JP2818224B2 - Mobile body remote control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a remote control device for a mobile object, and particularly applied to, for example, a floor-moving inspection robot and the like, for example, various plants and factories. The present invention relates to a remote control device for a mobile object suitable for moving and patrol in a path of a vehicle.

(Prior Art) At present, in various plants and factories, of the on-site inspection work by an operator, relatively simple work or nighttime monitoring is performed on behalf of the operator to reduce the burden on the operator and to make the inspection work more reliable. Robots tend to be employed for this purpose. Since such a robot covers a wide range of objects to be inspected, a moving body provided with traveling means for moving, for example, a floor or the like with wheels or the like is used as moving means.

Conventionally, as the remote control of the moving body, there is a method of operating by pressing an operation button while confirming on a number of television monitors an image of a television camera mounted on the moving body and a plurality of television camera images installed in a building or the like outside the moving body. Are known.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, remote control of a conventional moving object requires a plurality of television cameras to be installed in the moving object and the building. In addition, there is a problem in that a moving body having a high degree of freedom capable of climbing over a weir or running on stairs requires a complicated operation such as simultaneously pressing a large number of operation buttons.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems,
For example, in a mobile object having a high degree of freedom that can be moved over a weir or run on stairs, a remote control device for the mobile object that can be easily remotely controlled by effectively utilizing an image of a television camera mounted on the mobile object and sensor information is provided. Is to do.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A moving body, an in-vehicle unit mounted on the moving body, and an image signal from the in-vehicle unit are received and a control signal is transmitted to the in-vehicle unit to move the vehicle. A ground unit for manipulating the body, the vehicle-mounted unit includes a plurality of distance sensors attached to the moving body, a plurality of signal processing circuits for inputting detection signals detected by the plurality of distance sensors, A position detection unit that detects a distance to a structure around the moving object or a vehicle body angle of the moving object, and a first control unit that inputs a position signal from the position detection unit;
A control device having a first communication unit for transmitting the position signal from the first control unit to the ground unit and receiving the control signal processed by the ground unit in the first control unit; A camera, a transmission unit for inputting an image signal of the television camera via a television camera control unit connected to the television camera and transmitting the image signal to the ground unit, a steering motor and a traveling motor, and control of the first control unit A driving circuit connected to a signal output side to output a rotational speed command of the steering motor and the traveling motor, wherein the ground unit receives the position signal from the first communication unit, and receives the position signal from the ground unit. A second communication unit for transmitting a control signal, a receiving unit for receiving an image signal from the transmitting unit, and an image processing for receiving a received image from the receiving unit and extracting feature points around the moving body And a second control unit that inputs and outputs a control signal to and from the image processing unit and inputs the position signal from the second communication unit and outputs a control signal to the second communication unit. An operation input unit connected to the second control unit for performing a remote operation command; and an image synthesis unit for inputting an image signal from the image processing unit and the position signal input to the second control unit. A monitor for inputting and displaying an image signal from the image synthesizing unit; and an image storage unit for mutually inputting and outputting the image signal from the image processing unit and storing a processed image processed by the image processing unit. It is characterized by the following.

(Operation) The status display of the moving object created by the control unit based on the raw image, the processed image, the stored image, and the sensor information of the television camera mounted on the moving object is simultaneously or individually displayed on the monitor. While monitoring the monitor, the operator easily inputs movements of hands, feet, neck, and the like as operation information from the operation input unit, and remotely operates the moving body.

When the operation is complicated, the operation of the mobile unit is simulated in advance, and the operation of the mobile unit is confirmed after confirmation on a monitor.

(Embodiment) A first embodiment of a remote control device for a moving object according to the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a moving body, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a remote control device for remotely controlling the moving body, and FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the operation of FIG. In FIG. 1, a moving body denoted by reference numeral 1 includes drive wheels 2a and 2b and a steered wheel 3, and can move freely on the floor surface.

Around the moving body 1, distance sensors 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f, 4g, and 4h of an ultrasonic type or a photoelectric type are mounted. These distance sensors 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f, 4
g and 4h are signal processing circuits 5a, 5b, 5c and 5 as shown in FIG.
d, 5e, 5f, 5g, 5h via the position detector 7 of the control circuit 6
It is connected to the. The arrows shown in FIG. 1 indicate the detection directions of the distance sensors 4a to 4h. FIG. 2 shows an in-vehicle unit 19 mounted on the mobile unit 1 and a ground unit 28 that receives and processes a signal from the in-vehicle unit 19 separated by broken lines.

A first control unit (hereinafter, referred to as a control unit 8) of the control device 6 in the vehicle-mounted unit 19 receives an output signal of the position detection unit 7, an output signal of the steering angle detection sensor 14, and an output signal of the movement distance detection sensor 15, The data is output to the ground unit 28 via a first communication unit (hereinafter, referred to as a communication unit 9). Also, a control signal is input from the ground unit 28 via the communication unit 9, and the motors 11,
It outputs a rotational speed command to the switches 12 and 13.
The motor 11 is a steering motor that changes the direction of the steered wheels 3 via a steering mechanism constituted by a speed reducer or the like to change the moving direction of the moving body 1. Also,
Motors 12 and 13 are driving motors and drive wheels via a speed reducer or the like.
2a and 2b are driven to move the moving body 1 back and forth.

The in-vehicle unit 19 has a television camera 16 in addition to the control device 6 and the like.
And a transmission unit 18 for outputting images of the television camera control unit 17 and the television camera 16 to the ground unit 28.

On the other hand, the ground unit 28 is a second communication unit (hereinafter, referred to as a communication unit 20) that exchanges signals with the communication unit 9 of the vehicle-mounted unit 19.
A receiving unit 21 that receives an output signal of the transmitting unit 18; an image processing unit 22 that processes a received image; and a second unit that inputs and outputs signals of the image processing unit 22, the communication unit 20, and the operation input unit 27. A control unit (hereinafter, referred to as a control unit 23), an image storage unit 24 that stores the received image and the processed image, and an image that outputs the image signal and the output signal of the control unit 23 to the monitor 26 simultaneously or individually. The synthesizing unit 25 is configured.

In the present embodiment configured as described above, the moving body 1
When moving on the passage 29 as shown in the figure, the position detection unit 7 of the vehicle-mounted unit 19 obtains the distance to the wall 30a or 30b or the vehicle body angle based on the information of the distance sensors 4a to 4f and outputs it to the control unit 8. I do. The control unit 8 is a steering angle detection sensor.
An output signal of the moving distance detection sensor 15 and the output signal of the moving distance detection sensor 15 are input, and output to the ground unit 28 via the communication unit 9 as information of the mobile unit 1. The control unit 23 of the ground unit 28 causes the monitor 26 to display the information of the mobile unit 1 and the image received by the television camera 16. The operator operates the steering wheel or the operation switch from the operation input unit 27 with his / her hand or foot while checking the monitor 26, and
Input the operation signal to 23. This operation signal is transmitted to the control unit 8 via the communication unit 20 and the communication unit 9 of the vehicle-mounted unit 19, and the control unit 8 outputs a command value to the drive circuit 10 in accordance with the operation amount, and outputs the steering motor 11 or The motors 12 and 13 are rotated.

In addition, the control unit 23 of the ground unit 28 operates at a predetermined moving interval or at the request of the operator, for example, the point P in FIG.
The received image can be stored in the image storage unit 24 at 1, P2, P3, P4, P5, and P6, and can be displayed at an arbitrary position at the request of the operator. That is, the weir 31 or the corner 32
And, on the stairs 33 and the like, it is possible to drive based on the images of the points P1, P3, P5, etc. in front of them. In this case, the stored image is image-processed by the image processing unit 22, and the coordinates of the walls 30a, 30b, the weir 31, and the like on the screen are obtained. Can be easily performed.

In addition, before the mobile unit 1 is actually operated by the control unit 23 of the ground unit 28, for example, an optimal course or the like when passing the corner unit 32 is simulated, and the operation guide can be easily provided to the operator. Further, the movement of the weir 31 and the stairs 33 can be performed by storing a predetermined operation pattern in the control unit 23 and arbitrarily reproducing it.

[Effects of the present invention] According to the present invention, there is no need to install a plurality of televisions in a building or the like outside a moving body, and it is not necessary to provide a guide such as a dielectric wire or a reflector, and equipment costs are unnecessary. is there. In addition, when climbing over a weir or moving on stairs, safety can be checked before operation, and operation without complicated operations can be performed.

As described above, it is possible to provide a remote controller for a mobile object which is inexpensive, has high safety, and is easy to operate.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a moving body, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a remote control device for remotely controlling the moving body, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the operation of FIG. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Moving body 2a, 2b ... Drive wheel 3 ... Steering wheel 4a-4h ... Distance sensor 5a-5h ... Signal processing circuit 6 ... Control device 7 ... Position detection part 8 ... Control part 9 ... … Communication unit 10… Drive circuit 11… Steering motor 12, 13… Travel motor 14… Steering angle detection sensor 15… Move distance detection sensor 16… TV camera 17… TV camera control unit 18… Transmission Unit 19 Car-mounted unit 20 Communication unit 21 Receiving unit 22 Image processing unit 23 Control unit 24 Image storage unit 25 Image synthesizing unit 26 Monitor 27 Operation input unit 28 .... above ground

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G05D 1/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A mobile unit, a vehicle-mounted unit mounted on the mobile unit, and a ground unit that receives an image signal from the vehicle-mounted unit, transmits a control signal to the vehicle-mounted unit, and operates the mobile unit. A plurality of distance sensors attached to the moving body, a plurality of signal processing circuits for inputting detection signals detected by the plurality of distance sensors, and a plurality of signal processing circuits respectively processed by the plurality of signal processing circuits. A position detecting section for detecting a distance to a structure around the moving body or a vehicle body angle of the moving body, and a first inputting a position signal from the position detecting section.
And a first communication unit for transmitting the position signal from the first control unit to the ground unit, and receiving the control signal processed by the ground unit in the first control unit. A control device, a television camera, a transmission unit for inputting an image signal of the television camera via a television camera control unit connected to the television camera and transmitting the image signal to the ground unit side, a steering motor and a travel motor, A driving circuit connected to a control signal output side of the control unit for outputting a rotation speed command of the steering motor and the traveling motor, wherein the ground unit receives the position signal from the first communication unit, and A second communication unit that transmits a control signal from the ground unit, a reception unit that receives an image signal from the transmission unit, and a reception image input from the reception unit to extract feature points around the moving body processing A second image processing unit for inputting and outputting a control signal to and from the image processing unit and inputting the position signal from the second communication unit and outputting a control signal to the second communication unit; A control unit, an operation input unit connected to the second control unit for instructing a remote operation, and an image signal from the image processing unit and the position signal input to the second control unit. An image synthesizing unit, a monitor for inputting and displaying an image signal from the image synthesizing unit, and an image storing unit for mutually inputting and outputting the image processing unit and the image signal and storing a processed image processed by the image processing unit A remote control device for a mobile object, comprising: