Setting synchronized robot movements

Abstract

An inventive programming means for programming a movement of a robot axis arrangement and a movement of at least one further robot axis arrangement is adapted to synchronize the pair of positions of the movement of the robot axis arrangement and the pairs of positions of the movement of at least one more robot axis arrangement, and while maintaining this synchronization, to specify at least another position between either one of these pairs of positions, which is not synchronized with another position of the hereby synchronized pair of positions.

Claims

1. A computer for programming a movement of a first robot axis arrangement along a first globally predefined path and a movement of at least one second robot axis arrangement along a second globally predefined path, the computer comprising a non-transitory storage medium including program code that, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to: synchronize a pair of predetermined positions of the movement of the first robot axis arrangement on the first path and a pair of predetermined positions of the movement of the at least one second robot axis arrangement on the second path, and while maintaining synchronization between the predetermined positions on the first and second paths, to specify at least one other position of the movement of the first or second robot axis arrangements between either one of the synchronized pairs of positions, wherein the at least one other position is not synchronized with another position between the synchronized pairs of positions of the first and second robot axis arrangements.

2. The computer according to claim 1, wherein a robot axis arrangement comprises one or more robots.

3. The computer of claim 2, wherein the robot axis arrangement comprising one or more robots comprises at least one of front or rear axes of at least one robot.

4. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the computer globally specifies a movement between a start position and an end position.

5. The computer according to claim 4, wherein the pairs of positions of the movement of the first and second robot axis arrangements corresponds to the start positions and the end positions or is disposed between the start positions and the end positions.

6. The computer of claim 4, wherein the computer globally specifies the movement based on at least one spline function between the start position and the end position.

7. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the computer selectively modifies the synchronization between the pairs of positions of the movement of at least two robot axis arrangements.

8. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the computer synchronizes positions wherein the first and second robot axis arrangements do not have to stop at a predetermined position.

9. The computer according to claim 1, wherein movement of the first and second robot axis arrangements is globally specified based on spline functions.

10. The computer of claim 1, wherein the computer specifies the movement of the first robot axis arrangement and the movement of the at least one second robot axis arrangement as a whole, and not in a step-by-step manner.

11. A method for programming a movement of a first robot axis arrangement along a first globally predefined path and a movement of at least one second robot axis arrangement along a second globally predefined path by a computer having a non-transitory storage medium, the method comprising: synchronizing a pair of predetermined positions of the movement of the first robot axis arrangement on the first path and a pair of predetermined positions of the movement of the at least one second robot axis arrangement on the second path, and while maintaining synchronization between the predetermined positions on the first and second paths, specifying at least one other position of the movement of the first or second robot axis arrangements between one of the pairs of synchronized positions, wherein the at least one other position is not synchronized with another position between the synchronized pairs of positions of the first and second robot axis arrangements.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computer specifies the movement of the first robot axis arrangement and the movement of the at least one second robot axis arrangement as a whole, and not in a step-by-step manner.

13. A computer program product having program code stored on a non-transitory machine readable data medium, the program code configured to, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: synchronize a pair of predetermined positions of the movement of a first robot axis arrangement along a first globally predefined path and a pair of predetermined positions of the movement of at least one second robot axis arrangement along a second globally predefined path, and while maintaining synchronization between the predetermined positions on the first and second paths, to specify at least one other position of the movement of the first or second robot axis arrangements between either one of the synchronized pairs of positions, wherein the at least one other position is not synchronized with another position between the synchronized pairs of positions of the first and second robot axis arrangements.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer specifies the movement of the first robot axis arrangement and the movement of the at least one second robot axis arrangement as a whole, and not in a step-by-step manner.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Other advantages and features will become apparent from the dependent claims and the embodiments. This is shown, partially in schematic form as follows:

(2) FIG. 1A: shows the synchronized movements of two robot axis arrangements according to a known in-house approach;

(3) FIG. 1B: shows the synchronized movements of two robot axis arrangements according to another known in-house approach; and

(4) FIG. 2: shows the synchronized movements of three robot axis arrangements according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) FIGS. 1A, 1B show, as observed in the introduction above, the timings of two robot axis arrangements, for ease of understanding, each with only one robot axis q1 or q2, wherein the two axes are synchronized at the times Ti, T(i+1), T(i+2), . . . , i.e., there are in each case (consecutive) times, in which robot axes q1, q2 are the respective predetermined positions. In FIG. 1A, the robot axis q2 moves slower, wherein it uses for the specified movement q2(T(i+1))q2Ti the traversing time T(i+1) required for the robot axis q1, in FIG. 1B, it moves at the maximum speed and acceleration, waiting for the robot axis q1.

(6) FIG. 2 showsin contrast to FIG. 1 not over time but in the revolute coordinate or work spacewhich are defined by spline functions between the initial positions q1_0, q2_0 or q3_0 and the end positions q1_4, q2_5 or q3_3.

(7) These start and end positions together form synchronized outer pairs of positions. By an inventive programming means or by a method according to the invention, on these spline functions there can be optionally specified further positions, for example, the positions (as depicted in FIG. 2) q1_1, q1_2, q1_3, q2_1 to q2_4 and q3_1, q3_2. The (relative to the outer pairs of positions) inner positions q1_1, q2_1, and q3_1 and q1_3, q2_3 q3_2 and subsequently synchronized, for example, by commands such as

(8) WITH $Sync_id[ ]=Mj

(9) with the identical identification Mj in all movements sequences of commands, while other positions q1_2, q2_2 and q2_4 can be specifiedwhile maintaining this synchronizationeither between these pairs of positions (q1_0, q2_0, q3_0; 20 q1_1, q2_1, q3_1), (q1_1, q2_1, q3_1; q1_3, q2_3, q3_2) and (q1_3, q2_3, q3_2; q1_4, q2_5, q3_3), in particular between the outer pairs of positions (q1_0, q2_0, q3_0; q1_4, q2_5, q3_3) that are not synchronized with another position between another movement.

(10) One can see that, for example, by the optional programming of unsynchronized positions q1_2, q2_2 and q2_4, the movements of the robot axes q1, q2 can be changed without requiring, as was the case previously, any synchronous dummy positions to be specified in the movement especially of the robot axis q3. Without such dummy positions, whose programming is complex and error-prone, the movement of the robot axis q3 can be particularly flexiblyand thus betteroptimized.

(11) By way of example, let us explain an implementation: the first three movements can be specified, for example, using the path parameters sj, on which the spline functions are defined:

(12) qj=q(sj)

(13) Then these path parameters sj can be so determined that the preset positions to be synchronized are present at the same time:

(14) sj(t) so that qj(sj(Ti))=qk_i for (i, k)={1, 2, 3};

(15) In this way, optionally other positions can be specified by the global programming of movements based on spline functions. If these are to be synchronized, this can be achieved by additional conditions stated above, without the need to be partially synchronized from the beginning onward and thereby specifying dummy positions. Similarly, existing synchronizations can be cancelled. In particular, while maintaining the external synchronization optionally further positions can be specified between the outer pairs of positions, which are not synchronized with other positions of a movement of another robot axis.

(16) It is evident that, in addition, no holds need to be specified for the positions to be synchronizedrather, in the synchronization times Ti . . . a non-zero path velocity d(sj)/dt can be available, in particular be specified.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

(17) qi_j Pose j of the robot axis i