JP2002006918A - Apparatus and method for controlling a robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a control apparatus and method for robot, which can reduce unnecessary anticipatory analysis of robot language program and can suitably control movements of robot even if such anticipatory analysis is reduced. SOLUTION: Compiler 3, when it converts a robot language program into intermediate codes, adds auxiliary information to the intermediate codes to generate control instructions in accordance with the contents of the robot language program. Analyzer 6 analyzes the intermediate codes with additive auxiliary information successively and generates control instructions for robot.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a control device and a control method for a robot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An industrial robot controller analyzes a movement command to a target position in a robot language program, generates a speed command subjected to acceleration / deceleration processing from the movement command, and distributes the speed command to each actuator of the robot. Thus, the occurrence of vibration of the robot body is suppressed. For example, as shown in FIG.
Are subjected to acceleration / deceleration processing, and are decelerated and stopped for each of the movement commands 1 to 3. On the other hand, in the operation control of the robot, a so-called shortcut function and a so-called smoothing function are known as control methods for preventing deceleration and stop at each target position.

As shown in FIG. 6B, the shortcut function executes a next movement command before one movement command reaches a target position in a continuous movement command. The actual trajectory of the control point of the robot by combining the instructions 1 to 3 does not pass through the programmed target position. As shown in FIG. 6C, the smoothing function is a function of connecting a plurality of continuous movement commands at a target position without performing acceleration / deceleration processing. In this smoothing function, the actual trajectory of the control point of the robot passes through each programmed target position. This smoothing function is used in a painting operation or a sealing operation when it is desired that the robot control point accurately follows a target trajectory at a constant speed.

[0004]

By the way, general-purpose robots are often used while synchronizing with external devices. For this reason, in a robot language program for robot control, a complicated control structure such as conditional branching is generally enabled. Therefore, when analyzing and executing a program describing the operation or work of a robot described in a robot language, there are many restrictions on pre-analyzing the program with respect to the actual operation of the robot. Even if deep preceding analysis is enabled, the effect of improving the function of the robot is small. For this reason, in a general-purpose robot, it is more efficient to execute a program describing the operation or work of the robot in real time without performing advance analysis as much as possible.

However, when the smoothing function described above is to be executed, if a continuous short-pitch movement command is connected, when a command that requires deceleration and stop is analyzed in the program, a normal position with respect to the target position is obtained. In some cases, the required distance for decelerating and stopping cannot be secured. For this reason, the deceleration at the time of the stop becomes large, and large vibration is likely to occur in the robot body.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and can reduce unnecessary pre-analysis of a robot language program, and at the same time, appropriately control the operation of the robot even if the pre-analysis is reduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control device and a control method for a robot that are possible.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a robot controller which converts a robot language program in which an operation or a task is described in a predetermined robot language into an intermediate code which can be analyzed and executed in a batch. An analysis execution unit that sequentially analyzes the intermediate code to generate a control command for the robot, wherein the conversion unit converts the robot language program into the intermediate code when converting the robot language program into the intermediate code. According to the contents of the program, the analysis execution unit adds auxiliary information for generating a control command to the intermediate code in a recognizable manner, and the analysis execution unit sequentially analyzes the intermediate code added with the auxiliary information. To generate a control command for the robot.

[0008] The auxiliary information is information obtained by the analysis execution unit pre-analyzing the intermediate code.

The analysis unit analyzes a movement command for commanding movement of a control point of the robot to a target position, and accelerates / decelerates a speed command pattern as the control command generated from the movement command. It has a processing function,
The conversion unit adds auxiliary information for assisting the acceleration / deceleration processing performed by the analysis execution unit to the intermediate code.

[0010] Preferably, the conversion means adds auxiliary information necessary for keeping the deceleration of the speed command pattern generated from the movement command within a predetermined range to the intermediate code.

[0011] More preferably, the conversion means combines a plurality of continuous movement commands without performing acceleration / deceleration processing and detects a smoothing command for instructing generation of a continuous speed command pattern. A final target position of a plurality of movement commands is calculated, and an intermediate code of a movement command included in a distance necessary to keep the deceleration of the speed command pattern within a predetermined range from the final target position is used for deceleration. Add auxiliary information.

According to a robot control method of the present invention, a robot language program in which an operation or a work is described in a predetermined robot language is collectively converted into an intermediate code which can be analyzed and executed, and the intermediate code is sequentially analyzed. A method of controlling a robot that generates a control command to control the operation of a robot, the method including: generating a control command according to the content of the robot language program when converting the robot language program into an intermediate code. And a generation step of sequentially analyzing the intermediate code to which the auxiliary information has been added and generating a control command for the robot.

In the adding step, information which cannot be obtained unless the intermediate code is analyzed in advance is added as auxiliary information.

In the generating step, a movement command for instructing a movement of a control point of the robot to a target position is analyzed,
The speed command pattern as the control command generated from the movement command is smoothed, and in the adding step, auxiliary information for assisting the acceleration / deceleration processing performed by the analysis execution unit is added to the intermediate code.

In the adding step, auxiliary information necessary for keeping the deceleration of the speed command pattern generated from the movement command within a predetermined range is added to the intermediate code.

In the adding step, when a smoothing command for instructing to generate a continuous speed command pattern by combining a plurality of continuous movement commands without performing acceleration / deceleration processing is detected, a final target of the plurality of movement commands is detected. A position is calculated, and auxiliary information for deceleration is added to an intermediate code of a movement command included in a distance required to keep the deceleration of the speed command pattern within a predetermined range from the final target position.

According to the present invention, the robot language program is collectively converted into an intermediate code. At this time, auxiliary information that plays an auxiliary role in generating a control command by analyzing the contents of the robot language program is added to the intermediate code. The auxiliary information is, for example, auxiliary information for assisting the acceleration / deceleration processing performed by the analysis execution unit. More specifically, a plurality of continuous movement commands are combined without performing acceleration / deceleration processing, and a continuous speed command pattern is formed. When a control command (speed command) is generated by the generated smoothing command, the information includes deceleration information necessary for keeping the deceleration of the speed command within a predetermined range.

The analysis execution unit generates a control command for the robot from the intermediate code to which the auxiliary information is added. For example, when the auxiliary information is not added, when a continuous speed command pattern is generated by combining a plurality of continuous movement commands without performing acceleration / deceleration processing by a smoothing command, the analysis execution unit may generate a plurality of movement commands. Unless preparations for deceleration are made in advance by executing a preliminary analysis before executing the command, the speed command pattern may not be able to fall within a predetermined deceleration. According to the present invention, information that cannot be obtained unless the analysis execution unit performs a preliminary analysis is added as auxiliary information at the stage of converting the robot language program into an intermediate code. For this reason, the analysis execution unit can generate an appropriate control command (speed command) from this auxiliary information without performing an advance analysis of unnecessary intermediate codes.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a robot control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a control device 1 includes a system manager 2,
A compiler 3, a robot language program storage unit 4,
Intermediate code storage unit 5, analysis execution unit 6, control command buffer 7, motion control unit 8, servo control unit 9, I / O
And a control unit 10. Here, the compiler 3 is one embodiment of the conversion unit of the present invention, and the analysis execution unit 6 is one embodiment of the analysis execution unit of the present invention.

The system manager 2 controls the control device 1 comprehensively, and in particular, the compiler 3 and the analysis execution unit 6
Are activated independently of each other.

The compiler 3 collectively converts a robot language program in which an operation or a task is described in a predetermined robot language into an intermediate code that can be analyzed and executed by the analysis executing unit 6. When converting the robot language program into the intermediate code, the compiler 3 adds auxiliary information for generating a control command according to the content of the robot language program to the intermediate code. This auxiliary information is sent to the analysis execution unit 6
Is information obtained by pre-analyzing the intermediate code. The specific processing contents of the compiler 3 will be described later.

The robot language program storage section 4 stores and holds a robot language program describing the operation or work of the robot.

The intermediate code storage unit 5 stores and holds the intermediate codes converted by the compiler 3 at one time.

The analysis execution section 6 sequentially analyzes the intermediate codes stored in the intermediate code storage section 5 to generate a control command for the robot, and outputs the control command to the control command buffer 7. Further, the analysis execution unit 6 outputs a control command for an external device provided for the robot to the I / O control unit 10.
The analysis execution unit 6 has an acceleration / deceleration processing function for analyzing a movement command instructing movement of a control point of the robot to a target position and smoothing a speed command pattern generated from the movement command.

The I / O control unit 10 outputs a control signal to an external device provided for the robot, and receives a signal from the external device.

The control command buffer 7 temporarily stores the control commands for the robot output from the analysis execution unit 6 and sequentially outputs the control commands to the motion control unit 8.

The motion control unit 8 calculates the control amount of each actuator of the robot so that the control point of the robot follows the control command input from the control command buffer 7.
Output to the servo control unit 9.

The servo control unit 9 performs servo control so that each actuator of the robot follows the control amount output from the motion control unit 8.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of the processing contents in the additional step in the robot control method according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of the processing content of the generation step in the robot control method of the present invention. The robot language program shown in FIG. 2 includes a movement command 1, a smoothing start command, a movement command 2 to a movement command 6, a smoothing end command, and a movement command 7. The movement commands 1 to 7 are commands for moving the control point of the robot to the target position of the movement amount specified by each command.

The smoothing start command does not perform acceleration / deceleration processing on the movement command 2 to the movement command 6, but the movement command 2 to the movement command 6
Is a command to connect the speed command specified by the command with the speed command of the movement command 1.

The smoothing end command is a command for canceling the above-mentioned smoothing start command. Therefore, the movement command 7 is subjected to deceleration processing. The movement command 7 and the movement command 6 are continuously connected.

The compiler 3 calculates the final target positions of the movement commands 1 to 7 when detecting the smoothing start command when compiling the above robot language programs collectively. That is, the total movement amount specified by the movement commands 1 to 7. Then, the compiler 3 adds the deceleration information to the intermediate code of the movement command included in the distance required to keep the deceleration of the speed command pattern for the robot from the final target position within a predetermined range.

More specifically, the compiler 3 executes the move instruction 1
Is converted into an intermediate code as the movement instruction 1 as it is, and the movement instructions 2, 3, and 4 are converted into the intermediate code as the smoothing movement instruction 2, the smoothing movement instruction 3, and the smoothing movement instruction 4, respectively. The smoothing movement command is recognized as a command to be connected to a continuous movement command by the analysis execution unit 6 without performing the acceleration / deceleration processing.

Further, the compiler 3 assumes that the movement command 5 is a command including a deceleration start position necessary for keeping the deceleration of the speed command pattern for the robot within a predetermined range.
The movement command 5 is converted into an intermediate code as the smoothing deceleration command 5. That is, the movement command 5 is converted into the smoothing deceleration command 5 by adding auxiliary information for deceleration. The smoothing deceleration command is recognized as a command to be connected to a continuous movement command while the analysis execution unit 6 performs deceleration processing.

Similarly, the compiler 3 converts the movement instruction 6 into a smoothing deceleration instruction 6, and converts the movement instruction 7 into a deceleration instruction 7. That is, the movement command 6 and the movement command 7 are:
By adding auxiliary information for deceleration, the information is converted into a smoothing deceleration command 6 and a deceleration command 7, respectively. The intermediate code converted by the above-described procedure is stored in the intermediate code storage unit 5.

Next, the processing in the analysis execution section 6 will be described. When the compiler 3 generates the intermediate code from the robot language program, the process ends. The analysis execution unit 6 is in an executable state if the generation of the intermediate code has been completed. The analysis execution unit 6 in this state is activated by a command from the system manager 2 and sequentially analyzes the intermediate code stored in the intermediate code storage unit 5 to generate a control command. At this time, depending on the type of the command word included in the intermediate code, a task or an interrupt, such as the I / O control unit 10 or the motion control unit 8, which is different from the analysis execution unit 6, may execute the execution process. Performing the next analysis after waiting for the execution of a task or interrupt will degrade the performance of the entire system. For this reason,
The analysis execution unit 6 executes analysis of the next intermediate code without waiting for completion of execution of each instruction word (mainly, a movement instruction). That is, a preliminary analysis is performed.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the analysis execution section 6 analyzes the movement command 1 and performs acceleration / deceleration processing on the movement command. Next, the analysis execution unit 6 analyzes the movement instruction 2 (smoothing movement instruction 2) while the movement instruction 1 is being executed. Movement instruction 2
Is a smoothing movement command 2, so that no deceleration processing is performed as shown in FIG.

During execution of the movement instruction 2, the movement instruction 3 (smoothing movement instruction 3) is analyzed. The analyzed movement command 3 is connected to the movement command 2 without performing acceleration / deceleration processing.

Similarly, during execution of the movement instruction 3, the movement instruction 4 (smoothing movement instruction 4) is analyzed. The analyzed movement command 4 is connected to the movement command 3 without performing acceleration / deceleration processing.

During execution of the movement command 4, the movement command 5 (smoothing deceleration command 5) is analyzed. The speed of the movement command 5 is continuously connected to the speed of the movement command 4. On the other hand, since auxiliary information for deceleration is added to the movement command 5, the speed command pattern starts deceleration processing as shown in FIG.

During execution of the movement command 5, the movement command 6 (smoothing deceleration command 6) is analyzed. The speed of the movement command 6 is continuously connected to the speed of the movement command 5. further,
Since auxiliary information for deceleration is added to the movement command 6, deceleration processing is performed.

During execution of the movement command 6, the movement command 7 (deceleration command 7) is analyzed. The speed of the move command 7 is continuously connected to the speed of the move command 6. Further, since auxiliary information for deceleration is added to the deceleration command 7, deceleration processing is performed and the operation is stopped.

As described above, in the present embodiment, at the stage when the intermediate code is created by the compiler 3, by adding auxiliary information for deceleration processing to the intermediate code, the instruction that precedes the instruction being executed by one is executed. The deceleration at the time of stopping the robot can be kept within a predetermined range only by performing the preliminary analysis of That is. Smooth stop with less shock is possible.

Here, for comparison, a case where the compiler 3 converts the code into an intermediate code without adding auxiliary information will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 4, the movement command 1 is directly converted to an intermediate code as the movement command 1. The movement instructions 2 to 6 are converted into intermediate codes as smoothing movement instructions 2 to 6, respectively. The smoothing movement command is recognized as a command to be connected to a continuous movement command without performing the acceleration / deceleration processing by the analysis execution unit 6. Further, the movement command 7 is directly converted into an intermediate code as the movement command 7. Assuming that the intermediate code is pre-analyzed by one instruction preceding the instruction being executed by the analysis execution unit 6, the generated speed command pattern is as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 5, a movement command 1 to a movement command 4
Is the same as the speed command pattern shown in FIG. 3 because the same processing as described above is performed. On the other hand, in FIG. 5, since the movement information 5 (smoothing movement instruction 5) and the movement instruction 6 (smoothing movement instruction 6) do not include auxiliary information for deceleration processing, no deceleration processing is performed. For this reason, when the movement command 7 is analyzed, the acceleration / deceleration processing function of the analysis execution unit 6 performs a rapid deceleration process. Therefore, the robot cannot be stopped smoothly. For this reason, when the compiler 3 converts to the intermediate code without adding the auxiliary information, for example, if the move instruction 5, the move instruction 6, and the move instruction 7 are not pre-analyzed during the execution of the move instruction 4, It can be seen that the same deceleration as in FIG. 3 cannot be performed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when compiling the robot language program in a lump,
By analyzing the contents of the robot language program and adding, for example, information for deceleration processing to the intermediate code, the analysis execution unit 3 can reduce the burden of analyzing and executing the intermediate code, which is more preferable. A control command can be generated. Further, according to the present embodiment, since the control device 1 automatically performs appropriate acceleration / deceleration processing, a user who creates a robot language program can perform programming without being aware of the movement amount and speed of the robot. Operability is improved.

In the above-described embodiment, a case has been described where auxiliary information relating to the acceleration / deceleration processing is added to the intermediate code at the time of compilation, but the present invention is not limited to this. According to the present invention, any information which can be analyzed at the time of compiling and which can be added to the intermediate code, which cannot be normally obtained without prior analysis, may not be particularly related to the acceleration / deceleration processing.

[0048]

According to the present invention, unnecessary advance analysis of a robot language program can be reduced. Further, according to the present invention, the operation of the robot can be appropriately controlled even when unnecessary preliminary analysis of the robot language program is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a robot control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an operation of a compiler 3;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a speed command generated by an analysis execution unit 6 from an intermediate code obtained by a compiler 3.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of a conventional compiler.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a speed command generated from an intermediate code generated by a conventional compiler.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining various processing functions for a movement command.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Robot control device 2 ... System manager 3 ... Compiler 4 ... Robot language program storage part 5 ... Intermediate code storage part 6 ... Analysis execution part 7 ... Control command buffer 8 ... Motion control part 9 ... Servo control part 10 ... I / O control unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3F059 AA01 BC07 BC09 DA02 DA08 DC08 DD01 FA03 FB01 FB05 FB16 FC02 FC07 FC13 FC14 5H269 AB33 EE01

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A conversion section for converting a robot language program in which an operation or a task is described in a predetermined robot language into an intermediate code which can be analyzed and executed in a batch, and sequentially analyzes the intermediate code to send a control command to the robot. A control unit for generating a control command according to the contents of the robot language program when the robot language program is converted into an intermediate code. A robot control device for adding auxiliary information to the intermediate code, wherein the analysis execution unit sequentially analyzes the intermediate code to which the auxiliary information is added and generates a control command for the robot. 2. The robot control device according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary information is information obtained by the analysis executing unit pre-analyzing the intermediate code. 3. The analysis execution section analyzes a movement command for commanding movement of a control point of the robot to a target position, and smoothes a speed command pattern as the control command generated from the movement command. 3. The robot control device according to claim 1, further comprising an acceleration / deceleration processing function, wherein the conversion unit adds auxiliary information that assists the acceleration / deceleration processing performed by the analysis execution unit to the intermediate code. 4. 4. The intermediate code according to claim 3, wherein said conversion means adds auxiliary information necessary for keeping a deceleration of a speed command pattern generated from said movement command within a predetermined range.
3. The control device for a robot according to claim 1. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converting means combines a plurality of continuous movement commands without performing acceleration / deceleration processing and detects a smoothing command for generating a continuous speed command pattern. A final target position of the command is calculated, and deceleration information is added to an intermediate code of a movement instruction included in a distance required to keep the deceleration of the speed command pattern within a predetermined range from the final target position. 4
3. The control device for a robot according to claim 1. 6. A robot language program in which operation or work is described in a predetermined robot language is collectively converted into an intermediate code that can be analyzed and executed, and the intermediate code is sequentially analyzed to generate a control command for the robot. A robot control method for controlling an operation of a robot, the method comprising, when converting the robot language program into an intermediate code, executing analysis information for generating a control command according to the content of the robot language program. A control method for a robot, comprising: an adding step of recognizing the intermediate code to the intermediate code; and a generating step of sequentially analyzing the intermediate code to which the auxiliary information is added and generating a control command for the robot. 7. The robot control method according to claim 6, wherein in the adding step, information that cannot be obtained unless the intermediate code is analyzed in advance is added as auxiliary information. 8. In the generating step, a movement command for commanding movement of the control point of the robot to a target position is analyzed,
8. The speed command pattern as the control command generated from the movement command is smoothed, and in the adding step, auxiliary information for assisting an acceleration / deceleration process performed by the analysis execution unit is added to the intermediate code. 9. 3. The method for controlling a robot according to item 1. 9. The robot according to claim 8, wherein said adding step adds auxiliary information necessary for keeping a deceleration of a speed command pattern generated from said movement command within a predetermined range. Control method. 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adding step detects a smoothing command for instructing to generate a continuous speed command pattern by combining a plurality of continuous moving commands without performing acceleration / deceleration processing. The deceleration information is added to an intermediate code of a movement command included in a distance necessary for keeping the deceleration of the speed command pattern within a predetermined range from the final target position by calculating a desired target position. Robot control method.