JP3087191B2 - Automatic connection changer with self-diagnosis function - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an automatic connection with a self-diagnosis function.
Replacement device. More specifically, the present invention relates to an automatic connection changing device with a self-diagnosis function capable of preventing occurrence of an error in unmanned operation and performing automatic recovery when an error occurs.

[0002] In recent years, in various manufacturing industries, service industries, and the like, robotization of various operations has been promoted in response to demands for automation and labor saving. In particular, it is difficult to handle the minute work with the miniaturization and high-density of the product by hand, and a robot that replaces human eyes and hands with high sensitivity is required.

For this reason, robots having various sensors such as a positioning function using a visual sensor and a force control function using a force sensor have been provided. However, if any abnormality is detected during work, the operation stops. Need to check and restart. Further, when an abnormality cannot be detected due to a failure of a sensor or the like, there is a possibility that the work object or the robot itself may be damaged.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional robot apparatus, when an abnormality is detected or an operation fails, an operation is stopped and an alarm is issued, and an operator judges the situation and restarts. I was

[0005]

In the conventional robot apparatus, even if the operation can be continued even if there is a slight error, or if the operation can be continued by exchanging the work object, the operator can confirm and instruct the robot apparatus. Is necessary, and there has been a problem that it cannot be completely unmanned.

[0006] The present invention provides a self-diagnosis capable of unmanned continuous operation.
An attempt is made to realize an automatic connection changing device with a function .

[0007]

The self-diagnosis function of the present invention is provided.
In the automatic connection changing device, it has a vertical line group and a horizontal line group,
And a matrix board with a difference hole at the intersection
A frame on which a plurality of frames are attached, and up, down, left and right along the front of the frame
A transfer mechanism that can move to the right, and attached to the transfer mechanism
And a robot having a hand part that can move back and forth.
The robot is positioned on the matrix board.
Target while tracking the pattern with the optical sensor
Insert the pins into the difference holes and connect the desired vertical and horizontal lines.
In the automatic connection changer, tracking
Function check part, optical sensor check part, and hand function check part
Mounting a test unit having, periodically, or upon detecting any abnormality during operation, the robot is autonomously
Perform self-diagnosis to move to the test unit, the fault position switching component as well as determine whether the work start or work continues
The feature is to perform the operation. Depending on adopting this configuration, automatic connection exchange instrumentation <br/> location with a self-diagnosis function capable of unmanned continuous operation is obtained.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a robot, 2 is a robot arm, 3 is a hand, and the hand 3 has a force sensor 4 and a visual sensor 5.
And various sensors are attached. Reference numeral 6 denotes a test unit for confirming the functions of the robot arm 2, the hand 3, and various sensors attached to the hand 3. Reference numeral 7 denotes a system controller, and a visual controller 8 includes a visual controller 5 and a force controller 9.
Is connected to the force sensor 4, the hand controller 10 and the arm controller 11 are connected to the robot 1, and the test controller 12 is connected to the test unit 6, respectively.

When the robot 1 is installed, the test unit 6 is attached to an arbitrary place in the operation area, and the position is taught. The robot 1 checks the function of the hand or the sensor by moving to the position and performing a predetermined operation periodically or when detecting any abnormality during the operation. As a result, if normal, the robot resumes the work by its own judgment. If an abnormality is detected, an alarm is issued and the operation is stopped, and repair is requested.

[0010]

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
(A) is an overall perspective view, (b) is a matrix board,
(C) is a pin, and (d) is a cross section of a through hole. This embodiment is an automatic connection switching device inserted between an exchange and a subscriber. In the same figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a matrix having a vertical line group and a horizontal line group, and having a difference hole 21 at an intersection thereof. Many boards are mounted on the frame 22. Reference numeral 23 denotes a robot having a hand unit 26 that can move up and down by a ball screw 25 provided on a transfer mechanism 24 that can move left and right. Reference numeral 27 denotes a test unit having the same size as the matrix board, and the frame 22 is mounted at an appropriate position.

FIG. 3 is a view showing the hand section 26. The hand section 26 has a hand 26a for holding a pin 28. The hand 26a is supported by a spring 29, and its deflection is detected by a stress sensor built in the hand unit 26, and the pin 28
Is controlled so that a force greater than a specified value is not applied to. An optical sensor unit 32 including a laser light source 30 and an optical sensor 31 is provided above the hand unit 26. The optical sensor unit 32 projects laser light on the surface of the matrix board, and uses a tracking sensor and a focus sensor to determine whether or not a pattern is present. The distance to the device and the presence of pins are checked.

A positioning pattern is provided on the surface of the matrix board 20, and the robot 1 positions the pattern at the center of the target difference hole 21 while tracking it with an optical sensor, inserts the pin 28, and The vertical and horizontal lines are connected.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining this operation, and FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. In the operation sequence, as shown by the circled numbers in FIG. 5, the center of the hand (the center of the pin) is first positioned at the center of the reference mark 33. The hand is moved to just before the difference hole 21 of the target line. The hand is positioned at the center of the difference hole 21 of the target line. Move the hand to just before the target hole. Position the hand at the center of the target hole and check for the presence of pins. Insert or remove pins. Confirm the presence or absence of the pin, move to the end, confirm the address, and end.

FIG. 6 shows a test unit. In the figure, 34 is a tracking function confirmation unit, 35 is an optical sensor confirmation unit, 36 is a hand function confirmation unit, and the tracking function confirmation unit 34 is formed with a plurality of difference holes 21 and a plurality of reference marks 33. I have. In addition, the mirror 3
7, 37 'and light receiving element 38 are provided.
6 is provided with a pin 28 for testing.

In the test unit 27, for each function of the hand unit 26, confirmation items as shown in Table 1 can be confirmed.

[Table 1]

Table 2 shows an example of a periodic test. When the robot is in a standby state, a check operation is performed at regular intervals to check whether the robot itself has any abnormality.

[Table 2]

FIGS. 7 and 8 are flowcharts showing an example of the pin insertion / removal operation control. FIG. 7 shows a case where there is no abnormality from the start of pin insertion / extraction to the end of the work. If an abnormality occurs in any of the steps, the operation of FIG. 8 is performed. For example, if an error of excessive insertion force occurs during pin insertion, re-operation (simple retry) is repeated several times. If it still fails, move the hand unit to the test unit to check the optical sensor and hand function. If the function is normal, determine that the pin is defective and replace it with a new pin to continue the operation. If the optical sensor or the hand function is defective, the operation is stopped as a robot failure. In the present embodiment, pin insertion / removal operation control can be performed as described above.

[0018]

According to the present invention, since the robot itself can determine whether to continue or stop the operation when an error occurs, the robot can be operated unattended. Further, since the failure of the robot can be detected in advance, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a failure during the operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention, wherein (a) is a perspective view,
(B) is a diagram illustrating a matrix board, (c) is a diagram illustrating a pin, and (d) is a diagram illustrating a cross section of a difference hole.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hand unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a test unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a pin insertion / extraction operation according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a pin insertion / extraction operation according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Robot 2 ... Robot arm 3 ... Hand part 4 ... Force sensor 5 ... Visual sensor 6 ... Test unit 7 ... System controller 8 ... Visual controller 9 ... Force controller 10 ... Hand controller 11 ... Arm controller 12 ... Test controller 20 ... Matrix Board 21 ... Difference hole 22 ... Frame 23 ... Robot 24 ... Transport mechanism 25 ... Ball screw 26 ... Hand unit 27 ... Test unit 28 ... Pin 29 ... Spring 30 ... Laser light source 31 ... Optical sensor 32 ... Optical sensor unit 33 ... Reference Mark 34: Tracking function confirmation section 35: Optical sensor function confirmation section 36: Hand function confirmation section 37, 37 ': Mirror 38: Light receiving element

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shigeru Kitabatake 1-6-1, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Akira Nagayama 1-1-6, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Japan Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Eiichi Sunaga 1-7-12 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-62-79997 (JP, A) JP-A Sho 62-212705 (JP, A) JP-A-3-43172 (JP, A) JP-A-3-213092 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B25J 19/06 G05B 19/18 H04Q 1/14

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A first group of vertical lines and a group of horizontal lines;
Attach multiple matrix boards with difference holes
The girder frame can be moved up, down, left and right along the front of the frame.
Transfer mechanism, and attached to the transfer mechanism to move back and forth.
A robot having a hand part that can
Light the positioning pattern provided on the matrix board
Pin the target difference hole while tracking with the sensor
Automatic connection replacement to insert desired vertical and horizontal lines
In the frame, a tracking function confirmation unit and an optical sensor confirmation
Unit and test unit with hand function confirmation unit
Only periodically, or upon detecting any abnormality during operation, the robot performs a self-diagnosis by moving autonomously the test unit, the switching of the fault location as well as determine whether the work start or work continues An automatic connection changing device with a self-diagnosis function, which performs classification .