Providing safety in a robot system
AssigneeABB Schweiz AG
InventorsRoger Mellander, Per Carlsson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A robot system includes a first group of robot controllers, each including a safety change control unit and each being connected to at least one corresponding manipulator, where one robot controller is a proxy robot controller. The safety change control unit of the proxy receives a request to manually operate at least one joint of at least one of the manipulators via a first point of manual control at one of the robot controllers and forwards it to the others, each safety change control unit determines a response to the request and at least one safety change control unit receives the responses from the other safety change control units, investigates if the responses and request match and denies the request in case at least one response does not match the request.
Claims18
A method for providing safety in a robot system, the robot system comprising a first group of robot controllers, each robot controller including a safety change control unit and being connected to at least one corresponding manipulator, where one of the robot controllers is a proxy robot controller responsible for handling safety in relation to manual control of the manipulators, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving, by the safety change control unit of the proxy robot controller, a request to manually operate at least one first joint of at least one first manipulator via a first point of manual control at one of the robot controllers,
- forwarding, by the safety change control unit of the proxy robot controller, the request to the safety change control units of the other robot controllers,
- determining, in each safety change control unit, a response to the request,
- receiving, by the safety change control unit of at least one robot controller acting as a coherence investigating robot controller, the determined responses to the request from the safety change control units of the other robot controllers,
- investigating, in the safety change control unit of the coherence investigating robot controller, if the responses and the request match, and
- denying, by the safety change control unit of said coherence investigating robot controller, the request in case at least one response does not match the request.
A robot system comprising a first group of robot controllers, each robot controller including a safety change control unit and being connected to at least one corresponding manipulator, where one of the robot controllers is a proxy robot controller responsible for handling safety in relation to manual control of the manipulators,
- the safety change control unit of the proxy robot controller being configured to receive a request to manually operate at least one first joint of at least one first manipulator via a first point of manual control at one of the robot controllers, and forward the request to the safety change control units of the other robot controllers,
- each safety change control unit) being configured to determine a response to the request, and
- the safety change control unit of at least one robot controller acting as a coherence investigating robot controller being configured to receive the determined responses to the request from the safety change control units of the other robot controllers, investigate if the responses and request match and deny the request in case at least one response does not match the request.
A proxy and coherence investigating robot controller for providing safety in a robot system, the robot system comprising a first group of robot controllers, each robot controller in the first group including a safety change control unit and being provided for connection to at least one corresponding manipulator, the proxy and coherence investigating robot controller being part of the first group of robot controllers, being responsible for handling safety in relation to manual control of the manipulators and comprising a safety change control unit configured to:
- receive a request to manually operate at least one first joint of at least one first manipulator via a first point of manual control at one of the robot controllers,
- forward the request to the safety change control units of the other robot controllers,
- determine a response to the request, wherein the safety change control units of the other robot controllers also determine responses to the request,
- receive the determined responses to the request from the safety change control units of the other robot controllers,
- investigate if the responses and the request match, and
- deny the request in case at least one response does not match the request.
A non-transitory computer readable data carrier having stored thereon computer program code for providing safety in a robot system, the robot system including a first group of robot controllers, each robot controller including a safety change control unit and being provided for connection to at least one corresponding manipulator, the computer program code which when run by a processor of a proxy and coherence investigating robot controller in the first group of robot controllers, implements a safety change control unit configured to:
- receive a request to manually operate at least one first joint of at least one first manipulator via a first point of manual control at one of the robot controllers,
- forward the request to the safety change control units of the other robot controllers,
- determine a response to the request, wherein the safety change control units of the other robot controllers also determine responses to the request,
- receive the determined responses to the request from the safety change control units of the other robot controllers,
- investigate if the responses and the request match, and
- deny the request in case at least one response does not match the request.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.