Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Product assembly or manufacturing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-02
2001-07-03
Grant, William (Department: 2121)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Product assembly or manufacturing
C700S179000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256552
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for setting a working condition in off-line teaching to be preferably used to set, for example, a welding condition for a robot equipped with a welding gun.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in order to apply a robot to a variety of workings, in general, a variety of tools are attached to a face plate of a robot arm to allow the robot to perform the workings.
In the meantime, there have been hitherto suggested a large number of teaching techniques directed to the robot as well as a large number of techniques for variously correcting teaching data used for such teaching techniques. For example, those suggested in relation to the teaching technique for the robot include a method in which information necessary for an employed robot working is dealt with in order to respond to the request of the user as accurately as possible while mitigating the load exerted on the user as less as possible (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-27828).
Those suggested in relation to the technique for correcting teaching data include, for example, a method in which it is possible to easily execute revision for the teaching point and correction for the teaching locus under the same operating condition as that used during playback even at a place separated from the working site so that the load on the operator is mitigated to perform the operation for revising the teaching (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-286726), a method in which any positional deviation can be corrected highly accurately and automatically for all positions of striking points (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-325611), a method in which the position of a robot is corrected by using a neural network (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-114769), a method in which a correcting operation sensually comprehensible for the operator can be performed when conversion data concerning the robot action is revised if any abnormal situation concerning the action range occurs in revised teaching data (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-289730), a method in which a repeated logical operation based on the modified Powel method is applied to respective factors of unknown variable matrix and constant matrix so that the accuracy is further improved and the operation speed is further increased in order to avoid any measurement on the rectangular coordinates and ensure the absolute positional accuracy of an arm-type articulated robot only by using the angle of rotation about the arm axis (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-274213), and a method in which correction is automatically made for any preset error concerning the constant and any preset error concerning the tool offset which are preset data for an articulated robot having a tool attached to a wrist of the robot (see Japanese Patent No. 2520324).
Those suggested in relation to the technique for setting the tool tip point include a method in which the tool tip point can be set in a desired posture in accordance with a simple procedure by using a simple setting jig even when no design data is available (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-191738). Those suggested for using CAD data include a method in which it is unnecessary for the operator to input initial preset data, working route data, and working action data one by one so that the amount of input performed by the operator is greatly decreased (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-286722). Those suggested in relation to the locus display include a method in which the relative positional relationship between a workpiece and a position of an acting actual tool can be recognized easily and accurately when the workpiece is retracted from a working position (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-174454).
When the off-line teaching technique as described above is applied to a robot equipped with a welding gun, it is indispensable to set the welding condition in addition to the teaching made for the tool tip. The welding condition includes, for example, the change (sequence) of the welding current in accordance with the passage of time, the peak value of the welding current, and the welding time.
However, in the case of the conventional off-line teaching technique, it is impossible to easily obtain information, for example, on the material quality and the plate thickness of the workpiece to be welded, during the process of the off-line teaching. Therefore, a problem arises in that it takes an extremely long time to decide all of the welding conditions for the workpiece.
For this reason, in the conventional technique, the operator temporarily sets an appropriate welding condition in view of the shape and the thickness of the workpiece. In such a procedure, when the off-line teaching data is downloaded to an actual robot, it is necessary to perform an operation for resetting the temporarily set welding condition in conformity with the actual robot, i.e., it is necessary to perform an operation for setting the welding condition again. Therefore, a problem arises in that such a process contrarily takes a long time.
Recently, a method is available, in which working conditions and attributes of the workpiece data are provided for respective elements to add a function to assist the off-line teaching operation. However, in this method, the working condition is decided by the operator by means of selection from those displayed on the monitor. Therefore, every time when the working condition is registered, it is necessary for the operator to select an optimum condition from several working conditions indicated in a table. As a result, a problem arises in that the operation is complicated. Further, this method greatly depends on the skill of the operator. Therefore, there has been a fear that it is difficult to set the optimum condition.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made taking the foregoing problems into consideration, an object of which is to provide a method for setting a tool-based working condition in off-line teaching, which makes it possible to automatically set an optimum tool-based working condition while referring to specifications of a tool and workpiece-based working conditions, and which makes it possible to efficiently realize reduced operation time required for the off-line teaching.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for setting a tool-based working condition in off-line teaching, which makes it possible to set a reasonable working condition in off-line, which makes it possible to decrease the resetting process based on the use of an actual robot as less as possible, and which makes it possible to greatly reduce the time and the number of steps required to perform the revising operation at the working site.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method for setting a tool-based working condition in off-line teaching, comprising a first step of designating, for a workpiece on CAD data, a working point for performing working for the workpiece; a second step of retrieving one or more parts concerning the designated working point; a third step of obtaining attributes necessary for the working concerning the retrieved one or more parts; a fourth step of deciding a workpiece-based working condition on the basis of the obtained attributes; and a fifth step of retrieving the tool-based working condition suitable for the workpiece-based working condition from specifications of a tool if the decided workpiece-based working condition is included in the specified specifications of the tool, so that teaching data is reflected thereby.
In the first step of the present invention, it is preferable that the working point is designated by an operator by using a pointing device such as a mouse for an image of the workpiece displayed on a monitor. Thus, the tool-based working condition is automatically decided at the concerning working point. Therefore, it is possible to efficientl
Aoki Shinji
Kaneko Masakatsu
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Grant William
Honda Giken Kabushiki Kaisha
Rapp Chad
LandOfFree
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