Robot system having image processing function

A robot system having an image processing function for determining orientation, or orientation and position of a robot operation on one of a plurality of objects of plural kinds, where the orientation of the operation corresponds to a determined orientation of the one object, where the determined orientation is a rotational posture of the one object, the system comprising:

• a robot;
• a first image capturing device capturing image data of the plurality of objects containing respective images of the objects;
• a memory storing reference models, each comprising images of each of different kinds of reference objects corresponding to images captured by said first image capturing device, and storing indicia of the kinds respectively associated with said reference models, and information of a different orientation of the robot with respect to each of the different images of the reference object of each kind, where the captured information of orientation comprises information of a rotational posture of the reference object relative to the robot, each of said reference objects being one of the kinds of the plurality of objects or having a shape identical thereto;
• and
• a processor to perform matching on the image data containing images of the plurality of objects captured by said first image capturing device with each of said reference models successfully to select one object having an image matched with one of said kinds of the reference models, and to determine orientation, or orientation and position of the robot operation, the determining based on the image of the selected one object, based on said one reference model, based on the indicia of the kind associated with said one reference model and the information of the orientation of the robot operation with respect to the reference object associated with said one reference model of said one kind.

A method for automatically determining an arrangement of a workpiece relative to a robot, where the determined arrangement comprises at least rotational posture arrangement of the workpiece relative to the robot, the method comprising:

• storing reference images corresponding to images of the workpiece or an object so shaped (workpiece/object) and reference arrangement information indicating arrangements of the robot and workpiece/object relative to each other when the images were captured, the reference arrangements comprising rotational arrangements of the workpiece relative to the robot;
• from a known arrangement of the robot, capturing a working image of the workpiece among a plurality of randomly arranged workpieces with an imaging device;
• finding one of the reference images that matches the workpiece in the working image;
• and
• determining an arrangement of the robot relative to the workpiece based on information indicating the known arrangement of the robot, and based on the reference arrangement information corresponding to the found reference image, where the determined arrangement comprises rotational arrangement of the workpiece relative to the robot.