JPH10128693A - Communication interface device for robot device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily cope with changing of a communication system to external equipment. SOLUTION: A robot controller 4 is constituted by a robot control part 9 and a communication control part 7. In the communication control part 7, a dual port RAM17 is provided, to this dual port RAM17, access can be made by the robot control part 9 and the communication control part 7. In the communication control part 7, when a data is input through a network, the input data is written in a prescribed area of the dual port RAM17. The robot control part 9 reads a data from the prescribed area of the dual port RAM117, to control a robot device. The robot control part 9, when a data is output to the outside, writes this data in a prescribed area of the dual port RAM17. In the communication control part 7, a data stored in the dual port RAM17 by the robot control part 9 is output to the outside.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication interface device of a robot device for matching data communication between the robot device and an external device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, FA at a factory production site
In the environment, various sequencers, robot controllers,
Data is transferred between the measuring devices, and the connection of each device is roughly divided into either a parallel system or a serial system.

[0003] The parallel system has been widely used for some time, but recently, the serial system has also been widely used with the reduction of wiring, the reduction of man-hours, and the increase of the number of I / O points. Normally, when connecting by a serial method, a network is formed for each common group having the same transmission format, and there are many systems in the network at present.

In this case, since the robot controller has designed the internal hardware and software exclusively for the communication system in order to correspond to one communication system, the robot controller has been assigned to a group adopting another communication system. It could not be diverted.

[0005]

However, in recent FA production sites, production lines are frequently changed or reorganized due to the large number of products, small-quantity production, shortening of product life, and the like.
Flexible equipment and devices are needed. For this reason, the robot controller needs to be flexible as described above.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication interface device of a robot device which can easily cope with a change in a communication method with an external device.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when data is transmitted from an external device to drive the robot device, the communication control unit writes the input data into a predetermined area of the shared memory. . Then, the robot device
Reads the data written in the predetermined area of the shared memory,
Operate according to the data.

The communication control unit outputs the data written in the predetermined area of the shared memory to an external device.
The external device can confirm that the operation of the robot device has been completed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the communication state is stored in the management area of the shared memory, the robot device and the external device reliably perform data communication based on the communication state stored in the management area. Can be performed.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the I / O required by the robot device is stored in the parameter area of the shared memory.
Since the input / output points are written, the external device can set the interface conditions of the robot device based on the I / O input / output points written in the parameter area.

When the number of I / O input / output points required by the robot device is changed due to a different use environment, the changing means stores the I / O points stored in the robot device.
Change the number of / O input / output points. Then, the number of I / O I / O points written in the parameter area of the shared memory is changed, so that the external device reads the changed number of I / O I / O points through the shared memory to change the interface connection condition. Can be set. This makes it possible to easily respond to changes in the usage environment of the robot device.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 shows the appearance of the robot device and the robot controller. In FIG. 3, the robot apparatus 1 includes a plurality of servomotors 2 and pneumatic cylinders 3, and drives the predetermined servomotors 2 and pneumatic cylinders 3 in accordance with a command from the robot controller 4 to perform predetermined operations. Perform the action. The robot teaching device 5 (corresponding to the changing means of the present invention) inputs a moving position of the robot device 1 to the robot controller 4.
To instruct the operation of the robot. In addition, 6
Is an air regulator for adjusting the air pressure of the air cylinder 3.

The robot controller 4 drives the robot device 1 by inputting control data from a sequence controller (not shown) as an external device, and notifies the sequence controller of the operation state of the robot device 1. And a communication interface device therefor.

That is, a communication controller 7 (communication interface device) is provided in the robot controller 4, and a sequence controller and a communication network are connected to the communication controller 7.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the robot controller 4. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, the robot controller 4 includes a robot control unit 9 and the communication control unit 7. Here, the robot controller 9
Is mainly composed of a robot control unit CPU 10. The robot control unit CPU 10 executes operation processing for the robot apparatus 1 according to a program stored in the ROM 11, and stores work data accompanying the operation processing in the RAM 12.

The communication control unit 7 includes a communication control unit CPU1.
3 and the communication control unit CPU13.
Executes an input / output control operation of communication data through the data transmission / reception unit 15 according to a program stored in the ROM 14 and stores work data associated with the input / output control operation in the RAM 16.

In this case, as a transmission medium connected to the data transmission / reception unit 15, a twisted pair, a cable, an optical cable, a coaxial cable, or the like is used depending on a network form to be connected. Although the design is different, the robot controller 9 does not need to be changed.

Here, the robot controller 4 is configured as a slave station, and commands from a sequence controller as a master station connected to the network or contacts of I / O devices as slave stations similarly connected to the network. A predetermined operation for the robot apparatus 1 is executed by inputting an input from the sequence controller, and the completion is notified to the sequence controller via a network when the operation or the program ends.

The robot controller 9 and the communication controller 7 are separably connected. The communication control unit 7 includes a dual port RAM 17 (corresponding to the shared memory of the present invention), and the robot control unit 9 and the sequence controller exchange data via the dual port RAM 17 as described later. Has become.

FIG. 2 shows the allocation of the storage area of the dual port RAM 17. In FIG. 2, the dual port RAM 17 is divided into several blocks such as an I / O data area, a communication control unit management area, an access exclusive area, a controller management area, an output point information area, and a transmission data area. Robot control unit CP
U10 and the communication control unit CPU13 read / write data for transmission / reception based on the determined address.

In this case, each block is divided into an input data area, an output data area, a status management area, and the like.
Even if the PU 13 performs random access, data can be transferred normally.

Here, in the I / O data area, link relay information of all stations connected to the network is stored. The link relay information defines a correspondence relationship between memories represented by slot numbers (8 bits = 8 points of input / output I / O on / off states), and I / O input / output address settings correspond. This is performed based on the slot number.

The communication control unit management area includes a communication control unit 7.
The system information to be transmitted to the robot controller 9 is stored. As this system information, a terminal number of the own station, an input slot head number for instructing which slot of the link relay to read from as information to be read by the communication control unit 7, network status information, and a check code are set. ing.

The access exclusive area prevents the new information and the old information from being mixed by the robot control unit 9 reading the link area of the I / O data area while the communication control unit 7 is writing. The purpose of the communication control unit 7 to access the dual port RAM 17 when the robot control unit 9 is writing the transmission data area of the transmission data area is to store a code for identifying reading or writing. It is.

The controller management area is an area for storing system information to be transmitted by the robot controller 9 to the communication controller 7, and must be set when the network is preparing for communication.

The output point information area (corresponding to the parameter area of the present invention) is used to set the number of I / Os used by a controller as a slave station connected to a network. The assignment of the link relay by each controller is determined.

The transmission data area is an area for storing link relay information transmitted from the own station to all the stations connected on the network, and is written by the robot controller 9 and read by the communication controller 7. The storage contents of each area are held only during the power-on period.

The robot controller 9 inputs data to be read while watching the status of the status management area of each block, and moves data to be output from the data area to the output data area.

The communication control unit 7 performs input processing as follows.
The serial data sent from the outside is received by the data transmission / reception unit 15, converted into parallel data, and then sent to the input data area of the dual port RAM 17. As an output process, the parallel data in the output data area of the dual port RAM 17 is converted into serial data, and is output from the data transmitting / receiving unit 15 to the outside. Further, when an abnormality occurs in the network, the communication control unit 7 displays the abnormal state in the status management area.

According to the above configuration, the communication control unit 7
Is configured to execute data communication between the robot apparatus 1 and the sequence controller via the dual-port RAM 17, so that the hardware and software are designed differently according to the connected network configuration. However, there is no need to change the robot controller 9. Thereby, the robot control unit 9 can exchange data without knowing the communication method of the communication control unit 7 connected thereto, and the hardware and software of the robot control unit 9 can be integrated. It is possible to reduce costs by reducing the number of man-hours required for manufacturing and reducing assembly errors.

The I / O used by the robot controller 4 depends on the network type and equipment to be connected.
Since the points are different, if the use environment of the robot controller 4 changes, the I / O points used also change.

Therefore, a new parameter area is provided in the robot controller 9 so that the number of I / O input / output points can be changed. The parameters are changed from the robot teaching device 5 in FIG. Temporarily in the output point information area of the RAM 17 (only during the power-on period)
By outputting, it is possible to set an I / O score suitable for the environment used. Thus, the robot controller 4 does not need to be replaced entirely when the line is rebuilt or the like, but can be dealt with only by replacing the unit of the communication control unit 7. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the man-hour and equipment cost for replacement.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be modified or expanded as follows. The present invention may be applied to a configuration in which the robot apparatus 1 is directly controlled by the sequence controller without connecting a communication network to the robot controller 4.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an overall configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing area allocation of a dual port RAM;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a robot device and a robot controller.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is a robot device, 4 is a robot controller, 5 is a robot teaching device (change means), 7 is a communication control unit, and 17 is a dual port RAM (shared memory).

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication control unit that mediates data communication between a robot device and an external device, a shared memory accessible by the robot device and the communication control unit, wherein the communication control unit receives data from the external device. When input, the data is written to a predetermined area of the shared memory, and when the robot device writes data to a predetermined area of the shared memory, the data is output to an external device. Communication interface device for robot devices. 2. The shared memory has a management area for storing a communication state.
The communication interface device for a robot device according to claim 1, wherein data communication is executed based on a communication state stored in the management area. 3. The shared memory has a parameter area in which the number of I / O input / output points stored in the robot device is written, and a changing unit capable of changing the parameter area of the robot device by an external operation is provided. 3. The robot apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external device sets an interface connection condition of the robot apparatus by reading out the I / O input / output points stored in the robot apparatus through the shared memory. Communication interface device.