Conveying system

• US 9,272,413 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2012
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yaskawa Denki
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yaskawa Denki
• Inventors: Furuichi, Masatoshi, Kimura, Yoshiki, Matsuo, Tomohiro, Kusama, Yoshihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Suarez, Ernesto
• Assistant Examiner(s): TIGHE, BRENDAN P
• Application Number:
  US13/688,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20130195584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• Field of Search: 414/217, 414/222.01, 414/744.2, 414/744.4, 414/744.5, 414/935, 700/245, 700/250, 700/251
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/042 comprising an articulated arm
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1664 characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/677 for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67766 Mechanical parts of transfer devices robots in general in B25J
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/02 Arm motion controller
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/15 Jointed arm

Abstract

A conveying system according to an embodiment includes a robot and a controller. The controller includes a switching unit. The robot includes an arm unit formed of a hand and a plurality of arms connected rotatably with respect to one another, and a base unit. An arm on a rear end side is connected to the base unit rotatably about a rotation axis, and the hand is rotatably connected to an arm on a front end side. The switching unit switches cylindrical coordinate control for controlling the arm unit such that a trajectory of the hand overlaps with any one of lines radiating from the rotation axis and rectangular coordinate control for controlling the arm unit such that the trajectory of the hand overlaps with none of the lines at a predetermined timing.

Claims

1. A conveying system comprising:

a robot that includes an arm unit formed of a hand and a plurality of arms connected rotatably with respect to one another, and a base unit, a first arm of the plurality of arms being connected on a rear end side thereof to the base unit rotatably about a rotation axis and the hand being rotatably connected to a second arm of the plurality of arms on a front end side of the second arm; and

a controller configured to control a motion of the robot, the controller being further configured to;

perform posture selection to select one of the plurality of standby postures,

generate a trajectory from a current posture of the robot to the selected standby posture utilizing a first coordinate system,

switch, by a switching unit, from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system,

generate a trajectory from the standby posture to the target posture utilizing the second coordinate system,

wherein the first coordinate system is one of a rectangular coordinate system and a cylindrical coordinate system, and the second coordinate system is the other of the rectangular coordinate system and the cylindrical coordinate system.

2. The conveying system according to claim 1, wherein the conveying system has:

a first transfer position that is a transfer position for a workpiece accessible by the hand under the cylindrical coordinate system; and

a second transfer position that is a transfer position for a workpiece accessible by the hand under the rectangular coordinate system, and

the switching unit switches, when the hand is moved between the first transfer position and the second transfer position, the cylindrical coordinate system and the rectangular coordinate system at a timing when the hand is positioned at a position other than the first transfer position and the second transfer position.

3. The conveying system according to claim 2, wherein the switching unit switches, when the hand is moved between the first transfer position and the second transfer position, the cylindrical coordinate system and the rectangular coordinate system at a timing when the hand is positioned at a standby position corresponding to each of the transfer positions.

4. The conveying system according to claim 3, wherein

the controller comprises a selecting unit that derives, when the hand is moved between the first transfer position and the second transfer position, the plurality of standby postures serving as candidates for a posture of the arm unit at a subsequent transfer position and performs the posture selection by selecting one of the standby postures with which a change amount from a posture of the arm unit at a present transfer position is the smallest as the posture of the arm unit at the subsequent transfer position.

5. The conveying system according to claim 4, wherein the selecting unit derives two standby postures whose angles between the first arm and the second arm are different from each other and performs the posture selection by selecting one of the two standby postures with which a change amount from an angle between the first arm and the second arm at the present transfer position is smaller as the posture of the arm unit at the subsequent transfer position.

6. The conveying system according to claim 5, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

7. The conveying system according to claim 4, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

8. The conveying system according to claim 3, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

9. The conveying system according to claim 2, wherein the switching unit switches, when the hand is moved between the first transfer position and the second transfer position, the cylindrical coordinate system and the rectangular coordinate system at a timing when the arm unit is in a reference posture.

10. The conveying system according to claim 9, wherein

the controller comprises a selecting unit that derives, when the hand is moved between the first transfer position and the second transfer position, the plurality of standby postures serving as candidates for a posture of the arm unit at a subsequent transfer position and performs the posture selection by selecting one of the standby postures with which a change amount from a posture of the arm unit at a present transfer position is the smallest as the posture of the arm unit at the subsequent transfer position.

11. The conveying system according to claim 10, wherein the selecting unit derives two standby postures whose angles between the first arm and the second arm are different from each other and performs the posture selection by selecting one of the two standby postures with which a change amount from an angle between the first arm and the second arm at the present transfer position is smaller as the posture of the arm unit at the subsequent transfer position.

12. The conveying system according to claim 11, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

13. The conveying system according to claim 10, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

14. The conveying system according to claim 9, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

15. The conveying system according to claim 2, wherein

the controller comprises a selecting unit that derives, when the hand is moved between the first transfer position and the second transfer position, the plurality of standby postures serving as candidates for a posture of the arm unit at a subsequent transfer position and performs the posture selection by selecting one of the standby postures with which a change amount from a posture of the arm unit at a present transfer position is the smallest as the posture of the arm unit at the subsequent transfer position.

16. The conveying system according to claim 15, wherein the selecting unit derives two standby postures whose angles between the first arm and the second arm are different from each other and performs the posture selection by selecting one of the two standby postures with which a change amount from an angle between the first arm and the second arm at the present transfer position is smaller as the posture of the arm unit at the subsequent transfer position.

17. The conveying system according to claim 16, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

18. The conveying system according to claim 15, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

19. The conveying system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a conveyance room in which the robot is arranged and that keeps atmosphere of an area in which the robot conveys a workpiece clean, wherein

the conveyance room is provided with a load port arranged at the first transfer position and a plurality of load ports arranged at the second transfer position in a manner parallel to a planar wall.

20. The conveying system according to claim 1, wherein, when the controller determines that the plurality of standby postures exist, the controller is configured to generate the trajectory from the current posture of the robot to the selected standby posture with the cylindrical coordinate system to rotate the hand to reach one of the plurality of standby postures after switching to the cylindrical coordinate system.

21. The conveying system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to perform posture selection to select one of the plurality of standby postures when the plurality of standby postures are symmetric to each other.

22. A conveying system comprising:

a robot that includes an arm unit formed of a hand and a plurality of arms connected rotatably with respect to one another, and a base unit, a first arm of the plurality of arms being connected on a rear end side thereof to the base unit rotatably about a rotation axis and the hand being rotatably connected to a second arm of the plurality of arms on a front end side of the second arm; and

control means for controlling a motion of the robot, the control means being configured to;

determine whether a plurality of standby postures exist,

perform posture selection to select one of the plurality of standby postures,

generate a trajectory from a current posture of the robot to the selected standby posture utilizing a first coordinate system,

switch, by a switching unit, from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system,

generate a trajectory from the standby posture to the target posture utilizing the second coordinate system,

wherein the first coordinate system is one of a rectangular coordinate system and a cylindrical coordinate system, and the second coordinate system is the other of the rectangular coordinate system and the cylindrical coordinate system.