JPH0323319B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is useful for accurately stopping a moving device such as a transport vehicle that travels along a fixed path at a fixed position on a fixed side, or for automatically moving a moving device that moves along a fixed path parallel to the moving path of the moving device. The present invention provides a method for positioning a moving device that can be effectively utilized when the moving device is connected to a second moving device under a fixed positional relationship in order to run in synchronization with a second moving device. be.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the attached illustrative drawings. In FIG. 1, 1 is a workpiece conveyance line, and 2 is a work robot reciprocating line. The workpiece transfer line 1 is composed of a monorail-type guide rail 3 and a straddle-type transfer carriage 4 supported by the guide rail 3.
The work robot reciprocating line 2 includes a monorail-type guide rail 5, a straddle-type moving cart 6 supported by the guide rail 5, and temporary assembly parts arranged in parallel at the starting end of the guide rail 5. It consists of a stand 7, and on the movable cart 6,
A working robot 8 is mounted on the tower, and a temporary assembly parts stand 9 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the guide rails 3 and 5
is a pair of left and right rail portions 10 extending inwardly,
11, rack gears 12 and 13 provided above one of the rails, and power supply rail means 14 and 15 for supplying power and transmitting and receiving control signals. Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the transport vehicle 4 has four freely rotating wheels 16a on the front, rear, left and right sides that ride on the pair of left and right rail portions 10, and wheels that touch the lower and inner surfaces of the rail portions 10. Guide roller 1 for positioning the contacting cart
6b, drive gear 1 meshing with the rack gear 12;
7. A motor 19 that drives the drive gear 17 via a deceleration transmission means 18, and a current collecting means 20 that is in sliding contact with the power supply rail means 14 are provided. The motor 19 is a motor with a releasable brake, and the deceleration transmission means 18 is composed of a combination of a hypoid gear and a spur gear instead of a worm gear, and has a built-in brake that automatically operates when the power supply to the motor 19 is cut off. By releasing the transport vehicle 4 by remote electrical operation, the transport vehicle 4 becomes freely movable and can be moved freely by external force.

The other robot tower-mounted mobile cart 6 has the same structure as the workpiece transfer cart 4, and as shown in FIG.
a guide roller 21b corresponding to b, a drive gear 22 corresponding to the drive gear 17, a deceleration transmission means 23 corresponding to the deceleration transmission means 18, a motor corresponding to the motor 19 (not shown in FIG. 2), and a current collecting means 24 corresponding to the above-mentioned current collecting means 20, and further a robot control means 2 arranged in parallel at the terminal end of the movable trolley 6 and the guide rail 5.
5, a cable carrier 26 for transmitting and receiving robot control signals is installed.

A clamping means 27 is attached to the working robot carrier 6 on the side adjacent to the workpiece carrier 4. As shown in FIG. This clamping means 27
As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the bevel gear 2
8, a vertical rotating screw shaft 30 interlockingly connected to the motor 29, a lifting body 33 supported by a lifting guide member 31 so as to be able to rise and lower and having a female screw body 32 screwed into the screw shaft 30, and a substrate. A pair of front and rear clamp arms 36 pivotally connected to 34 by a support shaft 35
a, 36b, and both clamp arms 36a,
The free end of 36b and the elevating body 33 are connected by the pivot pin 3.
Toggle link 39 connected via 7, 38
a, 39b, and a clamp arm 36
Clamp attachments 40a and 40b are attached to the inside of the lower ends of a and 36b, respectively. 41
Limit switches a and 41b detect that the clamp arms 36a and 36b have reached their opening/closing limit positions, and are operated by a switch operating attachment 42 attached to one of the clamp arms 36a.

A pin 43 is protruding from the workpiece carrier 4 and is clamped from the front and rear by a pair of clamp arms 36a and 36b of the clamping means 27 of the robot carrier 6. Of course, this pin 43 is connected to the pair of clamp arms 36.
When a and 36b are in the open movement limit position as shown by the imaginary lines in FIG. 5, they are protruded at a position that allows relative passage movement of both carts 4 and 6.

Next, a working method using the above-mentioned equipment will be explained. With the robot tower-mounted mobile cart 6 stopped at the starting position of its reciprocating path, that is, at a predetermined position adjacent to the assembly parts temporary storage table 7, The parts that have been previously supplied and placed on the assembly parts temporary storage table 7 manually or by an automatic device are placed in the predetermined position on the assembly parts temporary storage table 9 on the movable trolley 6. The work robot 8 is operated and moved automatically. To transfer the parts onto the temporary parts mounting table 9 on the movable dolly 6 side, the robot 8 on the movable dolly 6 is not used, but a robot dedicated to transferring parts on the stationary side or another transfer device is used. It can also be done using Furthermore, instead of individually transferring the parts onto the assembly parts temporary storage table 9, it is of course possible to transfer a pallet that holds the parts in a predetermined position to a predetermined position on the assembly parts temporary storage table 9. be.

On the other hand, the workpiece carrier 4 with the workpiece loaded at a predetermined position is stopped at a position directly beside the robot-mounted moving carriage 6, which is waiting to stop at the starting end position of the reciprocating path as described above. When the carrier 4 stops at a predetermined position, the brake of the motor 19 is released, and then the clamping means 27 on the movable carrier 6 is activated. That is, by rotating the screw shaft 30 by the motor 29 and moving the elevating body 33 upward from the lower limit position, the toggle links 39a, 39
A pair of front and rear clamp arms 36a, 3 via b
6b, the clamp arms 3 are moved close together around the support shaft 35 to bring them closer to each other, as shown in FIG.
6a, 36b clamp attachment 40
A and 40b clamp the pin 43 on the transport vehicle 4 side from the front and back. At this time, even if the stop position of the conveyance cart 4 is slightly shifted in the front and back direction with respect to the stopped movable cart 6, the motor 19
Since the brake of the carriage 4 is released and the carriage 4 can be moved freely by external force, the pin 4 is clamped by the pair of clamp arms 36a and 36b.
The carriage 4 is moved back and forth by the clamping action of 3, and the carriage 4 is connected to the carriage 6 by the clamping means 27 while being precisely adjusted to a predetermined position relative to the carriage 6.

In this state, by rotating the drive gear 22 by the motor and moving the robot tower-mounted moving cart 6, which is the cart with the larger driving force, forward, the other transporting cart connected by the clamping means 27 is moved. The cart 4 can also be moved forward together with the movable cart 6. In this case, if a transmission means that slips when a load above a certain level is applied to the drive force transmission system on the side of the carriage 4 is installed, both the carriage 6 and the carriage 4 can be driven. . Further, it is also possible to drive the workpiece carrier 4 and cause the robot-mounted moving carriage 6 to travel along with it via the clamping means 27.

While the robot-mounted mobile trolley 6 and the workpiece transport vehicle 4 are being moved synchronously as described above, the work robot 8 on the mobile trolley 6 is moved under program control, and the parts to be assembled on the mobile trolley 6 are temporarily placed. A robot 8 automatically performs a parts assembling work of assembling the parts placed on the table 9 to the workpieces on the transport vehicle 4. This parts assembly work is completed before the moving carriage 6 reaches the end of its reciprocating path. After completing the parts assembly work, the movable trolley 6 is temporarily stopped, and the clamping means 2
A pair of clamp arms 36a, 36b in 7
By reversing the screw shaft 30 by the motor 29 and lowering the elevating body 33 to the lowering limit position, it was opened as shown by the imaginary line in FIG. In this state, the movable cart 6 is moved backward again to the starting position of the reciprocating path. On the other hand, the carriage 4 is again moved forward by the motor 19, and the workpiece with the parts assembled thereon is conveyed to a predetermined location.

Incidentally, the clamping means 27 may be provided on the workpiece transport vehicle 4 side, and the pin 43 may be provided on the robot tower moving vehicle 6 side.

Further, as shown by the imaginary line in FIG.
A pin that can be clamped by the second clamping means 44 is provided protruding from the fixed side at a stop position for receiving the assembly parts (in the above embodiment, a stop position adjacent to the assembly parts temporary storage table 7). Then, after releasing the brake of the driving motor of the movable cart 6 stopped at the assembly parts receiving position, the second clamping means 44 clamps the pin on the fixed side to receive the assembly parts. The accuracy of the stop position of the movable cart 6 can be improved. Of course, in this case, the second clamping means 44 is provided on the fixed side, and the pin is attached to the movable carriage 6.
It can also be placed on the side.

As in the embodiments described above, the method for positioning a moving device of the present invention is based on a rotating body for driving a travel (in the embodiment, the moving device (in the embodiment, the workpiece carrier 4 or the robot-mounted moving vehicle 6) that moves on a fixed path by itself). Then, as a motor that drives the drive gear 17 or 22),
Transmission means that uses a motor with a releasable brake and, as a transmission means between the motor and the traveling drive rotating body, allows the moving device to be moved by an external force when the motor with the brake is released. This moving device and a fixed side or a second moving device (in the embodiment, the robot tower-mounted moving cart 6 or the workpiece conveying cart 4) that runs on a fixed path parallel to the moving path of the moving device, One side is provided with a clamping means (clamping means 27 or 44 in the embodiment) which can be opened and closed in the front and back of the running direction, and the other side is provided with a connecting member (pin 43 in the embodiment) that is clamped by the clamping means, After stopping the moving device at a position where the connecting member can be clamped by the clamping means, the brake is released, and then the clamping means is actuated to clamp the connecting member, thereby moving the connecting member. The device is characterized in that the device is positioned at a fixed position relative to the fixed side or the second moving device.

According to the method of the present invention, the moving device can finally be stopped or held at a fixed position on the fixed side or a fixed position relative to the second moving device with high precision by the action of the clamping means. Nevertheless, the moving device only needs to be stopped so that the connecting member comes within the clamping range of the clamping means that is opened forward and backward in the traveling direction, and since it uses a motor with a brake, the motor cannot be stopped. There is almost no need to consider the amount of subsequent movement due to inertia, and therefore, the stop position control of this moving device can be performed very simply and easily.

In the embodiment, the method of the present invention was used to connect the workpiece carrier 4 to the robot-mounted moving carrier 6 and make them travel synchronously, but in this embodiment, the second clamping means 44 was used. As described above, it is of course possible to utilize the method of the present invention as a method for accurately stopping the moving device (robot-mounted moving cart 6) at a fixed position on the fixed side.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an overall perspective view, Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional front view showing a workpiece transport vehicle and a robot-mounted mobile cart connected to each other, Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional front view of the workpiece transport vehicle, and Fig. 4 is the same platform. Partially cutaway side view of a car
FIG. 5 is a front view of the clamping means, FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional plan view thereof, and FIG. 7 is a longitudinal cross-sectional side view thereof. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Workpiece transfer line, 2... Work robot reciprocating line, 3, 5... Guide rail, 4... Workpiece transfer trolley, 6... Robot mounting moving trolley, 7, 9
...Temporary assembly parts stand, 8...Working robot,
12, 13... Rack gear, 14, 15... Power supply rail means, 17, 22... Drive gear, 18, 23... Reduction transmission means, 19... Motor with releasable brake, 27, 44... Clamping means, 29... Drive motor, 30... Spiral shaft, 33... Lifting body, 35... Support shaft, 36a, 36b... Pair of clamp arms, 3
7, 38... Pivot pin, 39a, 39b... Toggle link, 40a, 40b... Clamp attachment, 43... Pin to be clamped.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A motor with a releasable brake is used as a motor for driving a traveling drive rotating body in a mobile device that travels on a fixed route, and as a transmission means between the motor and the traveling driving rotating body, using a transmission means that allows the moving device to be moved by an external force in a state where the brake is released;
Between this moving device and a fixed side or a second moving device that moves on a fixed path parallel to the moving path of the moving device, one is provided with a clamping means that can be opened and closed in the front and back of the traveling direction, and the other is provided with the clamp means. A connecting member is provided to be clamped by the clamping means, and after the moving device is stopped at a position where the connecting member can be clamped by the clamping means, the brake is released, and then the clamping member is clamped by the clamping means. A method for positioning a moving device, wherein the moving device is positioned at a fixed position relative to the fixed side or the second moving device by activating the connecting member to clamp the connecting member.