Painting robot

A painting robot for painting a vehicle, comprising:

• a painting head unit, wherein the painting head unit includes:
• a painting head, wherein the painting head includes:
• a plurality of nozzles for ejecting paint droplets;
• a robot arm, wherein the robot arm includes:
• a tip mounted with the painting head unit, and the robot arm is configured for moving the painting head unit to a desired position;
• a paint supply mechanism disposed between the robot arm and the painting head unit;
• and
• a control unit for controlling a drive of the robot arm and the paint supply mechanism;
• wherein the paint supply mechanism comprises:
• a paint circulation channel disposed between the robot arm and the painting head unit to recover paint not dispensed from the painting head unit while supplying the paint to the painting head unit;
• a paint transfer means disposed in a middle portion of the paint circulation channel, for providing and recovering the paint between a reservoir site of the paint and the painting head unit;
• and
• a regulating valve disposed midway through the paint circulation channel and being configured to be adjustable to open and close an internal flow path of the paint circulation channel;
• and
• wherein the control unit comprises:
• a control memory in which a pressure set point is stored;
• a feedback control unit for controlling operation of at least one of the paint transfer means and the regulating valve, by calculating a pressure calculation value for executing feedback control of the operation of at least one of the paint transfer means and the regulating valve, so as to be the pressure set point read from the control memory;
• and
• a feedforward control unit for controlling the operation of the at least one of the paint transfer means and the regulating valve, by correcting the calculated pressure calculation value with a compensating pressure value in an opposite direction to an expected pressure fluctuation with respect to the pressure set point, based on a trigger signal related to a change of state of the painting head unit;
• wherein the paint circulation channel comprises:
• a paint supply channel for providing paint to the painting head;
• and
• a return channel connected to a paint discharge side of the painting head to recover the paint not dispensed from the nozzle;
• wherein the paint transfer means comprises:
• a paint supply means mounted at a predetermined position on the robot arm and disposed midway through the paint supply channel and applying pressure to supply the paint to the painting head based on control at the control unit;
• and
• a paint recovery means mounted in a predetermined position of the robot arm and disposed midway through the return channel and applying pressure downstream of the return channel to recover the paint not dispensed from the painting head based on control at the control;
• and
• wherein the feedforward control unit operates the paint supply means, by correcting the calculated pressure calculation value with the compensating pressure value for correcting the paint supply means to increase the driving force, based on the trigger signal related to the start of discharge of the paint from the discharge stop state of the paint from the painting head.