Method and apparatus for controlling an articulated robot having redundancy

Abstract: A method of controlling an articulated robot having more than six axes and less than twelve axes, comprising: a first step in which the axes are divided into two groups each having six axes or less, and, with respect to the dividing point (P), redundant axes (11) are disposed on the side of a reference point and basic axes (12) are disposed on the side of fingers (Q); and a second step in which the dividing point (P) is regarded as a first control point and the fingers (Q) are regarded as a second control point, whereby the first control point is interpolation-controlled, and the first control point thus interpolation-controlled is regarded as a new reference point, whereby the second control point is further interpolation-controlled, so that all of the axes of the articulated robot are interpolation-controlled.

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method of controlling an articulated robot having redundancy. BACKGROUND ART Recently, industrial robots are required to make more flexible movement to cope with more complex jobs, and tend to have an increased number of control axes that can be controlled simultaneously. Generally, the necessary and sufficient conditions that a robot has to meet in order to reach a desired wrist position and a desired wrist posture are that the robot have six axes. However, recent applications demand for industrial robots having redundancy which have in excess of six axes. In order for a robot wrist to make interpolated motion, the position and posture of the robot wrist on a certain path have to be controlled by the rotational angles of the respective articulations of the robot. However, since the robots having redundancy which have in excess of six axes require an enormous amount of calculations, it is difficult to process data on a real-time basis during robot operation, and such robots have not been put to practical use. As one solution to the above problems, there has heretofore been proposed a control method for determining the rotational angle of a fourth axis so that the sum of or the difference between the cosine of the rotational angle of a second axis and the cosine of the rotational angle of a sixth axis will take an extreme value in a seven-axis robot, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-42704 (or No. 42704/89). Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-16389 (or No. 16389/89) discloses a method of controlling the position and posture of a robot wrist through the reconstruction of a virtual six-axis robot with redundancy axes fixed. The conventional control methods are, however, limited to a seven-axis robot or require a robot to be controlled as a virtual six-axis robot. As the redundancy axes are temporarily stopped, not all axes are controlled simultaneously, and the robot is not controlled for flexible movement. EP-A-0 239 797 discloses a robotic arm having nine degrees of freedom (DOF). The first three DOF are controlled by a program. The last six DOF are controlled by a master/slave arrangement by an operator watching the arm via a monitor. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 5(1989) August No. 4 (Seraji, H.) pages 472-490 describes a method of calculating the positions of each joint in an robotic arm having redundancy. In view of the aforesaid drawbacks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling an articulated robot so that all axes of the robot can be controlled simultaneously. According to the present invention, a method of controlling an articulated robot having in excess of six axes and up to twelve axes, comprises the steps of dividing the axes into two groups each composed of six axes or less, those axes which are positioned on one side of a dividing point closely to a reference point serving as redundancy axes, those axes which are positioned on the other side of the dividing point closely to a robot wrist as basic axes and controlling the dividing point, as a first control point, by way of interpolation, and controlling the robot wrist, as a second control point, by way of interpolation with the controlled first control point regarded as a new reference point. The axes ranging from the reference point to the first control point comprise six axes or less, and the axes ranging from the first control point to the second control point also comprise six axes or less. The first control point is controlled by way of interpolation, and the second control point is controlled by way of interpolation with reference to the first control point that has been controlled by way of interpolation, each interpolation is controlled according to the conventional control method. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an apparatus to carry out a method of controlling an articulated robot according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram showing first and second control points; FIG. 3 is a diagram showing FIG. 2 in detail; and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the control method according to the invention. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION According to the present invention, it is assumed that, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a total of twelve axes are divided into two groups each composed of six axes, and a control point P as a first control point for redundancy axes 11 and a control point Q as a second control point (robot wrist) for basic axes 12 are indicated by P 1 , Q 1 and P 2 , Q 2 in the respective groups. The control point Q at the robot wrist is controlled to make linearly interpolated motion. Now, the method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1. Pulse data for the respective axes of the robot, which indicate the second control points Q 1 , Q 2 are taken from a memory 1, and forwardly converted by a forward converter 2, thus calculating position and posture data for the control points P 1 , Q 1 , P 2 , Q 2 . These calculations will not be described as it is known that they can be effected if the axis arrangement of the robot and the rotational angles of the respective axes are given. The known technology is described in detail in ROBOT MANIPULATORS Mathematics, Programming, and Control by Richard P. Paul, the MIT Press (translated book: ROBOT MANIPULATORS, published by Corona Co.). With respect to the control point Q at the robot wrist, calculations for linear interpolation from Q 1 to Q 2 are effected by an interpolation calculating unit 4. At this time, a matrix that represents the position and posture of an ith control point Qi with respect to a dividing number n is indicated by Ti (i = 1, ..., n), as shown in FIG. 4. Furthermore, calculations for the control point P for the redundancy axes to make interpolated motion from P1 to P2 are effected by an interpolation calculating unit 3. This interpolated motion is not limited to linearly interpolated motion, but may be joint motion, linearly interpolated motion, or circularly interpolated motion depending on the application in which the robot is used. A matrix that represents the position and posture of an ith control point Pi with respect to the dividing number n is indicated by Si (i = 1, ..., n). When the matrix Si is inputted to a reverse converter 5 which calculates rotational angles  1 ∼  6 of the redundancy axes. These calculations may be carried out according to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 62-193786 (or No. 193786/87). Rotational angles  7 ∼  12 of the basic axes are calculated by inputting Ui, which is produced by the following matrix calculations, to the reverse converter 6: Ti = Si . Ui Ui = Si -1. Ti (i = 1, ..., n). These calculations may also be carried out according to the method disclosed in the above Laid-Open publication. The calculated rotational angles  1 ∼  12 are then supplied to a position command unit 7, whose output signals are applied to servoamplifiers for the respective axes for controlling all the axes of the articulated robot. With the present invention, as described above, the axes of the articulated robot are divided into groups composed of six axes or less, and the first and second control points are established, with the second control point being controlled with reference to the first control point. Therefore, the control method is not limited to a seven-axis robot, or is not required to control the robot as a virtual six-axis robot with the redundancy axes temporarily stopped. Accordingly, the control method makes it possible to control the robot to make various interpolated motions for flexible robot movement while controlling the twelve axes simultaneouly.

Claims: A method of controlling the movement of an articulated robot having seven to twelve axes, comprising the steps of: dividing the axes into a first group (11) comprising upto six axes positioned between a reference point and a first control point (P) both points being on said robot and a second group (12) comprising upto six axes between the first control point (P) and a second control point (Q) located on a robot wrist remote from the reference point, said first group (11) serving as redundancy axes and said second group (12) serving as basic axes; controlling the movement of the first control point (P) of said robot by performing an interpolation calculation based on said reference point to provide for an interpolated motion of said first control point (P); and controlling the second control point (Q) of said robot to control the robot wrist by performing a second interpolation calculation, wherein the second interpolation calculation is calculated using the first control point (P) as the reference point to provide interpolated motion of the second control point (Q). The method according to claim 1, wherein the movements of the first group (11) and second group (12) are calculated simultaneously. An articulated robot having seven to twelve axes sequentially spaced along the robot from a reference point, the axes being divided into a first group (11) of upto six axes between the reference point and a first control point (P) on the robot and a second group (12) of upto six axes between the first control point (P) and a second control point (Q) on a robotic wrist of the robot, characterized in that the first control point (P) is movable by first means (1, 2, 3, 5) calculating an interpolated motion based on the reference point and the second control point (Q) is movable by second means (1, 2, 4, 6) calculating an interpolated based motion on the first control point (Q). The robot of claim 3, wherein the first group (11) and the second group (12) are movable simultaneously and the first means (1, 2, 3, 5) and second means (1, 2, 4, 6) calculate the interpolation movements simultaneously.

Inventors: MINAMI YOSHIKATSU, TANAKA MASATO, MINAMI, YOSHIKATSU,, TANAKA, MASATO,, MINAMI, YOSHIKATSU, YAHATA PLANT, KK YASKAWA DENKI, TANAKA, MASATO, YAHATA PLANT, K.K. YASKAWA DENKI
Applicants: YASKAWA DENKI SEISAKUSHO KK, KABUSHIKI KAISHA YASKAWA DENKI SEISAKUSHO
Application year: 1991
Main classification: G05B19
IPC codes: B25J9, G05B19