JP6506375B2 - Work transfer system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a work transfer system including a transfer device that transfers a work in one direction, and a removal device that removes the work transferred by the transfer device.

  Various work transfer systems are known that include a transfer device such as a belt conveyor for transferring a plurality of works, and a take-out device such as a robot for taking out the work carried by the transfer device one by one. In relation to this, in Patent Document 1, a plurality of motor conveyors for transporting the work in a predetermined transport direction, a guide member for regulating the lateral position of the workpiece intersecting the transport direction, and the transport along the guide member And a stopper member for stopping the work to be performed. A positioning device for a robot palletizer has been proposed. And in the positioning device of patent document 1, the workpiece | work conveyed along a guide member is abutted against the planar contact surface in a stopper member, and is stopped. However, when a stopper member having such a flat contact surface is used, depending on the shape of the workpiece, the side surface of the workpiece is in close contact with the contact surface of the stopper member, or the side surfaces of adjacent workpieces are in close contact There is a risk of

  FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional transfer device provided with a stopper member for stopping a work on a flat contact surface, as in the positioning device of Patent Document 1. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, the transport device 7 of the present embodiment includes a belt conveyor 71 that transports a plurality of works W in the direction indicated by the arrow A 70, and a flat abutment surface AS for the works W transported to a predetermined position. And a stopper member 72 which is stopped at the same time. Further, the workpiece W transported by the transport device 7 of the present example has a triangular prism shape, and is mounted on the belt conveyor 71 with its bottom surface facing downward. As can be seen from FIG. 7, when the workpiece W having a planar side surface is stopped at the planar abutment surface AS, the side surface of the workpiece W adheres to the abutment surface AS or the side surfaces of the adjacent workpieces W There is a risk of sticking. As a result, the extraction device such as a robot may hold the work W to be taken out together with another adjacent work W, or may drop the work W held in this way on the way.

Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 5-286544

  There is a need for a workpiece transfer system that can reliably remove the workpieces restrained by the stoppers one by one.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a transport device for transporting a plurality of workpieces in one direction, a stopper installed in the transport device and stopping the plurality of workpieces transported by the transport device at a predetermined removal position, A work transfer system comprising: a removal device for removing a plurality of works restrained by a stopper from a transfer device; and a position detector for detecting positions of a plurality of works restrained by a stopper, wherein the transfer of the works by the transfer device The outer edge of the stopper in the direction opposite to the direction extends curvilinearly in a direction transverse to the transport device, which causes the plurality of workpieces to be aligned along the outer edge at the removal position while the transport device is in motion. the position detector detects the position of each of the plurality of workpieces arranged along the outer edge of the stopper, take-out apparatus based on the detection result of the position detector, the outer edge Taken one by one workpiece from a plurality of workpieces arranged I, the workpiece transfer system is provided.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a work transfer system according to the first aspect, wherein the outer edge of the stopper has a recessed portion recessed in the same direction as the transfer direction.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the take-out device moves the hand to a position where the work can be gripped based on the hand gripping the work and the detection result of the position detector. A work transfer system is provided, which is a vertical articulated robot having an arm to be moved.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the workpieces transported by the transport device are restrained at the outer edge of the stopper extending in a curved shape in the direction crossing the transport device, so that the workpieces are prevented from coming into close contact with the stoppers it can. Furthermore, according to the first aspect, the works restrained by the stopper are arranged in a curved shape along the outer edge of the stopper, so that the works do not easily adhere to each other. Therefore, according to the first aspect, a large frictional force acts between the work to be removed and the stopper or another adjacent work, or the work to be removed is caught by the stopper or another adjacent work. Can be prevented, so that the stopped work can be reliably taken out one by one.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the work restrained by the stopper is easily collected inside the recessed portion, so that the work can be reliably taken out even when the operating range of the takeout device is small.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the robot hand is accurately positioned with respect to the individual workpieces, even if the workpieces restrained by the stopper are dispersed over a wide range of the transport device It can be taken out surely one by one.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exemplary workpiece transfer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the elements on larger scale which expand and show the vicinity of the stopper in the work conveyance system of FIG. It is the top view which looked at the stopper in the workpiece conveyance system of FIG. 1 in the direction perpendicular | vertical to the upper surface of a frame main body. It is a top view similar to FIG. 3, and has shown the 1st modification of the stopper in the workpiece conveyance system of this embodiment. It is a top view similar to FIG. 3, and has shown the 2nd modification of the stopper in the workpiece conveyance system of this embodiment. It is a flow chart which shows the procedure of the example work conveyance operation by the work conveyance system of this embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows an example of the conventional conveying apparatus provided with the stopper member which stops a workpiece | work in a planar contact surface similarly to the positioning device of patent document 1. FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, similar components are given the same reference numerals. Note that the contents described below do not limit the technical scope of the invention described in the claims, the meaning of terms, and the like.

  A work transfer system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exemplary work transfer system S of the present embodiment. Here, the work transfer system S of this example transfers the work carried in to the predetermined carry-in position to the predetermined take-out position, and also carries out the inter-process transfer in which the work carried to the take-out position is taken out and carried out to the next process. It is a system. Hereinafter, such operation of the work transfer system S will be referred to as a work transfer operation. As shown in FIG. 1, the workpiece conveyance system S of this example is provided in the conveyance device 1 for conveying the workpiece W in one direction, and the conveyance device 1, and the workpiece W conveyed by the conveyance device 1 is restrained at the takeout position RP. And a takeout device 3 for taking out the work W restrained by the stopper 2 one by one from the conveying device 1. These devices will be described in order below.

  First, the conveyance device 1 of this example will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the conveyance device 1 of this example is a general belt conveyor, and an endless belt 11 mounted on a plurality of pulleys (not shown) and the belt 11 run along a predetermined path. And a drive means (not shown) such as a servomotor for rotating the pulleys of the belt 11 to run the belt 11. And the frame 12 of this example has the flat frame-like frame main body 121 extended in one direction, and the conveyance device 1 of this example is a workpiece by the belt 11 which travels along the upper surface TS of the frame main body 121 Transport W. In the transport apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the upper surface TS of the frame main body 121 extends in parallel to the horizontal direction.

  An arrow A10 in FIG. 1 indicates the moving direction of the belt 11 traveling along the upper surface TS of the frame main body 121, that is, the conveying direction of the work W by the conveying device 1. Further, in the following description, a portion of the outer circumferential surface of the belt 11 extending along the upper surface TS of the frame main body 121 may be particularly referred to as a transport path CP of the workpiece W. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the above-mentioned carry-in position LP at which the work W is carried into the carrying device 1 of the present embodiment is provided at the end of the carrying path CP in the direction opposite to the carrying direction The above-mentioned take-out position RP at which the work W is taken out from the transfer device 1 is provided at a position separated from the carry-in position LP by a predetermined distance along the transfer direction represented by the arrow A10.

  Subsequently, the stopper 2 of this example will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the stopper 2 of this example has a flat plate shape extending in parallel with the frame main body 121, and is attached to the frame 12 via a fitting type attachment member 13. The mounting member 13 of this example is installed at the end of the frame 12 in the transport direction of the work W, and the stopper 2 fitted to the mounting member 13 is adjacent to the take-out position RP in the transport path CP. It is supposed to be deployed. Further, the stopper 2 of this example extends over the entire length in the width direction of the belt 11 so as to close the conveyance path CP on the downstream side of the take-out position RP. Accordingly, the workpiece W transported along the transport path CP is abutted against the stopper 2 at the removal position RP described above and is stopped. The detailed structure of the stopper 2 of this embodiment will be described later.

  Subsequently, the position detector PS of this example will be described. The position detector PS of this example is a general vision sensor, and the position of the individual workpiece W included in the photographed image of the camera CM and the camera CM capturing the vicinity of the take-out position RP in the transport path CP of the workpiece W And an image processing apparatus (not shown) for detecting the The position detector PS of this example is installed at a position separated by a predetermined distance from the top surface TS of the frame main body 121 by a mounting member (not shown). The detection result of the position of the workpiece W by the position detector PS is transmitted to a robot arm RA of the takeout device 3 described later.

  Subsequently, the takeout device 3 of this example will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the takeout device 3 of the present example is a vertical articulated robot including a robot arm RA having a wrist RW at its tip and a robot hand RH attached to the wrist RW. Here, the robot arm RA of this example has a structure in which a plurality of arm portions 31 are connected in series via a rotary joint portion 32, and these arm portions 31 are driven by drive means such as a servomotor or the like. By driving, the position and posture of the robot hand RH can be freely changed. In particular, the robot arm RA of this example moves the robot hand RH to a position at which the workpiece W can be gripped based on the detection result of the position of the workpiece W received from the position detector PS. The principle of the robot hand RH gripping the workpiece W will be described later.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the robot hand RH according to the present embodiment is attached to the base 33 rotatably mounted on the wrist RW of the robot arm RA, the main body 34 extending from the base 33, and the main body 34 And a suction portion 35 to be More specifically, the main body 34 of the robot hand RH extends perpendicularly to the protrusion 341 from the tip of the protrusion 341 which protrudes from the base 33 to the opposite side of the wrist RW, and the protrusion 341 in the protrusion direction. And the existing vertical portion 342. The suction unit 35 of the robot hand RH has a nozzle NZ inserted into the through hole formed in the vertical portion 342 of the main body 34, and a vacuum pad VP attached to the tip of the nozzle NZ. The proximal end of the nozzle NZ is connected to a vacuum source such as a vacuum pump via an air tube (not shown). Therefore, in the work transfer system S of this example, when the gas in the vacuum pad VP is exhausted by the vacuum supply source in a state where the vacuum pad VP is in contact with the work W, the action of the negative pressure formed in the vacuum pad VP The work W is attracted to the vacuum pad VP by

  As described above, in the workpiece conveyance system S of this example, the robot arm RA of the takeout device 3 and the robot hand RH cooperate to grip the individual workpieces W stopped by the stopper 2 and hold the workpiece W. Are taken out of the transfer apparatus 1 and carried out to a predetermined carrying out area. Subsequently, the workpiece W transported by the workpiece transport system S of this example will be described. FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view showing the vicinity of the stopper 2 in the workpiece transfer system S of FIG. The workpiece W in this example has a columnar shape including the planar facing BF and at least one planar side face LF intersecting the bottom BF on the outer surface. Then, the work W in this example is placed on the transport path CP and transported so that the bottom surface BF faces the outer peripheral surface of the belt 11. Therefore, at least one straight portion is included in the outline of the workpiece W when the workpiece W on the transport path CP is viewed from above in the vertical direction. The workpiece W illustrated in FIG. 2 has a triangular prism shape including three side surfaces LF orthogonal to the bottom surface BF on the outer surface.

  Subsequently, the detailed structure of the stopper 2 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 in the direction opposite to the transport direction of the workpiece W is processed into a curved shape extending across the transport path CP. FIG. 3 is a top view of the stopper 2 in the workpiece transfer system S of FIG. 1 as viewed in a direction perpendicular to the top surface TS of the frame main body 121. As shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 in the direction opposite to the conveyance direction represented by the arrow A30 has a curved shape extending in the direction transverse to the conveyance path CP. According to the structure of the stopper 2 as described above, the workpiece W transported along the transport direction is restrained at the curved outer edge OP extending in the direction transverse to the transport path CP. Therefore, according to the structure of the stopper 2 of this example, the straight part included in the outline of the work W mentioned above does not overlap with the outer edge OP of the stopper 2, so that the stopped work W adheres to the stopper 2 Can be prevented.

  Furthermore, according to the structure of the stopper 2 of this example, the stopped work W is arranged in a curved shape along the outer edge OP. Therefore, according to the structure of the stopper 2 of this example, the linear portions included in the contours of the adjacent workpieces W do not easily overlap, so the workpieces W do not easily adhere to each other. As described above, according to the structure of the stopper 2 of this example, a large frictional force acts between the work W to be taken out and the stopper 2 or another adjacent work W, or the work W to be taken out is the stopper As it is possible to prevent the two or other adjacent works W from being caught, it is possible to reliably take out the stopped works W one by one.

  Further, as can be seen from FIG. 3, the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 of the present example has a concave portion recessed in the same direction as the transport direction represented by the arrow A30. As a result, the restrained work W tends to be collected inside the concave portion, so that the work W can be reliably taken out even when the operation range of the takeout device 3 is small. The curved shape of the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 is not limited to that illustrated in FIG. 3, and various curved shapes may be selected according to the size and shape of the workpiece W, the operation range of the extraction device 3 and the like. FIGS. 4 and 5 are both top views similar to FIG. 3, and respectively show first and second modified examples of the stopper 2 in the work transfer system S of the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 according to the first modification has a convex portion protruding in the direction opposite to the transport direction represented by the arrow A40. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 according to the second modification has a wave-like portion extending in a wave-like manner across the transport path CP. Also in these modifications, the straight part included in the outline of the workpiece W does not overlap the outer edge OP of the stopper 2, so that the stuck workpiece W can be prevented from coming into close contact with the stopper 2. Furthermore, also in these modifications, since the restrained works W are arranged in a curved shape along the outer edge OP, the works W do not easily adhere to each other.

  Next, the work transfer operation by the work transfer system S of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of an exemplary work transfer operation by the work transfer system S of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, first, in step S601, the transport device 1 starts traveling of the belt 11. As a result, the workpiece W on the belt 11 is transported along the transport direction and is abutted against the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 (see FIG. 2). Next, in step S602, when the belt 11 moves along the transport direction by a predetermined distance, the transport device 1 stops the traveling of the belt 11. Next, in step S603, the camera CM of the position detector PS captures an image in the vicinity of the take-out position RP on the transport path CP, and the image processing device of the position detector PS detects the individual workpiece W included in the camera image. Detect the position.

  Next, in step S604, the subsequent processing is branched depending on whether or not the position of the workpiece W is detected in step S603. If the position of the workpiece W is not detected in step S603 (NO in step S604), that is, if the workpiece W does not exist at the removal position RP, the workpiece transport system S returns to the above-described step S601. On the other hand, if the position of the workpiece W is detected in step S603 (YES in step S604), that is, if the workpiece W is present at the removal position RP, the workpiece transport system S proceeds to step S605 described below. Next, in step S605, the extraction device 3 drives the robot arm RA and the robot hand RH to extract the work W from the transport device 1 one by one. At this time, the robot arm RA moves the robot hand RH to a position at which the workpiece W can be gripped based on the detection result of the position of the workpiece W by the position detector PS.

  Next, in step S606, the subsequent processing is branched depending on whether or not all the workpieces W detected in step S603 have been taken out. Here, if the removal of all the workpieces W detected in step S603 has not been completed (NO in step S606), that is, if the workpiece W remains at the removal position RP, the workpiece transport system S proceeds to step S605 described above. Return. On the other hand, if all the workpieces W detected in step S603 have been taken out (YES in step S606), that is, if the workpieces W do not remain at the take-out position RP, the workpiece transport system S proceeds to step S607 described below.

  Next, in step S607, the subsequent processing is branched depending on whether or not the work transport system S has received a cycle stop command. The instruction to stop the cycle according to the present example is input from the user via an input device such as a keyboard or a touch panel provided in the work transfer system S. However, the cycle stop command is automatically generated when a predetermined time has elapsed since the start of the work transfer operation, or when the removal of the work W (see step S605 above) has been performed a predetermined number of times. It may be done. When the instruction to stop the cycle is received (YES in step S607), the workpiece conveyance system S ends the workpiece conveyance operation, while the instruction to stop the cycle is not received (NO in step S607). The transport system S returns to step S601 described above.

  In the above step S601, the work W conveyed by the conveyance device 1 is restrained at the outer edge OP of the stopper 2 extending in a curved shape in the direction crossing the conveyance path CP. There is nothing to do. Furthermore, since the works W restrained by the stopper 2 are arranged in a curved shape along the outer edge OP of the stopper 2, the works W are less likely to adhere to each other. Therefore, in the above step S605, a large frictional force acts between the work W to be removed and the stopper 2 or another adjacent work W, or the work W to be removed is the stopper 2 or another adjacent work W Since it is prevented that it gets stuck, it is possible to reliably take out the stopped works W one by one.

  In step S605, the robot arm RA of the extraction device 3 moves the robot hand RH to a position at which the workpiece W can be gripped based on the position of each workpiece W detected by the position detector PS. As a result, the robot hand RH is accurately positioned relative to the individual workpieces W. Therefore, even if the restrained workpieces W are dispersed over a wide area on the transport path CP, the workpieces W are reliably taken out one by one be able to. In addition, according to the structure of the stopper 2 mentioned above, since it becomes difficult to mutually adhere | attach adjacent workpiece | work W, the detection accuracy at the time of the position detector PS detecting each workpiece | work W can be improved.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and may be variously modified within the scope of the claims. For example, in the above embodiment, although the belt conveyor is illustrated as the conveying device 1, the conveying device 1 of the work conveying system S of the present invention includes any roller conveyer that can convey a plurality of works W in one direction. It may be an apparatus. In the above embodiment, although the vertical articulated robot is exemplified as the pickup device 3, the pickup device 3 of the work conveyance system S of the present invention includes the horizontal articulated robot, the orthogonal robot, etc. It may be any mechanical device capable of taking out W. Further, the takeout device 3 of the work transfer system S of the present invention may be provided with an electromagnetic suction type or servo drive type robot hand RH instead of the vacuum suction type robot hand RH exemplified in the above embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 conveyance device 11 belt 12 frame 121 frame main body 13 attachment member 2 stopper 3 take-out device 31 arm portion 32 joint portion 33 base portion 34 main portion 341 main portion 341 vertical portion BF bottom surface CP conveyance path LF side LP loading position NZ nozzle OP outer edge RA Robot arm RH Robot hand RP take-out position RW Wrist part S Work transfer system TS Upper surface VP Vacuum pad W Work

Claims (4)

A transport device for transporting a plurality of workpieces in one direction;
A stopper which is installed in the conveying device and which holds a plurality of works conveyed by the conveying device at a predetermined take-out position;
A removal device for removing a plurality of works restrained by the stopper from the transfer device;
A position detector that detects positions of a plurality of workpieces stopped by the stopper;
A work transfer system comprising
The outer edge of the stopper in a direction opposite to the conveyance direction of the work by the conveyance device extends in a curvilinear shape in a direction transverse to the conveyance device,
The stopper aligns a plurality of workpieces along the outer edge at the removal position while the transport device is moving;
The position detector detects the position of each of a plurality of workpieces arranged along the outer edge of the stopper,
The said delivery apparatus is a workpiece conveyance system which takes out workpiece | work one each from several workpieces arranged along the said outer edge based on the detection result of the said position detector.   The workpiece transfer system according to claim 1, wherein the outer edge of the stopper has a recessed portion recessed in the same direction as the transfer direction.   The take-out apparatus is a vertical articulated robot having a hand for gripping a work and an arm for moving the hand to a position where the work can be gripped based on the detection result of the position detector. Or the work conveyance system according to 2. A transport device for transporting a plurality of workpieces toward a removal position;
A stopper having an outer edge extending in a curved shape in a direction transverse to the transfer device, the plurality of workpieces being transferred by the transfer device being stopped at the removal position and arranged along the outer edge;
A position detector that detects the position of each of a plurality of workpieces arranged along the outer edge;
A takeout device for taking out a workpiece one by one from a plurality of workpieces arranged along the outer edge based on the detection result of the position detector;
Work conveyance system provided with

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