Robotics

Core technologies

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Robotics Technology

Industrial robots are widely used for automation in welding, painting, assembly, and transportation in a variety of industries, including the automotive market, the 3C market (computers, communications, and consumer electronics), and the triple product market (food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics). Industrial robots and robotics technology consist mainly of an arm, which is a mechanical part, and a robot controller that controls the arm’s movement.

Robotic Arm Technology Vertical Articulated Robot / Horizontal Articulated Robot / Parallel link / Collaborative Robot

The typical arm mechanism for industrial robots is the vertical articulated type, which is Yaskawa’s flagship product. Other types of robots have horizontal articulation (scalar) and parallel link mechanisms, where robotic arm technology is applied to achieve these mechanisms. Robotic arm technology is a group of technologies that integrates the design and manufacturing of mechanisms, such as arm structures, actuators (motor and reducer modules), power transmission mechanisms, and link shapes.

Vertical Articulated Robot

Vertical Articulated Robot The vertical articulated type has a 6/7 axis arm structure with flexibility that is easily applied to a variety of tasks, allowing human-like motions. However, it is less rigid and causes vibration at high speeds. To solve these problems, we improve the arm material, structure, actuators, and power transmission mechanism. Therefore, we use simulation based on analytical techniques in structural design.

Horizontal Articulated Robot

Horizontal Articulated Robot Semiconductor wafer transfer robots, one of the applications with 5-axis horizontal articulation, require high-speed transfer in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, even though silicon wafers are extremely thin and fragile. By developing a driving method with a direct drive (DD) motor without a reducer, we have achieved high accuracy absolute positioning and repetitive positioning precision, resulting in highly accurate and low-vibration operation.

Parallel link

The parallel link type works in parallel, and compared to the vertical articulated robot with the serial link structure, it has high speed operation such as high-speed transfer of objects, high accuracy and rigidity.
The hollow body structure allows the installation of an air valve in the arm. Self-lubricating resin is also used to achieve greaseless ball joints.

Collaborative Robot

Collaborative robots work collaboratively in the same space as workers. The arm structure is designed to prevent the fingers and hands of the workers from getting pinched and safety features, such as built-in torque sensors, are applied to minimize human contact hazards.
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Robot Control Technology Kinematics / Interpolation Technology / Sensing Technology / Digital Twin

Robot control technology enables the arms of industrial robots to perform specific actions. This technology includes high-speed, high-precision motion control by coordinating multiple motors to suppress arm-hand vibration, and planning technology that automatically calculates an efficient and optimal path and work order, such as an arm avoiding obstacles. Motion control includes kinematics, interpolation technology, and sensing technology. In addition, we develop digital twin technology that integrates motion control technology and planning technology through IoT.

Kinematics

In robot control, it is important to apply kinematics to represent the relation between the angle and length of a robot’s joints and its position and posture in mathematical expressions. Kinematics consists of two aspects – forward kinematics, which determines the robot’s position and posture based on its joints displacement, and inverse kinematics, which determines the joints displacement based on the robot’s position and posture. We apply this to the development of robot control technology.

Interpolation Technology

In robot teaching, multiple motion points are taught at every few points. Among them, trajectories (paths) between motion points are automatically calculated during the robot’s motion by interpolation technology. We develop software that performs linear interpolation when interpolating between two points with a straight line and curve interpolation when interpolating with a curve.

Sensing Technology

External sensing technology is another important factor in controlling industrial robots. For example, 2D or 3D vision technology can recognize work positions with high accuracy. In addition, by refining the force sensing technology that uses the feedback of the force sensing sensor, it becomes possible to perform high-quality polishing work and precision engagement in fitting screws and other metal objects.

Digital Twin

Digital Twin is a technology that reproduces the same 3D space as the real environment on a virtual platform, such as a PC. We develop the Yaskawa Cell Simulator (YCS), a software that simulates cell areas, as one of the main technologies in the i³-Mechatronics. The robot operation planned in the virtual environment is implemented in the real environment and the equipment’s operation data from the manufacturing site is synchronized centrally. By planning precise robot movements in a virtual environment, feeding them to the manufacturing site, and repeating the loop between “Planning in a virtual environment and Running in a real environment”, the solution leads to a quantum productivity leap.

Robotics

Core technologies

Robotics Technology