Abstract: A roots pump includes a housing, a rotor chamber, a pair of rotary shafts, and a pair of rotors. The rotor chamber includes a rotor chamber peripheral surface facing a pair of distal end portions of each of the rotors. Each of the pair of the distal end portions includes: a pair of rotor peripheral surfaces facing the rotor chamber peripheral surface with a first radial clearance; and a distal end peripheral surface that is formed between the pair of the rotor peripheral surfaces in the rotational direction and faces the rotor chamber peripheral surface with a second radial clearance greater than the first radial clearance. A width of the rotor chamber peripheral surface facing the distal end peripheral surface in the rotational direction is greater than a sum of a pair of predetermined widths of the rotor chamber peripheral surface facing the pair of the rotor peripheral surfaces.

Abstract: A substrate conveying robot includes a hand sensor provided on a substrate holding hand, and a hand circuit substrate provided on the substrate holding hand and connected to the hand sensor, and a serial communication connection is made between a robot controller and the hand circuit substrate through an inside of an arm.

Abstract: A method of detecting a substrate hold hand optical axis deviation includes: acquiring a hand reference turning position at which an ideal optical axis extends in a horizontal first direction; performing a first search processing; performing a second search processing similar to the first search processing to a second target body; and detecting an optical axis inclination from the ideal optical axis based on a difference between the positions detected in the first search processing and the second search processing. A distance in the second direction from the turning axis to the first target body is equal to a distance in the second direction from the turning axis to the second target body. On the hand, an intersecting position between the optical axis and the first target body is different from an intersecting position between the optical axis and the second target body.

Abstract: A robot system according to one or more embodiments may include a robot, and a control part. The robot may include one or more joints driven by an electric motor, and can hold a wafer by a holding part. The control part gives commands to the robot for control. When the robot holds and transports the wafer with the holding part, the control part performs, based on information about the electric motor, at least one of the following: determining whether slippage has occurred between the holding part and the wafer; and estimating an amount of slippage of the wafer relative to the holding part.

Abstract: There is provided a liquid surface detecting device for detecting a surface of a liquid in an internal space of a container, including: detecting electrodes positioned in an external space of the container or in the internal space; and a controller. The internal space includes a first area and a second area below the first area. The detecting electrodes include: a first detecting electrode extending between upper and lower ends of the first area, to output a first electrostatic capacity value; and a second detecting electrode extending between upper and lower ends of the second area, to output a second electrostatic capacity value. The controller is configured to determine presence or absence of a temporal variation of the first electrostatic capacity value and presence or absence of a temporal variation of the second electrostatic capacity value.

Abstract: A roots pump includes a housing, a rotor chamber, a pair of rotary shafts, and a pair of rotors. The rotor chamber includes a rotor chamber peripheral surface facing a pair of distal end portions of each of the rotors. Each of the pair of the distal end portions includes: a pair of rotor peripheral surfaces facing the rotor chamber peripheral surface with a first radial clearance; and a distal end peripheral surface that is formed between the pair of the rotor peripheral surfaces in the rotational direction and faces the rotor chamber peripheral surface with a second radial clearance greater than the first radial clearance. A width of the rotor chamber peripheral surface facing the distal end peripheral surface in the rotational direction is greater than a sum of a pair of predetermined widths of the rotor chamber peripheral surface facing the pair of the rotor peripheral surfaces.

Abstract: A target provided to a substrate placement portion is detected by an object detection sensor at a plurality of rotation positions of the substrate placement portion. An index length which is a distance from a robot reference axis to the target in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction, or information correlated therewith, is calculated. At least one of a rotation position of a detection line about the robot reference axis and a rotation position of the substrate placement portion about a rotation axis when the target located on a line connecting the robot reference axis and the rotation axis is detected is calculated on the basis of the calculated index length or the calculated information correlated therewith. A direction in which the rotation axis is present as seen from the robot reference axis is specified on the basis of the calculated rotation position.

Abstract: A robot system according to an embodiment may include a robot, a wafer jig that is held by the robot, a positioning base, a positional displacement detection device, a control part, and an offset acquisition part for acquiring an offset that occurs between a command position for the robot and an actual position. The positioning base includes contacting members. The wafer jig has a tapered surface. The tapered surface guides the wafer jig so that a center of the wafer jig approaches a predetermined position as a position where the taped surface contacts the contacting members is relatively higher. The robot places the wafer jig on the positioning base, then holds and conveys the wafer jig to the positional displacement detection device. The offset acquisition part acquires the offset based on a result in which the positional displacement detection device detects a positional displacement of the conveyed wafer jig.

Abstract: A video confirmation computer for confirming video related to robot operation includes a storage unit and a processor. The storage unit stores information on the position of the electric motor that drives a link body of the robot received from the controller of the robot and information on the video obtained by a camera attached to the robot. The processor makes at least one of the video confirmation computer itself and a computer connected to the video confirmation computer display a model area and a video area side by side. In the model area, a two-dimensional or three-dimensional model reproducing the posture of the robot is displayed by computer graphics. In the video area, the video is displayed.

Abstract: A wafer jig according to an embodiment may be used for a robot having a hand including a light emitting part and a light receiving part. The light receiving part detects detection light emitted from the light emitting part. The wafer jig includes a light source for emitting the notification light toward the light receiving part. The wafer jig outputs information to a hand side by emitting the notification light from the light source to the light receiving part.

Abstract: The method includes the steps of: detecting a part, of a surface of a target, that is located on an inner circumferential side of a predetermined circle centered on a rotation axis and passing the target, by an object detection sensor, at plural rotation positions when at least one of a rotation position of the target about the rotation axis on a substrate placement portion and a rotation position of a detection area about a robot reference axis is changed; calculating a quantity correlated with an index length representing a distance from the robot reference axis to the target when the target is detected by the object detection sensor, for each rotation position; and calculating the positional relationship between the robot reference axis and the rotation axis on the basis of, among the rotation positions, the one at which the quantity correlated with the index length is maximized or minimized.

Abstract: A substrate conveying robot has a robot arm including an end effector having a substrate holding unit holding a substrate, arm drive unit for driving the robot arm, an elevating drive unit for elevatingly driving the end effector, a robot control unit controlling the arm drive unit, the elevating drive unit, and the substrate holding unit, and a substrate detection unit having a substrate detection unit which detects a vertical position of the substrate and elevates coordinately with an elevating operation of the end effector. By this configuration, a vertical position of a substrate to be conveyed is detected with high accuracy so that a robot operation can be controlled based on the detection result.

Abstract: A control method includes: recording information of an operation target point that is a destination, each time an end effector of a robot moves to the operation target point on an operation path; acquiring a present position of the end effector upon receiving an origin return command; detecting information of a return target point on a return path for returning the end effector to an origin; detecting information of the operation target point already reached immediately before a kth return target point or having a distance closest to the kth return target point, as a (k+1)th return target point; repeating detection of the information of the return target point to detect information of second to (n+1)th return target points; and moving the end effector along the return path passing through the first to (n+1)th return target points and returning to the origin.

Abstract: A substrate transfer apparatus includes a base, an arm, an end effector provided at a tip of the arm and having first and second tip portions that are bifurcated, a light emitting unit, a light receiving unit, and a control device controlling an operation of the arm. The control device controls an operation of the arm so that light straightly traveling through a tip of the end effector scans edges of a plurality of substrates accommodated in a front opening unified pod (FOUP), and compares shape patterns of a measured waveform of an output value continuously changed in the light receiving unit with shape patterns of a reference waveform for comparison according to a relative positional relationship between the light and substrate during the operation of the arm and diagnoses at least one of a state of the substrate, the FOUP, and the end effector based on a comparison result.

Abstract: A substrate mapping device 4 maps a plurality of substrates 10 inside a container where the substrates 10 are accommodated so as to be arrayed in a given arrayed direction. The substrate mapping device 4 includes a sensor 16 configured to detect a state of the substrate 10, a manipulator 14 configured to move the sensor 16, and a control device 18 configured to control the manipulator 14 to move the sensor 16 along a mapping course. The control device 18 sets a first mapping position and a second mapping position different in the position in the arrayed direction of the substrates 10 from the first mapping position, and sets the mapping course based on the first mapping position and the second mapping position.

Abstract: A state monitoring system for monitoring a state of a robot configured to perform work on a workpiece executes: a step of obtaining state data from a sensor and deriving a deterioration index parameter based on the obtained state data; a step of determining whether or not the deterioration index parameter is greater than a first threshold that is preset to a level lower than a level at which corrective maintenance is required; a step of further determining whether or not a frequency of having determined that the deterioration index parameter is greater than the first threshold is greater than a preset frequency threshold; and a step of suppressing an operation of the robot without stopping the robot if it is determined that the frequency is greater than the frequency threshold.

Abstract: A method of monitoring a robot including a plurality of actuators and configured to perform a predetermined process operation, the method including: a preliminary operation step of causing the robot to perform the predetermined process operation one or more times and detecting, in each of a plurality of process phases, assigned monitoring parameters for the actuators operating in the process phase; a ranking step of deriving a load level based on a predetermined load evaluation procedure for each of the monitoring parameters detected in the preliminary operation step and ranking all of the detected monitoring parameters in decreasing order of the load level; and a normal operation step of monitoring primarily a monitoring parameter highly ranked in the ranking step, wherein the monitoring is performed for the actuator that operates in the process phase in which the highly ranked monitoring parameter was detected.

Abstract: A robot control device configured to control operation of a robot configured to transfer a substrate while holding the substrate is provided. The substrate becomes in a first state where an end effector holds the substrate and the substrate is not placed at an installation position, when the end effector positions at a first teaching point above the installation position. The substrate becomes in a second state where the end effector does not hold the substrate and the substrate is placed at the installation position, when the end effector positions at a second teaching point below the installation position. The first and second states can be switched by causing the robot to perform a first operation to move the end effector from either one of the first teaching point and the second teaching point to the other one of the first teaching point and the second teaching point.

Abstract: A robot control unit for a substrate conveying robot raises a hand from a first lower position below a first target position at which the hand picks up a substrate to a first upper position above the first target position, and displaces at least one of a plurality of joints in one direction, in a first interval from the first lower position to a first intermediate position between the first lower position and the first target position.

Abstract: A robot system according to one or more embodiments may include a robot, and a control part. The robot may include one or more joints driven by an electric motor, and can hold a wafer by a holding part. The control part gives commands to the robot for control. When the robot holds and transports the wafer with the holding part, the control part performs, based on information about the electric motor, at least one of the following: determining whether slippage has occurred between the holding part and the wafer; and estimating an amount of slippage of the wafer relative to the holding part.