Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automated assembly apparatus and an automated assembly method, which use an assembly robot.
Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, in an automated assembly apparatus which uses a robot, a Z-axis of the robot gripping an assembly component moves up and down to assemble the assembly component to a component to be assembled.
Automated assembly apparatuses have been required to achieve reduced assembling operation time. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5-235598 describes a component mounting apparatus which suctions a component by a suction nozzle and moves horizontally with respect to a substrate to mount the component at a predetermined position on the substrate.
The component mounting apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5-235598 is capable of reducing the component mounting time to a certain extent. However, the Z-axis has to be raised to a height which clears the maximum height of an interfering object on the movement path when XY-axes move. In addition, when mounting a component, the Z-axis has to be lowered by the same height it has been lifted to clear the interfering object. This has been posing a problem in that the time for mounting a component increases as the height of an interfering object on the movement path increases.