Hitachi, Ltd.

Michinaga Kohno

Koichi Sugimoto

Yoshio Matsumoto

Yasuo Nakagawa

Toshijiro Ohashi

Takamichi Suzuki

Yasuhiro Yamaguchi

Shiyuki Sakaue

Tomoaki Sakata

Noboru Sugimoto

Michio Takahashi

Nobu Kamita

A part feeding and assembling system comprises a bowl feeder composed of storage container for storing parts to be assembled and a transporting track for transporting the parts in a row, the transporting path having an end opened in the interior of the container, a visual recognition apparatus for imaging the parts being transported, determining whether the part as imaged is proper for assembling currently carried out, and recognizing position and direction of the proper part, and a robot for picking up the proper part by generating pick-up position data of the robot on the basis of the data representative of the position and direction of the proper part and assembling it to a part to be assembled at other station. The robot picks up only the proper part from those being transported. The bowl feeder introduces the improper parts to the container through the opening so that they are again placed on the transporting path for being recirculated.

Part feeding and assembling system

An articulated industrial robot comprising a supporting post mounted on a base; a forearm provided at its end with a wrist having at least one degree of freedom; a pair of upper arms pivotally connected at their one ends to the supporting post and at their other ends to the forearm, the upper arms being disposed in parallel with each other at both sides of the supporting post and the forearm; an upper arm rotary driving source mounted in the supporting post; an upper arm connecting mechanism for connecting the output of the upper arm rotary driving source to the upper arm through a reduction gear; a forearm rotary driving source mounted on one of the upper arms; a forearm connecting mechanism for connecting the output of the forearm rotary driving source to the forearm through a reduction gear; a wrist posture controlling rotary driving source provided on the other upper arm or on the supporting post; and a wrist posture controlling connecting mechanism for connecting the output of the wrist posture controlling rotary driving source to the wrist through the other upper arm and through the forearm through a reduction gear.

Articulated industrial robot

A method of and an apparatus for winding a wire around a toroidal core wherein one end portion of the wire is fixed in a predetermined position and the other end portion thereof is gripped, while leaving free a predetermined length from the leading end, by a gripping device which is moved to a position suitable for bringing the leading end substantially into alignment with a center opening formed in the toroidal core in the side of one surface thereof. After releasing the wire from the gripping device, the leading end of the wire passing through the opening and extending beyond the other surface of the toroidal core is gripped by a pull-out device which is moved to partially pull the wire out of the opening axially thereof, and the other end portion of the wire is again gripped by the gripping device while releasing the wire from the pull-out device. The gripping device is moved to the position to which it moved previously while tensioning the portion of the wire pulled out of the opening, whereby the wire can be fully pulled out of the opening and wound around the toroidal core.

Apparatus for winding wire around toroidal core

An industrial robot of the articulated type including a swivelling pedestal capable of swivelling about a vertical axis by force of a drive motor, a first brachium supported for pivotal movement about a first axis disposed horizontally on the pedestal, a lever supported for pivotal movement about the first axis, a second brachium connected at one end to a pivoting end of the lever for pivotal movement, a forearm connected to the other end of the second brachium and a pivoting end of the first brachium for pivotal movement and cooperating with the first and second brachiums and the lever to constitute a quadric parallel motion mechanism, and a wrist mounted on one end of the forearm. A motor pivotally moving the first brachium and a motor for pivotally moving the lever are mounted on the first axis, and a motor for driving the wrist is mounted on a connection between the lever and the second brachium, with the stator side of the wrist drive motor being secured to the pedestal together with the lever by the quadric parallel motion mechanism. Rotation of the wrist drive motor is transmitted through parallel links to a rotary member on a connection between the second brachium and forearm and a rotary member on a connection between the forearm and the wrist, whereby the wrist can be moved both pivotally and rotationally.

Industrial robot of the articulated type

A parts feeding and assembling system including a plurality of stockers containing a multiplicity of parts arranged in a disorderly manner, a separating and feeding mechanism for separating one part after another from the parts in the stockers and feeding same to a predetermined station, a tentatively positioning mechanism for tentatively positioning each part fed to the station by the separating and feeding mechanism, a parts posture discriminating mechanism for discriminating the posture of each part including the position and direction tentatively positioned by the tentatively positioning mechanism, a parts posture changing mechanism for changing the posture of each part in accordance with the result of discrimination of the part effected by the parts posture discriminating mechanism and an assembling mechanism for assembling each part in a predetermined position of an assembly of parts after the part has had its posture changed. The assembling mechanism and the parts posture changing mechanism may be formed into an assembling robot.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Michinaga Kohno