveyed by the conveying means; and

a drive controlling means for making the robot operate in accordance with the actual conveyance state of each of the workpieces in accordance with the processing result of the processing means so as to make the robot perform work on each of the workpieces.

10. A control device according to claim 9, wherein the processing means processes each of the workpiece data so as to thereby detect overlapping workpiece data included in a plurality of tracking data, and

wherein the drive controlling means cancels the overlapping workpiece data detected by the processing to control the robot so as to perform work on each workpiece corresponding to each workpiece data which does not overlap.

11. A control device according to claim 9, wherein the processing means processes each of the workpiece data so as to thereby find a sequence for performing work on each workpiece corresponding to each of the data of the workpieces being conveyed by the conveying means, and

wherein the drive controlling means controls the robot so as to perform the work on each of the workpieces in accordance with the sequence rearranged by the processing means.

12. A control method including:

a first step of having a visual sensor capture images of a plurality of workpieces being conveyed by a conveying means and, for each image, gathering a plurality of workpiece data corresponding to each of the workpieces to produce tracking data;

a second step of storing each tracking data of each of the images in a database;

a third step of performing predetermined processing on each workpiece data included in each tracking data of the database in accordance with the conveyance operation of the conveying means to thereby to recognize an actual state of each of the workpieces being conveyed by the conveying means; and

a fourth step of making the robot operate in accordance with the actual conveyance state of each of the workpieces to make it perform work on each of the workpieces.

13. The control method according to claim 12, wherein,

in the third step, performing that processing to detect overlapping workpiece data included in the plurality of tracking data, and,

in the fourth step, canceling the detected overlapping workpiece data and controlling the robot so as to perform the work on each workpiece corresponding the workpiece data which does not overlap.

14. The control method according to claim 12, wherein,

in the third step, performing that processing to rearrange a sequence for performing work on for workpieces being conveyed by the conveying means, and,

in the fourth step, controlling the robot so as to perform work on each of the workpieces in accordance with the rearranged sequence.

15. A program which makes a computer execute the following routines:

a first routine of having a visual sensor capturing images of a plurality of workpieces being conveyed by a conveying means and inputting from the visual sensor workpiece data produced by that visual sensor,

a second routine of gathering the input workpiece data for each image captured by the visual sensor to produce tracking data and storing the same in a database,

a third routine of reading out the tracking data from the database in accordance with the conveyance operation of the conveying means, performing predetermined processing on each workpiece data included in the read out tracking data to thereby recognize an actual state of each of the workpieces being conveyed by the conveying means, and

a fourth routine of making the robot operate in accordance with the actual conveyance state of each of the workpieces in accordance with the result of the processing and making the robot perform work on each of the workpieces.