Device and method for plugging an expansion board into a plug-in coupling

Abstract

Device for plugging a plug-in region of an expansion board into a plug-in coupling including: a first interface providing the coupling; a second interface providing the board; a robot manipulator having an effector; and a controller controlling the robot manipulator to plug the region into the coupling, the controller configured to execute a program for the robot manipulator to perform operations including: picking up the board at the second interface using the effector; guiding the board along a trajectory and target orientation of the region to the coupling; carrying out tilting motions of the region until reaching or exceeding a limit value condition G1 for a torque acting on the effector and/or a limit value condition G2 of a force acting on the effector, and/or reaching or exceeding a force/torque signature and/or a position/velocity/acceleration signature at the effector, indicating completion of plugging the region into the coupling within predefined tolerances.

Claims

1. A device for plugging a plug-in region of an expansion board into a plug-in coupling, the plug-in coupling having a slot, the slot having a depth T along a depth axis TA, a width B along a width axis BA, and a length L along a longitudinal axis LA, wherein the plug-in region of the expansion board is dimensioned such that it is capable of being plugged completely into the slot, and wherein the depth axis TA and the longitudinal axis LA define a plug-in plane, the device comprising: a first interface to provide the plug-in coupling; a second interface to provide the expansion board; a first robot manipulator with an effector, the effector designed and configured to pick up, handle, and release the expansion board; and a control unit for open-loop or closed-loop control of the first robot manipulator to plug the plug-in region of the expansion board into the plug-in coupling, the control unit configured and designed to execute a control program for the first robot manipulator (103) to perform operations comprising: picking up the expansion board at/from the second interface using the effector; guiding the expansion board along a specified trajectory T with a specified target orientation O.sub.target(R.sub.T) of the plug-in region to the plug-in coupling provided at the first interface, wherein O.sub.target(R.sub.T) defines the target orientation of the plug-in region of the expansion board held by the effector along the trajectory T for locations R.sub.T of the trajectory T; and carrying out force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled tilting motions of the plug-in region in the plug-in plane until a specified limit value condition G1 for a torque acting on the effector and/or a specified limit value condition G2 of a force acting on the effector is reached or exceeded, and/or a provided force/torque signature and/or a position/velocity/acceleration signature is reached or exceeded at the effector, indicating that the plugging of the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling is successfully completed within predefined tolerances.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled tilting motions in the plug-in plane take place relative to the target orientation O.sub.target(R.sub.T) of the plug-in region with maximum tilt angles in a range of ±2° to ±30°.

3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the maximum tilt angles are one or more of ±3°, ±5°, ±7°, ±10°, ±15°, ±20°, ±25°.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the plug-in coupling is a direct plug connector or card edge connector.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the plug-in region of the expansion board and the plug-in coupling have electrical contacts spatially assigned to one another, wherein the electrical contacts of the plug-in region and plug-in coupling have corresponding electrical contact when the plug-in region is completely plugged into the slot-shaped plug-in coupling.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein the operations comprise controlling the first robot manipulator such that the effector releases the expansion board after a successfully completed plugging of the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein the operations comprise controlling the first robot manipulator such that the effector executes force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled periodic rotational and/or tilting motions and/or translational motion patterns relative to the expansion board in order to release the expansion board.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein the first interface is a second robot manipulator with a second effector, the second effector designed and configured to pick up, handle, and release the plug-in coupling.

9. A method of plugging a plug-in region of an expansion board into a plug-in coupling, the plug-in coupling having a slot, the slot having a depth T along a depth axis TA, a width B along a width axis BA, and a length L along a longitudinal axis LA, wherein the plug-in region of the expansion board is dimensioned such that it is capable of being plugged completely into the slot, and the depth axis TA and the longitudinal axis LA define a plug-in plane, the method comprising: providing the plug-in coupling at a first interface; providing the expansion board at a second interface; open-loop or closed-loop controlling a first robot manipulator having an effector, the effector designed and configured to pick up, handle, and release the expansion board such that the first robot manipulator plugs the plug-in region of the expansion board into the plug-in coupling performing operations comprising: picking up the expansion board at/from the second interface using the effector; guiding the expansion board along a specified trajectory T with a specified target orientation O.sub.target(R.sub.T) of the plug-in region to the plug-in coupling provided at the first interface, wherein O.sub.target(R.sub.T) defines the target orientation of the plug-in region along the trajectory T for locations R.sub.T of the trajectory T; and carrying out force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled tilting motions of the plug-in region in the plug-in plane until a specified limit value condition G1 for a torque acting on the effector and/or a specified limit value condition G2 of a force acting on the effector is reached or exceeded and/or a provided force/torque signature, and/or a position/velocity/acceleration signature is reached or exceeded at the effector, indicating that the plugging of the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling is successfully completed within predefined tolerances.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled tilting motions take place relative to the target orientation O.sub.target(R.sub.T) of the plug-in region with maximum tilt angles in a range of ±2° to ±30°.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the maximum tilt angles are one or more of ±3°, ±5°, ±7, ±10°, ±15°, ±20°, ±25°.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the operations comprise controlling the first robot manipulator such that the effector releases the expansion board after a successfully completed plugging of the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the operations comprise controlling the first robot manipulator such that the effector executes force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled periodic rotational and/or tilting motions and/or translational motion patterns relative to the expansion board in order to release the expansion board.

14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the plug-in coupling is a direct plug connector or card edge connector.

15. The method according to claim 9, wherein the plug-in region of the expansion board and the plug-in coupling have electrical contacts spatially assigned to one another, wherein the method comprises making corresponding electrical contact of the electrical contacts of the plug-in region and the plug-in coupling when the plug-in region is completely plugged into the slot-shaped plug-in coupling.

16. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first interface is a second robot manipulator with a second effector, the second effector designed and configured to pick up, handle, and release the plug-in coupling.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In the drawings:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a highly schematic construction of a proposed device; and

(3) FIG. 2 shows a highly schematic flowchart of a proposed method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(4) FIG. 1 shows a highly schematic construction of a proposed device for plugging a plug-in region of an expansion board into a plug-in coupling, the plug-in coupling having a slot, which has a depth T along a depth axis TA and a length L along a longitudinal axis LA, wherein the plug-in region of the expansion board is dimensioned such that it can be plugged completely into the slot, and wherein the depth axis TA and the longitudinal axis LA define a plug-in plane. The device includes a first interface 101 for providing the plug-in coupling, which is a mechanical clamping device on a tabletop in this case, in which the plug-in coupling is provided. Furthermore, the device includes a second interface 102 for providing the expansion board, which is a conveyor belt in this case, on which the expansion board is provided in a particular position and orientation. Furthermore, the device includes a first robot manipulator 103 with an effector, which is designed and configured to pick up, handle, and release the expansion board, and a control unit 104 for open-loop/closed-loop control of the first robot manipulator 103.

(5) The control unit 104 includes a processor unit and a control program running thereon, wherein the control unit 104 is configured and designed to execute the following steps of the control program. In one step, the first robot manipulator 103 picks up the expansion board on/from the second interface 102 using the effector and guides the expansion board along a specified trajectory T with a specified target orientation O.sub.target(R.sub.T) of the plug-in region to the plug-in coupling provided at the first interface, wherein O.sub.target(R.sub.T) defines the target orientation of the plug-in region of the expansion board held by the effector along the trajectory T for locations R.sub.T of the trajectory T. In order to plug the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling using the first robot manipulator 103, force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled tilting motions of the plug-in region in the plug-in plane are carried out until a specified limit value condition G1 for a torque acting on the effector and a specified limit value condition G2 of a force acting on the effector is reached or exceeded, which indicate that the plugging of the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling is successfully completed within predefined tolerances. The translational motions, which guide the plug-in region in the direction of the slot, are superposed on the force-controlled tilting motions.

(6) FIG. 2 shows a highly schematic flowchart of a proposed method for plugging a plug-in region of an expansion board into a plug-in coupling, the plug-in coupling having a slot, which has a depth T along a depth axis TA, a width B along a width axis BA, and a length L along a longitudinal axis LA, wherein the plug-in region of the expansion board is dimensioned such that it can be plugged completely into the slot, and the depth axis TA and the longitudinal axis LA define a plug-in plane, with the following steps: provision 201 of the plug-in coupling at a first interface; provision 202 of the expansion board at a second interface; open-loop/closed-loop control 203 of a first robot manipulator having an effector, which is designed and configured to pick up, handle, and release the expansion board such that the first robot manipulator picks up the expansion board from the second interface using the effector and guides the expansion board along a specified trajectory T with a specified target orientation O.sub.target(R.sub.T) of the plug-in region to the plug-in coupling provided at the first interface, wherein O.sub.target(R.sub.T) defines the target orientation of the plug-in region along the trajectory T for locations R.sub.T of the trajectory T; wherein, in order to plug the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling using the first robot manipulator 104, force-controlled and/or impedance-controlled and/or admittance-controlled tilting motions of the plug-in region in the plug-in plane are carried out until a specified limit value condition G1 for a torque acting on the effector and/or a specified limit value condition G2 of a force acting on the effector is reached or exceeded and/or a provided force/torque signature and/or a position/velocity/acceleration signature is reached or exceeded at the effector, which indicates/indicate that the plugging of the plug-in region into the plug-in coupling is successfully completed within predefined tolerances.

(7) Although the invention has been illustrated and explained in more detail using preferred example embodiments, the invention is not limited by the disclosed examples and other variations may be derived by one of ordinary skill in the art without extending beyond the protective scope of the invention. It is thus clear that a plurality of variation options exists. It is likewise clear that example embodiments actually only represent examples, which are not to be interpreted in any manner as a limitation, for example, of the protective scope, the use options, or the configuration of the invention. In fact, the previous description and the description of figures should make one of ordinary skill in the art capable of specifically implementing the example embodiments, wherein one of ordinary skill in the art with knowledge of the disclosed concept of the invention can undertake various changes, for example, with respect to the function or the arrangement of individual elements listed in an example embodiment, without going beyond the scope of protection, which is defined by the claims and the legal equivalents thereof such as, for example, more extensive explanations in the description.