Patent ID: 9731392
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: B23Q,B25J,G05B

Claim:
1. A method of aligning a robot arm with a robotic tool, wherein a master unit of a tool changer is affixed to the robot arm and a tool unit of the tool changer is affixed to the robotic tool, comprising: sensing a spatial orientation of the tool unit along three orthogonal axes; adjusting an orientation of the robot arm to align the master unit to the sensed spatial orientation of the tool unit with respect to the three orthogonal axes; projecting one or more optical indicators from one of the master and tool units to the other; and adjusting a position of the robot arm in two orthogonal directions transverse to a coupling axis centered on the tool unit, in response to the one or more optical indicators, so as to center the master unit on the coupling axis; and moving the robot arm along the coupling axis until the master unit contacts the tool unit.