Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Teiji Oosaka

Yusaku Azuma

Hiroyuki Kigami

Masateru Yasuhara

Katsumi Ishihara

A robot apparatus includes a robot arm, a robot hand, an electrical/electronic device mounted on the robot hand for operating the robot hand, and a hand attaching/detaching device, arranged between the robot arm and the robot hand, for detachably mounting the robot hand on the robot arm. A signal transmission path, is connected to an external robot controller at one end thereof and to the electrical/electronic device at the other end thereof, extends through the hand attaching/detaching device, and is able to be disconnected between the robot hand side and the robot arm side in the hand attaching/detaching device. The signal transmission path drives the robot hand, and allows a plurality of kinds of signals for the electrical/electronic device to pass therethrough in a multiplexed serial format; a first signal conversion circuit, arranged on a robot hand side, converts the multiplexed serial format signal into original parallel signals, and output the parallel signals to the electrical/electronic device, or converts signals from the electrical/electronic device into a multiplexed serial format signals, and outputs the multiplexed serial signal to a robot controller.

Growing community of inventors

Ushiku, Japan

Teiji Oosaka