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4461936 Contact sensing device
New Patents
4461936 C O N T A C T S E N S I N G DEVICE Kaor Kimura, Mitsuyosh Nakano, Kitakyushu, Japan assigned to Yaskawa Electric Mfg Co Ltd This invention discloses a contact sensing device for detecting the contact of a moving element such as a welding torch attached to a robot arm with a fixed body. The contact sensing device substantially comprises a support-side member, a work-side member, a spherical bearing mounted on either the support-side member or workside member, a slide shaft slidably mounted on the spherical bearing, the slide shaft being slidable in an axial direction, an elastic member mounted on the slide shaft for making the workside member biasingly come into contact with the support-side member, at least three rollers mounted on a first surface of either the supportside member or the work-side member, the rollers capable of coming into contact with a second surface of either the support-side member or the work-side member which opposes the first surface, at least one roller engaging member mounted on the second surface on which one of the rollers runs, and a limit switch actuated by the displacement of the slide shaft.
4462046 MACHINE VISION SYSTEM UTILIZING PROGRAMMABLE OPTICAL PARALLEL PROCESSING Carl Spight assigned to A M A F Industries Incorporated An object or scene viewed by the programmable optical processor based machine vision system is converted into a video signal representative of a spatial orientation and position of a viewed object being viewed. Reference information stored within a system control processor and indicative of a desired object to be identified and its spatial orientation and position of is used to produce a reference video signal. Both the object video signal representative of the object being viewed and the reference video signal representative of the desired object to be identified are converted into incoherent optical representations of these signals which are optically parallel processed in order to obtain a cross-correlation of the respective signals. This cross-correlation is converted into an electrical signal and is evaluated using
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any suitable known correlation evaluation technique in order to determine whether a high degree of correlation exists between the object being viewed and its position and orientation and the reference signal indicative of a desired object to be identified and its orientation. If a high degree of correlation exists, the effector control processor is provided with information related to the object so that the effector control processor may control a robotic manipulator in a desired manner. If a high degree of correlation does not exist between the respective signals, new object signal or reference signal information related to the object being viewed is iteratively correlated with the remaining original signal in order to determine the degree of correlation between these two signals.
4462741 P R E S S I N G M A C H I N E WITH A BUILT-IN R O B O T Atushi Sogawa, Seij Mukumoto, Tokushima, Japan assigned to Nagao Iron Works Ltd A crank type, C-frame pressing machine in which a robot for loading a workpiece and unloading a fabricated product is built-in within a space enclosed by the frame behind a fabricating station, with a pair of chucks on a feed bar extending across the front of the machine. The robot comprises a lift cam and a feed cam. Swing arms are provided each of which abuts the periphery of each of the cams, which arms are adapted to be actuated in conformity with the cam profiles. An actuation system is operatively connected to the swing arms and serves to transmit the actuation of swing arms to the feed bar. The actuation system includes a lift arm operatively engaging the swing arm for the lift cam and a drive arm operatively engaging the swing arm for the feed cam, the lift arm and the drive arm being constructed so that both are coupled to the feed bar, the former being movable vertically and the latter being movable vertically and laterally, to thereby transmit the vertical and lateral movements to the feed bar.
4462748 INDUSTRIAL ROBOT Hajimu Inaba, Shigemi Inagaki, Hino, Japan assigned to Fujitsu Fanuc Ltd An industrial robot having a hollow arm
4461936 C O N T A C T S E N S I N G DEVICE Kaor Kimura, Mitsuyosh Nakano, Kitakyushu, Japan assigned to Yaskawa Electric Mfg Co Ltd This invention discloses a contact sensing device for detecting the contact of a moving element such as a welding torch attached to a robot arm with a fixed body. The contact sensing device substantially comprises a support-side member, a work-side member, a spherical bearing mounted on either the support-side member or workside member, a slide shaft slidably mounted on the spherical bearing, the slide shaft being slidable in an axial direction, an elastic member mounted on the slide shaft for making the workside member biasingly come into contact with the support-side member, at least three rollers mounted on a first surface of either the supportside member or the work-side member, the rollers capable of coming into contact with a second surface of either the support-side member or the work-side member which opposes the first surface, at least one roller engaging member mounted on the second surface on which one of the rollers runs, and a limit switch actuated by the displacement of the slide shaft.
4462046 MACHINE VISION SYSTEM UTILIZING PROGRAMMABLE OPTICAL PARALLEL PROCESSING Carl Spight assigned to A M A F Industries Incorporated An object or scene viewed by the programmable optical processor based machine vision system is converted into a video signal representative of a spatial orientation and position of a viewed object being viewed. Reference information stored within a system control processor and indicative of a desired object to be identified and its spatial orientation and position of is used to produce a reference video signal. Both the object video signal representative of the object being viewed and the reference video signal representative of the desired object to be identified are converted into incoherent optical representations of these signals which are optically parallel processed in order to obtain a cross-correlation of the respective signals. This cross-correlation is converted into an electrical signal and is evaluated using
vii
any suitable known correlation evaluation technique in order to determine whether a high degree of correlation exists between the object being viewed and its position and orientation and the reference signal indicative of a desired object to be identified and its orientation. If a high degree of correlation exists, the effector control processor is provided with information related to the object so that the effector control processor may control a robotic manipulator in a desired manner. If a high degree of correlation does not exist between the respective signals, new object signal or reference signal information related to the object being viewed is iteratively correlated with the remaining original signal in order to determine the degree of correlation between these two signals.
4462741 P R E S S I N G M A C H I N E WITH A BUILT-IN R O B O T Atushi Sogawa, Seij Mukumoto, Tokushima, Japan assigned to Nagao Iron Works Ltd A crank type, C-frame pressing machine in which a robot for loading a workpiece and unloading a fabricated product is built-in within a space enclosed by the frame behind a fabricating station, with a pair of chucks on a feed bar extending across the front of the machine. The robot comprises a lift cam and a feed cam. Swing arms are provided each of which abuts the periphery of each of the cams, which arms are adapted to be actuated in conformity with the cam profiles. An actuation system is operatively connected to the swing arms and serves to transmit the actuation of swing arms to the feed bar. The actuation system includes a lift arm operatively engaging the swing arm for the lift cam and a drive arm operatively engaging the swing arm for the feed cam, the lift arm and the drive arm being constructed so that both are coupled to the feed bar, the former being movable vertically and the latter being movable vertically and laterally, to thereby transmit the vertical and lateral movements to the feed bar.
4462748 INDUSTRIAL ROBOT Hajimu Inaba, Shigemi Inagaki, Hino, Japan assigned to Fujitsu Fanuc Ltd An industrial robot having a hollow arm