Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Kawasaki Robotics (usa), Inc.

Atsushi Nakaya

Masaya Yoshida

Hiroyuki Okada

Shinya Kitano

Kazuo Fujimori

Hajime Nakahara

Hiroki Takahashi

Takao Yamaguchi

Junichi Sugahara

George Chin

Shohei Mase

A video confirmation computer for confirming video related to robot operation includes a storage unit and a processor. The storage unit stores information on the position of the electric motor that drives a link body of the robot received from the controller of the robot and information on the video obtained by a camera attached to the robot. The processor makes at least one of the video confirmation computer itself and a computer connected to the video confirmation computer display a model area and a video area side by side. In the model area, a two-dimensional or three-dimensional model reproducing the posture of the robot is displayed by computer graphics. In the video area, the video is displayed.

Video confirmation computer

A robot control device configured to control operation of a robot configured to transfer a substrate while holding the substrate is provided. The substrate becomes in a first state where an end effector holds the substrate and the substrate is not placed at an installation position, when the end effector positions at a first teaching point above the installation position. The substrate becomes in a second state where the end effector does not hold the substrate and the substrate is placed at the installation position, when the end effector positions at a second teaching point below the installation position. The first and second states can be switched by causing the robot to perform a first operation to move the end effector from either one of the first teaching point and the second teaching point to the other one of the first teaching point and the second teaching point.

Robot control device, robot, and method of controlling the robot

A method of monitoring a robot including a plurality of actuators and configured to perform a predetermined process operation, the method including: a preliminary operation step of causing the robot to perform the predetermined process operation one or more times and detecting, in each of a plurality of process phases, assigned monitoring parameters for the actuators operating in the process phase; a ranking step of deriving a load level based on a predetermined load evaluation procedure for each of the monitoring parameters detected in the preliminary operation step and ranking all of the detected monitoring parameters in decreasing order of the load level; and a normal operation step of monitoring primarily a monitoring parameter highly ranked in the ranking step, wherein the monitoring is performed for the actuator that operates in the process phase in which the highly ranked monitoring parameter was detected.

Monitoring method

A controller includes a control unit which stops a transfer mechanism in a case where the value of a deterioration indication parameter has exceeded a preset threshold, and determines whether or not an event in which the value of the deterioration indication parameter has exceeded the preset threshold is attributed to deterioration of the transfer mechanism which has progressed over time based on a change pattern of time series data of the value of the deterioration indication parameter, and causes the transfer mechanism to operate at a reduced operation speed, in a case where the control unit determines that the event in which the value of the deterioration indication parameter has exceeded the preset threshold is attributed to the deterioration of the transfer mechanism which has progressed over time.

Controller of transfer device

Method of automatically avoiding an obstacle for a robot including a geometric model expression step, an area setting step, a final posture deciding step, an initial route deciding step, a virtual posture calculation step, an interference determining step, a way-point posture deciding step that decides the virtual posture as a way-point posture; and when the geometric model is determined to interfere with the no-entry area, virtually generates a repulsive force for relatively repelling an interfering portion of the geometric model from an interfering portion of the no-entry area, calculates a posture in a state where the interfering portion of the model is pushed from the no-entry area into the operating area by the repulsive force, and decides the calculated posture as a way-point posture; an updated route deciding step, and a step repeatedly performing the steps from the initial route deciding step to the updated route deciding step.

Method of automatically avoiding obstacle for arm robot and control device

A robot system includes a robotic arm having a wrist in a tip-end part thereof, the wrist being rotatable on a rotational axis extending in a given direction, an end effector attached to the wrist, and a deformation detecting device configured to detect deformation of the end effector by using a target pin having a target part where a given detection part of the end effector reaches. The target part has an indicate function to indicate that the detection part reaches the target part. The deformation detecting device includes a search part configured to control the robotic arm so that the detection part touches the target pin to search for the target part, and detect that the detection part reaches the target part based on the indicate function, and a deformation detecting part configured to compare an assumed position of the detection part when the detection part reaches the target part with a given reference position, and detect the deformation of the end effector.

Robot system and method of detecting deformation of end effector

A method of teaching a robot includes: a swinging step of causing a hand to swing about a predetermined pivot, which is on an axis perpendicular to an optical axis of a sensor beam, to scan a target in a horizontal direction of the sensor beam; a determining step of determining whether or not the target has coincided with a position along a central axis of the hand in its longitudinal direction based on a detection signal of a mapping sensor, the detection signal having changed owing to the swinging of the hand; and a shifting step of, if it is determined in the determining step that the target has not coincided with the position, calculating an offset amount of the hand based on the detection signal of the mapping sensor, the detection signal having changed owing to the swinging of the hand, and causing the hand to shift to either right or left along the optical axis of the sensor beam in accordance with the calculated offset amount.

Growing community of inventors

Akashi, Japan

Atsushi Nakaya