Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Yuichi Someya

Toshihiko Mimura

Mikio Nakasugi

Mahito Negishi

Hideyuki Nishida

Yuji Matsuo

Shuuichi Sato

Takao Yokomatsu

Masaichi Sato

Ken Meisho

To enable positioning a robot arm and a workpiece with high accuracy while reducing vibrations of a camera. According to the claimed invention for this purpose, a robot stationincludes a pedestalto which robot armsandare fixed, a camerawhich images an area including a working areaof the pedestal, and a boothto which the camerais fixed. The pedestalis fixed to a floor surface, and the boothis fixed to the floor surface without contacting the pedestal. The boothis formed in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped having a short side parallel to a workpiece conveying direction T and a long side perpendicular to the workpiece conveying direction T in a plan view. In the booth, the length of the long side y of the boothis set to not less than the sum of a maximum length by which the robot armsandprotrude from the pedestalin a direction perpendicular to the workpiece conveying direction T and the length in the direction perpendicular to the workpiece conveying direction T of the pedestalin a plan view.

Assembling apparatus and production system

In a piezoelectric vibration type force sensor according to the present invention, vibration is restricted by a friction force between a piezoelectric body and a restricting member, and hence a range of sensing forces can be expanded compared with a case in which the vibration is restricted directly from a direction that is the same as an vibration direction. A conventional structure, in which a lead wire is soldered directly for electrically connecting the piezoelectric body to an external control circuit, causes a restriction of the vibration due to a solder attached to the piezoelectric body, resulting in narrowing the sensing range. Using the piezoelectric vibration type force sensor, the range of sensing forces can be expanded by making a state in which conducting portions of the piezoelectric body and the restricting member are not fixed but contact with each other for keeping electric conductivity.

Piezoelectric vibration type force sensor

A robot with a camera includes a hand with a finger, a camera disposed on the hand, a robot arm including the hand, and a control portion which searches for a work based on an image obtained by the camera and controls the robot arm. In addition, a unit detects a velocity of the camera, and a unit detects a position of the camera relative to a predicted stopping position of the camera. The control portion permits the camera to take the image used for searching for the work, when the velocity of the camera takes a preset velocity threshold value or lower and the position of the camera relative to the predicted stopping position takes a preset position threshold value or lower.

Robot with camera

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yuichi Someya