JP2001325024A - Mobile working robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem in the conventional cases that the accumulation of position measurement errors increase due to relative position recognition using an internal sensor by a position recognizing means in a conventional mobile working robot, and that at times a movement path is shifted or a start point is lost. SOLUTION: This mobile working robot is provided with a body part 1 which performs a work while moving and a monitoring part 2, which monitors the body part 1. The monitoring part 2 recognizes the positions of light emitting means 10 and 11 by a position recognizing means from the image of a moving area inputted by an image input means 21, and transmits this information signal to the body part 1 by a transmitting means. The main body part 1 controls the flashing of the light-emitting means 10 and 11 by a light emission control means according to the contents of the signal received by a light-receiving means. Thus, it is possible to provide this mobile working robot which can move surely, even in a wide moving area, without accumulating positional measurement errors by surely obtaining position information as viewed from the outside part of the body part 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile work robot such as a self-propelled cleaner or an automatic guided vehicle having a traveling function and performing work while moving.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, various mobile work robots have been developed in which running means, sensors and running control means are added to work equipment to automatically move a work area to perform work. For example, a self-propelled vacuum cleaner has a suction tool and a rotating brush for scraping up dust at the bottom of the main body as a cleaning function,
The vehicle includes a driving roller as a traveling function for freely moving, a steering unit for changing a moving direction, an obstacle detecting unit for detecting an obstacle during traveling, and a position recognizing unit for recognizing a position of the vehicle. While the obstacle detecting means bypasses the obstacle in the cleaning area, the position recognizing means recognizes the cleaning area cleaned by itself, moves the cleaning area which has not been cleaned yet, and cleans the entire cleaning area. is there.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional mobile work robot, since relative position recognition is performed using an inner field sensor such as a gyro sensor or a travel distance sensor for the position recognition means, position measurement is performed. In some cases, the accumulation of errors became large, the moving route was shifted, or the starting point was lost.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile work robot capable of performing work reliably with a small displacement of a moving path.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a main body having traveling means and steering means and provided with a working element, and a monitoring section for monitoring the movement of the main body from outside, and the main body is provided with a signal. Providing transmitting means for transmitting to the outside, the monitoring unit has a position recognizing means for recognizing the position of the main unit by a signal of the transmitting means, and a transmitting means for transmitting position-related information from the position recognizing means to the main unit, The main body has receiving means for receiving a signal from the transmitting means, and moves in accordance with position-related information from the receiving means, and moves based on position-related information obtained from outside the main body. A mobile work robot that can reliably move even in a wide moving area without accumulating position measurement errors can be realized.

[0006]

The invention as defined in claim 1 comprises a main body having traveling means and steering means and provided with a working element, and a monitoring part for monitoring the movement of the main body from the outside, wherein the main body is provided. A transmitting unit for transmitting a signal to the outside; a monitoring unit configured to recognize a position of the main unit based on a signal from the transmitting unit; and a position-related information from the position recognizing unit to the main unit. The main body has a receiving means for receiving a signal from the transmitting means, and moves in accordance with the position-related information from the receiving means, thereby accumulating position measurement errors. It can move reliably even in a wide moving area.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a main body having traveling means and steering means and provided with a working element, and a monitoring section for monitoring the movement of the main body from outside, wherein the main body includes A light-emitting unit that emits light to the monitoring unit; and a light-emitting control unit that controls the light-emitting unit. The monitoring unit includes an image input unit that inputs an image of a moving area of the main unit, and the image input unit. Position recognition means for recognizing the position of the light emitting means of the main body from the input image;
A transmitting unit for transmitting the position-related information from the position recognizing unit to the main unit; the main unit having a receiving unit for receiving a signal from the transmitting unit; The position recognition means can recognize the position of the light emitting means by catching the light emission of the light emitting means of the main body from the monitoring unit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the light emission control means of the main body part causes the light emission means to blink, and the light emission of the light emission means of the main body part is reliably detected from the monitoring part, and the position recognition means determines the position of the light emission means. Can be accurately recognized.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the light emission control means of the main body unit alternately turns on and off the light emission means each time the reception means receives a signal from the transmission means of the monitoring unit. Since two images are obtained when is turned on and when is turned off, the position recognizing means can accurately recognize the position of the light emitting means by comparing the two images.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the main body has a plurality of light-emitting means, and the light-emission control means includes a light-emitting means for receiving one of the light-emitting means each time the receiving means receives a signal from the transmitting means of the monitoring section. Lighting and all light-off are performed alternately. Even when there are a plurality of light-emitting means, two images are obtained when only one light-emitting means is turned on and when one light-emitting means is turned off. Can be accurately recognized.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the main body has a plurality of light emitting means, and the position recognizing means of the monitoring section detects the position of the plurality of light emitting means from the respective positions of the plurality of light emitting means based on the image input by the image input means. Calculate the direction the part is facing,
The direction as well as the position coordinates of the main body can always be recognized.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the position recognizing means of the monitoring unit calculates a direction in which the main body is directed from a temporal change in position information of the light emitting means recognized from the image input by the image input means. Therefore, even if the image input unit of the monitoring unit can only input an image of one light emitting unit, the direction of the main unit can be estimated.

According to the invention described in claim 8, the transmitting means of the monitoring section transmits the position coordinates of the main body as the position-related information signal from the position recognizing means, and the traveling control means of the main body transmits the position coordinates. The traveling unit and the steering unit are controlled based on the information, and the traveling of the main body can be controlled.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the transmitting means of the monitoring unit transmits the direction in which the main body is facing as the position-related information signal from the position recognizing means. The traveling unit and the steering unit are controlled based on the direction information, and the traveling of the main body can be controlled.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the position recognizing means of the monitoring unit calculates deviation information from the target position based on the position of the main body and the direction in which the main body faces, and the transmitting means transmits the deviation information to the position-related information. The signal is transmitted as a signal, and the travel control means of the main body can control the main body as intended by controlling the travel means and the steering means so as to eliminate the deviation from the target position.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, the light emitting means of the main body comprises a lamp or an LED which emits infrared light, and the image input means of the monitoring section is influenced by disturbance light such as illumination and sunlight. And the image of the light emitting means can be input more reliably.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the transmitting means of the monitoring unit transmits a signal using radio waves, light, or ultrasonic waves, and there is no physical connection between the monitoring unit and the main unit. There are no restrictions on the movement of the robot.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the working elements are an electric blower for sucking dust and a suction tool receiving the suction action of the electric blower. The moving element sucks dust on the floor while moving. Cleaning can be done.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the working elements are an electric blower for sucking dust, a suction device receiving the suction action of the electric blower, and a rotary brush provided on the suction device for scraping up dust. It can be cleaned by sucking and dusting the floor while moving.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (Embodiment 1) Hereinafter, a case where an embodiment of the present invention is applied to a self-propelled cleaner will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows the overall appearance of this embodiment. 1
Is a main body that performs cleaning while moving, and moves on the floor A in the cleaning area. Reference numeral 2 denotes a monitoring unit for monitoring the main body 1, which is installed on the ceiling of the cleaning area and monitors the entire floor A.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the main body 1. Reference numerals 3 and 4 denote left and right drive motors, and their output shafts drive left and right traveling wheels 7 and 8 via left and right reduction gears 5 and 6, respectively. By independently controlling the rotation of the left drive motor 3 and the right drive motor 4, the main unit 1 can be moved and the direction of movement can be changed, and serves both as a traveling unit and a steering unit. Reference numeral 9 denotes a travel control means for controlling the drive motors 3 and 4 on the left and right in accordance with various inputs to control the travel of the main body 1, and comprises a microcomputer and other control circuits. 1
Reference numerals 0 and 11 denote light emitting means such as lamps and LEDs mounted on the upper surface of the main body 1.
The flashing is controlled by a. As the light emitting means 10 and 11, those emitting infrared light are used. This light emitting means 10,
Numerals 11 are provided near the left and right running wheels 7 and 8, one at a time, at symmetric positions of the main body 1. Reference numerals 13 and 14 denote obstacle detection sensors, which detect the distances to obstacles in front of and on the side of the main body 1 by light. Reference numeral 15 denotes a cleaning nozzle for cleaning the floor surface. The suction port is provided with an agitator 16 such as a rotary brush at the suction port, and sucks dust by the vacuum pressure generated by the fan motor 17. The agitator 16 is rotationally driven by a nozzle motor 18 via a transmission belt 19. Reference numeral 20 denotes a power supply including a battery or the like, which supplies power to the main body 1.

As shown in the system configuration diagram of FIG. 3, the monitoring unit 2 is provided with an image input unit 21 composed of an image pickup device such as a CCD or a CMOS sensor and a lens. An image of the entire floor A including the image is input. The lens portion of the image input means 21 is provided with a filter that allows only infrared light to pass therethrough, and blocks light input from other than the light emitting means 10 and 11 as much as possible to reduce the influence of illumination and sunlight. I have. The image data of the image input unit 21 is subjected to arithmetic processing by the position recognition unit 22, and the result is transmitted to the main unit 1 by the transmission unit 23. This transmission data is received by the receiving means 12b of the circuit board 12 of the main body 1. In this embodiment, the monitoring unit 2 and the main unit 1
The wireless communication using the radio wave 24 is used for communication with. 2
Reference numerals 5 and 26 denote antennas for transmitting and receiving radio waves provided respectively. The power supply of the monitoring unit 2 is configured such that a solar cell 27 is provided in the monitoring unit 2 as shown in FIG. 1 to charge a secondary battery (not shown) with the electromotive force caused by external light. Supplied from batteries. This eliminates the need for wiring work from a commercial power supply or the like, and also eliminates the need for battery replacement.

Next, the operation in which the monitoring unit 2 detects the position and direction of the main unit 1 will be described.

As described above, the monitoring unit 2 is installed at a position overlooking the entire floor A, such as the ceiling of the cleaning area, and the image input unit 21 controls the entire floor A including the light emitting units 10 and 11 of the main unit 1. Enter the image of. Therefore, for example, when only the light emitting unit 10 is lit while the main unit 1 is stopped, the image input unit 21 displays the image of the main unit 1 and the floor A where the light emitting unit 10 is lit and the surrounding area. Is entered. Generally, as a method of specifying the light emitting means 10 from the image data, (1) the luminance of the light emitting means 10 is set to be higher than the surroundings, and data having a luminance equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold is searched for.
(2) The color data of the light emitting means 10 is made unique, and the color data is searched. (3) The shape of the light emitting means 10 is made unique and its shape data is searched. However, there are problems such as difficulty in responding to environmental changes and time-consuming image processing calculations. In order to solve this problem, the present invention proposes a method in which the light emitting means 10 of the main body 1 and the image input means 21 of the monitoring unit 2 are synchronously operated to specify the light emitting means 10 reliably. In the present embodiment, two image data, an image in which the light emitting means 10 is turned on and an image in which the light emitting means 10 is turned off, are input, and the position recognition means 22 is inputted.
Extracts the image of the light emitting means 10 by taking the difference between these two data, and detects the position coordinates with respect to the image plane. Then, information based on the detected position is transmitted by the transmitting unit 23 to the main unit 1.
To the receiving means 12b.

FIG. 4 shows the light emission control means 1 in the main body 1.
Reference numeral 2a indicates the timing at which the light emitting means 10 and 11 are turned on and off. First, when the reception means 12b receives the information signal 28 transmitted from the transmission means 23, the light emission control means 12
“a” sets only the light emitting means 10 to the lighting state 29. Monitoring unit 2
The image input means 21 is adapted to input an image each time the transmitting means 23 performs a transmitting operation. At this time, an image in which only the light emitting means 10 is lit is input. Next, when the receiving means 12b receives the information signal 30, the light emission controlling means 1
2a sets both the light emitting means 10 and 11 to the light-off state 31. At this time, the image input unit 21 inputs an image in which both the light emitting units 10 and 11 are turned off. The position of the light emitting means 10 can be detected from the above two image data. Similarly, when the information signal 32 is received, only the light emitting means 11 is turned on.
3, when the information signal 34 is received next, both the light emitting means 10 and 11 are turned off. The position of the light emitting means 11 can be detected from the image data in each state. By repeating such an operation every several tens of msec, the positions of the light emitting means 10 and 11 can be detected even while the main body 1 is running.

The information signal transmitted from the transmitting means 23 will be described. In this embodiment, as described above, the light emitting unit 1
Since two position coordinates 0 and 11 can be detected, first, the position coordinates of the center of gravity of these two points are obtained. Since the light emitting means 10 and 11 are provided symmetrically near the left and right running wheels 7 and 8, the position of the center of gravity is close to the moving center of gravity of the main body 1. That is, a rotation component due to a change in the direction of the main body 1 or the like does not enter, and processing is facilitated. Next, the direction in which the body 1 faces is determined from the two position coordinates of the light emitting means 10 and 11. Further, a deviation from a position coordinate and a direction of the main body 1 to a preset target point is obtained. That is, it is calculated which direction the main body 1 should be turned left and right and how much distance should be moved at the present time. These three types of data, that is, the position coordinates, the direction, and the deviation from the target position of the main body 1 are transmitted as information signals depending on time and case. Mobile work robots require real-time data,
Transmitting only the deviation data rather than transmitting both the position coordinates and the direction data has the effect of shortening the communication time and shortening the sampling period.

With the above configuration, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 5, the main body 1 is placed at the start point of the floor A in the cleaning area, and the operation is started. The main body 1 detects surrounding obstacles by the obstacle detection sensors 13 and 14, and the travel control means 9 controls the rotation of the left and right drive motors 3 and 4 to start moving. At the same time, the nozzle motor 18 and the fan motor 17 of the cleaning nozzle 15 are operated, and the agitator 16 cleans the floor surface while sucking up dust. At first, the obstacle detection sensor 1
The vehicle travels along the wall while measuring the distance to the right wall of the main body 1 at 3 and 14. At this time, the position coordinate data of the main unit 1 is transmitted from the monitoring unit 2 as an information signal, and stored as a movement map inside the travel control unit 9. Then, when the user makes a round around the outer periphery of the cleaning area while avoiding the obstacle 40 near the wall, this is recognized on the movement map,
Next, the operation mode is switched to the cleaning operation mode inside the cleaning area as indicated by the movement path b. The movement map is similarly created inside the position recognizing means 22 of the monitoring unit 2, and in this operation mode, deviation data to the target point is transmitted from the monitoring unit 2 as an information signal. The traveling control means 9 performs traveling control while processing the inputs from the obstacle detection sensors 13 and 14 based on the deviation data, and the main body 1 performs a work along a movement locus as shown in FIG. For example, when there is an obstacle 41 at the center of the cleaning area, only one side of the obstacle 41 is first worked, and since it is possible to recognize that the other side has not been cleaned on the moving map, the part is cleaned later. Like that. In this way, the main body 1 stops at the point (point c) where there is no uncleaned portion on the movement map, and the operation is finished, so that the entire floor A in the cleaning area can be automatically cleaned. You.

In this embodiment, the light emitting means 10, 11
Are provided near the left and right traveling wheels 7, 8 at symmetric positions of the main body 1 one by one. However, the same operation is possible even if provided at other positions, although the operation of the position recognition means 22 is different. is there. The same applies to the case where three or more light emitting units are provided.

In this embodiment, radio waves are used for communication between the monitoring section 2 and the main body section 1. However, the same operation can be realized by another wireless system using light or ultrasonic waves. it can.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the main body 1
The light emission control means 12a blinks the light emission means 10 and 11 according to the signal received by the reception means 12b,
Since the image input means 21 inputs an image in synchronization with this, the position recognizing means 22 can surely detect the position coordinates of the two light emitting means 10 and 11 with respect to the image surface without performing complicated arithmetic processing. Therefore, information on the position and direction as viewed from the outside of the main body 1 can be obtained simultaneously and in a short period, so that even when moving over a wide cleaning area, the movement path is less likely to be shifted, and the remaining cleaning and normal termination cannot be performed. Things will be gone.

(Embodiment 2) In the embodiment 1, the main body 1
Although the case where two light emitting means 10 and 11 are provided has been described, an embodiment in which only one light emitting means is provided will be described.

The basic configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment,
The only difference from the first embodiment is that there is only one light emitting means controlled by the light emission control means of the main body. As a system configuration, only the light emitting means 10 is provided in FIG.
In the following description, the same components and names as those in the first embodiment are used in the following description.

FIG. 6 shows the light emission control means 1 in the main body 1.
Reference numeral 2a indicates the timing at which the light emitting means 10 is turned on and off. First, when the reception unit 12b receives the information signal 50 transmitted from the transmission unit 23 of the monitoring unit 2, the light emission control unit 12a sets the light emission unit 10 to the lighting state 51. Monitoring unit 2
The image input means 21 is adapted to input an image each time the transmitting means 23 performs a transmitting operation. At this time, an image in which only the light emitting means 10 is turned on is input. Next, when the receiving means 12b receives the information signal 52, the light emission controlling means 1
2a sets the light emitting means 10 to the light-off state 53. At this time, the image input means 21 inputs an image in which the light emitting means 10 is turned off. The position recognizing unit 22 extracts the image of the light emitting unit 10 by taking the difference between the two image data, and detects the position coordinates with respect to the image plane. By repeating this operation, the position of the light emitting means 10 can be detected even while the main body 1 is running. Then, the position recognizing means 22 detects the position coordinates of the light emitting means 10 and stores them at the same time as described above, and then calculates and stores the moving direction of the light emitting means 10 from the difference from the newly detected position coordinates. . Of course, if the main body 1 stops halfway, the moving direction cannot be calculated because there is no change in the position coordinates of the light emitting means 10, but in that case, the value calculated before that is stored as the value at that time.

The information signals transmitted from the transmitting means 23 of the monitoring section 2 to the receiving means 12b of the main body 1 are based on the position coordinates and the moving direction of the light emitting means 10 and the position coordinates and the moving direction of the light emitting means 10 described above. The three types of data of the direction and the deviation to the target point obtained from the direction are used as necessary.

As described above, when there is only one light emitting means 10, it is not possible to instantaneously know the direction in which the main body 1 faces, but if the main body 1 is moving, the direction can be estimated. However, the same operation as in the first embodiment can be performed. Conversely, if only one light emitting means 10 is used, 2
There is an advantage that the detection cycle of the position coordinates of the position recognizing means 22 is halved compared to the case where there are two.

[0038]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a main body having traveling means and steering means and provided with a working element, and a monitoring part for monitoring the movement of the main body from outside, wherein the main body has Is provided with transmitting means for transmitting a signal to the outside, wherein the monitoring unit transmits to the main body unit position-recognizing means for recognizing the position of the main unit from the signal of the transmitting means, and position-related information from the position recognizing means. The main unit has a receiving unit that receives a signal from the transmitting unit, and moves according to the position-related information from the receiving unit, so that a position measurement error does not accumulate and is wide. It is possible to realize a mobile work robot that can surely move even in a moving area.

The invention described in claim 2 includes a main body having traveling means and steering means and provided with a working element, and a monitoring section for monitoring the movement of the main body from outside, wherein the main body includes A light-emitting unit that emits light to the monitoring unit; and a light-emitting control unit that controls the light-emitting unit. The monitoring unit includes an image input unit that inputs an image of a moving area of the main unit, and the image input unit. Position recognition means for recognizing the position of the light emitting means of the main body from the input image;
A transmitting unit for transmitting the position-related information from the position recognizing unit to the main unit; the main unit having a receiving unit for receiving a signal from the transmitting unit; Accordingly, a mobile work robot can be realized in which the position recognition means can recognize the position of the light emitting means by capturing the light emission of the light emitting means of the main body from the monitoring unit.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the light emission control means of the main body part causes the light emission means to blink, and the light emission of the light emission means of the main body part is reliably detected from the monitoring part, and the position recognition means determines the position of the light emission means. It is possible to realize a mobile work robot that can accurately recognize.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the light emission control means of the main body unit alternately turns on and off the light emission means each time the reception means receives a signal from the transmission means of the monitoring unit. Since two images are obtained when is turned on and off, the position recognizing unit can realize a mobile work robot that can accurately recognize the position of the light emitting unit by comparing the two images.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the main body has a plurality of light emitting means, and the light emission control means controls the light emission of any one of the light emitting means each time the receiving means receives a signal from the transmitting means of the monitoring section. Lighting and all light-off are performed alternately. Even when there are a plurality of light-emitting means, two images are obtained when only one light-emitting means is turned on and when one light-emitting means is turned off. It is possible to realize a mobile work robot capable of accurately recognizing each position of the mobile work robot.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the main body has a plurality of light emitting means, and the position recognizing means of the monitoring section detects the position of the plurality of light emitting means from each position of the plurality of light emitting means based on the image input by the image input means. Calculate the direction the part is facing,
A mobile work robot that can always recognize not only the position coordinates but also the direction of the main body can be realized.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the position recognizing means of the monitoring unit calculates the direction in which the main body is facing from the temporal change of the position information of the light emitting means recognized from the image input by the image input means. Therefore, it is possible to realize a mobile work robot capable of estimating the direction of the main body even if the image input unit of the monitoring unit can only input an image of one light emitting unit.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the transmitting means of the monitoring unit transmits the position coordinates of the main body as the position-related information signal from the position recognizing means. A mobile work robot capable of controlling the traveling means and the steering means based on the information and controlling the traveling of the main body can be realized.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the transmitting means of the monitoring unit transmits the direction in which the main body is facing as the position-related information signal from the position recognizing means. A mobile work robot capable of controlling the traveling means and the steering means based on the direction information and controlling the traveling of the main body can be realized.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the position recognizing means of the monitoring unit calculates deviation information with respect to the target position from the position of the main body and the direction in which the main body faces, and the transmitting means transmits the deviation information to the position-related information. The traveling control means of the main body can realize a mobile work robot that can control the main body as desired by controlling the traveling means and the steering means so as to eliminate the deviation from the target position. is there.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, the light emitting means of the main body comprises a lamp or an LED which emits infrared light, and the image input means of the monitoring section is influenced by disturbance light such as illumination or sunlight. Therefore, it is possible to realize a mobile work robot that is less likely to receive the light and that can more reliably input the image of the light emitting means.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the transmission means of the monitoring unit transmits signals using radio waves, light, or ultrasonic waves, and there is no physical connection between the monitoring unit and the main unit. It is possible to realize a mobile work robot having no restriction on the moving operation of the robot.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the working elements are an electric blower for sucking dust and a suction tool receiving the suction action of the electric blower. A mobile work robot capable of cleaning can be realized.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the working elements are an electric blower for sucking dust, a suction device receiving the suction action of the electric blower, and a rotary brush provided on the suction device for scraping up dust. Thus, it is possible to realize a mobile work robot that can perform cleaning by moving and sucking up dust on a floor surface while cleaning.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a self-propelled cleaner according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the inside of the main body portion seen through.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the system configuration;

FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing the operation of the light emitting means of the main body.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view showing the cleaning operation.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart showing the operation of the light emitting means of the main body according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body part 2 Monitoring part 3, 4 Drive motor 7, 8 Running wheel 9 Travel control means 10, 11 Light emission means 12a Light emission control means 12b Receiving means 21 Image input means 22 Position recognition means 23 Transmission means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) B25J 13/08 B25J 13/08 A 19/00 19/00 K (72) Inventor Miki Hono Kadoma City, Osaka 1006 Oaza Kadoma Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.F-term (reference) AA02 AA10 BB05 BB11 CC03 CC06 DD07 DD16 DD17 DD18 FF07 FF11 FF16 FF18 FF27 GG07 KK02 KK03 KK08 KK10 KK16 LL01 QQ09

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A main body having traveling means and steering means and provided with a working element, and a monitoring part for monitoring the movement of the main body from the outside, wherein the main body has a transmitting means for transmitting a signal to the outside. Wherein the monitoring unit comprises: position recognition means for recognizing the position of the main body from a signal from the transmission means; and transmission means for transmitting position-related information from the position recognition means to the main body. The mobile work robot includes a receiving unit that receives a signal from the transmitting unit, and moves in accordance with the position-related information from the receiving unit. 2. A main body having traveling means and steering means and provided with a working element, and a monitor for monitoring the movement of the main body from outside, wherein the main body emits light to the monitor. A light-emitting unit; a light-emitting control unit configured to control the light-emitting unit; an image input unit configured to input an image of a moving area of the main unit to the monitoring unit; A position recognizing means for recognizing the position of the light emitting means, and a transmitting means for transmitting position-related information from the position recognizing means to the main body, wherein the main body receives a signal from the transmitting means. A mobile work robot that moves in accordance with position-related information from the receiving unit. 3. The mobile work robot according to claim 2, wherein the light emission control means blinks the light emission means. 4. The mobile work robot according to claim 3, wherein the light emission control means alternately turns on and off the light emission means each time the reception means receives a signal from the transmission means of the monitoring unit. 5. A main body section having a plurality of light emitting means, and the light emission control means alternately turns on and off all one of the light emitting means each time the receiving means receives a signal from the transmitting means of the monitoring section. 4. The mobile work robot according to claim 3, wherein the mobile work robot is used. 6. A main body having a plurality of light emitting means, and a position recognizing means of the monitoring section determines a direction in which the main body faces from each position of the plurality of light emitting means from an image input by the image input means. The mobile work robot according to claim 1, wherein the calculation is performed. 7. The position recognizing means of the monitoring unit calculates a direction in which the main body unit is facing from a temporal change in position information of the light emitting means recognized from the image input by the image input means.
The mobile work robot according to any one of claims 6 to 6. 8. The mobile work robot according to claim 1, wherein the transmission unit of the monitoring unit transmits the position coordinates of the main unit as position-related information from the position recognition unit. 9. The mobile work robot according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting unit of the monitoring unit transmits the direction in which the main unit is facing as the position-related information from the position recognizing unit. 10. The position recognizing means of the monitoring unit calculates deviation information from a target position based on the position of the main body and the direction in which the main body faces, and the transmitting means transmits the deviation information as position-related information. 8. The mobile work robot according to claim 7. 11. The mobile work robot according to claim 2, wherein the light emitting means of the main body is a lamp or an LED that emits infrared light. 12. The mobile work robot according to claim 1, wherein the transmission unit of the monitoring unit transmits the signal using radio waves, light, or ultrasonic waves. 13. The mobile work robot according to claim 1, wherein the work elements are an electric blower for sucking dust and a suction tool for receiving a suction action of the electric blower. 14. The work element according to claim 1, wherein an electric blower for sucking the dust, a suction tool receiving a suction action of the electric blower, and a rotary brush provided on the suction tool for scraping up dust are provided. The mobile work robot according to claim 1.