JPH0242638B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention is applicable to industrial applications including a base of an industrial robot body, and a mounting base that can be connected to and separated from the base and that is equipped with means for attaching to a workpiece. The invention relates to robots for use in industrial applications.

(Prior Art) When processing a large workpiece using an industrial robot, it is desirable that the main body of the industrial robot be portable and be fixed to the workpiece and operated as necessary. Although such a technical idea is known for example in flaw detection robots, it is difficult to attach the robot body to the workpiece. Generally speaking, a vise-type fixing means is considered, but when the industrial robot is used to perform processing such as automatic welding, it is necessary to attach the robot body to the workpiece with precision. It is difficult to attach the robot body to the workpiece using the conventional vise-type fixing means, which tends to cause positional errors.

Therefore, it is possible to improve the accuracy of the mounting position of the robot body by fixing a mounting base at a predetermined position on the workpiece and creating a structure in which the robot body can be connected to and separated from the mounting base. The ease of connection and separation of the robot body has not yet been satisfied.

(Problems to be Solved) This invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and provides an industrial robot that has good mounting position accuracy and that facilitates coupling and separation of the industrial robot main body to the mounting base. We aim to provide the following.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention is an industrial robot that includes a base of an industrial robot main body, and a mounting base that can be coupled to and separated from the base and that is equipped with a means for attaching to a workpiece. , one of the base and the mounting base is provided with protrusions on the left and right sides, and the other is provided with a groove with one end open so that the protrusion can be inserted from above and below, and the groove is located in the inner part thereof. is an L-shaped groove bent either forward or backward, and furthermore, locking pieces are provided protruding from the front and rear of the lower part of the base, and the locking pieces are provided at either the front or rear of the mounting base. A stopper is provided which abuts one of the locking pieces in the front and rear directions, and the other is provided with a pawl operated by a screw means so as to be able to come into contact with the other of the locking pieces in the front and back direction, and the base is fixed by the pawl. In the industrial robot, the one locking piece is brought into contact with the stopper by moving forward or backward, and the protrusion is inserted toward the inner part of the L-shaped groove.

(Function) The mounting base is attached to a predetermined position (near the machining line) of the workpiece using attachment means such as screw means. Then, holding the base of the industrial robot main body, insert the protrusion into the L-shaped groove. Furthermore, the nail is operated by the screw means, the base is moved forward or backward, one of the locking pieces and the stopper are brought into contact with each other, and the protrusion is moved into the L
By fitting in the inner direction of the character-shaped groove, the base is coupled and positioned at a predetermined position of the mounting base. As a result, the industrial robot main body can be positioned and fixed to the workpiece with high precision, and the work is also facilitated.

(Example) Although this example will be explained as a butt welding robot for shipbuilding rosin material, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. For the sake of explanation below, in FIG. 2, the left will be referred to as front, the right will be referred to as rear, the top will be referred to as right, and the bottom will be referred to as left.

R is the main body of the industrial robot.

1 is the base of the robot body R. In this embodiment, the base 1 includes a pair of left and right side plates 1a and a bottom plate 1b.
Consists of. Two protrusions 1c are provided protruding from each side of the base 1 on the left and right sides. The protrusion 1c is a cylindrical pin in this embodiment. Handles 1d are fixedly installed on the left and right sides of the base 1. A locking piece 1 is provided at the front and rear ends of the lower part of the bottom plate 1b.
b' is provided protrudingly, and inclined side surfaces 1e, 1e are formed on the opposite side of these locking pieces 1b', and these inclined side surfaces 1
e and 1e constitute a dovetail groove in the left and right direction. Note that the protrusions 1c, 1c and the inclined side surfaces 1e, 1e
The left and right arrangement is symmetrical in FIG.
This is so that the base 1 and the mounting base 6, which will be described later, can be coupled in either direction.

2 is a rear arm, which is connected to the base 1 by a left-right axis 2a. The rotation angle a ₁ of the arm 2 is forced by the power M ₂ . A known DC servo motor is used for the power M ₂ (the same applies to the following powers), and an encoder E ₂ and a reducer (not shown) are connected to the rotary shaft of this motor, and the arm is connected via this reducer. Rotate 2.

3 is a forearm, which is connected to the tip of arm 2 by a shaft 3a in the left-right direction. The rotation angle a ₂ of the arm 3 is forced by the power M ₃ . Similarly, an encoder E and a speed reducer are attached to the power _M3 . Furthermore, power _M3
is provided in the internal hollow part of the arm 2. 3b is a conduit that houses the electric lamp from the base end to the tip of the robot body R.

4 is a torch mounting shaft provided at the tip of the arm 3. The shaft 4 is supported in the left-right direction, and a rotation angle a 3 is forced by a power M ₄₁ provided inside the arm 3 via a reduction gear (not shown), and a rotation angle a ₃ is forced by the power M ₄₂ , for example, by a ball (not shown). It is constructed so that the position X in the left and right direction is forced through the screw means. Encoders E ₄₁ and E ₄₂ (not shown) are attached to the motive power M ₄₁ and M ₄₂ .

Reference numeral 5 denotes a torch attachment arm provided at the left end of the shaft 4, that is, at the wrist. The base end of the arm 5 is designed so that the rotation angle relative to the shaft 4 can be adjusted and fixed, and the tip of the arm 5 is designed so that the attachment of the welding torch T can be adjusted and fixed.

Therefore, this robot body R is a multi-jointed robot having four degrees of freedom a ₁ , a ₂ , a ₃ and X.

Next, the mounting base 6 that allows the base 1 of the robot body R to be connected and separated will be described.

In this embodiment, the mounting base 6 is a pair of left and right side plates 6.
A, 6a, a front connecting member 6b and a rear connecting member 6c that connect these side plates 6a form a frame.

The side plate 6a has a horizontal U-shape,
A connecting member 6b is fixed to the lower surface of the upper part, and the front surface of the connecting member 6b has the same slope as the side surface 1e.
Also, the rear surface is configured at a right angle. That is, the connecting member 6b is a stopper that can come into contact with the locking piece 1b' in the front-back direction.

At the lower end of each side plate 6a, a vertical internal thread is bored and a screw means 6d that moves forward and backward in the vertical direction is provided. This screw means 6d serves as means for attaching the mount 6 to the workpiece.

At the rear of each side plate 6a, a claw 6e is supported on the left and right sides 6f inside. At the other end of the claw 6e, the tip of a screw means 6g that moves back and forth in the front-rear direction is supported on a left and right axis 6h, and the nut of this screw means 6g is also supported on a left and right axis 6i. Note that the tip of the claw 6e is connected to the rear inclined side surface 1e.
It is designed to be able to engage and disengage.

An L-shaped groove 6j into which the projection 1c fits from above and below is bored inside the upper part of each side plate 6a. In this embodiment, the upper part of one L-shaped end of the groove 6j is open upward, and the inner part is bent backward to form the projection 1.
c has become a hit.

Further, on the upper surface of each side plate 6a, a horizontal position regulation lever 6k which can be rotated to the left or right is provided as a vertical shaft support 6l. When the lever 6k is rotated to the left or right and extended, the position of its tip almost coincides with the left-right position of the torch T at the intermediate position in the X-axis direction when the robot body R is connected to the mounting base 6 as described later. It is assumed that this is done as follows.

The robot body R is also attached with a control device C. Control device C includes a CPU and memory as main parts. The bus line B of the CPU has power M ₂ ,
M ₃ , M ₄₁ and M ₄₂ and encoder E ₂ ,
E ₃ , E ₄₁ and E ₄₂ are connected. Torch T again
The welding power source WS is also connected. Control device C
The welding apparatus further includes a known means for detecting welding current or welding voltage and causing the torch T to follow the welding line of the workpiece. Such means are disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 3,204,081, and therefore will not be described in detail. A teaching box TB is also connected to the bus line B. Teaching box TB has a ₁ , a ₂ , a ₃ ,
A minimum number of double throw switches SW, start switches S, and automatic switches A are provided for each control axis. The functions of these switches are detailed in the operation description below.

The operation of the above-mentioned embodiment will be explained below.

The workpiece W to be welded is a longitudinal material for shipbuilding, and its butt weld line WL is automatically welded.

Then, for each robot main body R1, attach the mounting base 6.
It is assumed that a plurality of mounts 6 are prepared, and first, one mounting base 6 is attached to the rosin material, and one weld line is attached.
While automatically welding WL with robot body R,
It is assumed that the mounting bases 6 are successively attached to the weld lines WL at multiple other locations. For this installation, the upper and lower surfaces of the mounting base 6 are brought into contact with the upper surfaces of the longitudinal members (angle members in this embodiment) in the left and right direction, and the rear surface of the connecting member 6b is brought into contact with the front end surface of the longitudinal members by pulling backward. 6k to the left and position it horizontally so that its tip almost matches the welding line WL. Then, the screw means 6d is tightened to fix the mounting base 6 to the longitudinal material. Since this fixation is achieved by the screw means 6d, if the pitch of the screws is appropriately selected, there is no chance of the fixation coming off unexpectedly, and it does not take much effort to fix or release the fixation.

Further, turn the screw means 6g and pull it backward to open the claw 6e, and then hold the robot body R by the handle 1.
d, lift it up, and insert the protrusion 1c into the groove 6j from above.
Fit it in and pull it backwards. Then, when the screw means 6g is turned to move it forward, the pawl 6e is moved to the first position.
It turns clockwise in the figure, and the tip of the claw 6e is on the inclined side 1e.
The robot body R is pulled backward, and the base 1 and the mounting base 6 of the robot body R are pressed against each other at the depths of the protrusion 1c and the groove 6j, and the protrusion 1
The fit between the groove 6j and the groove 6j is maintained.

Then, when the operator operates the switch SW, the control device C increases or decreases the command information for each control axis according to the direction in which the switch SW is tilted.
Each control axis is controlled accordingly, and eventually the robot body R
is manually controlled to position the operating point P of the torch T at the starting point or end point of the straight line portion of the welding line WL (at this time, the orientation of the torch T is also the required orientation). Then, by operating the switch S each time, the control device C inputs the information for each control axis at this time, that is, the output information of each encoder, and stores it in the memory as position information for each step of the user program.

Once the series of user programs have been stored in this way, the operator operates switch A. Then, the control device C controls the position and orientation of the torch T according to each step of the stored user program, and according to the pre-programmed welding conditions between each command point, and by the above-mentioned tracing control, the welding line WL is adjusted. Automatically perform parallel welds.

Once the automatic welding of one welding line WL has been completed, the operator removes the robot body R from the mounting base 6 by doing the reverse of the above, attaches it to the next mounting base 6, and operates switch A to automatically weld the welding line WL. Execute welding. The user program at this time is the welding line.
If the shape and dimensions of the WL are the same, it can be commonly used anywhere.

In addition to the above-described embodiments, this invention can also be modified as described below.

(a) The means for pressing the base 1 and the mounting base 6 by the screw means 6g may also have a structure other than the engagement between the claw 6e and the inclined side surface 1e.In short, by tightening the screw means 6g, the projection 1a and Any material may be used as long as the fit of the groove 6j can be maintained reliably. Further, the protrusion 1c and the groove 6j may be provided on either the mounting base 6 or the base 1. Furthermore, the mounting base 6
The mounting means for the workpiece W is screw means 6d.
, which has the same reliability, but can also be replaced by other known means.

(b) In the above-mentioned embodiment, the robot body R was connected to the mounting base 6 in the direction shown in the figure. This can be installed even if the front and back are reversed. That is, depending on the shape and orientation of the workpiece to be welded and the orientation and orientation of the weld line, the direction of the joint can be selected so that welding can be performed with the torch in the most advantageous orientation for welding.

Other replacements of each component with equivalents within the scope of the technical idea of this invention are also included within the technical scope of this invention.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the present invention has the following effects.

By attaching the mounting base to a predetermined position on the workpiece in advance and attaching the robot base to this, the accuracy of the mounting position of the robot body relative to the workpiece is of course good, and the position of the base and mounting base is also good. The two are connected by operating the pawl with a screw to bring the locking piece into contact with the stopper to determine the longitudinal position of the robot body, and by fitting the protrusion into the deep part of the L-shaped groove. The vertical position of the robot body can be determined. In other words, the operator simply holds the robot body, inserts the protrusion into the L-shaped groove, moves it toward the back, and then operates the claw using the screw.
The longitudinal and vertical positions of the robot body relative to the mounting base can be determined automatically.

Therefore, compared to the conventional structure in which the workpiece is simply held between bolts, or the structure in which the mount and base are fixed by inserting a cap screw into a T-groove, it is possible to accurately position and fix the workpiece with a simple operation.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings all show one embodiment of this invention, and the first embodiment is shown in the drawings.
The figure is a side view, the second figure is a plan view, and the third figure is a block diagram. R...Industrial robot body, 1...Base, 1c...Protrusion, 1e...Slanted side surface, 6...Mounting base, 6e...Claw, 6
g...Screw means (screw means for mutually pressing), 6
j...Groove, 6d...Screw means (attachment means to the workpiece), W...Workpiece.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An industrial robot that includes a base of the industrial robot main body, and a mounting base that can be connected to and separated from the base and that is equipped with means for attaching to a workpiece,
Protrusions are provided on the left and right sides of either the base or the mounting base, and the other is provided with a groove with one end open so that the protrusion can be inserted from above and below;
In addition, the groove is an L-shaped groove whose inner part is bent either forward or backward, and furthermore, locking pieces are provided protruding from the front and rear of the lower part of the base, and the grooves are provided at the front and rear of the mounting base. One of the locking pieces is provided with a stopper that comes into contact with one of the locking pieces in the front-back direction, and the other side is provided with a pawl that is operated by a screw means so as to be able to come into contact with the other of the locking pieces in the front-back direction,
The industrial device is configured to move the base forward or backward using the claw to bring the one locking piece into contact with the stopper, and to fit the protrusion toward the inner part of the L-shaped groove. Robots for use.