JP2003281287A - Skill evaluation method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Problem] A database that can accurately evaluate the points of advanced and delicate skills, which are called skilled skills, and create a database of them, useful for passing on to successors and teaching robots. To provide a skill evaluation method capable of extracting a skilled skill. SOLUTION: An operation of a worker who performs work under a certain work environment is measured (S3) and stored as reference data (S3).
7). Next, the working environment is changed without permission of the worker (S
2 '), the movement of the worker is measured (S3'), and change data is generated. The reference data, the change data or its change, the work environment or its change are stored in a storage medium in association with each other (S8). It is also possible to determine the change of the change data and store it separately as skillful change data and skillful basic data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a skill evaluation method, and in particular, it is possible to create a database of highly skilled skills of workers, who are called skilled workers, and use it for transmission to successors and teaching to robots. Regarding the skill evaluation method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the aging of the population, a shortage of skilled workers who support the basis of research and development in the manufacturing industry has come to be taken out. This is largely due to the fact that in the environment where efficiency is prioritized, skilled skills are no longer passed down.

As a countermeasure, in recent years, each company has reviewed the qualification system for skilled workers, improved the treatment, and established various training systems.

Attempts have also been made to pass on the motions and skills of skilled workers by embedding them in a robot, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-517.
In the publication No. 12, a database is constructed by extracting a motion pattern of a skilled worker from the position / orientation data of a working tool during actual work, and the data in this database is taught to a robot in accordance with work specifications. A robot skill teaching method has been proposed.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the invention] However, although the qualification system for skilled workers, improvement of treatment, and improvement of various training systems can be expected to be effective as awareness, it is said that the skills of actual skilled workers are handed down. From a viewpoint, it is hard to say that this is a sufficient effort.

[0006] Further, the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-51712 is for extracting the motion and skill of a skilled technician, but the motion and work of the skilled technician are performed in a predetermined actual work. It merely constructs a database in which the position of a tool is measured and the operation pattern obtained by this is associated with work specifications.

[0007] The value of a skilled worker who is commonly referred to as a "master" or a "craftsman" is of great value in dealing with a new situation or an unexpected situation, not in a predetermined routine work. However, it is not possible to evaluate the location of skilled skills in a true sense by merely extracting a motion pattern for a predetermined routine work in association with work specifications.

Therefore, the skill teaching method described in the above publication merely teaches the skill to perform the same degree to the robot for the same work, that is, the copy technique, and the skill teaching method is highly advanced. It cannot be a teaching skill.

Skilled skills include "learning with the body through repeated training", "learning by seeing the way of the ancestors",
It has been handed down in the sense of "obtaining a delicate sense from repeated failures", and it is a skillful person himself, such as so-called "intelligible intuition", "skill that appropriately responds to change". However, it is often a difficult and delicate item in which the content to be taught cannot be grasped accurately.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and the purpose thereof is to accurately evaluate the so-called skillful skill, which is a so-called skillful skill, to make a database thereof. It is to provide a skill evaluation method that makes it possible to extract highly skilled skills that are useful for instructing successors and teaching robots.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a reference data generating step for measuring the operation of a work step performed by an operator under a certain work environment and generating reference data, and a work. Change data generation step of giving the work environment in the work process without permission to a worker and measuring the motion of the worker at this time to generate change data, and skill data by associating the reference data with the change data. The first feature lies in that a skilled data generation process for generating

The present invention also provides a reference data generating step for generating reference data by measuring an operation of a work process performed by a worker under a certain work environment, and the work environment in the work process without the operator's consent. And a change data generating step of generating change data by measuring the operation of the worker at this time, and the reference data, the change data, and the work environment or its change amount are associated to generate skill data. A second feature is that the process includes a skill data generation process.

Further, according to the present invention, the skill data generation step further determines a part of the change data that changes from the reference data and a part that does not change in the work environment, and determines the changed part as the skill change data. There is a third feature in extracting as.

Further, according to the present invention, the skill data generation step further determines a part of the work data in which the change data changes from the reference data and a part of the work data that does not change in the work environment, and sets the part that does not change the skill basic data. There is a fourth characteristic in the point of extracting as.

In the present invention, the skill data generating step may generate corresponding data which is a difference between the reference data and the change data, and the corresponding data may be used instead of or in addition to the change data. The fifth feature lies in that

A sixth feature of the present invention is that the work environment is given as at least one of a weather environment and a work condition as a parameter.

A seventh feature of the present invention is that the change data generating step is performed in a space where the weather environment can be operated.

Further, according to the present invention, a three-dimensional display device capable of a pseudo work operation of an operator is provided in the space, and at least the change is made based on data by the pseudo work operation of the worker. The eighth characteristic is that the data generating step is performed.

Further, the present invention has a ninth feature in that the parameter of the working condition is the condition of the work target.

According to the first feature, it is possible to accurately evaluate the point of advanced and delicate skills, which are said to be skilled skills, and to make a database of them, which is useful for teaching successors and teaching to robots. Skilled skills can be evaluated and extracted.

Further, according to the second and fifth characteristics, it is possible to easily and accurately grasp the change in the motion of the worker due to the work environment.

Further, according to the third and fourth characteristics, it is possible to easily and accurately grasp the skill by separating the motion that changes with respect to the work environment and the motion that does not change.

According to the seventh feature, the weather environment can be changed easily and appropriately, and it becomes possible to evaluate and extract fine skill data in a short period of time.

Further, according to the eighth feature, since it is possible to perform work in a virtual space that reproduces a work site equivalent to the actual work site without performing actual work, it is possible to easily carry out the work without providing large-scale equipment. Skilled data can be extracted, and various work sites can be easily reproduced by changing software.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an example of an environment room 1 in which the work environment can be changed, in which a worker can perform work using various work equipment.

The environment room 1 is provided with, for example, an air conditioner 3 having a fan device 2 for feeding air, an air suction device 4, a plurality of panel-shaped illumination lamps 5, speakers 6 and 6, and an external control device to control the temperature. , Humidity, atmospheric pressure, air volume, wind speed,
It is possible to change the climatic environment inside by using illuminance as a parameter. The temperature, humidity, air volume, and wind speed can be changed by the air conditioner 3, the air pressure can be changed by cooperating the air conditioner 3 and the air suction device 4, and the illuminance can be adjusted by a plurality of panels. It can be changed by the flat illumination lamp 5.

Further, it is also possible to change the condition of the work object by using work conditions in the work equipment, for example, size, thickness, material, etc. as parameters.
Of course, the above parameters are merely examples, and the values of other parameters according to the normal work environment in the work can be set and changed as appropriate. For example, in the case of work usually performed outdoors, the amount of rainfall by the rainfall device can be added as a parameter, and the noise caused by the speaker 6 can also be added as a parameter.

The work site is reproduced in the environment room 1, so that the worker can work without any change from the actual work site. In addition, at least a motion capture camera is provided as an auxiliary device in the environment room 1, whereby motions of a plurality of feature points on a worker, a work target object, a work tool, or the like are extracted to detect the motion of the worker. Can be measured.

The operation of the operator measured here is, for example,
The position and movement amount and movement speed of hands and heads, the position and movement amount and movement speeds of fingers and arms, and the position and movement amount and movement speeds of feet. Further, in the environment room 1, a thermography camera for measuring the surface temperature of the work target can be provided.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, as a preparation stage,
The motion of a worker or the like in the environment room 1 can be measured by motion capture, and the surface temperature of a work target or the like can be measured by a thermography camera as necessary.

Next, in order to measure the reference data, the operator's manual operation input (S1) reads out data relating to the reference work environment from the stored basic environment data, and uses the data in the environment room 1 as those data. Set the corresponding work environment. This work environment is a standard work environment that is known to the worker in advance, and for example, the climatic environment and the standard work conditions specified for normal work are set as the standard work environment (S2).

The reference work environment is, for example, a climatic environment in which the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, air volume, wind speed, illuminance, etc. are set by the air conditioner 3, the air suction device 4, the plurality of panel-shaped illumination lights 5, etc. as parameters. Including thickness and size,
It is also possible to include work conditions such as the condition of the work target with the material as a parameter. It is also possible to set the values of some of these parameters to change over time.

Under the standard work environment set in this way, the worker performs the work as usual, and at this time the work is performed by extracting the movements of a plurality of characteristic points of the worker, the work target, the work tool, or the like. The motion of the person is measured (S3).

Next, this measured data is digitized by digitization (S4), and after being associated with each parameter value of the work environment when it was obtained (S5), it is further homogenized (S6) and used as reference data. To do. In addition, homogenization (S6)
Is a process for averaging data obtained by a plurality of measurements. By this process, stable reference data can be obtained by eliminating the influence of noise and the like, but it is not always necessary.

The reference data is stored / saved in association with the parameter values of the work environment when it was obtained, that is, the respective parameter values of the reference work environment (S7). The storage medium is, for example, a computer, CD-ROM, HDD, F
The media may be D, a server, or the like.

The above steps (S1) to (S7) are a reference data generating process for measuring the operation of the work process performed by the worker under a certain work environment, which is a reference, and generating the reference data.

Next, the change data generating step is started. The change data generation process is basically the above step (S1)-
Same as (S5), but different from the reference data generation in that the operator gives the working environment without the operator's consent. That is, the operator gives the worker the same working environment as that when the reference data is generated, for example, the change of the thickness of the work target (S1 'and S2'), and the operator's operation under this working environment is performed. Measure (S3 ').

The measured data thus obtained is digitized by digitization (S4 ') to obtain change data, and this change data is associated with each parameter value of the work environment when it was obtained (S5').

The above-mentioned change data generation process is a process of giving the worker a work environment in the work process without permission and measuring the motion of the worker at this time. It should be noted that which parameter value of the work environment and how to give it are set according to the work content and required data. Further, the reference data generation process and the change data generation process do not have to be temporally continuous, as long as the reference data is generated before the change data generation.

Then, the change data thus obtained and the previously obtained reference data are compared and judged (S).
7). By this comparison judgment (S7), a portion of the change data that differs from the reference data is generated, and this is stored / saved as skill data in association with the reference data and, if necessary, the work environment or its change ( S8).
The storage medium is, for example, a computer or a CD-
The storage medium may be a ROM, HDD, FD, server, or the like, and may be the same as the storage medium that stores the reference data.

In the comparison judgment (S7), the same part as the reference data in the change data can be used as a part of the data of the equalization process in step S6. The comparison determination in step S7 is performed with a certain threshold value, and the change data determined to be the same in step S7 is used for the equalization process in step S6,
The reference data can be updated to reflect a slight change in the movement of the worker.

The above embodiment is an example in which the change data itself is stored in the storage medium as the skill data, but the corresponding data which is the difference between the reference data and the change data is generated,
This correspondence data can be stored instead of or in addition to the change data. By storing the correspondence data in this way, it is possible to easily and accurately grasp changes in movements of workers such as the work environment. Will be able to.

Further, with respect to the work environment, it is possible to discriminate a portion where the change data is changed from the reference data and a portion where it is not changed, and extract the changed portion as the skill change data.
It is also possible to extract the part that does not change as skilled basic data, and in this way, the behavior that does not change with respect to the work environment, that is, the normal behavior pattern and the highly skilled skill pattern that corresponds to the environment. They can be distinguished, which is convenient for handing down skills and teaching robots. Further, the skill data stored in the storage medium can be widely distributed via the network.

Further, although it has been described above that the operator gives a work environment by manually inputting the change data when generating the change data, as shown in S9 of FIG. It is also possible to automatically set the same working environment in the environment room 1 based on the reference data.

Next, a specific example of the present invention will be described.
3 and 4 are cross-sectional base materials A shown in FIG.
Is a work target, and the welding work by the welding device shown in FIG. 3B is performed in an environment room.
The data of each part and the measured operation of the operator are shown. As shown in FIGS. 3A and 4, the base material A has a portion in which the plate thickness continuously changes in the welding direction from, for example, 1 mm to 3.2 mm.

The welding device is, as shown in FIG.
The IG welding machine 7 is provided, and the current setting value and the voltage setting value are measured by the ammeter / voltmeter 8, respectively. Worker C
The welding work can be performed by appropriately adjusting the moving speed of the torch 10 and the on / off of the switch 11 while observing the melting state of the molten pool 9 at the welded portion of the base material A. A marker 12 for motion capture is added to the tip of the torch 10, the marker 12 is imaged by the camera 13 for motion capture, and the molten pool 9 is imaged by the camera 14 for thermography.

The outputs of the motion capture camera 13 and the thermography camera 14 are input to a data processing personal computer 15 to obtain measured values of the moving speed of the torch 10 and the temperature of the molten pool 9. Further, on / off of the switch 11 by the worker C is detected by the on / off sensor 18, and the detection output is also input to the data processing personal computer 15. The data processing personal computer 15 has a storage medium 16
And a keyboard 17 are connected.

In order to acquire the skilled skill of the worker C using such equipment, first, the working environment in the environment room is set to the standard climatic environment and the base material A in FIG. Person C is informed of this work environment and starts the welding work. That is, the worker A is caused to start the welding work while the worker C knows the base metal plate thickness and its change in advance.
The moving speed of the torch 10 and the number of times the switch 11 is turned on / off with respect to the change in the base metal plate thickness at this time are measured by the motion capture camera 13, the on / off sensor 18, and the data processing personal computer 15. Since the operator C knows the plate thickness of the base material A and the change thereof in advance, the operation data obtained by this measurement becomes comparatively gentle as shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. This motion data
For example, the temperature of the molten pool 9 (melting temperature) and the moving speed of the torch 10, the melting temperature and the number of times the switch 11 is turned on and off, the number of times the switch 11 is turned on and off, and the moving speed of the torch 10 are associated and saved as reference data. Stored / saved in the medium 16.

Next, in the state where the worker C is performing the welding work, the base metal plate thickness is changed as shown in FIG. Although the temperature of the molten pool 9 becomes lower as the base metal plate thickness becomes thicker, the worker C who is a skilled worker who is performing the welding work while observing the molten state can perform good welding against the change. Take the best possible action to maintain. In the case of welding work, this measure is generally adjustment of the moving speed of the torch 10 and the on / off of the switch 11.

The result obtained by measuring the moving speed of the torch 10 and the number of times the switch 11 is turned on and off with respect to the change in the base metal plate thickness at this time is the solid line in FIG. This is different from the case where the welding work is performed by knowing the change in the base metal plate thickness in advance. This difference is the so-called skill of the skilled worker's response to an unexpected situation. The operation data obtained in this manner are used, for example, for the melting temperature and the moving speed of the torch 10, the melting temperature and the on / off state of the switch 11.
Number of off times, number of on / off times of switch 11 and torch 10
The change data is generated by associating the moving speed of the above with the reference data previously stored in the storage medium 16. As a result of this comparison, the portion of the change data different from the reference data is associated with the reference data and, if necessary, the work environment or its change amount, as skill data as the storage medium 1.
Store and save in 6.

Although the case where the base metal plate thickness is changed has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, and other environmental conditions such as temperature may be changed, and the environmental conditions may be changed one after another. Data may be obtained.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various changes can be added. For example, the work site reproduced in the environment room may be a practical work site, but as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-20914, a display device and an operator corresponding to the work are arranged and a computer is installed. It may be virtually reproduced by using a technique such as three-dimensional stereoscopic vision. According to this, it is possible to reproduce a work site equivalent to the actual work site without providing large-scale equipment in the environment room, and it is possible to change the work site or change the work conditions finely and easily. Further, it becomes easy to acquire the data regarding the movement of the worker and the work target.

In the above, the embodiment in which the motion capture camera and the thermography camera are provided in the environment room to measure the motion of the worker and the surface temperature of the work target has been described. It is also possible to measure the body temperature and the temperature of the equipment, or to arrange another measuring device such as a load cell to measure the load of the movable part and store the measured data in association with each other. Furthermore, if a video camera is installed to capture the motion of the operator as a moving image and this moving image is stored together with the skill data, the details of the skill can be acquired and passed down in a form that is easier to grasp. be able to.

Further, if the viewpoint measuring device is provided in the environment room 1 and the reference data and the change data or the corresponding data is created for the viewpoint of the worker A, the worker can more easily respond to the work environment. Accurately represented skill data can be acquired.

[0055]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently and accurately evaluate the so-called skilled skill, which is a point of advanced and delicate skill, and to create a database thereof. It is possible to extract highly skilled skills useful for passing on to successors and teaching to robots.

Further, by subdividing the parameters that are changed when extracting the skill, it becomes possible to logically explain the work contents that have been changed by the operator's perception and experience as data, and express them. The difficult part and experience part can be expressed by a combination of logical data, and the contents can correspond to the teaching to the robot. Further, the operation amount of the operator for setting work conditions such as the weather environment and the pseudo operation amount of the operator can be directly used as the measurement data.

According to the present invention, since the data of each measurement point obtained with respect to the change of each parameter of the work environment can be digitized and stored, the deterioration during long-term storage is hardly a problem, and it can be maintained for the future. It can be used for programming of all robots, programming of a device for teaching a person to move, data for displaying teaching contents on a VTR, data of a 3D simulation device, and data of a voice teaching device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an environmental room that can be used in the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a specific example to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a time chart of data of each part of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Environment room, 2 ... Fan device for air feeding, 3 ...
Air conditioner, 4 ... Air suction device, 5 ... Panel lighting,
6 ... Speaker, 7 ... TIG welding machine, 8 ... Ammeter / voltmeter, 9 ... Molten pool, 10 ... Torch, 11 ... On / off switch, 12 ... Motion Capture marker, 1
3 ... Motion capture camera, 14 ... Thermography camera, 15 ... Data processing personal computer, 16 ...
..Storage medium, 17 ... keyboard, 18 ... on / off sensor, A ... base metal, B ... welding device, C ... worker

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Masanori Kawamura             1-4-1 Chuo 1-4-1 Wako City, Saitama Prefecture             Inside Honda Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Toshiyuki Kitazawa             1-4-1 Chuo 1-4-1 Wako City, Saitama Prefecture             Inside Honda Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Kazumi Miyashita             1-4-1 Chuo 1-4-1 Wako City, Saitama Prefecture             Inside Honda Research Laboratory F-term (reference) 3C007 AS11 KS00 KS10 KT01 KT06                       LS00 LS11

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A reference data generating process for measuring a movement of a work process performed by a worker under a certain work environment to generate reference data, and a work environment for the work process given to the worker without permission. A change data generating step of generating change data by measuring a worker's motion at that time, and a skill data generating step of generating skill data by associating the reference data with the change data are provided. Skill evaluation method. 2. A reference data generation process for measuring a motion of a work process performed by an operator under a certain work environment to generate reference data, and a work environment for the work process given to the worker without permission. A change data generation step of generating change data by measuring a worker's motion at that time, and a skill data generation step of generating skill data by associating the reference data, the change data, and the work environment or the change amount thereof. And a skill evaluation method comprising: 3. The skill data generation step further includes determining, in the work environment, a portion where the change data changes from the reference data and a portion that does not change, and extracting the changed portion as skill change data. The skill evaluation method according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The skill data generation step further includes determining, in the work environment, a portion where the change data is changed from a reference data and a portion where the change data is not changed, and extracting the unchanged portion as skill basic data. The skill evaluation method according to claim 1 or 2. 5. The skilled data generating step generates corresponding data which is a difference between the reference data and the change data, and uses the corresponding data instead of or in addition to the change data as the skill data. Claim 1 characterized by
The skill evaluation method according to any one of 1 to 4. 6. The skill evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the work environment is given at least one of a weather environment and a work condition as a parameter. 7. The skill evaluation method according to claim 6, wherein the change data generation step is performed in a space where a weather environment can be operated. 8. A three-dimensional display device capable of performing a pseudo work operation of an operator is provided in the space, and at least the change data generating step is performed based on data obtained by the pseudo work operation of the worker. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein
The skill evaluation method described in. 9. The skill evaluation method according to claim 6, wherein the parameter of the work condition is a condition of a work target.