The work movements to be carried out by a robot in a robot cell are usually programmed and simulated offline by means of CAD tools. Within the scope of programming, the real robot cell cannot be represented exactly due to the manufacturing and assembly deviations thereof. In order to compensate for these deviations and inaccuracies, setup routines for the robot need to be programmed. Here, the gripper system situated at the robot arm must be commissioned manually by a specialist. By means of the setup routines, specific reference points within the washing cell are approached and corrected with the aid of reference tips. In the case of a crash, these setup routines must be carried out from scratch by the specialist.
Therefore, an industrial robot positioned in a robot cell needs to be commissioned and/or calibrated after the assembly at the site of operation in order to match the coordinates of the robot base with the coordinates of the robot cell. Precise work is only possible if the robot is commissioned exactly in the robot cell.
Manual movement of the robot for aligning two tips in relation to one another for the purposes of the calibration is complicated. In particular, operating service routines for establishing the coordinate systems requires advanced robot knowledge and experience from the user. This relates, firstly, to general knowledge about the function and setup of user coordinate systems, and, secondly, special knowledge about the respective used robot control from various manufacturers.
EP 1 120 204 A2 has disclosed a method for setting up an industrial robot in a robot cell. Here, the coordinates of the robot base in a coordinate system are assumed to be a given reference system; then, for the purposes of setting up the robot in the robot cell, various measurement points within the robot cell are approached in situ with a measurement tip arranged at the end of the robot arm by way of manual control and the coordinates of the measurement points are detected. Since the coordinates of the approached measurement points within the robot cell are known, there can be, together with the detected coordinates, a conversion of the coordinates to the reference system. The position of the measurement tip, and hence of the end of the robot arm, in the space of the robot cell can thus be converted to the reference coordinate system; the industrial robot is set up.
For manual setup, calibration and first startup of a robot, skilled staff, who carry out the respective routines and operating steps for setup and/or calibration and for the first startup of the robot manually by way of a control panel, are regularly required in situ.
Since, as a matter of principle, a new setup and calibration must take place prior to a startup after a first installation of the robot, after a repair on the robot or after repositioning the robot in the robot cell, there are great pressures on the service staff. Moreover, since the sites of operation are usually scattered over the whole planet, the commissioning of a robot at the site of operation is costly in terms of time, staff and expenditure.