Patents by Inventor Masao MOTOHASHI

Masao MOTOHASHI has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20230191602
    Abstract: Provided is a mastering method that can be easily carried out with respect to a processing tool mounted to an arm tip portion of a robot having a driving shaft. The present invention provides a processing tool mastering method for mastering a processing tool by: controlling a driving unit of a multi-joint robot which carries, at an arm tip portion, a processing tool for performing a predetermined process on a workpiece and which is provided with a plurality of driving units for driving one or a plurality of driving shafts; and controlling a processing position of the processing tool with respect to the workpiece. The mastering method comprises obtaining, from the movement of the robot, reference direction information which is information pertaining to a reference direction of the robot, and carrying out mastering of the processing tool on the basis of the reference direction information thus obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2021
    Publication date: June 22, 2023
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masao MOTOHASHI, Kentarou YANAGIHARA
  • Publication number: 20230166402
    Abstract: A robot system including a plurality of robots, controllers that respectively control the robots, hands attached to wrist ends of the robots and configured to hold and release a workpiece, and a sensor configured to detect that the workpiece is being held by the hands of the robots. The controllers are interconnected and configured to exchange signals so that the robots operate in coordination in response to an operation command that includes a coordination command, and prohibit operation of each of the robots based on an operation command that lacks a coordination command in a state in which the sensor detects the workpiece being held.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2021
    Publication date: June 1, 2023
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Junya TERASAKA, Masao MOTOHASHI
  • Patent number: 11097419
    Abstract: A robot system includes: an articulated type robot which retains a processing tool at an arm tip end portion and which includes a plurality of drive units that drive a plurality of drive axes; and a robot controller which controls the drive units so as to control a relative position of the processing target and the processing tool and the robot controller includes: a torque information detection unit which detects torque information on the torques of the drive units; a contact position estimation unit which estimates, based on the change of tendency of a variation in the detected torque information of at least one of the drive units, a contact position in which the processing target and the processing tool make contact with each other; and a position compensation unit which compensates the target position of the robot based on the estimated contact position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masao Motohashi, Takahiro Kitano
  • Publication number: 20200306865
    Abstract: A robot control device for a robot system that includes: an articulated robot having a plurality of internal drive axes; a processing head which is retained to a leading end of the robot, and has a processing tool and a tool drive axis that causes the processing tool to move; and an external driving mechanism which has one or a plurality of external drive axes and positions the robot, in which the robot system causes the processing tool to make contact with a processing target, and conducts predetermined processing on the processing target, in which the control device controls the internal drive axis and the external drive axis so as to position the processing head at a target position which is set as a position of processing the processing target, and controls the tool drive axis so as to make the processing tool make contact with the processing target, and the robot control device detects contact between the processing tool and the processing target by monitoring torque of the internal drive axis, the tool
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2020
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masao MOTOHASHI, Takahiro KITANO
  • Publication number: 20190126479
    Abstract: A robot system includes: an articulated type robot which retains a processing tool at an arm tip end portion and which includes a plurality of drive units that drive a plurality of drive axes; and a robot controller which controls the drive units so as to control a relative position of the processing target and the processing tool and the robot controller includes: a torque information detection unit which detects torque information on the torques of the drive units; a contact position estimation unit which estimates, based on the change of tendency of a variation in the detected torque information of at least one of the drive units, a contact position in which the processing target and the processing tool make contact with each other; and a position compensation unit which compensates the target position of the robot based on the estimated contact position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2018
    Publication date: May 2, 2019
    Inventors: Masao MOTOHASHI, Takahiro KITANO