Method and a system for programming an industrial robot

• US 7,209,801 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2003
• Issued: 04/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABB Schweiz AG (ABB Limited)
• Original Assignee: ABB Research Ltd. (ABB Ltd.)
• Inventors: Skourup, Charlotte, Pretlove, John, Pettersen, Thomas, Anfindsen, Ole Arnt
• Primary Examiner(s): Black; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): MARC, MCDIEUNEL
• Application Number:
  US10/743,316
• Publication Number:
  US 20040193321A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,218 Days
• Field of Search: 700/245, 700/259, 700/264, 318/568.2
• US Class Current: 700/245
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1664 characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/425 Teaching successive positions by numerical control, i.e. commands being entered to control the positioning servo of the tool head or end effector
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36401 Record play back, teach position and record it then play back
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36418 Modify trajectory by operator gesture, gesture force sensed by end effector
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36425 Move manually, touch surface, record position
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36452 Touch points with handheld probe, camera detects position and orientation probe

Abstract

A method for programming an industrial robot having a tool. The method includes obtaining configuration data for the tool and for the robot path and information about the position and orientation of the object in relation to the robot, obtaining a sequence of waypoints, which defines the process in relation to the object, obtaining at least one distance for adjusting the position of a waypoint, deciding whether an obtained waypoint should be modified or not, based on the obtained information about the waypoints, generating a modified sequence of waypoints by modifying the waypoints in the obtained sequence of waypoints, based on the decision, the obtained distance and the obtained information about the waypoints and generating the actual robot path based on the modified sequence of waypoints and the obtained configuration data.

Claims

1. A method for programming an industrial robot having a tool, to perform a process on an object while following a robot path defined by a number of waypoints, the method comprising:

obtaining configuration data including configuration data for the tool, configuration data for the robot path and information about the position and orientation of the object in relation to the robot,

obtaining a sequence of waypoints, which defines the process in relation to the object, the waypoints comprises information about desired positions of the tool in relation to the object and desired positions of process events in relation to the object,

obtaining at least one distance for adjusting the position of a waypoint,

deciding whether an obtained waypoint should be modified or not, based on the obtained information about the waypoints,

generating a modified sequence of waypoints by modifying the waypoints in the obtained sequence of waypoints, based on said decision, the obtained distance and the obtained information about the waypoints, and

generating the actual robot path based on the modified sequence of waypoints and the obtained configuration data.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining a sequence of waypoints, comprises:

obtaining information about the position of a pointing member pointing at points on or in the vicinity of the object,

storing the point being presently pointed out by the pointing member as a waypoint upon receiving a recording signal,

obtaining information about a process event,

storing the information about the process event together with the position of the waypoint, and

determining the position of the points in relation to the object based upon said obtained information.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said modifying of a waypoint is made based on a set of predefined rules.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said decision comprises

determining whether a waypoint comprises a specific process event,

deciding that the waypoint should be modified if the waypoint comprises the specific process event.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein it is decided to modify a waypoint if the waypoint comprises any of the process events:

turn on the process and turn off the process.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein determining the new position for the waypoint comprises:

determining a direction based on the position of the current waypoint and the position of the previous waypoint or the position of the current waypoint and the next waypoint, depending on the process event, and

obtaining the new position by adding the point extension distance to the position of the obtained waypoint in the determined direction.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein modifying a waypoint comprises:

determining a new position for the process event based on said obtained distance and the obtained waypoints, and moving the process event to the new position.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said distance for adjusting the position of a waypoint is an event extension distance which depends on a tool speed and a delay time in connection with the process event and the new position for the process event is determined based on said event extension distance.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining the new position for the process event comprises:

determining a direction based on the position of the current waypoint and the position of the previous waypoint or the position of the current waypoint and the next waypoint, depending on the process event, and

obtaining the new position by adding the event extension distance to the position of the current waypoint in the determined direction.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein modifying a waypoint comprises:

adding a new waypoint to said sequence of waypoints and determining a position for the new waypoint based on said distance and the obtained waypoints.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said obtained distance is a point extension distance which depends on a desired tool speed in the waypoint, and the position for the new waypoint is determined based on said point extension distance.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the position for the waypoint is determining based on the position of the current waypoint and the position of the previous waypoint or the next waypoint.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein said configuration data for the robot path includes the size of an arch between two line segments on the robot path and the configuration data for the tool comprises definition of a tool center point.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein it generating the robot path comprises generating robot program code based on the waypoints and the configuration data.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the waypoints comprises information about the orientation of the tool and the method comprises copying the orientation of the last waypoint to the obtained waypoint upon request.

16. The method according to claim 1, comprising storing the obtained waypoints in a first waypoint list and storing the modified sequence of waypoints in a second waypoint list.

17. Use of the method according to claim 1 for a paint application.