Robot Adaptive Placement System with End-Effector Position Estimation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016136812-A1
Application number	US-201514944603-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 18, 2015
Priority date	Nov 18, 2014
Publication date	May 19, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method including, based at least partially upon a command transmission to at least one motor of a robot, estimating deflection for at least one member of the robot during movement of the robot; based at least partially upon the estimated deflection, determining calculated end effector coordinates for an end effector of the robot; and based at least partially upon the calculated end effector coordinates, adjusting movement of the robot for placing a substrate, located on the robot, at a desired location.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
based at least partially upon a command transmission to at least one motor of a robot, estimating deflection for at least one member of the robot during movement of the robot; based at least partially upon the estimated deflection, determining calculated end effector coordinates for an end effector of the robot; and based at least partially upon the calculated end effector coordinates, adjusting movement of the robot for placing a substrate, located on the robot, at a desired location.

2 . A method as in claim 1 where the command transmission comprises a command torque transmission which is transmitted to the at least one motor to generate a predetermined torque vector.

3 . A method as in claim 1 where the estimated deflection for the at least one member of the robot comprises at least one of
a flexible frame member of a drive section of the robot,
a flexible drive shaft of the at least one motor,
a flexible link of an arm of the robot,
a flexible joint between links of the arm of the robot, and
an elastic belt or band of the arm of the robot.

4 . A method as in claim 1 where the estimating comprises at least one of:
estimation of flexibility effects using dynamic modeling,
estimation of flexibility effects using a state observer,
estimation of belt positioning error effects, and
direct measurement of flexibility effects using at least one auxiliary sensor.

5 . A method as in claim 1 where the estimating of the deflection is based, at least partially, upon location information from at least one sensor regarding at least one of:
a portion of the robot, and
a substrate carried by the robot.

6 . A method as in claim 5 where the adjusting of movement of the robot is based upon a combination of the calculated end effector coordinates and the location information from the at least one sensor.

7 . A method as in claim 6 where the adjusting of movement of the robot is further based upon forward kinematics determination of the end effector which subsequently provides modified estimated end effector coordinates to an adaptive placement system (APS) to determine adjusted end effector coordinates to be used to drive the at least one motor of the robot.

8 . A method as in claim 1 where adjusting movement of the robot comprises providing the calculated end effector coordinates to an adaptive placement system (APS) to determine adjusted end effector coordinates to be used to drive the at least one motor of the robot.

9 . A method as in claim 1 where the calculated end effector coordinates are provided to a robot location sensing system and/or to a substrate location sensing system, which subsequently provides modified estimated end effector coordinates to an adaptive placement system (APS) to determine adjusted end effector coordinates to be used to drive the at least one motor of the robot.

10 . An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
based at least partially upon a command transmission to at least one motor of a robot, estimating deflection for at least one member of the robot during movement of the robot;
based at least partially upon the estimated deflection, determining calculated end effector coordinates for an end effector of the robot; and
based at least partially upon the calculated end effector coordinates, adjusting movement of the robot for placing a substrate, located on the robot, at a desired location.

11 . An apparatus as in claim 10 where the command transmission comprises a command torque transmission which is transmitted to the at least one motor to generate a predetermined torque vector.

12 . An apparatus as in claim 10 where the estimated deflection for the at least one member of the robot comprises at least one of:
a flexible frame member of a drive section of the robot,
a flexible drive shaft of the at least one motor,
a flexible link of an arm of the robot,
a flexible joint between links of the arm of the robot, and
an elastic belt or band of the arm of the robot.

13 . An apparatus as in claim 10 where the estimating comprises at least one of:
estimation of flexibility effects using dynamic modeling,
estimation of flexibility effects using a state observer,
estimation of belt positioning error effects, and
direct measurement of flexibility effects using at least one auxiliary sensor.

14 . An apparatus as in claim 10 where the estimating of the deflection is based, at least partially, upon location information from at least one sensor regarding at least one of:
a portion of the robot, and
a substrate carried by the robot.

15 . An apparatus as in claim 14 where the adjusting of movement of the robot is based upon a combination of the calculated end effector coordinates and the location information from the at least one sensor.

16 . An apparatus as in claim 15 where the adjusting of movement of the robot is further based upon forward kinematics determination of the end effector which subsequently provides modified estimated end effector coordinates to an adaptive placement system (APS) to determine adjusted end effector coordinates to be used to drive the at least one motor of the robot.

17 . An apparatus as in claim 10 where the adjusting of the movement of the robot comprises providing the calculated end effector coordinates to an adaptive placement system (APS) to determine adjusted end effector coordinates to be used to drive the at least one motor of the robot.

18 . An apparatus as in claim 10 where the calculated end effector coordinates are provided to a robot location sensing system and/or to a substrate location sensing system, which subsequently provides modified estimated end effector coordinates to an adaptive placement system (APS) to determine adjusted end effector coordinates to be used to drive the at least one motor of the robot.

19 . A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for performing operations, the operations comprising:
based at least partially upon a command transmission to at least one motor of a robot, estimating deflection for at least one member of the robot during movement of the robot; based at least partially upon the estimated deflection, determining calculated end effector coordinates for an end effector of the robot; and based at least partially upon the calculated end effector coordinates, adjusting movement of the robot for placing a substrate, located on the robot, at a desired location.

Assignees

• Persimmon Technologies Corp

Inventors

• Hosek Martin
• Lipcon Jacob

Classifications

• B25J9/1605

  Simulation of manipulator lay-out, design, modelling of manipulator · CPC title

• B25J9/104

  with cables, chains or ribbons · CPC title

• Y10S901/02

  Arm motion controller · CPC title

• Y10S901/09

  Closed loop, sensor feedback controls arm movement · CPC title

• B25J9/126

  Rotary actuators · CPC title