JP5949477B2 - Remote control method and remote control device for moving body - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a remote control method and a remote control device for a mobile body, and more particularly to a remote control method and a remote control device for a biped walking mobile body.

  In recent years, a master-slave system for remotely operating a humanoid robot has been developed. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of controlling a robot having several tens of degrees of freedom while switching an operation target. This makes it possible to perform subtle operations such as the robot's hands and toes with the operator's hand, and other simple movement operations can be performed with the operator's feet, and the joint with super-multiple degrees of freedom. To operate.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-066752

  However, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a problem that there is a difference between the movement of the operator and the movement of the robot to be operated, and it is difficult for the operator to intuitively operate the robot.

  The present application has been made to solve such a problem, and provides a remote control method and a remote control device for a moving body that allow an operator to intuitively reflect his / her movements to the moving body. It is intended to provide.

  In one embodiment, the remote control method for a mobile body is a remote control method for a mobile body in which an operator remotely controls the walking of a biped mobile body by a master-slave method, When at least one of them is grounded, at least the position coordinates of the grounded operator's foot are acquired as the support leg position coordinates of the operator, and are different from the grounded operator's foot. When the foot changes from the grounded state to the floor leaving state, the position coordinate of the different foot of the operator who has left the floor is acquired as the swing leg position coordinate of the operator, and the position of the operator relative to the position coordinate of the support leg is acquired. Calculating the position coordinates of the free leg of the movable body based on the relative position of the free leg position coordinates of the operator, and causing the movable body to walk based on the calculated position coordinates of the free leg of the movable body A. With such a configuration, the operator can intuitively reflect his / her movement on the moving body.

  Further, when the support leg position coordinate of the operator changes while the ground of the grounded operator's foot is maintained in a grounded state, the change of the support leg position coordinate is changed to the moving body. You may make it not reflect in the change of the position of the said support leg. With such a configuration, the operator can give a walking instruction to the biped walking moving body without actually moving, and the biped walking moving body can be moved anywhere.

  Furthermore, when the operator sits on the chair, a force that acts in a direction opposite to the load that the operator exerts on the chair and that is smaller than the load is generated, and the height of the seat surface of the chair is increased. You may make it instruct | indicate the height of the waist position when the said mobile body walks based on the height of the acquired said seat surface.

  In addition, an environment recognition result of an environment in which the mobile body is going to walk is acquired, the position coordinates of the free leg of the mobile body based on the current free leg position coordinates of the operator are acquired, and the acquired mobile body Assuming that the position of the free leg of the moving body is lowered vertically toward the ground, the position coordinates of the moving body when the foot of the moving body is in contact with the ground are expressed as follows: Calculated as an expected position, the obtained environment recognition result and the calculated predicted foottip contact position of the moving body are superimposed on an image and presented to the operator, and the environment recognition result and the foottip The operator's foot position may be changed by the operator in consideration of interference with the expected ground contact position.

  Furthermore, when the operator is seated on the chair in a natural sitting posture, the relative distance in the front-rear direction of the operator's foot position and waist position is calculated as an offset amount, and the operator's support leg position A value obtained by adding the calculated offset amount to the relative position to the waist position may be designated as the translational waist position when the moving body walks.

  Further, the position coordinates of the operator's feet that are grounded are acquired using a touch panel provided under the operator's feet, and the position coordinates of the different feet of the operator who has left the floor are obtained by using a motion sensor. You may make it acquire using.

  Furthermore, the position coordinates of the operator's feet that are grounded are obtained using a trackball provided on the sole of the operator's feet, and the position coordinates of the different feet of the operator who has left the floor are obtained, You may make it acquire using the exoskeleton type | mold motion recognition apparatus with which the said operator's leg | foot was mounted | worn.

  In another embodiment, the mobile remote control device is a mobile remote control device in which an operator remotely controls the walking of a biped walking mobile body by a master-slave method. A foot contact state detection unit that detects the presence / absence of the contact of the foot and the position coordinate of the foot when the foot is grounded; and when the operator's foot changes from the contact state to the leave state, A predetermined position processing based on output signals from the foot position coordinate acquisition unit, the foot contact state detection unit, and the foot position coordinate acquisition unit for acquiring the position coordinates of the operator's foot, and A control unit that outputs an operation command signal to the position of the operator's foot that is grounded when at least one of the operator's feet is grounded. The operator's support leg position When at least a foot that is different from the grounded operator's foot is changed from the grounded state to the floored state, the position coordinates of the different foot of the operator who has left the floor are obtained. Obtained as the free leg position coordinates, and calculates the position coordinates of the free leg of the moving body based on the relative position of the operator's free leg position coordinates with respect to the support leg position coordinates of the operator, The moving body is caused to walk based on the position coordinates of the free leg of the moving body. With such a configuration, the operator can intuitively reflect his / her movement on the moving body.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a remote control method and a remote control device for a moving body that allow an operator to reflect his / her movement intuitively on the moving body.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a mobile remote control device 1 according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining the reflection method of the foot step of the advancing direction which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining the reflection method of the foot step of the horizontal direction which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a method of reproducing the forward leg trajectory in the forward direction according to Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a waist posture operating method according to the first embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the operation method of the waist height according to the tension force of the operator 2 which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. 6 is a diagram for describing an information presentation image to an operator 2 according to Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating three types of predicted foot contact position / posture according to the first embodiment. It is a figure which displays the floor reaction force center point assumed with respect to the foot contact | abutting ground contact expected position posture which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a schematic block diagram of the remote control apparatus 1 of the moving body which concerns on other embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the relationship between the translation position of the waist | hip | lumbar which concerns on other embodiment, and a foot tip position. It is a figure for demonstrating the relationship between the translation position of the waist | hip | lumbar which concerns on other embodiment, and a foot tip position.

<Embodiment 1 of the Invention>
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a remote control device 1 for a moving body. The remote control device 1 operates the movement of the robot 20 as an example of a moving body. With this remote operation device 1, the operator 2 can instruct the robot 20 to carry any foot (time-series information on the position and posture of the toes) while sitting on the chair 7.

  The remote operation device 1 is necessary for the operation of the touch panel 5 as an example of the foot contact state detection unit, the motion sensor 6 as an example of the foot position coordinate acquisition unit, the chair 7 on which the operator 2 is seated, and the robot 20. And a control unit 30 that executes predetermined processing.

  The touch panel 5 is a large multi-touch compatible panel. The touch panel 5 detects the presence / absence of the foot of the operator 2, the position coordinates of the foot of the operator 2 who is grounded, the direction of the foot, and the slide of the foot. The motion sensor 6 acquires the position coordinates / posture of the free leg of the operator 2 who has left the floor.

  The control unit 30 executes predetermined processing based on output signals from the touch panel 5 and the motion sensor 6 and outputs an operation command signal to the robot 20. The control unit 30 temporarily stores, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that performs arithmetic processing, a ROM (Read Only Memory) that stores arithmetic programs executed by the CPU, processing data, and the like. A hardware configuration is provided with a microcomputer having a random access memory (RAM) as a center. The CPU, ROM, and RAM are connected to each other by a data bus or the like.

  In the present embodiment, a biped walking robot 20 having lower limbs similar to mankind will be described as an example of the robot 20 to be operated by the remote operation device 1. The robot 20 has a known configuration capable of changing each joint to an arbitrary angle. The robot 20 includes a well-known system that can move the toes at a toe position designated by an operation command signal and can correct the posture in real time to a posture that considers the whole body balance. . The robot 20 may have a known configuration that can recognize the surrounding environment of the robot 20 (for example, a road surface condition or an obstacle condition). Further, the robot 20 may include a known video presentation unit that can present information by an image to the operator 2.

  Although details will be described later, the master-slave remote operation method of the robot 20 according to the present embodiment traces the movement of the operator 2 as it is with respect to the movement of the lower limb in addition to the movement of the upper limb of the operation target robot 20. It makes it possible to operate intuitively.

Processing for operating the whole body motion of the robot 20 includes the following steps 1 to 4. Here, the remote operation method of the robot 20 according to the present embodiment mainly includes “Step 2: Operation of the lower limb (foot pattern)”, “Step 3.2: Operation of the waist height”, and “Step 4: Feet”. Since it has the characteristics regarding “presentation of information on the predicted position and orientation of the previous contact”, these steps will be described with emphasis, and detailed descriptions of the other steps will be omitted.
Step 1: Upper limb operation Step 2: Lower limb (foot pattern) operation Step 3: Waist position / posture operation Step 3.1: Waist posture operation Step 3.2: Waist height operation Step 4: Foottip ground contact position Presentation of posture information

Step 1: Upper Limb Operation The control unit 30 acquires the movement of the upper limb of the operator 2 by a known movement acquisition unit (not shown), and the acquired movement of the operator 2 is a motion of the joint angle or the hand position / posture. By giving the robot 20 as a command, the upper limb of the robot 20 can be operated. The technology for remotely operating the upper limb of the robot 20 in this way is realized in many conventional technologies. For example, as an example of the motion acquisition unit, an operation using a motion sensor such as an exoskeleton type master device or motion capture is performed. What is necessary is just to acquire a motion of a person's upper limb. Note that a well-known technique may be employed for remote operation of the upper limb of the robot 20, and therefore detailed description thereof is omitted here.

Step 2: Operation of Lower Limb (Foot Pattern) With reference to FIG. 1 again, operation of the lower limb of the robot 20 will be described.
When the operator 2 is sitting on the chair 7 and moves both feet 3 and 4 on the touch panel 5, where the operator 2 touches the foot and how the foot slides and moves. (It has been slid) is detected by the touch panel 5. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, it is detected where the right foot 3 of the operator 2 is in contact with the ground, and whether the right foot 3 is slid and moved.

  Further, when the operator 2 lifts and moves his / her foot from the touch panel 5, the foot position and foot position are acquired by the motion sensor 6. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, when the left foot 4 of the operator 2 leaves the floor, the position / posture of the left foot 4 that has become a free leg is acquired. The motion sensor 6 may be a known motion detection device such as a motion capture or Kinect (registered trademark) device. The motion sensor 6 can sequentially acquire the position / posture of the free leg of the operator 2 who has left the floor.

  Here, if the robot 20 simply traces the movement of the legs 3 and 4 of the operator 2 on the operation interface using the remote operation device 1, the robot 20's legs are only moved to the back and forth. It does not lead to walking. Therefore, the control unit 30 performs conversion into a walking pattern by a processing method described below.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a method of reflecting the foot step in the forward direction. In the same figure, the walking that the operator 2 instructs the robot 20 is shown in the upper part of the figure, and the walking pattern on the robot 20 side corresponding to the walking is shown in the lower part of the figure.

  As shown in the upper part of FIG. 2, with respect to the footsteps (shown using solid line arrows) in which the feet of the operator 2 are slid with the feet of the operator 2 being landed, as shown in the lower part of FIG. The leg of the robot 20 corresponding to the above becomes a supporting leg, and its position is not changed. Further, as shown in the upper part of the figure, the trajectory of the foot of the operator 2 who has left the floor (shown by using a dotted arrow) is set as a free leg trajectory, and the corresponding leg on the robot 20 side at the relative position from the support leg Move (corresponding to the movement of the dotted footprint shown at the bottom of the figure). The trajectory is information including time series data of position coordinates and posture information.

  That is, the control unit 30 treats “when the foot of the operator 2 is grounded on the touch panel 5 as a support leg, the foot of the operator 2 is grounded on the touch panel 5. Even when the operator's 2 foot is slid on the touch panel 5 while maintaining the state, the policy is that the position of the corresponding foot on the robot 20 side is not changed. When the robot leaves the floor, the corresponding leg on the robot 20 side is handled as a free leg, and the position of the corresponding leg on the robot 20 side is determined according to the relative positional relationship between the support leg and the free leg of the operator 2. According to the policy of “change”, the foot pattern for causing the robot 20 to walk is instructed.

  By giving a foot pattern instruction to the robot 20 in accordance with the two policies regarding the handling of the support leg and the free leg, the operator 2 can use the sliding motion while sitting down without any restriction on the moving distance. A foot pattern instruction can be given to the robot 20.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method of reflecting a lateral foot step. In FIG. 3, the example of application to the walk in a horizontal direction is shown. In the same manner as in the case described with reference to FIG. 2, various free movements such as front and rear, right and left, diagonal and turning can be handled by the same designation in FIG. 3.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method of reproducing the free leg trajectory in the forward direction. In the case where the foot of the operator 2 is a free leg, the position of the free leg cannot be detected by the touch panel 5, but the relative position and orientation of the free leg with respect to the support leg is detected using the motion sensor 5. Can do. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to instruct the robot 20 to remotely control a free leg trajectory such as an arbitrary foot-lifting height or a foot swing.

  In the following, the formulation of the free leg trajectory calculation method instructed to the robot 20 will be described in more detail. The swing leg trajectory calculated by the control unit 30 is instructed to the robot 20. The free leg trajectory instructed to the robot 20 is input as the position / posture of the tip of the robot 20. The robot 20 calculates the angle of each joint after solving known inverse kinematics and whole body balance calculation based on the position and posture of the instructed foot. The robot 20 realizes a free leg trajectory by driving each joint based on the calculated joint angle. Since the calculation of each joint angle performed by the robot 20 depends on the processing of each robot 20 serving as a slave, detailed description thereof is omitted here.

First, an example will be described from the time when the left foot 4 of the operator 2 leaves the floor to become a free leg and then landed (corresponding to the second and third situations from the left in FIG. 2). .
As shown below, the foot tip position coordinates of the operator 2 and the robot 20 at time t are defined using three-dimensional vector quantities (x, y, z), respectively. For example, if the x-axis is set forward in the direction of travel of the robot 20, the y-axis direction is set in the same plane and perpendicular to the x-axis direction, and is set upward in the vertical direction. Good.
Toe position coordinates of the left foot 4 of the operator 2: Lh (t)
Toe position coordinates of the right foot 3 of the operator 2: Rh (t)
Foot 20 position coordinate of left foot of robot 20: Lr (t)
Foot 20 position coordinate of right foot of robot 20: Rr (t)

  Note that the measurement of the foottip position coordinates of the operator 2 can use the measurement value of the touch panel 5 or the measurement value of the motion sensor 6 in the grounding state. In addition, the measurement value of the motion sensor 6 is used as the time series information of the position coordinates and posture of the foot of the operator 2 at the time of the swing leg.

The time at which the left foot 4 of the operator 2 as a free leg leaves the floor is assumed to be t0, and the time for landing is assumed to be t1. The time series information of the foot position coordinates of the left foot of the robot 20 that is the free leg in the time from t0 to t1 can be calculated as shown in the following equation (1).

  Equation (1) is obtained when there is a difference between the relative position of the left and right feet of the robot 20 and the relative position of the left and right feet of the operator 2 at the moment when the left foot 4 of the operator 2 leaves the floor. Try to interpolate the difference. That is, the equation (1) is linear interpolation so that the positional relationship between the left and right foot tips of the robot 20 and the positional relationship between the left and right foot tips of the operator 2 are the same at the moment when the left foot 4 contacts the ground. Is given. Note that the interpolation method is not limited to this, and polynomial interpolation may be used in order to avoid discontinuity of the toe trajectory.

  Moreover, in this Embodiment, the condition where both feet of the operator 2 get out of bed is not assumed. As a result, one of the legs of the operator 2 is always grounded, so that the support leg is always set for the robot 20 as well. For this reason, in the section from t0 to t1, Rr (t) is set to be constant assuming that the position of the support leg of the robot 20 is not changed, and Rr (t0) is used in the equation (1). Note that the position of the right foot 3 of the operator 2 may be slightly slid even if he / she does not get out of bed, so Rh (t) in order to reflect the slide in the calculation of the swing leg trajectory of the robot 20. Is used.

  Note that the calculation of the toe posture of the free leg of the robot 20 can be performed using a posture matrix or a quaternion as in the case of the toe position, and can be calculated by the same processing. For this reason, detailed description of the calculation process of the toe posture is omitted here.

Further, in the formula (1), the distance of the movement of the foot tip between the operator 2 and the robot 20 is handled as the same, but the present invention is not limited to this. When the scale of the robot 20 is significantly different from the scale of the operator 2, the ratio of the operator 2 to the robot 20 is set to 1 to r, and the position of the left foot tip of the robot 20 is derived by the following formula ( It may be calculated as shown in 2).

  Further, in the present embodiment, the calculation method related to the free leg trajectory of the left foot of the robot 20 has been described, but the right and left relations are similarly reversed with respect to the free leg trajectory of the right foot. ) Can be used for calculation.

In the above description, the case where the time t1 at which the free leg of the operator 2 is landed has already been determined has been described as an example. However, when the robot 20 is controlled in real time, the time t1 is undetermined. Therefore, when the time t1 is undecided, the method described so far is applied under the assumption that landing is performed in a short time (for example, t1 = t0 + 0.5 [sec], etc.), and t> In the case where the user has not yet landed at t1, the following formulas (3) and (4) can be used instead of formulas (1) and (2). . Thereby, even when the time until landing is not known in advance, the method described so far can be adopted, and a system with good responsiveness can be constructed.

  The control unit 30 uses the touch panel 5 or the motion sensor 6 to detect the grounding state of the operator 2's foot, uses the grounded operator 2's foot as a support leg of the robot 20, and is grounded. When a foot different from the second foot changes from the grounded state to the floor leaving state, the different foot is set as the free leg of the robot 20. Then, using the touch panel 5 or the motion sensor 6, the control unit 30 acquires at least the position coordinates of the ground of the operator 2 that is grounded as the support leg position coordinates of the operator 2. Further, the control unit 30 uses the motion sensor 6 to acquire the position coordinates of the different feet of the operator 2 who has left the floor as the swing leg position coordinates of the operator 2. Further, the control unit 30 calculates the position coordinate of the free leg of the robot 20 based on the relative position of the free leg position coordinate of the operator 2 with respect to the support leg position coordinate of the operator 2, and the calculated free leg of the robot 20 The robot 20 is walked based on the position coordinates of

  Further, when the support leg position coordinate of the operator 2 changes while the operator 2's foot as the support leg is in a grounded state, the control unit 30 changes the support leg position coordinate. You may make it not reflect in the change of the position of the support leg of the robot 20. FIG.

Step 3: Operation of Waist Position / Posture Next, the operation of the waist posture of the robot 20 and the operation of the waist height will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation method of the waist posture. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a method of operating the waist height according to the tension force of the operator 2.

Step 3.1: Operation of waist posture In the example shown in FIG. 5, first, the operator 2 is fixed to the chair 7 using the belt 8 or the like while the operator 2 is seated on the seat surface of the chair 7. And according to a motion of the operator 2, it is comprised so that a seat surface may move passively by a predetermined | prescribed degree of hardness in a triaxial (roll, pitch, yaw) direction. At this time, the posture of the chair 7 is detected using an encoder (not shown) provided on the chair 7, and the control unit 30 instructs the detected posture as the waist posture of the robot 20. This makes it possible to perform intuitive body posture operations. Since these methods are known methods (for example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 3628826), detailed description thereof is omitted here. On the other hand, since such a conventional method cannot operate the waist height of the robot 20 and cannot cope with a work such as crouching, the waist height operating method according to the present embodiment will be described below.

Step 3.2: Waist Height Operation As shown in FIG. 6, the operator 2 is seated on the chair 7 by providing a spring element (not shown) such as a spring inside the chair 7 on which the operator 2 is seated. In this case, a force (counter balance) that is a force acting in a direction opposite to the load applied to the chair 7 by the operator 2 and smaller than the load is generated. And with respect to this counter balance, the height of the seat surface of the chair 7 changes up and down by changing the tension force with which the operator 2 pushes the ground. The control unit 20 detects the height of the seat surface using, for example, an encoder (not shown) provided on the chair 7, and instructs the waist height of the robot 20 according to the height of the seat surface to be moved up and down.
Operator 2 weight: m [kg]
Operator 2 load: mg [kg] (g is acceleration of gravity)
Operator 2's tension force: F [N]
Counter balance force: C [N]

  The counter balance is preferably set to be slightly smaller than the load of the operator 2. With this setting, when the operator 2 is not seated on the chair 7, the seat surface of the chair 7 is lifted. When the operator 2 sits down on the chair 7, since the gravity (load) applied to the operator 2 exceeds the counter balance, the seating surface is lowered.

  As shown in the left diagram of FIG. 6, the operator 2 can step on the ground with his / her foot and generate a constant force as a tension force, so that the seat surface of the chair 7 can be maintained at a constant height. . In this state, the height of the seating surface can be lowered by the operator 2 depressing the tension force (center view in the figure). In addition, the operator 2 can increase the seating height by applying the tension force (right diagram in the figure). In this way, by instructing the waist height of the robot 20 in conjunction with the height of the seat surface of the chair 7, the height of the waist position of the robot 20 (that is, how the legs of the robot 20 are extended) is intuitively determined. Can be operated manually.

  In addition, by combining the operation of the waist height and the operation in the above-mentioned “Step 3.1: Operation of the waist posture”, the position and posture of the upper limb above the waist can be intuitively operated. The robot 20 can be instructed to perform arbitrary operations such as squatting and standing upright. In consideration of the fact that it is difficult for the operator 2 to fully extend the knee depending on the sitting posture, and that the physical properties such as the leg lengths of the robot 20 and the operator 2 are different, the height of the seating surface is considered. It is more preferable to give a target waist height to the robot 20 after performing a correction such as multiplying a constant rate or adding an offset value by the operator 2.

  By adopting such a configuration, when the robot 20 is remotely controlled, the operator 2 can be seated on the chair 7 and any one of the feet can be always kept in contact with the ground. It is possible to more reliably execute the instruction to carry the support leg and the free leg to the robot 20 described in Step 2 described above.

Step 4: Presentation of information on predicted foottip contact position / posture As described above in “Step 2: Operation of Lower Limb (Foot Pattern)”, an operation instruction for an arbitrary foot step can be made. Here, the robot 20 is not limited to walking on flat ground, and for example, it is assumed that the robot 20 also walks on uneven ground. In such a case, it is possible to instruct the robot 20 to travel safely by allowing the operator 2 to select in advance the position where the tip of the robot 20 will land.

  When the operator 2 selects the position with the foot of the robot 20, it is useful to present the environment recognition result around the robot 20 to the operator 2. However, simply presenting such information as an image to the operator 2 has a problem that it is difficult to identify a step, a slope, and the like, and it is difficult to determine a safe foot contact location.

  Therefore, an image of the environment recognition result of the environment in which the robot 20 is to walk (information on obstacles, floors, etc.) and the predicted foot position contact posture of the robot 20 based on the current swing position / posture of the operator 2 is displayed. Information is presented to the operator 2 in a superimposed manner, and the foot position / posture is changed by the operator 2 in consideration of the interference between the environment recognition result and the expected toe contact position / posture. As an effect of this, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the robot 20 is in an unreasonable foot posture when the robot 20 is in contact with the ground, and on the operator 2 side, the next contact location of the free leg is appropriately changed to a safe area. It becomes easy. Note that the predicted foot tip contact position / posture of the robot 20 is perpendicular to the ground from the foot position / posture of the robot 20 with respect to the position / posture of the robot 20 according to the current swing position / posture of the operator 2. This is the position / posture of the robot 20's foot when the robot 20's foot is in contact with the ground.

  This will be described more specifically with reference to FIG. The operator 2 shown in the left part of FIG. 7 wears the information presentation device 9. The information presentation device 9 may use, for example, a head mounted display (HMD). The robot 20 shown in the lower right part of FIG. 7 has a robot-mounted camera 21 as an example of an environment recognition unit that recognizes an environment to walk, and outputs the camera image to the control unit 30 as an environment recognition result. Note that the environment recognition unit is not limited to this, and for example, an external camera image as an environment recognition result may be acquired using a camera image outside the robot. Moreover, you may acquire an environment recognition result with another environment recognition apparatus.

  As shown in the upper right part of FIG. 7, the control unit 30 determines the expected foot position contact posture of the robot 20 according to the current swing position / posture of the operator 2 with respect to the image obtained from the robot-mounted camera 21. (Dotted footprints) are superimposed and projected, and presented to the operator 2 via the information presentation device 9. Here, the video example shown in the upper right part of FIG. 7 is an AR (augmented reality) video. The operator 2 can detect in advance in the situation shown on the left side of the video example of FIG. 7 that the contact position / posture of the foot is unstable as it is. For this reason, the operator 2 can easily select the place where the operator can land in a stable posture by moving the foot of the operator 2 as shown on the right side in the example of the video in FIG.

  Although the present embodiment has been described on the assumption that both the position and posture of the foottip are calculated as the predicted foottip contact position and posture, the present invention is not limited to this, and only the position of the foottip is calculated. It is good. That is, when it is assumed that the position coordinate of the free leg of the robot 20 based on the current free leg position coordinate of the operator 2 is acquired and vertically lowered from the acquired position coordinate of the free leg of the robot 20 toward the ground. The position coordinates of the foot of the robot 20 when the foot of the robot 20 is in contact with the ground are calculated as a predicted foot tip contact position of the robot 20. Then, the control unit 30 superimposes the acquired environment recognition result and the calculated predicted foottip contact position of the robot 20 on the image, and presents the information to the operator 2. In consideration of the interference between the two, the operator 2 may change the foot position of the operator 2.

  As described above, it is useful to present the expected toe ground contact position / posture based on the current swing position / posture of the operator 2. Furthermore, generally, it is also possible to obtain the toe contact predicted position / posture in consideration of surface contact and three or more contact points.

  FIG. 8 exemplifies three types of predicted foot contact position / posture. FIG. 8 exemplifies the current swing position / posture of the operator 2 and the expected toe contact position / posture determined in consideration of the position / shape of an obstacle present on the ground. In the same figure, an obstacle is placed on the ground, the current position of the current leg of the operator 2 is shown at the top, and the calculated foot position below the position of the current leg of the operator 2 and on the obstacle. It shows the expected contact position and posture.

  At the time of actual grounding, when the load of the robot 20 is applied, the grounding is performed in a contact state in which the center point of the floor reaction force on the sole of the robot 20 falls within the support polygon. In general, the floor reaction force center point is often controlled so that it is located at the center of the sole of the robot 20 or directly below the ankle joint. For this reason, when determining the expected foottip contact posture, it is preferable that the desired floor reaction force center point be within the range of the support polygon. In other words, in addition to the predicted foot contact position / posture, the floor reaction force center point assumed from the predicted foot contact position / posture is also presented to the operator 2 so that more effective information can be presented. it can. In FIG. 9, an assumed floor reaction force center point is calculated for each predicted foot position contact posture shown in FIG. 8, and the position of the calculated floor reaction force center point is set using a white point. Is displayed.

  By introducing the remote operation method including the operations in steps 1 to 4 described above, an intuitive master-slave remote operation is realized, and thus the humanoid robot 20 can be operated intuitively. Using the movement of the operator 2's own body, it is possible to perform a remote operation corresponding to the movement of the robot 20 over the whole body. Further, the remote operation device 1 (whole body operation type master device) of the robot 20 according to the present embodiment also includes equipment that can be easily introduced at present, such as the touch panel 5 and the motion sensor 6, even for necessary equipment. It has the advantage that it can be realized.

<Other embodiments>
In the first embodiment, the example in which the touch panel 5 is used as a technique for detecting the ground contact state of the operator 2 serving as the support leg and the slide of the foot has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it is good also as what detects the grounding state of a foot | leg and a slide by providing the trackball 10 with a load sensor in the sole of the operator 2. FIG. Thereby, it is realizable with a simpler apparatus.

  In the first embodiment, the example in which the motion sensor 6 is used as the technique for acquiring the position coordinate / posture of the swing leg of the operator 2 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, by attaching the exoskeleton type motion recognition device 11 (master device) to the foot of the operator 2 and estimating the toe position / posture based on the encoder values of each joint of the exoskeleton type motion recognition device 11, The position coordinates / posture of the swing leg of the person 2 may be acquired.

  Further, for example, a grounding sensor is provided on the sole of the operator 2, and only the grounding sensor is used for detecting the grounding state of the foot serving as the support leg. 6 or using an exoskeleton-type motion recognition device 11 can be combined. In other words, what is important is a configuration capable of detecting the ground contact state between the operator's foot and the ground and detecting the toe position / posture of the operator's foot.

  FIG. 10 shows a schematic configuration of another configuration of the mobile remote control device. A trackball 10 with a load sensor is disposed on the sole of the operator 2. Further, the exoskeleton type motion recognition device 11 is attached to the foot of the operator 2. The trackball 10 with a load sensor is configured by providing a uniaxial force sensor for the trackball in order to detect the ground contact of the sole of the operator 2. The movement of the grounded foot is acquired using the trackball 10 with the load sensor. Using the skeletal motion recognition device 11, the position / posture of the free leg that has left the floor is acquired.

  In the above “Step 3.1: Waist posture operation” and “Step 3.2: Waist height operation”, the instruction method related to the waist posture / height has been described. The relationship designation method will be described in more detail in addition to the following.

  When the positions of both feet are specified in the biped walking robot 20, the ZMP exists on the support polygon formed by the foot of the support leg, and the dynamic balance can be maintained with respect to the translational position of the waist. A method for obtaining the position of the center of gravity is generally known. Then, a waist position for satisfying the obtained center of gravity position is determined. However, in the humanoid robot 20 having a super redundant degree of freedom, there is a problem that the waist position is not uniquely determined. For this reason, the waist position can be instructed to the robot 20 as a certain index (of course, the instructed waist position is often changed as a result of calculation considering stabilization). Based on this, an example of a method for specifying the translational waist position will be described below.

11 and 12 are diagrams for explaining the relationship between the translational position of the waist and the position of the toe.
In the example shown in FIG. 11, an example is shown in which the relative positional relationship of the waist position with respect to the foot position of the support leg of the operator 2 is directly instructed to the robot 20 as the waist command position. In the figure, the black tip is used to indicate the foot position of the support leg, and the white point is used to indicate the waist position.

  In FIG. 11, regarding the structure of the chair 7, a structure is adopted in which when the operator 2 sits on the chair 7, the foot position of the operator 2 and the waist position are in a natural positional relationship. The natural positional relationship between the feet of the operator 2 and the waist position means that the operator 2 is seated so that the waist position exists above the feet of the operator 2. In addition, the state where the waist position exists above the foot of the operator 2 as described above refers to normal standing. In such a case, the controller 30 instructs the robot 20 as it is as a waist command position, as a waist command position, for the relative position relationship of the waist position with respect to the toe position of the support leg, thereby specifying the waist translation direction of the robot 20. It becomes possible. Note that the waist position of the operator 2 can be detected by, for example, the motion sensor 6.

  FIG. 12 shows a state in which the operator 2 seated on the chair 2 shown in FIG. 11 is seated in a more natural posture. In general, it can be said that the posture shown in FIG. 12 is a more natural posture compared to the sitting posture shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 12, the control unit 30 calculates in advance the relative distance in the front-rear direction between the toe position and the waist position when the operator 2 is seated in a natural seating posture as an offset amount. When the waist position command is instructed to the robot 20, the control unit 30 instructs a value obtained by adding the calculated offset amount to the relative position between the support leg position and the waist position of the operator 2. As a result, the natural sitting posture shown in FIG. 12 corresponds to the upright state of the robot 20, and the master-slave operation of the whole body can be performed with a natural posture that is not unreasonable.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be changed as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, as another example of the moving body, a CG character may be an operation target.

1 Remote control device,
2 operator,
3 Operator's right foot,
4 Operator's left foot,
5 Touch panel,
6 motion sensors,
7 Chair,
8 belt,
9 Information presentation device,
10 Trackball with load sensor,
11 Exoskeleton type motion recognition device,
20 robots,
21 camera,
30 control unit,

Claims (14)

A method for remotely operating a mobile body in which an operator remotely controls the walking of a biped walking type mobile body by a master-slave method,
Wherein at least it obtains the position coordinates of the operator of at least one of the operator that is the ground of definitive if it is grounded to the ground leg of the foot as a supporting leg position coordinates of the operator,
When a foot different from the operator's foot that is grounded changes from a grounded state to a floored state with respect to the ground, the position coordinates of the different feet of the operator who has left the floor are determined as the free leg of the operator. As position coordinates,
Based on a relative position of the swing leg position coordinate of the operator with respect to the support leg position coordinate of the operator, a position coordinate of the swing leg of the movable body is calculated, and the calculated position of the swing leg of the movable body Walking the moving body based on coordinates,
Remote control method for moving objects. When the support leg position coordinate of the operator changes while the ground of the grounded operator's foot is maintained in the grounded state, the change of the support leg position coordinate is changed to support the moving body. Do not reflect the change in leg position,
The method for remotely operating a mobile object according to claim 1. When the operator sits on the chair, the force acting in the opposite direction to the load applied to the chair by the operator is generated and a force smaller than the load is generated, and the height of the seat surface of the chair is obtained. Instructing the height of the waist position when the mobile body walks based on the height of the acquired seating surface,
The method for remotely operating a mobile object according to claim 1, wherein the mobile object is remotely operated. Obtaining an environment recognition result of an environment in which the mobile body is about to walk;
Assuming that the position coordinates of the free leg of the mobile body calculated based on the current free leg position coordinates of the operator are lowered vertically from the position coordinates of the free leg of the mobile body toward the ground, Calculating the position coordinate of the moving body's foot when the moving body's foot is in contact with the ground, as the predicted foot position of the moving body;
The acquired environment recognition result and the calculated predicted foottip contact position of the moving body are superimposed on an image to present information to the operator, and between the environment recognition result and the predicted foottip contact position In consideration of the interference, the operator's foot position is changed by the operator.
The method for remotely operating a mobile object according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: When the operator is seated on the chair in a natural sitting posture, the operator calculates the relative distance in the front-back direction of the toe position and the waist position as an offset amount, and the support leg position and the waist position of the operator A value obtained by adding the calculated offset amount to the relative position of is designated as a translational waist position when the mobile body walks.
The method for remotely operating a mobile object according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The position coordinates of the operator's foot that is grounded are acquired using a touch panel provided under the operator's feet,
Obtaining the position coordinates of the different feet of the operator who has left the floor using a motion sensor;
The method for remotely operating a mobile object according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The position coordinates of the operator's foot that is grounded are acquired using a trackball provided on the sole of the operator,
The position coordinates of the different feet of the operator who has left the floor are acquired using an exoskeleton-type motion recognition device attached to the feet of the operator.
The method for remotely operating a mobile object according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: A remote control device for a mobile body in which an operator remotely controls the walking of a biped walking type mobile body by a master-slave method,
The presence or absence of the operator's foot and the foot contact state detection unit that detects the position coordinates of the foot when the foot is grounded;
A foot position coordinate acquisition unit that acquires the position coordinates of the operator's foot that has left the floor when the operator's foot has changed from a grounded state to a floor state;
A control unit that performs predetermined processing based on output signals from the foot contact state detection unit and the foot position coordinate acquisition unit, and outputs an operation command signal to the moving body,
The controller is
Wherein at least it obtains the position coordinates of the operator of at least one of the operator that is the ground of definitive if it is grounded to the ground leg of the foot as a supporting leg position coordinates of the operator,
When a foot different from the operator's foot that is grounded changes from a grounded state to a floored state with respect to the ground, the position coordinates of the different feet of the operator who has left the floor are determined as the free leg of the operator. As position coordinates,
Based on a relative position of the swing leg position coordinate of the operator with respect to the support leg position coordinate of the operator, a position coordinate of the swing leg of the movable body is calculated, and the calculated position of the swing leg of the movable body Walking the moving body based on coordinates,
Mobile remote control device. The controller is
When the support leg position coordinate of the operator changes while the ground of the grounded operator's foot is maintained in the grounded state, the change of the support leg position coordinate is changed to support the moving body. Do not reflect the change in leg position,
The remote control device for a moving body according to claim 8. A spring element is provided on a chair on which the operator is seated, and when the operator sits on the chair, the force acts in a direction opposite to the load exerted on the chair by the operator and is smaller than the load. Is generated,
The controller is
Obtaining the height of the seat surface of the chair, and instructing the height of the waist position when the mobile body walks based on the height of the obtained seat surface;
10. The remote control device for a moving body according to claim 8 or 9, wherein: An environment recognizing unit for recognizing an environment in which the moving body is walking;
An information presentation device for presenting information to the operator;
The controller is
Obtaining an environment recognition result of an environment in which the mobile body is about to walk;
Assuming that the position coordinates of the free leg of the mobile body calculated based on the current free leg position coordinates of the operator are lowered vertically from the position coordinates of the free leg of the mobile body toward the ground, Calculating the position coordinate of the moving body's foot when the moving body's foot is in contact with the ground, as the predicted foot position of the moving body;
The acquired environment recognition result and the calculated predicted foottip contact position of the moving body are superimposed on an image to present information to the operator, and between the environment recognition result and the predicted foottip contact position In consideration of the interference, the operator's foot position is changed by the operator.
The remote control device for a moving body according to any one of claims 8 to 10. The controller is
When the operator is seated on the chair in a natural sitting posture, the operator calculates the relative distance in the front-back direction of the toe position and the waist position as an offset amount, and the support leg position and the waist position of the operator A value obtained by adding the calculated offset amount to the relative position of is designated as a translational waist position when the mobile body walks.
The mobile remote control device according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein the remote control device is a mobile object. The foot contact state detection unit is a touch panel provided under the operator's feet,
The foot position coordinate acquisition unit is a motion sensor.
The remote control device for a moving body according to any one of claims 8 to 12. The foot contact state detection unit is a trackball provided on the sole of the operator,
The foot position coordinate acquisition unit is an exoskeleton-type motion recognition device worn on the operator's foot.
The remote control device for a moving body according to any one of claims 8 to 12.