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Method and system for automatically attaching works onto vehicle bodies carried on a conveyor

  • US 4,669,168 A
  • Filed: 11/04/1985
  • Issued: 06/02/1987
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/05/1984
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for automatically attaching works to vehicle bodies carried on a conveyor, comprising the steps of:

  • (a) providing a base on which a robot is mounted and which is movable within a predetermined range, at least one part of the movement range being alongside of the conveyor;

    (b) providing a plurality of work feeders for sequentially feeding plural kinds of works which are respectively different according to vehicle types of the vehicle bodies carried on the conveyor to different predetermined positions along the movement range of the movable base;

    (c) identifying the vehicle type of one of the vehicle bodies which has passed through a first position of the conveyor;

    (d) determining a target position in the movement range of the movable base corresponding to one of the predetermined positions to which the corresponding work feeder feeds the required works on the basis of the identification result in said step (c) and positioning the movable base to the target position;

    (e) controlling the robot so as to grasp one of the sequentially fed required works from the work feeder at the target position;

    (f) moving the movable base from the target position to position it at a stand-by position at the part of said movement range along the conveyor at which the movable base waits for a tracking operation to start;

    (g) detecting by means of a detector located on the movable base, a deviation of a relative position in a direction of travel of the conveyor between at least one predetermined tracking point located on the conveyor and a reference point located on the movable base at a predetermined time after one of the vehicle bodies which has passed through the first position and arrived at a second position of the conveyor downstream of the first position; and

    (h) moving the movable base to follow the conveyor so that the detected deviation of the relative position becomes zero in said step (g) and simultaneously controlling the robot so as to attach the grasped work to a predetermined portion of the vehicle body.

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