JPH10249775A - Robot hand finger - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a robot hand finger capable of reducing its manufacturing cost for molding material and a core. SOLUTION: For a robot hand finger, a hollow bag shaped finger former A with the base end open and a preset length of part as a bellows 15 is molded of elastic resin and bent and deformed with the supply pressure of fluid from a fluid supply part into a hollow part to be elastically recovered with the discharge of the fluid while the base end of the finger former A is supported by a supporting member. The finger former A is molded for the bellows 15 to be formed in a circularly annular shape on all periphery of the finger former A. A limiting means 2 is provided to limit the annular bellows 15 to elongate in peripheral part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hollow bag-shaped finger forming body having an open base end and a bellows-shaped portion having a predetermined length formed by molding an elastic resin material. The present invention relates to a finger for a robot hand configured to bend and deform by a supply pressure of a fluid from a fluid supply unit to a hollow interior in a state where the unit is supported by a support member, and to restore elasticity by discharging the fluid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a finger for a robot hand,
As shown in FIG. 1 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-300288, a pair of bellows 18 are formed in such a manner that a pair of bellows 18 are separately formed on a part of the finger forming body 1 at the base end side and the tip end side in the circumferential direction. The body has been molded, and therefore, at the stage of molding, the bending posture (bending degree) and bending direction of the finger forming body are constant.
It was decided in a certain direction.

[0003]

The molding is a molding means for injecting a liquid elastic resin material between the molding material and the core to solidify the resin material. An elastic resin material is injected between the mold and the core while the base end of one of the cores manufactured together is cantilevered by a mold or the like, and the finger-forming body is moved from the base end to the distal end. It is molded into a single piece that is continuous over its entire length.

According to the above-mentioned conventional configuration, since the bending posture and the bending direction of the finger are determined to be a fixed posture and a fixed direction at the stage of molding, a plurality of types of robot hands having different bending postures and the like are provided. To manufacture a finger, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of sets of molds and cores with different positions of the mold surface corresponding to the bellows. The production cost was high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a finger for a robot hand which can reduce the manufacturing cost required for a mold and a core.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

[Structure] The characteristic structure of the invention according to claim 1 is that, in the finger for the robot hand described at the beginning, the bellows is molded into a state in which the bellows is formed in a ring shape over the entire circumference of the finger body, The present invention is characterized in that a restricting means for restricting the extension of the annular bellows in a part in the circumferential direction is provided.

[0007] A characteristic feature of the invention according to claim 2 is that, in the invention according to claim 1, the annular bellows is provided at a plurality of portions in a longitudinal direction of the finger forming body.

[0008] A characteristic feature of the invention according to claim 3 is that, in the invention according to claim 1 or 2, the restricting means is provided at different circumferential portions at a plurality of longitudinal positions of the finger forming body. is there.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first, second, and third aspects, the restricting means fills a groove in an outer surface side of the bellows to fill the groove. And that it is integrated.

A feature of the invention according to claim 5 is that, in the invention according to claim 4, the padding is formed by integrally forming a plurality of projections to be individually packed into the plurality of grooves. .

A feature of the invention according to claim 6 is that, in the invention according to claim 4 or 5, the outer surface of the filling is positioned on a line connecting both bellows top surfaces adjacent to the filling and the outer surface is smoothed. It is formed on the surface.

A feature of the invention according to claim 7 is that, in the invention according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the cross-sectional shape of the bellows is circular. is there.

[Operation] According to the configuration of the first aspect, the following operations [A] and [B] can be obtained. [B] Since the bellows is molded so that the bellows is formed in a ring shape around the entire circumference of the finger body, the bending posture (bending degree) and bending direction of the finger body at the stage of molding. However, the bending posture and the bending direction of the finger forming body can be determined by providing the limiting means for limiting the extension of the bellows in the circumferential direction.

[B] If the position where the restricting means is provided is made different in the longitudinal direction and the circumferential direction for each finger forming body, the bending posture and bending direction of each finger forming body can be made different. In other words, when manufacturing a plurality of types of robot hand fingers having different bending postures and the like, there is no need to prepare a plurality of sets of mold members and cores having different positions of the mold surface portion corresponding to the bellows, and one type of It can be handled with a mold and a core.

[C] According to the structure of claim 2, in addition to the function similar to the function of the structure of claim 1, the following function can be achieved. Since annular bellows are provided at a plurality of portions in the longitudinal direction of the finger forming body,
The finger forming body can be bent at a plurality of portions in the longitudinal direction, and the bending posture can be approximated to a smooth curve. In a robot hand having this finger forming body, particularly, a spherical or cylindrical round object is used. Can be firmly gripped.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the same operation as the operation of the first or second aspect can be obtained, and in addition, different points in the longitudinal direction of the finger forming body are provided. Since the restricting means is provided at the circumferential portion, not only the finger forming body can be simply bent in one direction, but also the finger forming body portions divided by the restricting means are bent in different directions from each other. Can be done.

For example, as shown in FIG. 9 (a), the bellows 15 on the base end side of the finger forming body A is provided with the limiting means 2 on the side opposite to the gripping surface (this limiting means 2 is provided on the bellows 15). Groove 1
0 is packed with the padding 11 and adhered to the groove 10). The bellows 15 near the middle and the tip side is provided with the restricting means 2 on the gripping surface side. As shown in FIG. 9 (b), the bending posture is such that the base end side is warped to the side opposite to the gripping surface, and is bent toward the abdomen at the middle part, and a plurality of the finger forming bodies A are provided. In the robot hand, the object to be gripped can be inserted deep into the base end side of the finger forming body A and held and held.

[E] According to the configuration of claim 4, in addition to the same operation as the operation of any one of the above-described claims 1, 2 and 3, in addition to the above, the limiting means can
Since the stuffing is stuffed into the groove on the outer surface side of the bellows and integrated with the groove, for example, it is compared with a case where the finger forming portions located on both sides of the bellows are connected by a string member to constitute the limiting means. Thus, the limiting means can be easily manufactured.

[F] According to the structure of claim 5, in addition to the effect similar to the effect of the structure of claim 4, the following effect can be achieved. If the filling is formed separately for each groove, the filling is small,
In addition, although it is difficult to handle and lose easily in large numbers, according to the configuration of claim 5, the padding is formed by integrally forming a plurality of protrusions to be individually packed in the plurality of groove portions. Therefore, the stuffing can be easily handled, the stuffing operation can be easily performed, and the stuffing is hardly lost.

[G] According to the structure of claim 6, in addition to the effect similar to that of the structure of claim 4 or 5, the outer surface of the padding can be provided on both bellows adjacent to the padding. Positioned on the line connecting the surfaces, and because the outer surface is formed as a smooth surface, if the object to be gripped is a soft object such as a spherical vegetable, it is difficult to leave an indentation due to gripping on the spherical vegetable, etc., In the case where the extruded body that pushes out the object to be gripped while releasing the grip is provided in the robot hand having the finger according to the configuration of claim 6, it is possible to suppress the object to be gripped from being caught by the pushing on the outer surface.

[H] According to the configuration of claim 7, the same operation as the operation of any one of the above-mentioned claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 can be obtained. Can be achieved. As shown in FIG. 4 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-300288, the bellows 18 are formed such that the height dimension of the fold is small on both lateral sides of the finger forming body 1, and If it is formed so as to be higher as it goes to the left (on the left side in the drawing), it is possible to form an uneven portion corresponding to the above-mentioned bellows on a part of the outer peripheral surface of the core and the inner peripheral surface of the molding material in the circumferential direction. Since the uneven portion has a complicated shape, it takes time to form the uneven portion.
According to the configuration of the above, since the cross-sectional shape of the bellows is circular, it is only necessary to form a concavo-convex portion having a circular cross-section over the entire circumference of the outer peripheral surface and the inner peripheral surface. The portion has a simpler shape than the uneven portion corresponding to the raised bellows, and can be easily formed by, for example, turning.

[Effects] Therefore, according to the configuration of claim 1, when a plurality of types of fingers for a robot hand having different bending postures and bending directions are manufactured by the above operations [1] and [2], The manufacturing cost required for the mold and core can be reduced.

According to the configuration of the second aspect, the above operation (c)
Accordingly, the same effect as the effect of the configuration of the first aspect can be obtained, and in addition, it becomes difficult to drop the gripped target object.

According to the configuration of claim 3, the above operation (d)
Thus, in addition to the same effect as the effect of the configuration of claim 1 or 2, it is possible to make it more difficult for the gripped object to drop.

According to the configuration of claim 4, the above operation (e)
Thus, the same effect as the effect of any one of the first, second, and third aspects can be obtained.
The manufacturing cost of the limiting means could be reduced.

According to the configuration of claim 5, the above operation (f)
Accordingly, the same effect as the effect of the configuration of claim 4 can be obtained, and the manufacturing cost of the restricting means can be further reduced.

According to the configuration of claim 6, the above operation (g)
Thereby, in addition to the effect similar to the effect of the configuration of claim 4 or 5, the commercial value of the gripping target object decreases when the gripping target object is a soft object such as a spherical vegetable. In a case where the robot hand having the finger according to the configuration of claim 6 is provided with an extruded body for releasing the grasped object while releasing the grasping, the grasped object can be smoothly pushed out, and the pushing of the object can be smoothly performed. This makes it possible to suppress the occurrence of scratches on the object to be gripped, thereby preventing the commercial value of the object to be gripped from decreasing.

According to the configuration of claim 7, the above operation (h)
Accordingly, the same effect as the effect of any one of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth aspects can be obtained, and the manufacturing cost required for the mold and the core can be further reduced. It became so.

[0029]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a robot hand 1 which grasps and takes out a lettuce of a lettuce supply unit and sends it to a lettuce receiving unit of a packaging device (not shown). The robot hand 1 has a finger portion 3 (corresponding to a finger for a robot hand) on a swinging end of a swing arm 5 supported by a support frame (not shown) so as to be capable of swinging. Is suspended and supported.

As shown in FIG.
The outer opening 3b of the hollow bag-shaped rubber finger forming body A having an open base end and a bellows 15 at the back is externally connected to a support pipe 7 on the finger support member 6 side, 2 and 3, the base end side is fixed by tightening with a tightening ring 8.
As shown in, the compressor 9 (corresponding to the fluid supply unit)
It is configured to bend into a gripping state by the supply pressure of air into the finger portion 3 from above, and to be elastically restored to a released state by discharging air. The air supply / discharge path and the like will be described later.

The finger forming body A is molded from a rubber material (corresponding to an elastic resin material). The molding is performed in a state where the bellows 15 are formed in a circular ring shape (that is, the cross section of the bellows 15 becomes circular) over the entire circumference of the finger formation body A at a plurality of positions in the longitudinal direction of the finger formation body A. Figure 4 (a), (b),
As shown in (c), the annular uneven portion 4 corresponding to the bellows 15
Are formed on the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface.
Using the core 14, the base end of the core 14 is cantilevered by receiving portions 12B, 13B formed on the upper mold 12 and the lower mold 13, and a liquid rubber material is injected between them. This is performed by solidification (see FIGS. 4 (a), (b) and (c)).

As shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8, a plurality of grooves 10 on the outer surface side of the bellows 15 are formed in the finger forming body A.
In addition, the padding 11 is individually packed and adhered to each groove portion 10 to limit the extension of the annular bellows 15 in a part in the circumferential direction (that is, the abdomen). The outer surface of the filling 11 is a smooth surface, and the bellows top surfaces 15 adjacent to the filling 11
It is located on the line connecting a. The restricting means 2 has a structure in which a padding 11 is packed in and adhered to the groove 10.

The base end of the finger portion 3 fills the step on the gripping surface side portion of the connecting portion with the support pipe 7 and reduces the diameter of the surface facing the lettuce side as the distance from the distal end of the finger portion 3 increases. A taper portion 16 (see FIG. 5) located on the side is integrally provided.

As shown in FIG. 1, the finger supporting member 6 is formed by connecting a hollow, umbrella-shaped finger holding portion 6B at the lower end of a vertical pipe portion 6A. The structure of the piston rod 17 will now be described.
An air cylinder 19 provided with an elastically deformable lettuce extruded body 18 formed by covering a with a smooth rubber or soft resin 18b (driven by the compressor 9)
While supporting the lettuce extruded body 18 from the vertical pipe portion 6A to the hollow portion of the finger holding portion 6B so that the lettuce extruded body 18 protrudes and retreats from the support member portion surrounded by the base end sides of the plurality of finger portions 3. The piston rod 17 is inserted through the oval hole 21A of the bracket 21 attached to the bottom plate 20 of the finger support member 6, and the lettuce that has been released or almost released can be pushed into the lettuce receiving portion side of the packaging device. It is. The lettuce extruded body 18 is formed with a cutout portion 18A that allows each finger portion 3 in a gripped state to enter the finger portion 3 separately.

As shown in FIG. 2, an air accommodating space 23 is formed between the cylinder tube 22 of the air cylinder 19 and the vertical pipe portion 6A, and
And the air accommodating space 23 are connected to each other via a first hose 24, and a plurality of portions of the air accommodating cavity 23 and the base end side opening of each finger portion 3 are connected to a plurality of second
Each is connected to each other via a hose 25 so as to supply and discharge air from the compressor 9 into each finger portion 3.

[Another Embodiment] As shown in FIG.
The padding 11 may be provided in different circumferential portions at a plurality of positions in the longitudinal direction of the finger forming body A. That is, the bellows 15 on the base end side of each finger forming body A is filled with the padding 11 in the groove 10 on the opposite side to the gripping surface (the left side surface in the drawing), and The padding 11 is packed in the groove 10 on the gripping surface side. As a result, FIG.
As shown in (b), the bending posture of each finger forming body A is such that the base end side is warped to the opposite side to the gripping surface, and is gripped and bent toward the abdominal side at the intermediate portion to form a lettuce finger. The body A can be squeezed and held deeply into the base end side.

As shown in FIG. 10, a plurality of protrusions 11A to be individually packed into a plurality of grooves 10 may be integrally formed to form the filling 11.

As shown in FIG. 11, the restricting means 12 is attached to the sheet 11 adhered to the finger forming portion 26 between the bellows 15.
May be configured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a robot hand.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an air supply / discharge system of the robot hand.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a gripping operation of a finger unit.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are views showing a state before assembling a mold member and the like at the time of molding a finger forming body; FIGS. The figure which shows the state which injected the elastic resin material into the mold material at the time of the molding of

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a finger forming body and its supporting pipe, etc.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a finger forming body.

FIG. 7A shows a state before the padding is packed in the bellows groove of the finger forming body. FIG. 7B shows a state where the padding is packed in the bellows groove of the finger forming body.

FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the bending operation of the finger forming body.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a longitudinal sectional view showing another embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Limiting Means 6 Support Member 9 Fluid Supply Unit 10 Groove 11 Filler 11A Projection 15 Bellow 15a Bellow Top A Finger Forming Body

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A hollow bag-shaped finger forming body whose base end is open and a predetermined length portion is bellows is molded from an elastic resin material, and the base end of the finger forming body is supported by a support member. In the state where it is made to bend and deform by the supply pressure of fluid from the fluid supply unit to the hollow interior,
A finger for a robot hand, which is configured to elastically recover by discharging a fluid, wherein the bellows is molded into a state in which the bellows is formed in a ring shape over the entire circumference of the finger formation, and the ring-shaped finger is formed. A finger for a robot hand provided with a restricting means for restricting extension in a part of the bellows in a circumferential direction. 2. The finger for a robot hand according to claim 1, wherein the annular bellows is provided at a plurality of positions in a longitudinal direction of the finger forming body. 3. The restricting means is provided at different circumferential positions at a plurality of positions in the longitudinal direction of the finger forming body.
Or the finger for a robot hand according to 2. 4. The robot hand according to claim 1, wherein the restricting means is configured such that a pad is packed in a groove on the outer surface side of the bellows and integrated with the groove. finger. 5. The finger for a robot hand according to claim 4, wherein the padding is formed by integrally forming a plurality of protrusions to be individually packed into the plurality of grooves. 6. The finger for a robot hand according to claim 4, wherein an outer surface of the padding is positioned on a line connecting both bellows top surfaces adjacent to the padding, and the outer surface is formed as a smooth surface. 7. The finger for a robot hand according to claim 1, wherein the bellows has a circular cross-sectional shape.