Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated

Bhanu K Gouda

Jatin P Bhatt

Bohumir Sladek

William C Schwarz

Jesse R Dunham

Yuhong Huang

Robert B Hirschinger

Keith D Carter

Michael D Lennard

Chloe David

Alexander G Brynildsen

Jesse Dunham

Motion is coordinated between a robot and a mover in an independent cart system. A first mover for the independent cart system is located at an initial position, where the robot is mounted on the first mover. A motion trajectory command, defining motion of the robot and the first mover, is received at a motion controller. A mover command is generated for the first mover and a robot motion command is generated for the robot as a function of the motion trajectory command at the motion controller. The mover command is transmitted to a segment controller in a track segment on which the first mover is located, and the robot motion command is transmitted to a robot control system. Operation of the first mover is controlled with the segment controller in tandem with controlling operation of the robot with the robot control system responsive to the robot motion command.

Method of coordinating motion of a robot and vehicle in an independent cart system

An improved system and method for coordinating motion between an external device and independent movers traveling along a linear drive system includes a motion controller generating motion commands for both the external device and for each of the independent movers. Coordinate systems are defined in the motion controller that correspond to a track along which each of the independent movers travels and to the external device. An offset between the coordinate systems is also defined. The motion controller receives a command for coordinated motion and generates motion commands for the independent mover and the external device in one coordinate system to achieve the commanded coordinated motion. The motion command that corresponds to the coordinate system in which the motion commands are generated are transmitted directly, and the motion command associated with the second coordinate system is first transformed to the second coordinate system using the offset.

Method and apparatus for coordinating external device motion with motion of independent movers in a linear drive system

A runtime coordination subsystem allows programmers of multi-mover, linear motion systems to provide simple commands to the movers without concern for the presence of other movers on the track. The runtime coordination subsystem manages proper separation distances to prevent collisions and automatically queue movers in contention situations. In addition the runtime coordination subsystem permits a specialized multi-mover command controlling movers in unison with constant separation.

Multi-mover linear motor controller providing shared coordination subsystem

The present exemplary embodiment relates to motion control and planning algorithms to facilitate execution of a series of moves within a motion trajectory. In one example, a trajectory is specified as a sequence of one or more path segments. A velocity profile is calculated for each of the one or more path segments, wherein each velocity profile is divided into a blend-in region, a blend-out region and a remainder region. Each path segment is executed such that the blend-in region of its velocity profile overlaps only with the blend-out region of the previous profile.

Blending algorithm for trajectory planning

Growing community of inventors

Reminderville, OH, United States of America

Bhanu K Gouda