Patent ID: 9612727
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: B25J,G05B,G06F

Claim:
1. A task changing apparatus that changes a task program executed by a robot, comprising: a storage unit that stores a task program including a plurality of hierarchical levels arranged in a tree-like structure representing a plurality of pieces of task information executed by the robot and lower-order task information associated with the task information; a display control unit that causes the task information to be displayed on a display screen of a display unit so as to allow setting of the task information, the task information being associated with each other for each hierarchical level of the task program stored in the storage unit; and a change unit that changes the task program for the robot based on a series of pieces of task information set on the display screen of the display unit, wherein: the task program stored in the storage unit configures the task information in the plurality of hierarchical levels, the task information including a plurality of task methods associated with each other in each hierarchical level indicating a task content of the robot, a higher-order task in the task program being recursively deployed and defined into a plurality of lower-order tasks, upon determining that the robot performs a preset task and is in an unworkable state during the process of an operation thereof, the display control unit causes message information for notifying the unworkable state to be displayed on the display screen of the display unit, and causes the task information to be displayed on the display screen of the display unit so as to allow setting of the task information, the task information being associated with each other for each hierarchical level of the task program, and the display control unit performs at least one of: (A) on the display screen of the display unit, displaying the plurality of task methods side by side in a selectable manner in order to change the task method to a different task method, and (B) on the display screen of the display unit displaying the plurality of task methods, displaying, when one of the displayed task methods is selected, a variable list for changing a variable associated with the selected task method, and displaying, when one of the variables in the variable list is selected, a change menu for changing the selected variable.