CN112264998A

CN112264998A - Method for assembling operation member and adapting member by robot, robot and controller

Info

Publication number: CN112264998A
Application number: CN202011170705.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 倪飞箭; 钟书耘
Original assignee: Feixi Technology Co ltd; Flexiv Robotics Ltd
Current assignee: Feixi Technology Co ltd; Flexiv Robotics Ltd; Shanghai Flexiv Robotics Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-10-28
Filing date: 2020-10-28
Publication date: 2021-01-26

Abstract

A method for robotic assembly of a workpiece is provided. The method comprises the following steps: moving the operating member in an assembly direction towards the adapting member until the operating member is in contact with the adapting member; determining a movement mode for adjusting the operating member, the movement mode including one or both of a plane movement mode for moving the operating member on a plane perpendicular to the mounting direction and an attitude adjustment mode around the mounting direction; moving the operating member in the determined movement pattern, wherein a force in the assembly direction is continuously applied to the operating member during the movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern; and determining whether a preset condition that assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied, and when the preset condition is satisfied, stopping moving the operating member in the moving mode and stopping applying a force in the assembling direction to the operating member.

Description

Method for assembling operation member and adapting member by robot, robot and controller

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of industrial robots, in particular to a method for assembling an operating member and an adapter for a robot, a robot and a controller.

Background

At present, the control of industrial robots is mainly based on the position of the assembly parts to be assembled by the robot. However, in practical applications, there are some application scenarios where control cannot be performed only depending on the position of the assembly. In these application scenarios, the relative position and posture between the assembled objects are difficult to be fixed and consistent, and various errors of position and/or posture may exist. The presence of such errors may result in the robot failing to complete the entire assembly process and thus having to be corrected by human intervention. For example, in industrial production, the assembly of various plugs and sockets often depends on manual intervention.

Therefore, there is a need to further improve the automation of robotic assembly to free up human labor from more operation lines.

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method for robotic assembly of a workpiece. The method comprises the following steps: moving the operating member toward the adaptor in an assembling direction until the operating member comes into contact with the adaptor, wherein the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member engages with the adaptor; determining a movement mode for adjusting the operating member, the movement mode including one or both of a plane movement mode for moving the operating member on a plane perpendicular to the fitting direction and an attitude adjustment mode around the fitting direction; moving the operating member in the determined movement pattern, wherein a force in the assembly direction is continuously applied to the operating member during the movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern; and determining whether a preset condition that assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied, and when the preset condition is satisfied, stopping moving the operating member in the moving mode and stopping applying a force in the assembling direction to the operating member.

The application also provides a robot, which comprises a plurality of connecting rods; the joint driver is arranged at the connecting position of the connecting rod; the actuator is arranged at the tail end of the connecting rod; and an operating tool provided on the actuator. The operating tool is configured to move the operating member toward the adaptor member in an assembling direction until the operating member comes into contact with the adaptor member, wherein the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member engages with the adaptor member; moving the operating member in a determined movement pattern, wherein a force in the assembly direction is continuously applied to the operating member during the movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern; stopping moving the operating member in the moving mode and stopping applying a force in the assembling direction to the operating member when a preset condition that assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied.

The present application further provides a controller comprising a processor and a memory, the memory for storing instructions, the processor configured to, upon execution of the instructions: controlling a robot to move an operating member toward an adapting member in an assembling direction until the operating member comes into contact with the adapting member, wherein the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member engages with the adapting member; determining a movement mode for adjusting the operating member, the movement mode including one or both of a plane movement mode for moving the operating member on a plane perpendicular to the fitting direction and an attitude adjustment mode around the fitting direction; controlling the robot to move the operating member in the determined movement pattern, wherein the robot is controlled to continuously apply a force in the assembly direction to the operating member during the robot moving the operating member in the determined movement pattern; and determining whether a preset condition that assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied, and controlling the robot to stop moving the operating member in the moving mode and to stop applying a force in the assembling direction to the operating member when the preset condition is satisfied.

Drawings

In order to clearly explain technical solutions in embodiments of the present invention, drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below. The drawings in the following description are merely exemplary embodiments of the invention. Other embodiments can also be derived by a person skilled in the art on the basis of these figures without any inventive work.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a robot according to an example of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of a robot body according to an example of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a method for robotic assembly of a workpiece according to an example of the present application.

Fig. 4 schematically shows a representation of an assembly scenario of an operating element and an adapter according to an example of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic illustration of yet another assembly scenario.

Fig. 6A to 6B are exemplary assembly scenarios in which a voice coil as the operating member 70 needs to be embedded in an audio device as the adaptor 72, where fig. 6A is before assembly is not performed and fig. 6B is after assembly has been completed according to the present application.

FIG. 6C illustrates an example raster path as it moves along the raster path on plane 722.

Fig. 6D illustrates the movement of the operating member 70 on the plane 722 in a straight line back and forth movement.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for robotic assembly of the operating member and the adapter.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a controller according to an example of the present application.

Detailed Description

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. The described embodiments are merely exemplary and represent a subset of the embodiments of the present invention. Those skilled in the art may, without inventive effort, appreciate additional embodiments based on the embodiments of the present invention, and all such embodiments are within the scope of the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a robot according to an example of the present application. Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of a robot body, also referred to as a robot arm, in some cases, according to examples of the present application. In the examples of the present application, the operating member and the adapter refer to two workpieces to be assembled together, wherein a workpiece operated by a robot, for example, by an operating tool provided at a distal end thereof is referred to as an operating member, and another workpiece adapted to the operating member is referred to as an adapter. In some cases, the adapter may further include an adapter portion to be combined with the operating member; in other cases, the operating member may comprise an operating portion particularly associated with the adaptor member.

As shown in fig. 1, the robot includes a robot body 20, a controller 22, and a vision system 24. As shown in fig. 2, the robot body 20 may include a plurality of links 11 and an end effector 12 provided at an end of the links. The end effector 12 may be equipped with an operating tool (not shown), for example, via the end flange 120, to operate the item to be operated. The operating tool is, for example, a gripper for gripping a workpiece to be operated. The operating tool is, for example, a part for holding the to-be-operated part. For another example, the operation tool is, for example, a vacuum suction head or the like. The operating tool may be any of a variety of tools that can be used to operate the part to be operated, and is not limited to the tools listed herein. The joint of each link 11 in the robot body 20 is also referred to as a joint 110.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, in some embodiments, the robot body 20 includes a position/velocity sensor 201, a force and moment sensor 203, a joint driver 205, and an operating tool 207 disposed on the end effector 12 (see fig. 2). Position/speed sensors 201 are respectively provided at the respective joints 110 of the robot body 20 to sense the positions of the respective joints. Force and moment sensors 203 are also provided, for example, at each joint 110 of the robot body 20 to determine the joint moment of the robot. The force and moment sensor 203 may be a single degree of freedom force or moment sensor or may be a multiple degree of freedom (e.g., six degrees of freedom) force and moment sensor. Instead of the force and moment sensor 203, it is also possible to obtain joint moments from joint current feedback values and observation of a joint observer, and further calculate the contact force and moment of the actuator tip from the joint moments. Joint drivers 205 are provided at each joint 110 of the robot body 20, respectively, to drive the movement of each connecting rod of the robot. The operating tool 207 is provided on the end effector 12 shown in fig. 2 for operating the operating member, and it may have various forms. In the example of the present application, the operating tool 207 is configured to move the operating member in the assembly direction towards the adapting member until the operating member is in contact with the adapting member. Here, the assembling direction refers to a direction in which the operating member engages with the adapter, for example, a direction in which the operating member 40 described below in conjunction with fig. 4 enters the adapter portion 420 of the adapter 42 and moves toward it, i.e., a negative Z direction shown in fig. 4.

The operating tool 207 is further configured to move the operating member in a determined movement pattern and to continuously apply a force in the assembly direction to the operating member during the movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern, so that the operating member is in stable contact with the adapting member throughout the assembly process. In this application, the force applied to the operating member so that the operating member is in stable contact with the adapter throughout the assembly process is also referred to as the contact force. The magnitude of the contact force is not constant, and it may be a constant magnitude force, or a gradually increasing force, or a gradually decreasing force. The magnitude of the contact force depends on the assembly scenario of the operating member and the adapting member, the material properties of both, and the like. For example, if the operating member and the adapter are both made of hard materials, a force of constant magnitude can be applied; if either the operating member or the adapter is of a soft material, a gradually increasing or decreasing or varying magnitude of force may be applied.

The operating tool 207 is further configured to stop moving the operating member in the determined movement mode and stop applying a force in the assembly direction to the operating member when a preset condition indicating that the assembly of the operating member with the adapting member is completed is met. According to an example of the present application, the preset condition may be that the assembly time is greater than a preset maximum assembly time. The assembly time refers to the time taken from the start of contact of the operating member with the adapter to the completion of engagement of the operating member with the adapter. The predetermined condition may be that the operating member is moved toward the adapter to a depth greater than a predetermined assembly depth from the time when the operating member is just in contact with the adapter, or other various conditions may be used to determine that the assembly is completed. The preset conditions will be further explained below in connection with some examples.

With continued reference to fig. 1, the controller 22 includes a processor 222 and a memory 220. Memory 220 is used to store data including, for example, instructions for execution by processor 222 to control robot body 20; may also include data such as that communicated by vision system 24; data transmitted from various devices such as position/speed sensors, force and moment sensors, etc. provided on the robot body 20. In some examples, the memory 220 may also include, for example, a preset number of possible movement patterns for adjusting the operating member. And, in still other cases, the memory 220 may further include a preset track. The processor 222 is configured to execute instructions in the memory 220, and the processor 222 may also process various types of data input to the controller 22, which may or may not be data in the memory 220.

According to some examples of the application, the processor 222 is configured to generate a control signal to control the operating tool 207 of the robot body 20 to move the operating member in the assembly direction towards the adapting member until the operating member is in contact with the adapting member. For example, the processor 222 determines the assembly scenario from images acquired by the vision system 24 of the robot, and thus determines to move the operating member towards the adaptor in an operation such as grabbing until the operating member comes into contact with the adaptor; and generates control signals to the operating means 207 accordingly.

According to still further examples of the present application, the processor 222 is configured to determine a movement pattern for adjusting the manipulation element when executing instructions stored by the memory 220. In other words, for an operating member that has been in contact with an adapter member, the processor 222 is configured to determine which mode of movement to engage the operating member with the adapter member to complete the assembly. The movement mode includes one or both of a plane movement mode in which the operating member is moved on a plane perpendicular to the fitting direction and an attitude adjustment mode around the fitting direction. The processor 222 further generates a control signal based on the determined movement pattern to cause the manipulation tool 207 to move the manipulation member according to the determined movement pattern. During the movement of the manipulator in the determined movement pattern, the magnitude of the contact force may be adjusted by the processor 222 in accordance with data sensed by sensors of the robot body 20, such as the force and moment sensors 203. For the adjustment of the contact force, it is also possible that the processor 222 refers to image information of the operating members and the adapting members, for example, acquired by the vision system 24.

As an example, the processor 222 may determine an assembly environment from images of the operating members, the adapting members and the environment in which they are located captured by the vision system 24, wherein the assembly environment is related to at least one of the position of the operating members and the adapting members, the manner of assembly. Alternatively, the determination of the assembly environment is not necessarily determined by the processor 222, for example, where the vision system 24 includes an algorithm module, the assembly environment may be determined by the algorithm module and communicated to the processor 222 in the controller 22. Depending on the assembly environment, the processor 222 determines a movement pattern for adjusting the operating member.

With continued reference to fig. 1, the vision system 24 of the illustrated robot includes an image acquisition component 240 and an algorithm module 242. The image acquisition part 240 is used to take images of the operation member, the adaptor member, and if necessary, may also be configured to take images when the operation member is moved in the moving mode, and the like. As an example, the image acquisition part 240 is, for example, a camera or an image sensing unit. The algorithm module 242 calculates and confirms the positions of the operating members, the positions of the adapting members, and the relative positions of the two, based on the images taken by the image acquisition unit 240. The algorithm module 242 may be configured with other functions, such as processing images taken while the operator is moving in the moving mode, etc. It should be noted that the algorithm module 242 of the vision system 24 is not required. Image data of the image captured by the image capture component 240 may be communicated to the controller 22 for processing thereby. Additionally, according to further examples of the present application, vision system 24 may be omitted. For example, if the mode of movement of the operator to the adapter is predetermined, it may not be necessary to determine the assembly environment based on information such as the position of the operator, the adapter, etc., in which case the vision system 24 may be omitted.

In some examples, the processor 222, when executing instructions stored by the memory 220, determines that the movement pattern for adjusting the operator is to select a movement pattern for adjusting the operator from a plurality of possible movement patterns that are preset. That is, in these examples, the movement pattern for adjusting the operating member is not necessarily determined by the processor 222 from an image provided by the vision system or from data sensed by other sensors, but is selected directly from a plurality of possible movement patterns that are pre-stored.

In some examples, the processor 222, in case of adopting the planar movement mode, will control the operation tool 207 to move the operation member according to a combination of one or more of the following preset trajectories through the control signal: a trajectory of unidirectional or reciprocal movement along a straight line, a trajectory of unidirectional or reciprocal movement along a curved line, a trajectory of unidirectional or reciprocal movement in a raster path, and a trajectory of unidirectional or reciprocal movement in a spiral path such as a winding movement with a radius gradually increasing, etc.

Further, according to examples of the present application, the vision system 24, in particular the image acquisition component 240 of the vision system 24, may be configured to acquire images of the operating member and the adapter member during movement of the operating member according to the determined movement pattern, thereby generating position information of the operating member and the adapter member and at least attitude information of the operating member. In one aspect, the processor 222 may adjust the movement pattern, movement path, etc. based on information from the vision system 24 to bypass obstacles, etc. during movement of the operator to achieve flexible assembly that accommodates the actual assembly scenario. On the other hand, the processor 222 is configured to optimize the movement pattern depending on the position information of the operating member and the adapting member and at least the attitude information of the operating member, which contributes to an improvement of the movement pattern. In addition, it is also feasible if the position information of the operating element and the adapter and at least the attitude information of the operating element are not generated by taking images, but the flexible assembly and optimization is achieved by information sensed by the robot, such as position sensors, force and moment sensors, etc.

Fig. 4 schematically shows a representation of an assembly scenario of an operating element and an adapter according to an example of the present application. Referring to fig. 1, 2 and 4, the operating tool 207 provided at the end effector 12 has moved the operating member 40 onto the flat surface 422 of the adapter member 42. The processor 222 of the controller 20 determines a movement pattern for adjusting the operating member 40 in order to assemble the operating member 40 into the adapter portion 420 of the adapter member 42. The processor 222 of the controller 20 determines whether to employ a planar movement mode or a pose adjustment mode, or a combination thereof, depending, for example, on information communicated by the vision system 24. In this example, the processor 222 determines that no attitude adjustment about the mounting direction is required for the operating member 40 based on information from the vision system 24, and that a planar movement mode is sufficient.

More specifically, based on the image captured by the image capturing part 240 of the vision system 24, the processor 222 determines that the operating member 40 can enter the adapting part 420 of the adapting member 42 along the trajectory of the linear one-way movement, and generates the control signal to the operating tool 207 accordingly. Upon receiving the control signal, the operating tool 207 moves the operating element 40 to the fitting portion 420 along a straight one-way movement trajectory. Assuming that the operating tool 207 encounters an obstacle during the movement of the operating member 40, the processor 222 may further adjust the movement pattern according to the image or the data transmitted by the sensor, for example, the processor 222 determines that the attitude adjustment mode is to be adopted to adjust the attitude of the operating member 40, or determines that the movement trajectory in the planar movement mode is to be adjusted to a trajectory moving in a raster path, etc.

As mentioned above, when the operating member 40 is moved toward the fitting part 420 in the plane 422 perpendicular to the assembling direction, the operating tool 207 applies a force, called a contact force, to the operating member 40 so as to continuously contact the plane 422, and the contact force is not constant but may vary depending on the material of the operating member 40 and the adapter.

The force applied by the operating tool 207 to keep the operating member 40 in contact with the flat surface 422 is intended to press the operating member toward the flat surface 422. The applied force may remain constant, or vary from large to small, or from small to large, or both. Whatever the way in which the force is applied in this way, it is sufficient if the retaining actuating element can be brought into stable contact with this plane perpendicular to the mounting direction.

In the examples of the present application, the contact of the operation member with the plane perpendicular to the fitting direction may be various types of contact means such as point contact, surface contact, arc contact, etc., depending to some extent on the shape of the contact portion of the operation member for contacting the plane.

In the example shown in fig. 4, the force applied by the operating tool 207 to the operating member 40 is a steady force that maintains a constant magnitude. According to some examples of the present application, a preset condition for determining whether to stop moving the operating member 40 is preset for an assembly process of the operating member 40 and the adaptor 42. When the processor 222 determines that the preset condition is satisfied, a control signal is generated to cause the operating tool 207 to stop moving the operating member 40. As an example, the preset condition is that the time taken for the assembly process is greater than a preset maximum assembly time, for example, and the preset condition is considered to be satisfied. In the case where the preset condition is satisfied, the control operating means 207 stops moving the operating member 40 and stops applying the force to the operating member 40. The assembly time can be calculated, for example, from when the operating member contacts the adapter. As a further example, the preset condition may also be that the operating member is moved to the adapting member to a depth greater than the preset assembly depth, measured from contact of the operating member with the adapting member. In all examples herein, the term "greater than" includes "equal to".

The preset conditions will be further exemplarily explained in connection with fig. 4. The preset conditions may be selected according to actual needs, and only one or a plurality of preset conditions may be selected at the same time.

As shown in fig. 4, the operation member 40 is engaged with the adapter member 42 such that the operation member 40 falls into the fitting portion 420 to be fitted to each other. The initial contact between the operating member 40 and the adapter 42 can be confirmed in various ways. The resistance of the operating member 40 from the plane 422 is detected, for example, by force and moment sensors provided on the robot, thereby determining that the operating member 40 starts to contact the adapter 42. For another example, the contact between the operating member 40 and the adaptor member 42 may be started by an image captured by an image sensor provided. In the example of fig. 4, by way of example and without limitation, the operating element 40 may be considered as being placed on the plane 422, i.e. coming into contact with the adapter 42. The assembly is completed when the operating member is completely dropped into the fitting portion 420. In this example, the predetermined assembly depth is the depth of the fitting part 420. Therefore, the operating member 40 contacts the adaptor 42, the moving depth of the operating member to the adaptor does not change during the movement along the plane 422, and when the operating member 40 enters the fitting part 420 and contacts the bottom of the fitting part 420 at the surface thereof contacting the plane 422, the moving depth of the operating member 40 to the fitting part 420 is equal to the preset assembly depth, and the preset condition is satisfied.

In other cases, the preset assembly depth is, for example, a part of the depth of the fitting part 420, and when the operating element 40 enters the fitting part 420 and the depth of the fitting part 420 is greater than the preset assembly depth, the preset condition is considered to be satisfied.

The manner of engaging the actuating element with the adapter in the assembly thereof may be other than the entry of the actuating element into the adapter part shown here, which is not exhaustive here. The condition of the operating member being assembled with the adapting member may be based on the comparison of the assembly time with a preset maximum assembly time or based on the comparison of the depth of movement of the operating member towards the adapting member with a preset assembly depth, as described above. In addition, the completion of the assembly of the operating member with the adapter member can also be judged from the change in force. Still taking fig. 4 as an example, for example, the force applied to the operating member 40 from the plane 422 is abruptly changed, for example, abruptly reduced to 0 (i.e., the operating member 40 falls into the adapter portion 420), and then abruptly changed to be larger in a shorter time (i.e., the operating member 40 falls to the bottom of the adapter portion 420), which means that the operating member 40 is installed into the adapter portion 420 and the assembly is completed.

The detection of whether the preset condition is satisfied or not may be determined by an image acquired by the image acquisition means, or may be determined by information acquired by a force and moment sensor, a position sensor, or the like.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a method for robotic assembly of a workpiece according to an example of the present application. The method is for example implemented by a robot as discussed above in connection with fig. 1 and 2.

Referring to fig. 3, in step S300, the operating member is moved toward the adaptor member in an assembling direction until the operating member comes into contact with the adaptor member, wherein the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member and the adaptor member are engaged. The operating member can be operated, for example by a robot, by means of its operating tool 207, so that it is moved in the assembly direction towards the adapter member. For example, in fig. 4, the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member 40 enters the fitting portion 420 of the adapter 42 and moves toward the bottom thereof, i.e., the negative Z direction shown in fig. 4; in fig. 5, the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member 60 is engaged to the adaptor 62 in the depth direction of the adaptor portion 620 of the adaptor 62.

In step S301, a movement mode for adjusting the operating member is determined, which may include one or both of a plane movement mode in which the operating member moves on a plane perpendicular to the mounting direction and a posture adjustment mode in which the operating member rotates around the mounting direction.

In step S302, the operating member is moved in the determined movement pattern, wherein a force in the assembling direction is continuously applied to the operating member during the movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern. The force may be continuously output to the manipulator, for example, by the manipulator 207 of the robot throughout the movement of the manipulator in the determined movement pattern.

In step 304, it is determined whether a preset condition that the assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied, and in a case that the preset condition is satisfied, the movement of the operating member in the moving mode is stopped and the application of the force in the assembling direction to the operating member is stopped. Whether the preset condition is satisfied may be judged by a controller of the robot, and in a case where the preset condition is satisfied, a control signal may be generated to stop the operating tool from moving the operating member in the moving mode and to stop applying the force in the assembling direction to the operating member.

Returning to fig. 3. According to some examples of the present application, the method for robotic assembly of the operating member and the adapting member further comprises steps S306, S307 and S308. To indicate that steps S306, S307 and S308 are optional steps, they are shown in fig. 3 as dashed boxes.

In step S306, during the movement according to the determined movement pattern, the robot may adjust the movement trajectory such that the operating member moves around the obstacle or toward the adaptor when the obstacle is detected or the operating member is found to be deviating from the adaptor. The finding of the obstacle can be done, for example, by force and moment sensors arranged on the robot body or by means of image acquisition means.

In step S307, relative position, posture information between the operation member and the adaptor, and other required information are acquired through the robot visual detection during the movement of the operation member in accordance with the determined movement pattern. Such information may be collected, for example, by an image acquisition component that is a robotic vision inspection. Alternatively or additionally, various sensors such as position sensors, force and moment sensors, etc. may be used to collect the relevant information. The collected information may be transmitted to a controller of the robot, for example.

In step S308, the movement pattern is optimized, e.g. by the controller of the robot, depending on the collected relative positions between the operating members, the adapting members, attitude information, etc., to use the optimized movement pattern, e.g. later in such an assembly scenario, to further optimize the overall assembly strategy.

Although in the example, the optimization of step S308 is performed according to the data collected in step S307, in the actual operation process, the moving path may be optimized according to the obstacle information detected in step S306.

By way of example and not limitation, the method illustrated in fig. 3 may be performed by the robot described above in connection with fig. 1 and 2. In fact, the execution of the method for robot assembly of the operating member and the adapting member according to the examples of the present application has been described above in connection with fig. 1 and 2. The procedure for performing the method shown in fig. 3 by a robot is further elucidated below in connection with the assembly example illustrated in fig. 5.

Referring to fig. 1, 2, 3 and 5 simultaneously, the robot is activated to assemble the operating member 60 and the adaptor member 62. The processor 222 of the controller 22 determines a movement pattern for adjusting the operating member 60. In this example, the processor 222 determines the movement pattern based on the transmitted information from the vision system 24. Specifically, the camera 240 of the vision system 24 captures images of the operating element 60 and the adaptor 62. The information determined by the algorithm module 242 is communicated to the processor 222. The processor 222 calculates and determines the posture of the adjustment operating member 60 about the assembly direction (i.e., the position of the adjustment operating member 60 relative to the adapter member 60) and generates a control signal based on the current relative positions of the operating member 60 and the adapter member 62. In this example, the assembly direction is perpendicular to the plane 622. The determined pose adjustment mode contains path information for adjusting the pose. The robot body 20 receives the control signal and operates the operating tool 207 accordingly. The operating tool 207 holding the operating element 20 adjusts the operating element 60 according to the path information for posture adjustment, specifically, shifts the operating element 60 on the plane 622 to adjust its relative position with the adaptor 62, and finally enters the adapting portion 620 of the adaptor 62, and completes the assembly, for example, when the operating element 60 enters the adapting portion 620 of the adaptor 62 to a depth greater than or equal to a preset assembly depth, as shown in the right drawing of fig. 5.

It should be noted that fig. 5 illustrates a specific case of the posture adjustment mode, and the posture adjustment may have more forms, such as the swinging of the operating member may be required in some cases, for example, in the example shown in fig. 4, the operating member may be controlled to swing on a plane perpendicular to the XY plane (for example, to swing left and right on the XZ plane). In addition, the examples of the present application have been described with reference to adjusting the operating member, but alternatively or additionally, the adapter member may be adjusted to adapt its posture to the operating member.

Fig. 6A to 6B are an exemplary assembly scenario in which a voice coil as the operating member 70 needs to be embedded in an acoustic device as the adaptor 72. Fig. 6A is before assembly and fig. 6B is after assembly has been completed according to the present application.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for robotic assembly of the operating member and the adapter. The process of assembling the operating member 70 and the adaptor member 72 by the robot will now be described by taking the process shown in fig. 7 as an example of the assembly scenario of fig. 6A and 6B. In the examples described below in connection with fig. 7, 6A and 6B, the operating member 70 is also referred to as a voice coil 72, and the adaptor member 72 is also referred to as an acoustic device 72, depending on the context.

As shown in fig. 7, in step S800, execution of the method is started. In step S804, the operation member is grasped. The term gripping is here to be understood in a broad sense, gripping, sucking through a vacuum suction tube, holding, or contacting to push an operating member, etc. are all covered by gripping. The gripping is intended to let the operating tool of the robot operate the operating member 70 to move it to the vicinity of the adapting member 72, for example at least to the plane 722. Returning to the example of the assembly scenario of the voice coil and the audio device shown in fig. 6A and 6B, the robot's operating tool grasps the voice coil 70 and moves it to the plane 722 of the audio device 72.

In step S806, the operating member is moved to come close to the adaptor. The proximity of the adapter means that the operator can at least come into contact with the adapter when the grasped operator is lowered. For example, the voice coil 70 is moved to the vicinity of the audio device 72, and in this example, the voice coil 70 is moved to a position where it can be placed on the plane 722 once it is placed, and thus it is considered to be moved to the vicinity of the audio device 72.

In step S808, the controller of the robot controls the operating tool to place the operating member on the adaptor. For example, the voice coil 70 is placed on the plane 722.

In step S810, the movement mode of the operation member is determined. Returning to the example of a voice coil and audio device, the controller determines in what movement pattern the voice coil 70 enters the adaptation portion 720 of the audio device. The movement mode is either a planar movement mode in which the operation member 70 is moved along the plane 722, or an attitude adjustment mode around the fitting direction in which the operation member 70 is engaged with the fitting portion 720, or a combination of both modes. In the example combining fig. 6A and 6B, the fitting direction is perpendicular to the XY plane.

In step S812, the operating means is controlled to move the operating member in the determined movement pattern. In this example, the voice coil 70 is moved by the operating tool in the determined movement pattern so as to enter the fitting portion 720. During the movement of the operation member, a force is applied to the voice coil 70 in the assembling direction, i.e., in the depth direction of the fitting portion 720, so that a certain contact force exists between the voice coil 70 and the plane 722.

According to an example of the present application, the planar moving pattern includes moving along a predetermined trajectory on a plane perpendicular to the fitting direction. The preset trajectory has been described above, but it should be noted that the preset trajectory may also include more movement trajectories, which cannot be exhaustive here. In the case of a defined assembly situation, the path or path of the movement of the actuating element into the adapter of the adapter can be predetermined. Taking the assembly scenario given in fig. 6A and 6B as an example, the preset trajectory may be, for example, moving back and forth in one direction on the plane 722 in a grid path. FIG. 6C shows an example raster path as it moves along the raster path on plane 722. As shown, operating member 70 moves forward in direction 75, after moving a certain distance, adjusts to move in direction 76, then adjusts to move in direction 77, then moves in direction 78, and so on. In the raster path movement, when moving in each direction, the moved distance is not necessarily constant or the same, and the directions are not necessarily orthogonal to each other. The grid path is intended to allow adjustment of the operator 70 by directional offset during movement toward the adapter 72. In addition to or instead of a raster path, the movement path may also be a zigzag or S-shaped movement towards somewhere, etc.

Fig. 6D shows a movement locus of the operation member 70 moving back and forth on a straight line on the plane 722. As shown, the operating member 70 is adjusted in the direction B along the line AB and then in the direction A, the purpose of the adjustment being to drop the operating member 70 into the fitting portion 720. The distance to be adjusted each time may be different or may be the same, which is determined by the controller of the robot based on the position relationship between the operating member and the adapting member as captured by the imaging device or the position sensor, or by the force relationship between the operating member and the adapting member as captured by the force and torque sensor. Although not illustrated, it is understood that the straight line AB may also be a curved line in some examples.

Returning to the example of fig. 6A and 6B, the determined movement pattern is a planar movement pattern, and specifically, during the movement, may be one or a combination of a straight forward movement, a movement in a raster path, and a movement back and forth along a straight line.

In step S814, during the operation of moving the operation member to the adapter member by the operation tool 207 according to the determined movement mode, the process is monitored to determine whether there is an abnormality in the movement path of the operation member. An anomaly is here a situation outside the normal moving environment, such as being obstructed by an obstacle, which may be encountered by the operating member during its movement towards the adapter.

During the process of moving the voice coil 70 by the operation tool of the robot, the controller of the robot determines whether the moving path is toward the sound equipment 72 according to the information collected by the image acquisition component, and if the moving path is deviated, the controller controls the operation tool to make an adjustment, and the adjusted path can be, for example, the above-mentioned various planar moving path modes.

In the monitoring process described in step S814, the robot may also monitor the assembly time. In this case, a maximum elapsed time for assembly, i.e., Tmax, is usually preset. In the case of known installation scenarios, for example, the preset maximum time of assembly can be predetermined. Furthermore, it may be determined a priori.

As shown in step S818, when the assembly time Tmount > Tmax, the assembly is considered to be completed, and the process proceeds to step S820 to end the present assembly. Otherwise, the assembling time is monitored in step S814.

Whether assembly is complete may also be determined in other ways, such as by the depth of movement of the voice coil 70 toward the audio device 72.

The present application also provides a controller 90, which is illustrated in fig. 8. The controller 90 includes a memory 900 and a processor 922. The memory 900 is configured to store instructions that the processor 922 is configured to execute. The controller 90 may be communicatively coupled to the robot of fig. 1, for example. According to one particular example, the processor 922 may be implemented as the controller 20 set forth above in connection with fig. 2. The controller 90 may be applied to the robot shown in fig. 1 in the same manner as the controller 20. In other words, the controller 20 may be implemented as a separate controller 90 and communicatively connected to the robot to implement the functions described above.

Various examples of the present application have been set forth above in connection with the accompanying drawings. According to the examples of the present application, the robot moves in the movement pattern confirmed based on the assembly environment when assembling the workpiece, and the movement pattern or the movement trajectory of the operation member is adjusted by an obstacle, a deviation direction, or the like during the movement, thereby realizing flexible assembly like assembling the workpiece by a human.

The above-mentioned embodiments only express several embodiments of the present invention, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that, for a person skilled in the art, several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the inventive concept, which falls within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present patent shall be subject to the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for robotic assembly of an operating member and an adapter, the method comprising:

moving the operating member toward the adaptor in an assembling direction until the operating member comes into contact with the adaptor, wherein the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member engages with the adaptor;

determining a movement mode for adjusting the operating member, the movement mode including one or both of a plane movement mode for moving the operating member on a plane perpendicular to the fitting direction and an attitude adjustment mode around the fitting direction;

moving the operating member in the determined movement pattern, wherein a force in the assembly direction is continuously applied to the operating member during the movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern; and

determining whether a preset condition that assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied, and when the preset condition is satisfied, stopping moving the operating member in the moving mode and stopping applying a force in the assembling direction to the operating member.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the movement pattern for adjusting the operating member comprises:

determining an assembly environment of the operating member and the adapting member, wherein the assembly environment is related to at least one of a position and an assembly manner of the operating member and the adapting member; and

and determining a movement mode for adjusting the operating member according to the assembly environment.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presetting a plurality of possible moving modes; and

the step of determining a movement pattern for adjusting the operating member comprises: and selecting a movement mode for adjusting the operating member from the preset multiple possible movement modes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the planar movement pattern comprises movement in a plane perpendicular to the assembly direction according to a predetermined trajectory.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the preset trajectory comprises a combination of one or more of:

a trajectory of unidirectional or back-and-forth motion along a straight line;

a trajectory that moves unidirectionally or reciprocally along a curve;

a trajectory that moves unidirectionally or reciprocally in a raster path; and

a trajectory that moves in a spiral-type path in one direction or back and forth.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said moving the operating member in the determined movement pattern comprises:

acquiring position information of the operating member and the adapting member and at least attitude information of the operating member by means of robot visual detection during the movement of the operating member according to the determined movement pattern, and

optimizing the movement pattern in dependence of the acquired position information between the operating member and the adapting member and at least the attitude information of the operating member.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preset condition comprises:

the assembling time is greater than the preset maximum assembling time; or

The operating member moves toward the adapter to a depth greater than or equal to a preset assembly depth from the time the operating member is just in contact with the adapter.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of continuously applying a force to the operating member in the assembly direction during movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern comprises:

continuously applying a force to the operating member of a constant magnitude in the fitting direction;

continuously applying a force to the operating member in the assembling direction, wherein the force is gradually increased in magnitude; or

And continuously applying force to the operating member in the assembling direction, wherein the force is gradually reduced in magnitude.

9. A robot, characterized in that the robot comprises:

a plurality of connecting rods;

the joint driver is arranged at the connecting position of the connecting rod;

the actuator is arranged at the tail end of the connecting rod; and

an operating tool provided on an actuator, the operating tool configured to:

moving the operating member in a determined movement pattern, wherein a force in the assembly direction is continuously applied to the operating member during the movement of the operating member in the determined movement pattern;

stopping moving the operating member in the moving mode and stopping applying a force in the assembling direction to the operating member when a preset condition that assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied.

10. The robot of claim 9, further comprising a processor and a memory for storing instructions, the processor configured when executing the instructions to:

determining a movement mode for adjusting the operating member, the movement mode including one or both of a plane movement mode for moving the operating member on a plane perpendicular to a fitting direction and an attitude adjustment mode around the fitting direction;

generating a control signal to control the operation tool in accordance with the determined movement pattern.

11. The robot of claim 10, further comprising:

an image acquisition component for acquiring images of the operating member and the adapting member to determine an assembly environment of the operating member and the adapting member, wherein the assembly environment is related to at least one of a position and an assembly manner of the operating member and the adapting member; and

the processor is configured to determine a movement pattern for adjusting the operation member depending on the assembly environment.

12. The robot of claim 10, wherein a plurality of preset possible movement patterns are stored in the memory, and wherein the processor is configured to select a movement pattern for adjusting the manipulator from the plurality of preset possible movement patterns when executing the instructions.

13. The robot of claim 10, wherein the processor being configured to generate control signals in accordance with the determined movement pattern when executing the instructions further comprises:

generating the control signal according to a preset track, wherein the preset track comprises one or more of the following combinations:

a trajectory of unidirectional or back-and-forth motion along a straight line;

a trajectory that moves unidirectionally or reciprocally along a curve;

a trajectory that moves unidirectionally or reciprocally in a raster path; and

14. A robot according to claim 11, wherein the image acquisition component is configured to acquire position information of the operating member and the adapting member and at least attitude information of the operating member during the movement of the operating member according to the determined movement pattern.

15. The robot of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to optimize the movement pattern based on the collected position information between the operating member and the adapting member and at least the attitude information of the operating member.

16. The robot of claim 9, wherein the operating tool is configured to stop moving the operating member in the moving mode and stop applying a force to the operating member in the fitting direction when:

when the assembling time is more than the preset maximum assembling time; or

The depth of movement of the operating member toward the adapter is greater than or equal to a preset assembly depth from the time the operating member is just in contact with the adapter.

17. A controller comprising a processor and a memory, the memory for storing instructions, wherein the processor is configured to, when executing the instructions:

controlling a robot to move an operating member toward an adapting member in an assembling direction until the operating member comes into contact with the adapting member, wherein the assembling direction is a direction in which the operating member engages with the adapting member;

controlling the robot to move the operating member in the determined movement pattern, wherein the robot is controlled to continuously apply a force in the assembly direction to the operating member during the robot moving the operating member in the determined movement pattern; and

determining whether a preset condition that assembly of the operating member with the adaptor is completed is satisfied, and controlling the robot to stop moving the operating member in the moving mode and controlling the robot to stop applying a force in the assembling direction to the operating member when the preset condition is satisfied.

18. The controller of claim 17, wherein the processor being configured to control the robot to move the manipulator in the determined movement pattern when executing the instructions further comprises:

controlling the robot to move the operating part according to a preset track, wherein the preset track comprises one or more of the following combinations:

a trajectory of unidirectional or back-and-forth motion along a straight line;

a trajectory that moves unidirectionally or reciprocally along a curve;

a trajectory that moves unidirectionally or reciprocally in a raster path; and

19. The controller of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the preset condition is met based on one or both of the following conditions:

the assembling time is greater than the preset maximum assembling time; or

The operating member is moved toward the adapter in the assembling direction by a depth greater than a preset assembling depth from a point of time when the operating member is just in contact with the adapter.