Industrial robot and method for controlling the robot to automatically select which program code to be executed next
AssigneeABB Schweiz AG
InventorsAnnika Hedlund, Ivan Lundberg, Jonathan Styrud, Martin Nordvall, Ralph Sjöberg, Tomas Groth
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An industrial robot including a manipulator and a robot control unit are disclosed, wherein the manipulator includes a plurality of joints that are moved under the control of the control unit, and the control unit includes a storage medium including program code for controlling the motions of the robot when executed by the control unit. The control unit is configured to automatically select which part of the program code to be executed next based on the position of the robot. A method for controlling the robot is also disclosed.
Claims14
A method for controlling an industrial robot comprising a manipulator and a control unit including program code for causing the robot to perform a plurality of tasks by controlling the motions of the manipulator, wherein the method includes:
- defining a plurality of locations in the surroundings of the robot, each of the locations being assigned a part of the program code,
- determining that the robot has been moved by a user to a new position when execution of the program code has been interrupted,
- automatically selecting which part of the program code is to be executed next based on the closeness between the new position of the manipulator and the defined locations, including automatically selecting which task to be executed next based on the new position, and
- upon command executing the selected part of the program code.
An industrial robot including:
- a manipulator and a robot control unit,
- wherein the manipulator includes a plurality of joints that are moved under the control of the control unit, and the control unit includes a storage medium including program code for causing the robot to perform a plurality of tasks by controlling the motions of the manipulator when executed by the control unit,
- wherein a plurality of locations in the surroundings of the robot have been defined, each of the locations being assigned a part of the program code, and
- wherein the control unit is configured to automatically select which part of the program code is to be executed next based on the closeness between a new position of the manipulator and the defined locations when execution of the program code has been interrupted, including being configured to automatically select which task to be executed next based on the new position, and wherein the control unit is configured to execute the selected part of the program code upon command.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.