JPS6234785A - Remote working robot - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a remote working robot used for live wire construction and the like.

(Conventional technology and its problems) Since work in locations far from the ground, such as live wire work and painting work on high-rise buildings, is generally quite dangerous, the introduction of robots has been proposed in recent years. There is. For example, if we assume branching work using a drawer 1jlR from a live line to a pole transformer T as shown in Figure 1, it is necessary to work at high places while the power is still on, so it is not possible to do it manually. Currently, there is a high risk of electric shock and falls, and the accident rate is low even on specialized work days. As robots 1 to 1 to overcome this problem, for example, the robot disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 17509/1983 is known.

However, the nature of robots used for such purposes requires that the robot mechanism be attached to the tip of a good boom that extends from a work vehicle, etc., but since the work is carried out outdoors, it is susceptible to the effects of wind and other factors. It becomes something bigger. For this reason, it is difficult to position the robot 1~ accurately by facing the live wire where construction work is being carried out, and even if it is positioned, the boom may swing during the work and the positional relationship may be disrupted. It will end up being put away.

In addition to the causes mentioned above, this second movement is also caused by displacement of the robot's center of gravity due to movement of the robot's arm and vibrations caused by the transmission of work power.If the robot's work origin swings due to this, the work itself In some cases, the boom or robot may collide with live wires or other objects to be worked on, damaging them.

As described above, conventional remote working robots have had various problems due to disturbances in the relative positional relationship between the robot and the work object.

(Objective of the Invention) The present invention is intended to overcome the above-mentioned problems, and to prevent the effects of disturbances in the relative positional relationship between the robot and the work object, thereby increasing work efficiency and safety. The purpose is to provide a remote working robot that can perform remote work.

(Means for Achieving the Object) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the remote working robot according to the present invention connects the coupling mechanism provided at the tip to the work object, thereby improving the operation of the robot during the operation. A positional relationship regulating arm that regulates the relative positional relationship between the origin and the work object is disposed at a predetermined portion of the robot, thereby meeting the regulations i1. The working mechanism of the robot is controlled based on the determined relative positional relationship.

(Embodiment) Overall configuration of the embodiment FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a remote work robot for live line construction.

In the figure, a swivel platform 5 is mounted on the vehicle body 3 of the high-place work type 2, and a multi-stage telescoping boom 4 is mounted on the swivel platform 5.
are pivoted so that they can rise and fall freely. The robot 1 is provided at the tip of this boom 4. This boom 4 is
Its length is made variable by a telescoping cylinder (not shown), and its luffing angle is adjusted to 1li by a luffing cylinder 6 disposed between the boom 4 and the swivel base 5.
It is said that lJ ill is possible. In addition, due to the coordination of balance cylinders 7.8 arranged near both ends of the boom 4,
The overall posture of the robot 1 is maintained. Outriggers 9 are provided at a total of four locations on both the front and rear left and right sides of the vehicle body 3 so as to be able to extend to the sides of the vehicle body, and jacks 10 are attached to the outriggers 9.

On the other hand, on the side of the swivel base 5, a central control device 11 is provided to control not only the operation of the boom 4 but also the operation of the robot 1.
is provided. Further, an operating section 12 is provided near the upper end of the boom 4.

Generally, a solenoid valve system B13 for boom-related operation is provided at the lower part of the swivel base 5. Note that various types of 1D sensors are attached to the swivel base 5, boom 4, etc., and the structure of these parts is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1986-59.
182199M, detailed explanation will be omitted.

Next, the structure of the robot 1 will be explained with reference to FIG. 3A. In the figure, a pedestal 21 attached to the tip of the boom 4 is provided with a rotating pedestal 22 that can be rotated in the φ direction in the figure by a built-in motor M1.

A support tower 23 is erected on the upper surface of this rotating frame 22, and from the upper side of this support tower 23, this support tower 23
A working arm 30 supported by is extended. Also, this support J! A horizontal shirt h 24 C is attached to the upper end of a vertical shaft 24A provided in the housing 23 to 1 forming the top of the housing 23 via a knotting mechanism 24B. At both ends of this horizontal shaft 24C, there are two image sensors (ITV cameras) 25a that can be rotated in the θ direction in the figure by a motor built in the knot mechanism 2413.
, 25b are provided.

Behind these, the vicinity of the vertical shaft 24A is shown as an enlarged view in FIG. 3B. As shown in the figure, this vertical shaft 24A is provided with a rack 24, and this rack 24L cooperates with a pinion 24P built in the housing 23H, so that the vertical shirt l-24
A moves up and down. This is the image senna 25 mentioned above.
This is a mechanism for moving a and 25b up and down.

Returning to FIG. 3Δ, the work arm 30 includes first to third arms 31 to 33 that are rotatable in a vertical plane by motors M2 to M4, and among these, the third arm 3
3 is rotatable in the ψ direction by a motor M5, and an end effector 34 is attached to the tip thereof for carrying out live wire work with a tool (described later).

On the other hand, on the side of the rotating frame 22, there are two holding unit arms 53a and 53b arranged symmetrically at both ends of a shaft 51 which can be rotated in a vertical plane by a motor M6. Twin arms 52 are provided. This holding twin arm 52 corresponds to the "positional relationship regulating arm" of the present invention.

Note that since these two holding unit arms 53a and 53b have the same structure, only the former will be explained below.

In other words, in the holding unit arm 53a, the first arm 54 extends perpendicularly from the end of the shirt j.51.
a is extendable and retractable by a linear actuator A, and a gripping mechanism 56 is attached to the tip of a second arm 55a that rotates in a vertical plane by a motor M7 provided at the tip of the second arm 55a.
A is provided. Since the two holding unit arms 53a and 53b move in the same manner in conjunction with each other, in the subsequent explanation of interference, these will be represented by the movement of the holding unit arm 53a.

Note that the power sources for the end effector 34 of the working arm 30, the gripping mechanism 56a of this twin holding arm 52, etc. may be provided in their own vicinity;
2, etc., to transmit power. Also,
Each of these arms is constructed of insulating material. Furthermore, each joint of these arms is provided with a proximity switch C (
.

On the other hand, a tool box support arm 60 having ladder-like arms 61 and 62 extending diagonally upward and linked to each other is attached to the other side of the rotating pedestal 22, and a tool box support arm 60 is attached to the tip of the arm 62. A tool box 63 containing a tool 64 is supported. The arm 62 is rotatable in a vertical plane by a motor M8.

In this robot 1 having the above structure,
The working arm 30, the holding arm 52, and the shell box support arm 60 all extend from the swivel pedestal 22, and even if the position of the swivel pedestal 22 changes due to movement or rocking of the boom 4, the position between them will not change. The relationship remains unchanged. The rotation center O of the rotating mount 22 serves as the work origin of the robot 1.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram schematically showing the electrical configuration in this embodiment. In the figure, the central processing unit 11 includes a CPLI 71 and a memory 72, which are connected to the following elements.

■Display 73 degrees for displaying the operation unit 12 and control status shown in Fig. 2 ■Boom drive system 74 degrees including the rotation motor of the swivel base 5, cylinder 6, etc. ■Detecting expansion and contraction of the boom 4, etc. Boom detection system including sensors 75° ■ Outrigger detection system 76° including a sensor for detecting the extended state of the arator 9 ■ Motors M, M2, etc. of robot 1, linear motion actuator A, etc. Robot drive system 77° ■Robot detection system 78° ■ Image sensor that includes the encoder E that is attached to the motors M, M2, etc. of robot 1 and detects their rotation angle, the aforementioned proximity switch C, etc. An image processing circuit PC0 processes images from 25a and 25b. Furthermore, among these, the parts related to the robot 1 can be connected by optical fiber cables to form an optical communication system, thereby ensuring electrical insulation. can. In addition,
Although FIG. 4 omits the interface circuit, D/A converter, etc., the configuration used for normal robot control may be adopted for these.

Operation of this embodiment Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. In the following description, the numbers in parentheses indicate step numbers in the figures. First, the work vehicle 2 is stopped near a live wire, the outriggers 9 are extended, and the jack 10 is used to stabilize the work vehicle 2. Then, the boom 4 is rotated and extended by operating the operation section 12, and the robot 1 The live wire for working purposes (
Figure 3 life! 511L2. ) to a position opposite to (Sl). This operation may be performed in conjunction with the rotation of the rotating pedestal 22.

In this facing motion, whether the robot 1 is directly facing the live wires L1 to L3 is determined by the two image sensors 25a.
, 25b, it can be detected. That is, when the robot 1 is oblique to the live wires L to 3, the two image sensors 25a and 25
The thickness of the live wires imaged by each of b will be different from each other, and from this it can be easily determined whether they are directly facing each other. Then, by changing the posture of the robot 1 so that the thickness of the live wires in these images is the same, the robot 1 is made live 1jlL1~[
3 can be directly faced.

In this way, the live wire L is placed within the working range of the robot 1.
After setting the relationship such that 2 is located, the image sensor 25
a and 25b to confirm the distance and direction to the live wire L2 (S2).

An example of this confirmation principle is shown in Figure 6, where robot 1
The image sensors 25a and 25b are changed vertically by a distance of 1l111, and the image sensors 25a and 25b are rotated in the vertical plane so that the live wire L2 is located at the center of the field of view of the image sensors 25a and 25b at both upper and lower end positions. let If the rotation angles at this time are expressed by α and α2, respectively, as is known from the principle of triangle 311ffi, the active IaL
The distance 11fD to 2 is determined by the following equation (1).

D=1 sin a x S! n(22/5in(a1
+a2)...(1) Moreover, the direction of the live wire L2 can be known from α1 or α2.

Returning to FIG. 5, following the detection of the distance and direction to the live wire L3 in this way, the image sensor 25a detects whether there is any object that will obstruct the movement of each arm. .

Confirmation is made based on the detection output of 25b (S3). Examples of such obstacles include the live wires L1 and L13 in FIG. 6. For example, for the live wire L1, the angle β1. By knowing β2, the position can also be known. However, if the sizes of the live wires and L2゜[,3 are different, the desired live wire 1! L2 and other active IL1
．． Although it is relatively easy to distinguish it from L-3, it may be difficult to distinguish it if they have the same diameter. In this case, a method may be introduced in which the images captured by the image sensors 25a and 25b are displayed on the display 73 shown in FIG. 4, and the operator can distinguish between them by operating a switch.

Returning to FIG. 5 again, once the target live wire L2 and the obstacle are confirmed, the operation sequence of the holding twin arms 52 is determined based on this information (S4). this is,
Determining the extension □□□ and the extension direction of the holding twin arm 52 according to the distance and direction to the live wire L2, and
This means that in the extension operation, the -8 portion of the arm selects a path that does not come into contact with other live wires, such as L, and determines the driving order accordingly.

Next, the holding twin arm 52 is extended according to the sea case determined in this way, and the gripping structure 56a at the tip thereof is extended.
etc. to determine the live wire L2 (S5). This can be done, for example, in the order of rotating the motor M6, then extending the linear actuator 8, and then rotating the motor M1. Furthermore, if the vehicle comes into contact with an obstacle despite such control, the route is changed based on the detection output of the proximity switch C.

By completing these operations, robot l-1
The relative positional relationship between the live wire L2 and the live wire L2 is fixed. Therefore, even if the boom 4 swings due to the influence of business, etc., the robot 1 swings while holding the live wire L2, so the relative distance between the robot 1 and the live wire L2 remains unchanged. The work arm 30 can now be operated stably. Furthermore, by gripping the live wire L2, the swing fJJR of the boom 4 itself can be reduced.

When the gripping is completed in this manner, the rotation center 0 (FIG. 3) of the rotating mount 22 in this gripping state is set as the work origin and used as the reference point for subsequent operations (S6). Also, in the same way as determining the sea case of the holding twin arm 52,
- The operation case of the work arm is determined according to the relative positional relationship between the two (S7).

The subsequent operations will be the original operations of a live-line work robot. That is, the end effector 3 of the work arm 30
4, take out the peeling tool from the tool box 63 S8
), After the coating of the live wire L2 is stripped (89), the stripping tool and the polishing tool are replaced.
The polishing operation No. 2 is performed (811). Next, the polishing tool and the leader wire winding tool are replaced (512), and the leader wire prepared in advance at the position of the rotating mount 22 or tool box 63 or carried by another robot mechanism is activated. Wrapping it around the wire L2 (313) completes the attachment of the lead wire to the live wire L2.

After this, when the work of attaching the leader wire to the transformer is performed (814), the sequence is similar to the above-described sequence. That is, the gripping mechanism 63a of the twin holding arm 52
After fixing the relative positional relationship between the transformer and the transformer by grasping the transformer or the protrusion of the utility pole to which it is fixed, etc., the leader wire may be attached.

1 standing 1 cliff 1 Next, other embodiments of the invention will be described.

In this embodiment, the positional relationship is dynamically restricted by the holding twin arms 52. In other words, considering the above-mentioned live wire work, the work origin is 0 and the live wire is I! L2
If the relative positional relationship with the live wire is completely fixed, when the boom 4 swings greatly due to strong winds, a large force will be applied to the live wire IL2 via the holding twin arm 52, and this will cause the live wire to Since there is a possibility that damage may be caused to L2, do not fix these positional relationships to the initial relationship.
This gives the arm a movement that absorbs the vibration.

This is schematically shown in FIG. 7, and when the work origin O swings to 0' while the twin holding arms 52 are holding the position, this rf
jiFIJ state is detected, and the rotation α of each arm shown in the figure is
ε and the extension r of the linear actuator 54a are changed to α' to ε' and r', respectively. At this time, it is desirable that the relative angle between the gripping mechanism 568 and the end effector 34 and the live wire L2 remains unchanged.

Such control can be realized, for example, as follows.

First, as shown in FIG. 8, a sensor S (for example, an acceleration sensor, etc.) for detecting the swing state of the work origin 0 is attached to the pedestal 21 or the rotating pedestal 22, and a detection signal from this sensor S is is applied to the CPLJ 71 in FIG. 4 and subjected to integration processing, etc., to obtain data representing the swinging state.

As this oscillating state, consider, for example, the displacement q in diagram M7,
Among the arm drives required to absorb this, changes △δ should be given to rotation angles δ, ε and expansion/contraction fir.
, Δε and Δr as an example.

Then, the position and orientation transformation matrix for rotation angles δ and ε and expansion/contraction lr are respectively Fl.

F2. F3, position of work origin in case of swing amount pillow: U
q. Furthermore, when the position/orientation matrix of work origin 0 is M, F [r + Δr ] x F2 [ε+Δε] x F
1 [δ+△δ]XM Iqo+Q]=F [r]X
F2 [ε] x F 1 [6] XM [Q□] ”12)
What is necessary is to find Δr, Δε, and Δδ such that the following holds true, and feed back a drive output corresponding to the determined values to the robot drive system. The same applies to other arms and the like.

Various types of arbitration control based on equations given in matrix format have already been proposed in the field of robot control 1 to υ, and these can be used as appropriate. Note that since one movement of the boom 4 is relatively slow, even if a certain amount of calculation time is required for such calculations, it is possible to sufficiently follow the swinging motion.

Also, considering that the swing of the boom 4 is usually simple harmonic or damped vibration, a vibration signal is given as a feedback amount, and its frequency, phase, and amplitude are determined based on the detected data. It is also possible.

Modifications By the way, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and for example, the following modifications are also possible.

(2) The positional relationship mechanism is not limited to the above-mentioned multi-jointed twin arms, but may be one or three or more arms, or may be of various other coordinate types. Furthermore, instead of a gripping mechanism, an engagement mechanism, a suction mechanism, or the like may be provided at the tip to serve as a coupling mechanism, thereby coupling it to the workpiece.

■ There are no particular limitations on the work 8N horizontally, and the tools are not replaced using a tool box, but instead are equipped with multiple tools, as shown in FIG. - The selected device can also be used as an end effector.

■This robot can be used not only for live wire work, but also for the following purposes.

(a) Painting work and paint removal work on high-rise buildings, ships, etc.

(0) Buildings/I! For steeplejack work such as assembling steel beams.

(c) Cleaning windows of buildings, cleaning tunnel ceilings, and removing chimneys.

(d) Fire extinguishing and rescue work for building fires, etc.

(e) Writing signs, pruning plants and fruit trees, etc.

When used for such a purpose, the support means of the robot (corresponding to the boom 4 in the above embodiment) is modified according to the purpose. For example, as shown in FIG. 10(a), the bridge 9
When painting the lower part of the bridge 91 by stopping the work vehicle 92 on top of the bridge 91, a boom 93 that can be rotated downward as shown in the figure can be used.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10(b), a lift 94 provided on the ground surface may be moved up and down, or it may be suspended from a high place as shown in FIG. 10(c).

■The relative positional relationship between the work origin and the work object does not need to be restricted to a fixed relationship; as mentioned above, it is necessary to add a dynamic positional relationship that absorbs the movement of the work origin. Good too. Therefore, in addition to the above example, the relative positional relationship may be changed midway through the work depending on the convenience of the work procedure.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, the relative positional relationship between the work target image and the work origin is regulated by coupling with the work object by the positional relationship regulating arm, so that remote work can be performed easily.
Bot 1~1. : It can improve the efficiency and safety of the work.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram for explaining live wire work, Fig. 2 is a schematic front view showing the entire embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3A is a perspective view of the robot in the embodiment, and Fig. 3B is FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the principle of live wire detection, and FIG. 7 is a partially enlarged view of the robot. An explanatory diagram of another embodiment, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the sensor installation in another embodiment,
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a modification of the end effector, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a modification of the present invention. 1...Robot, 2...Aerial work vehicle 11...
・Central control unit, 12...operation unit 4...boom,
21... Frame, 22... Rotating frame, 25a, 25b... Image sensor, 30... Work arm, 34... End effector, 52... Twin arm for holding,

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a remote work robot that performs a predetermined task on a work object located at a remote location while being supported by a predetermined support mechanism, a coupling mechanism provided at the tip can be connected to the work object during the work. A positional relationship regulation arm that regulates the relative positional relationship between the work origin of the robot and the work target is disposed at a predetermined part of the robot, and based on the relative positional relationship regulated by the positional relationship regulation arm, , a remote working robot characterized by controlling a working mechanism of the robot. (2) The remote working robot according to claim 1, wherein the support mechanism is a boom extending from the body of a working vehicle, and the positional relationship regulation arm is a multi-jointed arm having a gripping mechanism at its tip. (3) The robot is provided with a movement detection means for detecting the movement of the work origin, and the control means for controlling the work mechanism and the positional relationship regulation arm is configured to perform the work according to the movement of the work origin. The remote work according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for absorbing the movement between the work origin and the work object by driving a mechanism and a positional relationship regulating arm. robot.