Industrial robot

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016368137-A1
Application number	US-201615185950-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 17, 2016
Priority date	Aug 9, 2012
Publication date	Dec 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention is to provide an industrial robot, which is placed in vacuum for use, capable of efficiently cooling down hand- or arm-driving motors which are arranged inside the arm in air. The industrial robot is provided with a motor for rotating a second arm unit with respect to a first arm unit, a motor for rotating a hand with respect to the second arm unit, a reduction gear for reducing the rotation of the motor and transmitting it to the second arm unit, and a reduction gear for reducing the rotation of the motor and transmitting it to the hand; the hand and the arm are placed in vacuum. The reduction gears and are coaxially arranged so that the center of rotation of the second arm unit with respect to the first arm unit coincides with the axial centers of the reduction gears. The interior space of the hollow first arm unit is kept at atmospheric pressure in which the motors and the reduction gears are arranged.

First claim

1 .- 6 . (canceled)

7 . A method for returning an industrial robot to an original position, comprising:
setting coordinates of a temporary current position of said industrial robot which has stopped with its coordinates lost; moving said industrial robot to a predetermined position; and returning said industrial robot is automatically said original position.

8 . The method for returning an industrial robot to an original position as set forth in claim 7 , wherein
said industrial robot is provided with a hand on which an object-to-be-handled is mounted, an arm comprising multiple arm units rotatably linked to each other and the front end of which said hand is rotatably linked to, multiple arm-driving motors for rotating said multiple arm units, and a hand-driving motor for rotating said hand; in the setting coordinates of a temporary current position, the coordinates representing a temporary current position of the center of rotation of said hand with respect to said arm are set; in the moving said industrial robot, said industrial robot is moved to a position at which a storage unit storing said objects-to-be-handled and said hand with said object-to-be-handled do not interfere with each other when said industrial robot is being returned.

9 . The method for returning an industrial robot to an original position as set forth in claim 8 ,
wherein a portable teaching operation terminal is connected with said industrial robot to teach said industrial robot the operation position; and in the setting coordinates of a temporary current position, the coordinates representing a temporary current position of said center of rotation of said hand which an operator has visually confirmed and determined are input to said teaching operation terminal to set the temporary current position of the center of rotation of said hand.

10 . The method for returning an industrial robot to an original position as set forth in claim 8 ,
wherein, when viewed in the top-bottom direction which is the axial direction of the rotation of said hand, said hand moves in a straight line to take said object-to-be-handled into said storage unit or to take said object-to-be-handled out of said storage unit; in the moving said industrial robot, said industrial robot is made to perform a linear interpolation move so that said hand is moved in the direction, in which said hand was moving during the time of taking said object-to-be-handled in and out, as viewed in the top-bottom direction.

11 . The method for returning an industrial robot to an original position as set forth in claim 8 ,
wherein, in the setting coordinates of a temporary current position, the coordinates representing a temporary current position of the center of rotation of said hand viewed in the top-bottom direction can be set by either coordinates of a cylindrical coordinate system or coordinates of a rectangular coordinate system, which are specified in a plane orthogonal to the top-bottom direction which is the axial direction of the rotation of said hand, and the coordinates representing a temporary current position of the center of rotation of said hand viewed in the top-bottom direction are set by the coordinates of said cylindrical coordinate system or the coordinates of said rectangular coordinate system.

12 . The method for returning an industrial robot to an original position as set forth in claim 8 ,
wherein said industrial robot is provided with an operation member to operate said industrial robot in said moving step; and in the moving said industrial robot, said industrial robot is operated by a jogging operation by which said industrial robot moves while an operator of said industrial robot is operating said operation member and stops when said operator stops operating said operation member.

13 . An industrial robot comprising:
a hand on which an object-to-be-handled is mounted; an arm comprising multiple arm units which are rotatably linked to each other and also linked to said hand with the front end thereof; multiple arm motors structured to rotate said multiple arm units; and a hand-driving motor structured to rotate said hand; wherein a temporary current position setting means is provided to set the coordinates representing a temporary current position of said center of rotation of said hand of said industrial robot which has stopped, having lost the coordinates of the current position of the center of rotation of said hand with respect to said arm.

14 .- 23 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Nidec Sankyo Corp

Inventors

• Yazawa Takayuki
• Masuzawa Yoshihisa
• Tanabe Tomoki
• Watanabe Hirokazu

Classifications

• H10P72/3302

  Mechanical parts of transfer devices · CPC title

• Y10S901/48

  Counterbalance · CPC title

• H01L21/67742

  Electricity · mapped topic

• B25J19/0054

  Cooling means · CPC title

• Y10S901/25

  Gearing · CPC title