JPH07328970A - Maintaining method for robot control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly recover a robot control device installed adjacently to a robot in maintaining it. CONSTITUTION:All connectors between a failed robot control device and a robot are removed (S1, S2), a stand-by robot control device and the robot are directly connected with recovery cables (S4, S5), and software is loaded to the stand-by robot control device (S6).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a maintenance method for a robot controller, and more particularly to a maintenance method for a robot controller which enables quick recovery when a small robot controller installed adjacent to a robot fails. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a robot apparatus, a robot and a robot controller are connected by a connecting cable, and when a failure occurs in the robot controller controlling the robot, the failure location is diagnosed, The cause of the failure is individually tracked to replace the part or unit that seems to be the failure point with a spare one.

On the other hand, in order to save the installation space and the like, a robot apparatus has been developed in which the robot control apparatus is downsized and is arranged in a safety fence and adjacent to the robot. When a failure occurs in the control device as well, a failure diagnosis is performed to replace a part or unit considered to be a failure location with a spare one. In addition, the robot control device arranged adjacent to the robot is mainly composed of a rocker for mounting parts with high maintainability and a rocker for mounting parts with low maintainability.
Some of them are divided into two parts, and in such a robot control device, a rocker with high maintainability is completely replaced when a failure occurs.

As described above, particularly in the latter robot controller arranged adjacent to the robot, the robot controller itself is made small and lightweight, and is separated into two from the viewpoint of maintainability. Even if one rocker is replaced, it can be easily placed on a dolly without using a machine such as a crane or a forklift, for example, with a couple of people, and it can be easily transported to a robot. Therefore, it is easy to replace each rocker.

[0005]

However, when maintaining a robot controller installed adjacent to a robot, the robot controller is basically installed in a narrow space which is a blind spot for the operation of the robot. It is difficult to diagnose the failure point and replace the failed part or unit. In reality, the failure of the robot controller is dealt with by replacing the rocker equipped with a highly maintainable part or unit such as the controller and servo amplifier. However, even in this case, the replacement work takes, for example, ten and a dozen minutes, and the recovery takes time.

Further, for the purpose of failure diagnosis, the robot controller must be powered on. However, since the robot controller is inside the safety fence, the power must be cut off for safety. Since it is not possible to perform appropriate failure diagnosis, it was even more necessary to replace the rocker unit, which is believed to be equipped with a failed part or a failed unit.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a maintenance method for a robot controller that can be quickly restored when the robot controller installed adjacent to the robot is maintained. The purpose is to do.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a method for maintaining a robot controller when a small robot controller installed adjacent to a robot fails, in which the failed robot control is performed. Remove all the connector of the device with the robot, connect the spare robot controller that was carried to the position near the robot outside the safety fence and the robot with the recovery cable, and the spare robot controller with the failure There is provided a maintenance method for a robot controller, comprising the steps of loading software used in the robot controller.

[0009]

According to the above-mentioned means, since the robot controller is completely replaced by the cable for restoration and the necessary software is simply loaded, the time required for restoration can be greatly shortened.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a maintenance method for a robot controller according to the present invention. In this figure, when recovering a failed robot device, first remove the side plate of the robot controller adjacent to the robot and remove the connector that is electrically connected to the robot. (Step S1). Then, all the connectors connected to the robot are removed (step S2). on the one hand,
After or in parallel with the work of disconnecting the connection connector by the broken robot control device, the spare robot control device is carried by the carriage to the side of the safety fence (step S3). The connector at one end of the restoration cable is connected to the spare robot controller (step S4).

Next, the other connector of the recovery cable is connected to the connector of the cable coming out of the robot (step S5). Then, using the memory card, the software is loaded into the spare robot controller (step S6).

After that, by controlling the robot using the spare robot controller, the failed robot device can be temporarily restored. Moreover, since the work in each of these steps does not take much time, it does not take time from the failure to the recovery, and the recovery work can be quickly completed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the robot apparatus at the time of temporary restoration. In the figure, a robot 1 is provided with a robot controller 2 adjacent to it. The robot control device 2 preferably comprises a rocker 2a installed on the side of the robot 1 and a rocker 2b installed on the opposite side of the rocker 2a from the robot 1. The rocker 2a has low maintainability components such as a transformer, a breaker, and an emergency stop circuit. The rocker 2b has high maintainability components such as a control unit and a servo amplifier.
The robot 1 and the robot control device 2 are installed in a safety fence 3. Robot 1 and robot controller 2
The connector 4 that is electrically connected to the robot 1 is
It is in the rocker 2a on the side of, and by removing the side plate of the rocker 2a, the connector 4 can be pulled out of the rocker 2a and easily separated.

When the robot controller 2 fails, a spare robot controller 5 is placed on a carriage 6 and transported to the side of the safety fence 3. This spare robot controller 5 is of the same type as the failed robot controller 2,
It is composed of a rocker 5a and a rocker 5b. Here, a connector 7 for connection with the spare robot controller 5 and a connector 4 for connection with the robot 1 are connected by a cable 7 for restoration. As a result, the failed robot control device 2 is completely replaced with the spare robot control device 5.

Finally, the spare robot controller 5 includes
A spare robot controller 5 using the memory card 9
The software is loaded into. In general, the loading of software into the robot controller is often done via a floppy disk, but in the preferred embodiment, a memory card 9 with a short transfer time is used in consideration of the speed of recovery. ing.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of operations at the time of failure diagnosis. After the temporary recovery, when you have time,
First, the rocker 2b of the failed robot controller 2 is replaced with the locker 5b of the spare robot controller 5 (step S7). As a result, the failure state of the robot controller 2 can be reproduced outside the safety fence 3. Next, failure diagnosis is performed (step S8). This failure diagnosis is performed by displaying an alarm display or an error message displayed on the display of the teaching operation panel connected to the robot control device 2, or the lighting state of an alarm lamp provided on the control unit or the board of the servo amplifier. The investigation identifies the component or printed circuit board unit that appears to be defective. Then, if necessary, the component at the identified failure location is replaced (step S9). As a result, the rocker 2b of the failed robot control device 2 is completely restored. After that, in the rocker 2a of the robot control device 2, the recovery cable 7 is removed and the robot 1 and the robot control device 2 are connected by the connector 4, whereby the robot device is completely restored. Further, the rockers 5a and 2b that have been restored by replacing the parts at the failure point can be newly used as a spare robot control device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the robot apparatus. In this figure, the robot 1 is connected to a robot controller 2 via a connector 4. The robot controller 2 includes a processor board (control unit) 21, and the processor board 21 includes a processor (CPU) 21a, a read-only memory (ROM) 21b, and a random access memory (RAM) 21c. The processor board 21 is equipped with a lamp for displaying a state at the time of failure and used for failure diagnosis. Processor 2
1a controls the entire robot controller 2 according to the system program stored in the read-only memory 21b. The random access memory 21c stores various data, such as a teaching program of the robot 1 and coordinate system data. A part of the random access memory 21c is configured as a non-volatile memory, and the teaching program or coordinate system data is stored in the non-volatile memory part. The processor board 21 is connected to the bus 29.

The digital servo control circuit 22 has a bus 29.
The command from the processor board 21 is transmitted to the servo motors 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 for operating each axis in the robot 1 via the servo amplifier 23.
And 16 are passed on. The servo amplifier 23 is provided with a lamp and a 7-segment display which are used for fault diagnosis by displaying a state at the time of a fault and a fault location. In addition,
Although not shown, each servo motor 11, 12, 13, 1
4, 15 and 16 are provided with pulse coders for position detection, and those pulse signals are fed back to the digital servo control circuit 22 via the connector 4.

The serial port 24 is connected to a bus 29 and is connected to a teaching operation panel 24a with a display, for example, an RS232C device 24b such as a floppy disk device. The teaching operation panel 24a with a display is used for inputting a teaching program and the like, and when the robot controller 2 fails, an error message is displayed on the display. The RS232C device 24b is used to transfer software or the like from the outside. Further, a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) 24c is connected to the serial port 24, and the working conditions of the robot are displayed on the CRT 24c. An operation panel 25a is connected to the digital I / O 25, and its operation signal is transmitted to the processor 21a via the bus 29. Also, bus 29
I / O 25 and analog I / O connected to
Reference numeral 26 outputs a command signal from the processor 21a to another command device via these. The large-capacity memory 27 stores teaching data, working conditions other than those in use, and the like. Finally, the bus 29 has a memory card I
/ F28 is connected, and the software at the time of failure recovery can be transferred to the large capacity memory 27 via this.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, all the connectors of the failed robot controller with the robot are disconnected, the spare robot controller and the robot are connected with a cable for restoration, and the spare robot is connected. The controller was configured to load the software. Thereby, the recovery time at the time of failure can be shortened significantly. In addition, if there is time after the recovery, by exchanging the rocker mounted on the control unit, the failure diagnosis can be performed outside the safety fence.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a maintenance method for a robot controller according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a robot device at the time of temporary restoration.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of operations at the time of failure diagnosis.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a robot device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Robot 2 Robot controller 3 Safety fence 4 Connector 5 Spare robot controller 6 Cart 7 Recovery cable 8 Connector 9 Memory card

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for maintaining a robot controller when a small robot controller installed adjacent to the robot fails, wherein all connectors for connection with the robot of the failed robot controller are removed, and the outside of the safety fence. Connecting the backup robot controller and the robot carried to a position close to the robot with a cable for recovery, and loading the software used in the failed robot controller into the backup robot controller, A maintenance method for a robot controller, comprising: 2. The robot controller comprises a first rocker installed on the robot side and having low maintainability,
The robot controller maintenance method according to claim 1, further comprising: a second rocker installed on the safety fence side of the first rocker and having a highly maintainable component mounted thereon. 3. The spare robot controller in which the second rocker of the defective robot controller and the second rocker of the spare robot controller are exchanged, and the second rocker is replaced. 3. The maintenance method for the robot controller according to claim 2, further comprising the step of performing a failure diagnosis using. 4. The robot controller maintenance method according to claim 1, wherein the step of loading the software is performed by a memory card.