Industrial playback robot having a teaching mode in which teaching data are given by speech

• US 4,896,357 A
• Filed: 07/14/1987
• Issued: 01/23/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1986
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Tokico Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Tokico Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ishikawa, Yuichi, Hirose, Yoshiyuki, Itoh, Yoshimasa, Miyamae, Kazuyuki, Hatano, Yasukichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Clark, David L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Merecki, John A.
• Application Number:
  US07/072,884
• Time in Patent Office: 924 Days
• Field of Search: 381/41-46, 364/513, 364/513.5, 367/198, 901/1-5
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/003 by means of an audio-responsive input audible safety signals B25J19/061
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/408 characterised by data handling or data format, e.g. reading, buffering or conversion of data
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/35453 Voice announcement, oral, speech input
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45083 Manipulators, robot

Abstract

An industrial playback robot having a teaching mode and a playback mode comprises a robot structure, a speech discriminating circuit for detecting an instruction from an input speech in the teaching mode, and a control board for controlling the movement and operation of the robot structure. The control board stores information about the position and operation of the robot structure in the teaching mode and controls the movement and operation of the robot structure depending on the stored information in the playback mode.

Claims

1. An industrial playback robot having a teaching mode and a playback mode and comprising:

mode selecting means for putting said industrial playback robot in one of said teaching mode and said playback mode;

a robot structure for carrying out one or more operations, and having a movable part;

driving means for driving said movable part;

position detecting means for detecting a position of said movable part and for producing positional information indicative of the position of said movable part;

speech input means for receiving a speech input indicative of an instruction, said instruction being a positioning instruction or an operating instruction corresponding to one of of said one or more operations;

first memory means for pre-storing speech patterns corresponding to said positioning instruction and to said operating instruction;

speech recognition means for analyzing the speech input supplied via said speech input means to obtain a certain speech pattern from the speech input, and for comparing said certain speech pattern with the pre-stored speech patterns in said first memory means to recognize said instruction corresponding to said speech input;

speech synthesis part coupled to said speech recognition means for generating a speech signal representative of a speech having said certain speech pattern;

speech output means supplied with said speech signal for sounding said speech having said certain speech pattern so as to confirm the instruction recognized by said speech recognition means;

second memory means for storing teaching data, said teaching data comprising a position datum indicative of a position which is to be assumed by said movable part in said playback mode and an operation datum indicative of an operation which is to be carried out by said robot structure in said playback mode; and

control means coupled to said position detecting means, said speech recognition means and said second memory means,

said control means in said teaching mode controlling said second memory means so that said positional information detected by the position detecting means is stored in said second memory means as the position datum when said speech input means receives said positioning instruction and that both of said operating instruction and said positional information detected by the position detecting means are respectively stored in said second memory means as the operation datum and the position datum when said speech input means receives said operating instruction,

said control means in said playback mode reading out teaching data previously stored in said second memory means during said teaching mode, and controlling said robot structure and said driving means so that said movable part assumes a position corresponding to said position datum and said robot structure carries out an operation corresponding to said operation datum depending on the teaching data read out from said second memory means.

2. An industrial playback robot as claimed in claim 1 which further comprises a barrier, and said speech input means and said speech output means are electrically coupled to said speech recognition means and said speech synthesis part, respectively via said barrier.

3. An industrial playback robot as claimed in claim 1 in which said control means comprises a buffer memory coupled to said second memory means, for temporarily storing said positional information supplied from said position detecting means and said operating instruction recognized by said speech recognition means in said teaching mode, and for temporarily storing the teaching data read out from said second memory means in said playback mode.

4. An industrial playback robot as claimed in claim 1 in which said operating instructions include a first instruction starting a duration of working of said robot structure and a second instruction stopping said duration of working, and wherein said second memory means is further defined as storing said first and second instructions together with positional informations of positions at which said first and second instructions are to be effected.

5. An industrial playback robot having a teaching mode and a playback mode and comprising:

mode selecting means for putting said industrial playback robot in one of said teaching mode and said playback mode;

a robot structure for carrying out an operation on a work piece, and having a plurality of movable parts;

driving means for driving said plurality of movable parts;

position detecting means for detecting respective positions of said plurality of movable parts and for producing a positional information corresponding to the positions of said plurality of movable parts;

speech input means for receiving a speech input indicative of one of a plurality of instructions which respectively relates to said plurality of movable parts;

first memory means for pre-storing speech patterns corresponding to said instructions;

speech recognition means for analyzing the speech input supplied via said speech input means to obtain a certain speech pattern from the speech input, and for comparing said certain speech pattern with the pre-stored speech patterns in said first memory means to recognize said instruction corresponding to said speech input;

speech synthesis part coupled to said speech recognition means for generating a speech signal representative of a speech having said certain speech pattern;

speech output means supplied with said speech signal for sounding said speech having said certain speech pattern so as to confirm the instruction recognized by said speech recognition means;

second memory means for storing teaching data, said teaching data comprising position data indicative of positions which are to be assumed by said plurality of movable parts in said playback mode and an operation datum indicative of said operation which is to be carried out by said robot structure in said playback mode; and

manually operated instructing signal generating means for generating a driving signal, an operation signal and a registration signal; and

control means coupled to said driving means, said position detecting means, said speech recognition means, said second memory means and said instructing signal generating means,

said control means in said teaching mode controlling said driving means to drive a movable part corresponding to said instruction when said driving signal is supplied to said control means, said control means in said teaching mode controlling said memory means so that said positional information detected by the position detecting means is stored in said second memory means as the position datum when said registration signal is supplied to said control means and that said operation datum is stored when said operation signal is supplied to said control means,

said control means in said playback mode reading out teaching data previously stored in said second memory means during said teaching mode, and controlling said robot structure and said driving means so that said movable parts assume a position corresponding to said position datum and said robot structure carries out the operation corresponding to said operation datum depending on the teaching data read out from said second memory means.

6. An industrial playback robot as claimed in claim 5 in which said speech input means and said speech output means are electrically coupled to said speech recognition means and said speech synthesis part, respectively via said instructing signal generating means.

7. An industrial playback robot as claimed in claim 6 in which said instructing signal generating means has an explosion-proof construction, said industrial playback robot further comprises a barrier, and said instructing signal generating means is electrically coupled to said speech recognition means and said speech synthesis part via said barrier.