阅读说明：本技术 机器人系统以及机器人系统的控制方法 (Robot system and control method for robot system ) 是由 片桐太树 古贺健太郎 于 2019-05-24 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种机器人系统及机器人系统的控制方法。即使在多个物品接近的状态下,也可取出目标物品。机器人系统(100)具备：检测物品(WN)的形状的传感器(50)；安装有能够把持检测出的物品的把持装置(15)的机器人(10)；以及控制机器人的控制装置(20),控制装置具备：在针对每个物品把持物品时设定配置把持装置的把持区域(GN)的把持区域设定部；判定把持区域与其它物品的干扰的判定部；与被检测出的各物品相关联地存储与由判定部判定出的干扰的有无相关的判定结果的存储部；通过把持装置取出其它物品不干扰把持区域的物品的机器人控制部；以及在每次通过把持装置取出物品时,更新被存储于存储部的判定结果的更新部。(The invention provides a robot system and a control method of the robot system. Even in a state where a plurality of articles are close to each other, the target article can be taken out. A robot system (100) is provided with: a sensor (50) that detects the shape of the item (WN); a robot (10) to which a gripping device (15) capable of gripping the detected article is attached; and a control device (20) for controlling the robot, the control device comprising: a gripping area setting unit that sets a gripping area (GN) in which the gripping device is disposed when gripping an article for each article; a determination unit for determining interference between the gripping area and other articles; a storage unit that stores a determination result regarding the presence or absence of the interference determined by the determination unit in association with each of the detected articles; a robot control unit for taking out an article in which other articles do not interfere with the gripping area by the gripping device; and an updating unit that updates the determination result stored in the storage unit each time an article is taken out by the gripping device.)

1. A robot system is characterized by comprising:

A sensor that detects the shape of a conveyed article;

A robot to which a gripping device capable of gripping the detected article is attached; and

A control device that controls the robot,

The control device is provided with:

A gripping area setting unit that sets a gripping area in which the gripping device is disposed when the article is gripped for each of the detected articles;

A determination unit that determines interference between the set gripping region and another article;

A storage unit that stores, in association with each detected article, a determination result regarding the presence or absence of the interference determined by the determination unit;

A robot control unit that controls the robot to take out an article from the gripping device, the article not interfering with the gripping region with another article; and

And an updating unit that updates the determination result stored in the storage unit each time an article is taken out by the gripping device.

2. The robotic system of claim 1,

The storage unit stores first interfering article information in which identification information of each article is associated with identification information of another article interfering with the gripping area set in the one article.

3. The robotic system of claim 2,

The storage unit stores identification information of the other article having the gripping region interfered with by the one article, and second interfering article information associated with the identification information of the one article.

4. The robotic system of claim 2 or 3,

In the first interfering article information, when the identification information of the two articles are associated with each other, the two articles are excluded from the objects of update by the update section.

5. the robotic system of any of claims 1-4,

The gripping area setting unit sets the gripping area to be different depending on the type of the article detected by the sensor.

6. A method for controlling a robot system, comprising the steps of:

A detection step of detecting a shape of the conveyed article;

A gripping region setting step of setting a gripping region in which the gripping device is arranged when the gripping device grips each of the detected articles;

A determination step of determining interference between the set gripping region and another article;

A storage step of storing a determination result regarding the presence or absence of the determined interference in a storage unit in association with each detected article;

a control step of controlling the robot to take out an article, which does not interfere with the gripping region, from another article by the gripping device; and

An updating step of updating the determination result stored in the storage unit each time an article is taken out by the gripping device.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a robot system and a control method for the robot system.

Background

There is known a robot system in which a plurality of articles conveyed while being randomly placed on a conveyor are detected by a vision sensor, and a robot takes out an object by a gripping device based on the shape and posture of the detected articles (see, for example, patent document 1). In the robot system described in patent document 1, when the distance between the object article to be taken out and another article is short, the path of the robot when the object article is taken out is corrected in order to prevent interference between the gripping device and the other article.

disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

however, when the robot system described in patent literature 1 is used, the gripping device cannot take out the target object when a plurality of other objects approach the periphery of the target object and a path for taking out the target object without interfering with the other objects cannot be created.

An object of the present invention is to provide a robot system and a method for controlling the robot system, which can take out a target article even when a plurality of articles are in a close state.

Means for solving the problems

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following aspects.

One aspect of the present invention provides a robot system including: a sensor that detects the shape of a conveyed article; a robot to which a gripping device capable of gripping the detected article is attached; and a control device that controls the robot, the control device including: a gripping area setting unit that sets a gripping area in which the gripping device is disposed when the article is gripped for each of the detected articles; a determination unit that determines interference between the set gripping region and another article; a storage unit that stores a determination result regarding the presence or absence of the interference determined by the determination unit, in association with each of the detected articles; a robot control unit that controls the robot to take out an article from the gripping device, the article not interfering with the gripping region with another article; and an updating unit that updates the determination result stored in the storage unit each time an article is taken out by the gripping device.

According to this aspect, when a conveyed article is detected by the sensor, the grip region setting unit sets the grip region for each detected article. Whether the set gripping region interferes with other articles is determined, and the determination result is stored in the storage unit. When there is no other article in the gripping region of one article and there is no interference, the robot control unit controls the robot to dispose the gripping device in the gripping region of one article and grip one article by the gripping device, so that the article can be taken out without interference with the other article.

When one article is taken out by the robot, the judgment unit judges whether or not there is interference between the articles in the taken-out state, and the updating unit updates the judgment result stored in the storage unit based on the new judgment result. In this way, when the taken-out article interferes with the grip region of another article, one article is taken out, and as a result, the interference caused by the one article in the grip region of the other article is eliminated. Here, when another different article does not interfere with the gripping area of another article, the article is not taken out until one article is taken out, and becomes an article that can be taken out by the gripping device after one article is taken out. In this way, even if a plurality of articles interfere with the article in the grip region at the time of article detection, the interfering article can be taken out by the gripping device after being taken out.

In the scheme, the following mode can also be adopted: the storage unit stores first interfering article information in which identification information of each article is associated with identification information of another article interfering with the gripping area set in the one article.

With this configuration, the article which is not related to the identification information of any other article can be taken out by the gripping device in the first interfering article information. Thus, the robot control unit can determine an article that can be taken out next by the gripping device only by referring to the first interfering article information, and can carry out the taking out of the article.

In the scheme, the following mode can also be adopted: the storage unit stores identification information of the other article having the gripping region interfered with by the one article, and second interfering article information associated with the identification information of the one article.

According to this configuration, when one article is taken out by the gripping device, the first interfering article information corresponding to the identification information of the other article associated with the identification information of the one article is updated in the second interfering article information, whereby it is possible to easily determine an article that can be taken out next by the gripping device.

in the scheme, the following mode can also be adopted: in the first interfering article information, when the identification information of the two articles are associated with each other, the two articles are excluded from the objects of update by the update section.

according to this configuration, the plurality of articles interfering with each other in the gripping region are displayed as the article that cannot be taken out in the first interfering article information regardless of whether the determination result is updated due to the taking out of a different article by the gripping device. Thus, even if a different article is taken out, the determination results of one article and another article that interfere with each other in the gripping region do not need to be updated.

In the scheme, the following mode can also be adopted: the gripping area setting unit sets the gripping area to be different depending on the type of the article detected by the sensor.

According to this configuration, since the gripping region is set according to the shape of the article, the gripping device can grip the article in a stable posture.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method for controlling a robot system, including: a detection step of detecting a shape of a conveyed article; a gripping region setting step of setting a gripping region in which the gripping device is arranged when the gripping device grips each of the detected articles; a determination step of determining interference between the set gripping region and another article; a storage step of storing a determination result regarding the presence or absence of the determined interference in a storage unit in association with each detected article; a control step of controlling the robot to take out an article, which does not interfere with the gripping region, from another article by the gripping device; and updating the determination result stored in the storage unit each time an article is taken out by the gripping device.

According to this aspect, a grip region is set for each detected article, and the storage unit stores the set grip region and the determination result of another article. In the case where another article does not interfere with the grip region of one article, the controlled gripping device can grip the grip region of one article and take out one article without interference with another article. When one article is taken out, the determination result stored in the storage unit is updated. Thus, even if another article interferes with the gripping area of the article at the time of detection, the other article may be taken out by repeating the update of the determination result and the taking out of the article.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS OF INVENTION

According to the robot system and the control method of the robot system of the present invention, the target article can be taken out even in a state where a plurality of articles are close to each other.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic top view of the robotic system of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a robotic system.

Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the gripping area and the interference information set in the article, (a) is a plan view of the imaging range of the sensor, and (b) is a diagram showing the interference information of each article stored in the article state DB.

Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the grip region and the interference information in the case where a new article is detected from the state shown in fig. 3, (a) is a plan view of the imaging range of the sensor, and (b) is a diagram showing the interference information of each article stored in the article state DB.

fig. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the gripping area and the interference information set in the article, (a) is a plan view of the operation range of the robot, and (b) is a diagram showing the interference information of each article stored in the article state DB.

Fig. 6 is an explanatory view of the gripping area and the interference information in the case where the article is taken out from the state shown in fig. 5, where (a) is a plan view of the operation range of the hand and (b) is a view showing the interference information of each article stored in the article state DB.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart of processing performed by the robot system at the time of article detection.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart of processing performed by the robot system when an article is taken out.

Detailed Description

A robot system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in fig. 1, a robot system 100 according to the present embodiment includes: a conveyor belt 80 that conveys a plurality of articles WN (N is 1, 2, …), a sensor 50 that detects the articles WN conveyed on the conveyor belt 80, a robot 10 that includes a hand (gripping device) 15 that grips the articles WN, and a control device 20 that controls the robot 10.

The sensor 50 is a three-dimensional camera capable of acquiring the three-dimensional shape of the article WN, and images an imaging range RI on the conveyor belt 80. The robot 10 is, for example, a vertical articulated robot having six joints, and operates by controlling the rotation angle of each joint by the control device 20. The hand 15 attached to the tip of the robot 10 grips the article WN conveyed on the conveyor belt 80. As shown in fig. 1, the range in which the robot 15 can work on the conveyor belt 80 is a work range RW located on the downstream side of the imaging range RI of the sensor 50.

The conveyor belt 80 conveys the article WN at a constant speed in a conveying direction indicated by an arrow in fig. 1. The conveyor 80 is provided with an encoder (not shown) for detecting the conveyance speed of the conveyor 80. The detection value of the encoder is sent to the control device 20, and the control device 20 calculates the conveying speed of the conveyor 80.

The control device 20 controls the operation of the robot 10 according to a predetermined program, thereby performing various operations such as picking up the article WN conveyed on the conveyor 80. Further, although the control device 20 of the present embodiment is incorporated in the robot 10, the control device of another embodiment may be configured independently of the robot 10.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the robot system 100. As shown in fig. 2, the control device 20 includes: a control unit 21 that controls the operation of the robot 10 based on the posture and position of the article WN detected by the sensor 50, and a storage unit 26 that stores the three-dimensional shape and the like of the article WN.

The storage unit 26 is constituted by a storage medium such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive). The storage unit 26 includes an article shape DB storing three-dimensional shapes of a plurality of articles WN serving as operation targets of the robot 10, and an article state DB storing interference information on the presence or absence of interference between an article detected by the sensor 50 and another article.

The article shape DB stores a grip region GN associated with a three-dimensional shape as shown in fig. 1 for each of the three-dimensional shapes of the plurality of articles WN. When the hand 15 grips the detected article WN, the grip region GN is stored as a region where the hand 15 is disposed.

The interference information associated with each article stored in the article status DB will be described with reference to fig. 3. Fig. 3(a) is a plan view showing the imaging range RI in which the states of the two articles W1, W2 conveyed on the conveyor belt 80 are detected. When the sensor 50 detects the articles W1, W2, the grip region setting unit 23 described later determines whether or not the detected articles W1, W2 are any stored articles by pattern matching using the three-dimensional shapes of the plurality of articles stored in the article shape DB. Then, the grip region setting unit 23 sets grip regions G1 and G2 for the articles W1 and W2, respectively.

The article state DB stores the presence or absence of interference for each article name (identification information) of articles W1 and W2 shown in fig. 3 b as interference information of articles W1 and W2 with respect to interference of other articles in the holding areas G1 and G2. The interference information includes: a detection position indicating the center of gravity of the detected articles W1, W2; an angle indicating an inclination from a reference posture indicating the posture of the articles W1, W2; a state indicating whether or not the robot 15 can take out the article; information on other articles entering the own holding area (first article interference information); and information on other articles into which the holding area itself enters (second article interference information).

The detection positions and angles of the articles W1 and W2 are determined using the reference posture associated with the three-dimensional shape of each article stored in the article shape DB and the captured image detected by the sensor 50.

For example, as shown in fig. 3(a), the interference information of article W1 is described, and another article does not interfere with grip region G1 of article W1. Therefore, as shown in fig. 3(b), the later-described judgment unit 24 first judges the "state" of the article W1 and sets it to "removable". The determination unit 24 sets "none" as "another article entering the gripping area of the article W1. Since article W1 does not interfere with the gripping area of another article, determination unit 24 sets "none" to "other article" into which the gripping area of article W1 has entered.

the control unit 21 shown in fig. 2 is constituted by a CPU, ROM, and RAM, which are not shown. The control unit 21 reads a program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 26, temporarily reads and stores the program in the RAM, and the CPU executes functions corresponding to the various programs.

The control unit 21 includes: a drive control unit (robot control unit) 22 that controls the operation of the robot 10; a grip region setting unit 23 for setting grip regions G1 and G2 for the articles W1 and W2 (fig. 3 a) detected by the sensor 50; a determination unit 24 for determining whether or not interference of other articles W1 and W2 in the set gripping areas G1 and G2 occurs; and an updating unit 25 that updates the disturbance information stored in the article state DB each time the article conveyed by the conveyor 80 is taken out by the robot 15.

Fig. 4 shows a state in which a new article W3 is further detected by the sensor 50 according to the state shown in fig. 3. When article W3 is detected by sensor 50, as shown in fig. 4(b), determination unit 24 adds the disturbance information of article W3 to article state DB. As shown in fig. 4(a), since article W3 is newly detected, article W3 interferes with grip region G1 of article W1. Therefore, as shown in fig. 4(b), the judgment unit 24 adds "W3" to "another article entering its own gripping area" of the article W1. This indicates that the robot 15 may interfere with the article W3 when taking out the article W1. Thus, the determination unit 24 changes the "state" of the article W1 shown in fig. 4(b) to "cannot be taken out".

Fig. 5 and 6 are diagrams illustrating the positional relationship between articles before and after the articles are taken out by the robot 15 and the interference information of each article included in the article state DB. Fig. 5(a) is a plan view showing the working range RW of the robot 15 before the article W5 is taken out by the robot 15. Since the positional relationship between the operation range RW and the imaging range RI is set in advance, the drive control unit 22 can calculate the position and orientation of the article in the operation range RW based on the detected position and angle in the interference information of each article stored in the article state DB. Therefore, the drive control unit 22 can specify the article included in the work range RW using the detection result of the sensor 50.

As shown in fig. 5(a), the grip region setting unit 23 sets grip regions G4 to G7 for the articles W4 to W7 detected by the sensor 50. As shown in fig. 5(b), the article state DB stores therein the interference information on the articles W4 to W7.

As shown in fig. 5(a), the other articles interfere with the grip regions G4, G6, and G7 of the articles W4, W6, and W7, respectively, and any article does not interfere with the grip region G5 of the article W5. Therefore, as shown in the article state DB in fig. 5(b), only the "state" of the article W5 is set to "removable". In this case, drive control unit 22 performs the takeout operation on article W5 whose "state" is "takeout" among articles W4 to W7 stored in article state DB. When there are a plurality of articles whose "state" is "takeout", the takeout operation is executed from the article on the downstream side.

as shown in fig. 5(a), the article W6 and the article W7 interfere with each other in the respective grip regions G6 and G7. In the present embodiment, update unit 25 sets the "state" of articles W6 and W7 to "unreleasable" and does not update the disturbance information of articles W6 and W7 regardless of the operation of removing another article.

Fig. 6(a) is a plan view showing the working range RW after the article W5 is taken out from the state shown in fig. 5 (a). When article W5 is removed, updating unit 25 updates the "state" of article W5 in article state DB to "removed" as shown in fig. 6 (b). When the "state" of the article W5 is updated, the determination unit 24 determines again whether or not the interference of another article set in the gripping area of each article is present, based on the updated article state DB.

The judgment unit 24 judges again whether or not the interference of the article W4 and the article W6 is set as "another article into which the holding area itself enters" of the article W5 to be taken out. For example, in the disturbance information of article W4, article W5 is set as "another article entering its own holding area" before article W5 is taken out, as shown in fig. 5 (b). When the renewed article W5 is removed, as shown in fig. 6(b), the judgment unit 24 changes "another article entering the holding area of itself" of the article W4 to "none". Accordingly, the "state" of the article W4 changes to "removable".

Further, determination unit 24 changes "another article which enters its own grip area" of article W6 from "W5, W7 (fig. 5 (b)" to "W7 (fig. 6 (b)"). on the other hand, interference information of article W7 in which article W5 is not set in "another article which enters its own grip area" does not change, and in the state shown in fig. 6, article W4 which is "removable" in "state" of articles W4, W6, W7 is subsequently removed by robot 15.

the process performed by the robot system 100 according to the present embodiment at the time of article detection will be described based on the flowchart shown in fig. 7, with an example of article W3 being detected as shown in fig. 4. First, a detection step is performed in which the sensor 50 detects the article W3 conveyed on the conveyor belt 80 (step S1). The detected positions X3 and Y3 and the angle R3 of the detected article W3 are specified by the grip region setting unit 23, and are registered in the article state DB (step S2).

A gripping area setting step is performed in which the gripping area setting unit 23 sets a gripping area G3 for the detected article W3 (step S3). The determination unit 24 performs a determination step of determining whether or not another article interferes with the set gripping area G3 (step S4). If it is determined that another article does not interfere with the holding area G3 (no in step S4), the process of step S8 described later is executed.

In the process of step S4, when determining unit 24 determines that another article W2 interferes with grip region G3 (yes in step S4), the "state" of article W3 in article state DB is set to "takeout impossible" (step S5).

The judgment unit 24 adds the article W2 interfering with the gripping region G3 to the "other article entering the grippable region of the user" of the article W3 (step S6). Next, in determining unit 24, article W3 enters gripping area G1 of another article W1, and article W1 is added to "another article which can enter the gripping area by itself" of article W3 (step S7).

The judgment unit 24 judges whether or not the detected article W3 (hereinafter also referred to as "detected article W3") interferes with the gripping area of another article (step S8). When it is determined that article W3 does not interfere with the gripping area of another article (no in step S8), the process performed when article detection by robot system 100 is ended.

In the process of step S8, since it is detected that article W3 interferes with grip region G1 of article W1 (step S8: yes), determination unit 24 sets the "state" of article W1 as another article to "takeout impossible" (step S9). Determination unit 24 additionally detects article W3 with respect to "another article that enters its grippable region" of article W1 (step S10).

Next, the judgment unit 24 additionally detects an article W3 with respect to "another article into which the holding area itself enters" of the article W2 as another article (step S11). Steps S5 to S7 and steps S9 to S11 correspond to storage steps.

When the process of step S11 is executed, the process performed by the robot system 100 shown in fig. 7 at the time of article detection is ended.

Next, an example in which the robot system 100 according to the present embodiment takes out the article W5 from the state shown in fig. 5 and changes to the state shown in fig. 6 will be described based on the flowchart shown in fig. 8, as a process performed when the article is taken out.

First, the drive control unit 22 determines whether or not an article is present in the working range RW of the robot 15 (step S21). If it is determined that there is no article in the work range RW (no in step S21), the process performed when the article is taken out is terminated.

If it is determined in the process of step S21 that an article is present in work range RW (yes in step S21), drive control unit 22 determines whether or not the "state" of articles W4 to W7 in work range RW is "removable" (step S22). If the "state" of all the articles in the work range RW is "unreleasable" (no in step S22), the process performed when the articles are removed is ended.

In the processing of step S22, as shown in fig. 5 b, when article W5 whose "state" is "takeout" is present in work range RW (step S22: yes in fig. 8), drive control unit 22 performs a control step of controlling robot 15 to take out article W5 (step S23).

When article W5 is removed, as shown in fig. 6(b), update unit 25 updates the "state" of removed article W5 stored in article state DB to "removed" (step S24 in fig. 8). In another embodiment, the disturbance information of the article taken out may be deleted from the article status DB.

Next, the determination unit 24 determines again whether or not the interference between the articles is present based on the article state DB after the article W5 is taken out. The judgment unit 24 judges whether or not there is an article of "another article into which the holding area itself enters" of the article W5 (hereinafter, also referred to as "article W5") set to be taken out (step S25). If there is no set article (no in step S25), the process performed when the article is taken out is ended.

In the processing of step S25, since articles W4 and W6 are set as "other articles which the holding area itself enters" for taking out article W5 (step S25: yes), updating unit 25 deletes article W5 from "other articles which enter the holding area itself" of articles W4 and W6 shown in fig. 5(b) (step S26).

Then, after determining again whether or not the interference of articles W4 and W6 is present, determination unit 24 determines whether or not there is an article that does not belong to another article among the "articles that have entered its own gripping area" in article state DB of articles located in work range RW (step S27). If it is determined that one of the "articles that have entered the gripping area of the user" does not belong to another article, the process performed when the article is taken out is ended (no in step S27).

In step S27, as shown in fig. 6 b, since no other article is included in "article entering the holding area of the user" in article state DB of article W4 (step S27: yes), judgment unit 24 performs an update step of updating "state" of article W4 to "removable" (step S28). Then, the process performed when the article W5 is removed is ended, and the same article removing process is performed for the removable articles included in the work range RW.

The operation of the robot system 100 of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described below.

When the sensor 50 detects the conveyed article W5 (fig. 5), the determination unit 24 determines whether or not the interference of another article is present in the grip region G5 of the article W5, and the determination result is stored in the article state DB. When another article does not interfere with the grip region G5 of the article W5, the hand 15 and the article W5 do not interfere with another article, and the hand 15 grips the grip region G5 and takes out the article W5. When article W5 is taken out, the determination results of articles W4, W6, and W7 stored in article state DB are updated by updating unit 25 and determining unit 24. As a result of the update, even the article W4 determined to be unreleasable at the time of article detection becomes an article which can be taken out by the robot 15 by taking out the article W5.

in the robot system 100 according to the above-described embodiment, the other articles interfering with the gripping regions G4 to G7 of the articles W4 to W7 are stored in association with "other articles entering their gripping regions" among the articles W4 to W7 in the article state DB. Therefore, the drive control unit 22 can select an article, which does not interfere with the gripping region by referring to "another article entering the gripping region of its own" of the article state DB, as an article to be taken out next.

In the robot system 100 according to the above-described embodiment, when the articles W4 to W7 interfere with the gripping area of another article, "another article into which the gripping area enters by itself" is stored in the article state DB as the interference information of the articles W4 to W7. Therefore, when article W5 is taken out by robot 15, if only the interference information of articles W4 and W6 set as "other articles into which the holding area itself enters" of article W5 is updated, the next article to be taken out can be selected.

In the robot system 100 according to the above embodiment, the "state" of the articles W6 and W7 interfering with each other in the gripping areas G6 and G7 is set to "no take out", regardless of whether or not other articles are taken out, and the interference information of the articles W6 and W7 is not updated. This can reduce the processing for updating the interference information of the articles W6 and W7.

the robot system 100 of the above embodiment is an example, and various modifications can be made. For example, the article state DB may store a gripping area set for each article and whether or not the interference of other articles interfering with the gripping area is present. Therefore, the article state DB may not necessarily include information such as "state" of the articles W1 and W2 shown in fig. 3(b), and "other articles into which the holding area itself enters". In the present embodiment, the interference information of articles W6 and W7 in the mutually interfering gripping regions G6 and G7 shown in fig. 5(b) is not updated, but in another embodiment, the interference information of all articles may be updated every time another article is taken out, regardless of the presence or absence of interference.

The robot 10 of the above embodiment is a vertical articulated robot, but can be variously modified within the range of a robot that takes out the article WN conveyed on the conveyor 80. Further, the conveyor 80 is exemplified as a conveyor for conveying the article WN, but a conveyor other than the conveyor 80 may be used. In addition, the robotic system 100 may not include the conveyor belt 80. The articles conveyed on the conveyor 80 may not be the same type of articles as the articles W1 to W7 of the above embodiment, but may be a plurality of types of articles conveyed and taken out by the robot 15.

The sensor 50 that detects the conveyed article WN may be a sensor other than a three-dimensional camera, for example, a two-dimensional camera, a photoelectric sensor, or a multi-array sensor. When a multi-array sensor is used, a plurality of sensors arranged in a matrix on a two-dimensional plane can simultaneously measure a distance in the vertical direction, and a stereoscopic image of an object can be obtained.

reference numerals

10: robot

15: mechanical arm (holding device)

20: control device

22: drive control unit (robot control unit)

23: grip region setting unit

24: determination unit

25: updating part

26: storage unit

50: sensor with a sensor element

100: robot system

G1-G7, GW: gripping area

W1-W7, WN: article with a cover

S1: detection step

S3: setting a grip region

S4: determination step

S5-S7, S9-S11: a storage step

S23: control step

S28: updating step