Bending robot and method for detecting workpiece
AssigneeAmada Holding Co., Ltd.
InventorsTetsuaki Kato, Atsushi Yamagishi, Daiya Uchida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A bending robot takes out a workpiece stored on a stacker while contacting its end face with a storage reference flat plane of the stacker, and then supplies it to a bending machine. The bending robot includes a main body movable parallel to the storage reference flat plane, an arm portion supported by the main body and capable of positioning above the stacker, and a distance sensor provided in the arm portion for measuring a distance to the workpiece stored on the stacker in a contactless manner. According to the bending robot, bending can be done with high efficiency.
Claims3
A bending robot configured to remove a workpiece stored on a stacker and then to supply the workpiece to a bending machine, the workpiece being stacked on a bottom plate of the stacker, the stacker further including a wall plate having a storage reference flat plane extending upwardly from the bottom plate and configured to contact an end face of the workpiece, the bending robot comprising:
- a main body movable parallel to the storage reference flat plane;
- an arm portion supported by the main body and configured to be positioned above the stacker;
- and
- a distance sensor provided in the arm portion and configured to measure a distance to the workpiece stored on the stacker in a contactless manner, wherein
- the main body moves parallel to the storage reference flat plane;
- and
- the distance sensor measures on a measurement path in a vicinity of the storage reference flat plane.
A method for detecting whether or not a workpiece is stored on a stacker that stores the workpiece to be supplied to a bending machine by a bending robot, the method comprising:
- providing, in the stacker, a bottom plate on which the workpiece is to be stacked and a wall plate having a storage reference flat plane that is raised from the bottom plate and with which an end face of the workpiece is to be contacted;
- preliminarily providing, in the bending robot, a main body that is movable parallel to the storage reference flat plane, an arm portion that is supported by the main body and capable of positioning above the stacker, and a distance sensor that is provided in the arm portion and capable of measuring a distance to the workpiece stored on the stacker in a contactless manner;
- moving the main body parallel to the storage reference flat plane and measuring a distance along a measurement path in a vicinity of the storage reference flat plane by the distance sensor;
- and
- judging that the workpiece is stored on the stacker when two electric current values or electric voltage values are measured in the distance-measurement of the measuring.
A workpiece supply apparatus comprising:
- a stacker for storing a workpiece, the stacker comprising:
- a bottom plate configured to stack the workpiece;
- and
- a wall plate having a storage reference plane extending upwardly from the bottom plate and configured to contact an end face of the workpiece;
- a bending robot configured to remove the workpiece stored on the stacker and then to supply the workpiece to a bending machine, the bending robot comprising:
- a main body movable parallel to the storage reference flat plane;
- an arm portion supported by the main body and configured to be positioned above the stacker;
- and
- a distance sensor provided in the arm portion and configured to measure a distance to the workpiece stored on the stacker in a contactless manner, wherein
- the main body moves parallel to the storage reference flat plane;
- and
- the distance sensor measures on a measurement path in a vicinity of the storage reference flat plane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.