Method and apparatus for controlling a robot having a floating hand

摘要

A robot system for taking out workpieces from a box using a robot having a floating hand and a workpiece recognition apparatus. The workpiece recognition apparatus detects the position and inclination of a selected workpiece, and calculates a target position and a desired inclined posture of the hand. The posture is so decided that a line of intersection of the floating plane of the hand with a vertical plane containing the longitudinal axis of the workpiece, becomes parallel to a horizontal direction, and the center axis of the wrist portion becomes perpendicular to the line of intersection. Data indicating the target position and the desired inclined posture are transmitted to the robot controller of the system, so that the controller drives the servomotors of the robot in such a way that the hand moves toward the target position with a desired inclined posture. With this operation, the hand contacts with the selected workpiece at a predetermined position to pick up the workpiece.