JP2003050621A - Facility checking system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facility checking system capable of reducing the umber of checkers, and preventing the deterioration of quality due to the reduction of the number of the checkers. SOLUTION: This facility checking system 10 is provided with a robot 12 arranged in front of a control board 22, a center device 14 for controlling the robot 12, and a communication terminal 16 owned by a checker 26 who checks a facility 20 of a building 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an equipment inspection system capable of reducing the number of inspectors when inspecting equipment of a building such as a building and not reducing quality due to reduction of personnel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when carrying out maintenance and inspection of fire fighting equipment in a building, an inspector is placed in front of the fire fighting equipment provided in each room of the building and the control panel in the control room that controls the fire fighting equipment. There is a need. Therefore, a pair of inspectors will inspect the fire fighting equipment while communicating wirelessly.

There is also a demand for low-cost, high-quality inspection. However, since the inspection contents are determined by law, the inspection cannot be simplified to reduce the price. If the number of inspectors is reduced in order to reduce the price, the quality of inspection deteriorates and it becomes difficult to perform high quality inspection. Further, due to the reduction in the number of inspectors, it may not be possible to perform a predetermined inspection because wireless communication cannot be performed. As described above, low price and high quality inspection is a difficult task due to the nature of maintenance inspection.
The same applies to crime prevention equipment other than firefighting equipment.

In order to solve the above problems, there is a method in which a transmitter is electrically connected to a control panel and an inspector carries the receiver. The inspector inspects the equipment provided at a predetermined position in the building, and when a signal from the equipment reaches the control panel, the transmitting device receives the signal and transmits the signal. The inspector
By receiving the signal from the receiving device, it is known that the equipment is normal.

However, the receiving device only informs the inspector that the signal has been received, and cannot obtain information as to which area (area determined for each equipment) display section of the control panel is activated. In addition, when the equipment is continuously inspected, it may be necessary to perform an artificial recovery operation (reset) on the control panel, but the recovery operation cannot be performed, and the automatic recovery device is reset periodically. The device must be connected to the control board. When electrically connecting the transmitter and automatic restoration device to the control panel, the electrical wiring of the control panel may be changed, and due to human error, the control panel may be damaged or the wiring etc. may be changed after the inspection. There was a possibility of returning to the factory without returning, and causing a problem after the inspection.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an equipment inspection system capable of reducing the number of inspectors and not reducing the quality due to the reduction of personnel.

[0007]

The gist of an equipment inspection system of the present invention is an equipment inspection system for inspecting building equipment and a control panel for controlling the equipment, and a switch provided on the control panel. A robot including an arm unit for changing the state of the robot, a control unit for controlling the operation of the arm unit, and a receiving unit for receiving data for controlling the operation, and a robot for generating the data for the control. A center device including a data generating means and a transmitting means for transmitting the data, and an inspector who inspects the facility of the building requests the operator of the center device to generate at least the data for the control. And a communication terminal for. Equipment includes firefighting equipment. The facility inspection system according to claim 1, wherein when the data generating means is initially stored in the robot, the transmitting means of the center device includes means for accessing the robot and downloading the data generating means.

The facility inspector uses the communication terminal to notify the operator of the center device of the generation of data for controlling the robot. The operator of the center apparatus uses the data generating means for generating data to generate data for controlling the robot. The generated data is transmitted to the robot by using the transmitting means, and the robot receives the data by the receiving means. The control unit uses the received data to control the arm unit,
Change the state of the switch on the control panel.

The robot includes a sensor for reading the state of the control panel. Further, the robot includes a transmitting unit that transmits data read by a sensor that reads the state of the control panel to the center device, and the center device includes a receiving unit that receives the read data.

The sensor for reading the state of the control panel of the robot includes a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera. In addition to the CCD camera, a camera for displaying general images may be used.

There are a plurality of robots and communication terminals,
The case where the number of the center device is one is included.

The robot and the center device are connected by a wireless communication network. The center device and the communication terminal are also connected by a wireless communication network.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of an equipment inspection system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The facility inspection system of the present invention is a system for inspecting facilities of a building and a control panel for controlling the facilities. As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention is owned by a robot 12 arranged in front of a control panel 22, a center device 14 for controlling the robot 12, and an inspector 26 who inspects equipment 20 of a building 18. And a communication terminal 16 that operates. The robot 12 is preferably small and lightweight because the inspector 26 needs to carry it to the building 18.

As shown in FIG. 2, the robot 12 controls the arm unit 28 for changing the state of the switch provided on the control panel 22, the control unit 32 for controlling the arm unit 28 and the sensor 30, and the arm unit 28. The receiving means 34 for receiving the data for performing is included. The data generating means 48 used in the center device 14 is stored in a storage device such as a memory described later.

The center device 14, as shown in FIG.
A data generating means 48 for generating data for controlling the arm portion 28 of the robot 12 and a transmitting means 42 for transmitting the data are included. Inspector 26
The communication terminal 16 owned by is a device for requesting the operator 24 of the center device 14 to generate the data for controlling the above.

The arm portion 28 of the robot 12 shown in FIG. 2 turns on / off the switch of the control panel 22. Therefore, in order to change the state of the switch, it has a plurality of joints and can be configured to imitate the movement of a human arm or finger. Each joint includes a motor and an angle sensor. Each joint operates while detecting the rotation angle of the motor shaft with the angle sensor. The control unit 32 that controls the operation of each joint of the arm unit 28 is an MPU (Micro Processor).
Unit) and a computer that includes memory. The joints of the control unit 32 and the arm unit 30 are electrically connected to each other, and a device such as a motor constituting each joint operates according to a command from the control unit 32.

The robot 12 includes a sensor 30 that reads the state of the control panel 22. A CCD (Charge Coupled Device) is used as the sensor 30 for reading the state of the control panel.
Use a camera. It is also possible to provide a microphone in order to obtain not only images but also sounds. Sensor 30
Displays the read data on the display device 3 of the center device 14.
8 includes means for converting to moving image data so that it can be displayed at 8. The types of moving image data are MPEG (Motion Pho
tographic coding Experts Group) format etc. can be used.

The robot 12 also includes transmitting means 36 for transmitting the data read by the sensor 30 for reading the state of the control panel 22 to the center device 14. Since the robot 12 and the center device 14 are connected by wireless communication, the receiving means 34 and the transmitting means 36 are wireless devices. Therefore, the robot 12 can be used within a range where radio waves used are large.

The center device 14, as shown in FIG.
In addition to the data generation means 48 and the transmission means 42 described above,
Furthermore, MPU which can perform calculation for controlling various data
40, a memory 58 for temporarily storing various data, a storage device 56 for storing programs and data, a display device 38 for displaying various information, and a computer having an input device 46 such as a keyboard and a mouse.

Data generating means 48 of the center device 14
Is stored in a storage device (memory or the like) of the robot 12, the center device 14 accesses the robot 12, downloads data generation means from the robot 12,
It is stored as a program in the storage device 56. That is, the transmitting means 42 includes means for accessing the robot 12 and downloading the data generating means 48. For example, the robot 12 has a Web server (HTTP server), and the data generating means is stored in the server. In this case, the center apparatus 14 uses a Web browser or the like to access the server and download the data generating means. In addition, the robot 12 and the center device 14 include a general communication protocol for communication connection.

After being downloaded and stored in the storage device 56, as shown in FIG. 4, the data generating means 48 is displayed on the display device 38, and the operator 24 operates the input device 46 to cause the robot 12 to operate. Data can be generated to control the behavior. Data generation means 4
8 is operated by, for example, the button 6 displayed on the display device 38.
This is done by clicking 0 or pressing the key corresponding to the button 60. The generated data is transmitted to the robot 14 by the transmission means 42. The data generating means 48 shown in FIG. 4 is an example, and the GUI (Gr
If it is a mode of operating with an aphical User Interface), FIG.
Other modes may be used. The data generation means 48 uses G
It can be easily operated by the UI. One button 6
It is also possible to enable a plurality of actions with 0, or to incorporate the action contents into the data generating means 48 so that the operator 24 can perform a plurality of actions with one button 60.

The center device 14 includes a receiving means 44 for receiving the data read by the robot 12. The transmitting unit 42 and the receiving unit 44 are wireless devices for the wireless communication between the robot 12 and the operator 24. It also includes an image reproducing means 52 for displaying the data read by the robot 12 on the display device 38. The image reproducing means 52 is stored in the storage device 56 as a program. The image captured by the CCD camera of the robot 12 can be viewed on the display device 38 in real time by using the image reproducing means 52.

Further, while confirming the data read by the robot 12 on the display device 38, the control device 2 is controlled by the input device 46.
The operation state of No. 2 can be stored in the data storage unit 50 of the storage device 56 of the center device 14. When it is stored in the data storage unit 50, it is stored as a database of a predetermined format. The center device 14 includes means 54 for creating a document of a predetermined format using the database.
The predetermined format document is, for example, a document to be submitted to the fire department. Since such a document has a fixed format, it is configured to automatically insert the data of the database into the required part of the document.

As the communication terminal 16 carried by the inspector 26, a small and portable communication device such as a mobile phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) can be used. The facility inspector 26 uses the communication terminal 16 to use the center device 14
The operator 24 is requested to operate the robot 12. Therefore, the center device 14 includes a communication device that allows the operator 24 to communicate with the communication terminal 16 of the inspector 26.

Next, a method of using the equipment inspection system 10 will be described. The inspector 26 places the robot 12 at a predetermined position such as in front of the control panel 22 that controls the equipment 20 of the building 18.
Put. The predetermined position is a position where the arm portion 28 of the robot 12 reaches the switch of the control panel 22 and a position where the state of the switch can be confirmed by the sensor 30. By accessing the robot 12 from the center device 14 and logging in, the communication line between the robot 12 and the center device 14 is established, and the robot 12 becomes usable.
In addition, the data generation means 4 stored in the robot 12
8 is downloaded to the center device 14, and the center device 14 can use the data generating means 48. As described above, the relationship between the robot 12 and the center device 14 is
Each has a client relationship with the server.

The inspector 26 carries the communication terminal 16 and moves to a position where the facility 20 is located. For inspection of fire fighting equipment, for example, move to a position with a smoke detector. Inspector 2
6 is the same as the condition where a fire is generated by adding smoke to the smoke detector. When the equipment operates without problems, the fire area indicator lamp (lamp) of the control panel 22 may be turned on.

The robot 12 takes an image of the state by the sensor 30 and sends it to the center device 14 as data read by the robot 12. The center device 14 is the robot 12
When the data read by is received by the receiving means 44, it is displayed on the image reproducing device 52.

The inspector 26 can confirm the state of the control panel 22 with the operator 24 of the center device 14 using the communication terminal 16. In that case, the operator 24 uses the communication device included in the center device 14 while confirming the state of the control panel 22 displayed on the image reproducing device 52.
The condition of the control panel 22 is reported to the inspector 26.

When the operator 26 confirms the operation of the equipment 20 after hearing the state of the control board 22 from the operator 24, if the equipment 20 and the control board 22 need to be reset, the operator 24 Can be requested to operate the arm portion 28 of the robot 12. In this case, inspector 2
6 uses the communication terminal 16 carried by the center device 1
The operator 24 of 4 requests a command to the robot 12. Upon receiving the request, the operator 24 of the center device 14 uses the data generating means 48 to generate data for operating the arm portion 28 of the robot 12. The data generated is
It is transmitted to the robot 12 by the transmitting means 42.

When the robot 12 receives the data, the arm portion 28 operates according to the data. Therefore, the state of the switch can be changed. At this time, the operation of the arm portion 28 is transmitted to the center device 14 while always photographing with the sensor 30, and the image reproducing device 52
Is reflected in. Therefore, the operator 24 uses the data generating means 48 while watching the projected image.
As described above, the inspector 26 can change the state of the switch of the control panel 22 by operating the robot 12 using the communication terminal 16.

The operator 24 of the center device 14 confirms the state of the control panel 22 displayed on the display device 38, while the state of the control panel 22 is used as data in the data storage section 50.
To memorize. When storing, it is stored as a predetermined database. The stored data is automatically created as a document by means 54 for creating a document of a predetermined format.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, one robot 12 is operated for one center device 14, but it is also possible to operate a plurality of robots 12 as shown in FIG. In this case, the number of data generating means 48 displayed on the display device 38 is the same as that of the robot 12. Each robot 1
2 and each data generating means 48 are associated with each other. The operator 24 of the center device 14 receives requests from the inspector 26 in order. Then, the data for operating the robot 12 is created in order and transmitted to the robot 12 in order. Therefore, the plurality of robots 12 can be operated by one operator. The image reproducing means 52 can be displayed on the display device 38 in the same number as the robots 12. Also in this case, each robot 12 and each image reproducing means 52 are associated with each other, and the state of the control panel 22 acquired by the sensor 30 of each robot 12 is indicated by each image reproducing means 52.
Can be projected on.

With the equipment inspection system 10 of the present invention,
Only one person actually goes to the building 18 and inspects it,
Labor costs can be reduced. Also, although the number of people who perform inspections has decreased, the same inspections as before are performed, and the quality of inspections does not deteriorate. As shown in FIG. 5, one operator 24 operates a plurality of robots 12, whereby labor costs can be significantly reduced, and low-cost inspection can be performed.

Although the embodiment of the equipment inspection system of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, it can be used as a system for inspecting crime prevention equipment as well as fire equipment.

In the above embodiment, the arm portion 28 of the robot 12 is controlled from the center device 14,
If the entire control panel 22 cannot be read by the sensor 30, it is necessary to change the angle of the sensor 30. Therefore, it is possible to provide the data generating means 48 with means for changing the angle of the sensor 30. As in the case of FIG. 4, it is preferable that this means can also be easily operated by clicking a button displayed on the display device 38.

The sensor 30 of the robot 12 generates moving image data, and the display device 38 of the center device 14 controls the control panel 22.
Although the state is displayed in real time, it is not limited to the moving image data, and a photograph is taken with the sensor 30 regularly, and the still image data is displayed by the display device 2 of the center device 14.
2 may be displayed.

To inspect the fire hydrant of a building, it is necessary for an inspector to press the stop button of the fire hydrant pump when the start button of the fire hydrant provided in each part of the building is pressed. The operator of the center apparatus operates the arm portion of the robot by using the data generating means while pressing the stop button while confirming the state of the stop button by the image reproducing means.

Conventionally, equipment such as a sprinkler had to be carried out by three people, but it is possible to reduce the number of inspectors arranged in front of the control panel 22, and two people go to the building to inspect. Become. That is, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the number of inspectors arranged in front of the control panel 22. In some cases, it is possible to reduce the number of people by two.

When the display section for displaying information from the control panel is provided in a place other than the control room, it is necessary for two or more people to perform inspections such as mutual display confirmation, but in this case as well. Robots can be placed on either the control panel or the display for inspection.

When the equipment and the control panel are connected by a wired or wireless telephone (communication device), the inspector speaks on the telephone provided in the equipment. The robot listens to the voice of the telephone with the microphone of the sensor and transmits the voice as voice data to the center device. The operator of the center device listens to the sent voice data. On the contrary, by providing the robot with the speaker, the operator of the center device transmits the voice data to the robot and reproduces it by the speaker of the robot. The inspector listens to the reproduced voice over the telephone. With the above, the mutual call between the equipment and the control panel can be checked.

In the above embodiment, the data generating means 48 is downloaded by the center device 14 accessing the robot 12, but the data generating means 48 may be included in the center device 14 from the beginning.

The area in which the present invention is used is not particularly limited as long as the range of radio waves can be reached between the robot 12, the mobile terminal 16 and the center device 14. Therefore, the facility inspection business can be developed regardless of the area where the center device 14 is located.

The present invention includes a robot 12, a mobile terminal 16,
Although the communication between the center device 14 and the center device 14 is performed wirelessly, a wired communication network can of course be used.

In addition, the present invention can be carried out in a mode in which various improvements, modifications and variations are added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0046]

According to the equipment inspection system of the present invention, the number of inspectors can be reduced by using the robot. The robot monitors the control panel status by changing the switches on the control panel and the CCD camera, and the inspection performed by the robot is the same as the inspection performed by humans.
The quality of inspection does not deteriorate. By reducing the number of inspectors, labor costs are reduced and low-priced inspections can be provided. It is possible to inspect buildings in any area as long as the radio waves reach between the robot, mobile terminal, and center device. There is no need to change the electrical wiring of the control panel, so there is no risk of equipment failure due to human error.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an equipment inspection system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a robot.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a center device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of data generation means displayed on a display device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram when there are a plurality of robots and inspectors.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Facility inspection system 12: Robot 14: Center device 16: Communication terminal 18: Building 20: Equipment 22: Control panel 24: Center device operator 26: Equipment inspector 28: Arm part 30: Sensor 32: Control part 34, 44: receiving means 36, 42: Transmission means 38: Display device 40: MPU 46: Input device 48: Data generating means 50: Data storage unit 52: Image reproducing means 54: means for preparing documents 56: Storage device 58: memory 60: Button

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An equipment inspection system for inspecting equipment of a building and a control panel for controlling the equipment, comprising: an arm portion for changing a state of a switch provided in the control panel; and an operation of the arm portion. A robot including a control unit for controlling, a receiving unit for receiving data for controlling the operation, a data generating unit for generating the data for controlling, and a transmitting unit for transmitting the data. A facility inspection system including a center device including the same, and a communication terminal for an inspector who inspects the facility of the building to request the operator of the center device to generate at least the data for the control. 2. The transmitting means of the center device includes means for accessing the robot and downloading the data generating means when the data generating means is initially stored in the robot. Equipment inspection system. 3. The equipment inspection system according to claim 1, wherein the robot includes a sensor that reads a state of the control panel. 4. The center device, wherein the robot includes a transmission unit that transmits data read by a sensor that reads the state of the control panel to the center device.
4. A receiving means for receiving the read data.
Equipment inspection system described in. 5. The equipment inspection system according to claim 3, wherein the sensor for reading the state of the control panel of the robot includes a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera. 6. The facility inspection system according to claim 1, wherein the robot and the communication terminals are plural, and the center device is single. 7. The facility inspection system according to claim 1, wherein the robot and the center device are connected by a wireless communication network. 8. The equipment inspection system according to claim 1, wherein the equipment includes firefighting equipment.