The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 25, 1978
Filed:
Sep. 08, 1976
Joseph F Engelberger, Newtown, CT (US);
Maurice J Dunne, Newtown, CT (US);
William Perzley, Weston, CT (US);
Unimation, Inc., Danbury, CT (US);
Abstract
A programmable manipulator having an arm which is movable in a plurality of axes and encoder apparatus for the axes operative to develop position signals corresponding to the actual position of the arm is provided adjacent a workpiece moving along a predetermined path, a conveyor for example, to perform a series of programmed operations on the workpiece. The programmable manipulator is provided with teach-programming apparatus for moving the arm during an initial teaching operation to different positions of the stationary workpiece corresponding to the desired series of operations of the manipulator relative to the stationary workpiece. Further, apparatus is provided for calculating digital representations during the teaching operation representing the positions of the arm accounting for the projected workpiece movement during playback and corresponding to the initial teaching positions relative to the workpiece. The calculated digital representations are than stored for use in controlling movement of the arm during playback with a moving workpiece. The manipulator control electronics is provided with an interpolation unit which is effective to maintain the manipulator in synchronism with the moving conveyor during playback. This interpolation unit achieves substantially constant velocity dividing the recorded conveyor position signals for successive steps into a predetermined number of increments and utilizing the interpolated increments as artificial command signals. A velocity mode constant may also be calculated and recorded during the teach mode and utilized in playback to generate velocity command signals to control the manipulator.