DEVICE FOR AVOIDING INTERFERENCE

An interference avoiding device for determining occurrence of an interference in a robot operation in advance and automatically avoiding the interference, to be suitably applied to an automatic picking-up operation of randomly stored workpieces. A position/orientation of a workpiece and a position/orientation of a tool for getting hold of the workpiece in a teaching operation, and shapes/dimensions of the tool and the storage box are determined and stored in a storage device. A command position/orientation Ta of the tool for getting hold of an objective workpiece is determined based on a detected position/orientation Wa of the workpiece and it is determined whether or not an interference between the tool an the storage box will occur based on the position/orientation Ta and the stored information. If it is determined that an interference will occur, a rotational phase or an inclination angle of the tool with respect to the workpiece is changed within an allowable range of the position/orientation of the tool with respect to the workpiece, to obtain a new position/orientation of the tool. If it is determined that an interference will not occur under the new condition of the position/orientation of the tool, the new position/orientation is adopted. If an interference is still determined to occur, an alarm is issued and the operation of the robot is stopped.