JPS61142085A - Remote controller - 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 [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides remote control while monitoring a controlled object with an ITV camera (industrial television camera) that is operated according to the movements of the operator's head and eyeballs. The present invention relates to a remote control device that can be applied to, for example, a robot for light work inside a nuclear reactor containment vessel, a remote control manipulator, a robot for extreme work, a surveillance camera system, and medical welfare equipment for the disabled. It is something.

[Conventional technology]

For example, when remotely controlling a slave manipulator while monitoring it with an ITV camera, the human operator's hands are often occupied with operating the master manipulator.
In order to simultaneously operate the TV cameras, the remote control device shown in Figure 7 is forced to operate the ITV camera using the human operator's neck movements; Human operator 6 uses position measurement arm 1 with one end attached to the helmet worn by human operator 6.
The operation fr is extracted from the movement of the neck of the user, and the ITV camera arm 4 is controlled by the signal via the control device 2, and the ITV camera 3 is operated to obtain a desired image on the ITV monitor 5. In addition, in FIG. 7, 7 is a master manipulator, 8 slave manipulators, 9 is a mobile machine,
It is a 10I/'i operation panel.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional remote control device shown in FIG. 7, the position measuring arm restricts the movement of the head of the operator 6, placing a heavy burden on the head. In order to reduce head restraint, it is possible to increase the degree of freedom of the position measuring arm 1, compensate for its own weight, etc., but this has the disadvantage of becoming extremely complicated. Furthermore, if the ITV camera arm 4 has multiple degrees of freedom (five or six degrees of freedom), the operator 6 must move his or her neck in a complicated manner to determine the position and orientation of the ITV camera 3. , the burden on the head is large, and the operability is not good. Therefore operator 6
The conventional device operates using only the neck movement as a master, and has the disadvantage that it is particularly difficult to operate the multi-axis ITV camera arm 4.

The present invention was proposed to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and includes, for example, a robot equipped with a slave arm and an ITV camera inside a nuclear power reactor containment vessel! A human operator can access the master arm and ITV from outside the containment vessel.
When remotely controlling a camera, the ITV camera is operated by the movement of the human operator's neck and eyeballs, and the human operator's hands are devoted to operating the manipulator, improving operability, and a means for measuring the movement of the operator's neck. In order to reduce head restraint as much as possible, and to operate the ITV arm not only using the operator's neck, but also using the operator's eye movements, it is possible to control the multi-axis TTV camera arm from the neck. The object of the present invention is to provide a remote control device that can release multiple motions, reduce stress on the operator's head, and realize excellent maneuverability.

[Means for solving problems]

The remote control device fffFj according to the present invention is a remote control device for remotely controlling a controlled object while monitoring it with an ITV camera, wherein the control device for operating the ITV camera is mounted on the upper and rear parts of the operator's head, respectively. Each light source or ultrasonic generation source is installed above and behind the operator so as to face each of the light sources or ultrasonic generation sources, respectively, and the head of the operator can be moved back and forth, left and right, up and down, and left and right. and an eye movement detector that detects the movement of the operator's eyeballs.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, for example, a light source such as an LED or an ultrasonic generation source, a position detector such as a semiconductor device detector or an ultrasonic position detector facing these, and the movement of the operator's eyeballs are detected. By controlling the control device of the ITV camera in combination with an eye movement detector,
When operating an ITV camera arm with multiple degrees of freedom, the position of the ITV camera is controlled by the movement of the operator's neck, and the posture of the ITV camera is controlled by the movement of the operator's eyeballs. If (1, 1) uses a relatively simple and non-contact device for measurement, the above-mentioned conventional problems can be solved.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The same parts as those shown in the figures will be described with the same reference numerals.

Each part indicated by reference numerals 2 to 1o in FIG. 1 is the same as that indicated by reference numerals 2 to 10 in FIG. 7, so a description thereof will be omitted. The difference between the 1st M and the one in Figure 7 is ■
The control device that controls the TV camera is controlled by the position measuring arm IK attached to the operator's helmet in FIG. 7, whereas in the embodiment shown in FIG. The system combines an LED light source and a semiconductor device detector to measure the movement of the operator's head without contact, and also detects the movement of the operator's eyeballs using an eye movement detector, which controls the ITV camera control device. It is configured to do so.

In this case, instead of the combination of the LED light source and semiconductor device detector, a combination of an ultrasonic source and an ultrasonic position detector may be used to measure the movement of the operator's head in a non-contact manner. .

In FIG. 1, 11 is an LED light source attached to the upper part of the helmet of the operator 6, 13 is an LED light source attached to the rear of the helmet, and 12.14 is each semiconductor device detector, which is connected to the LED light sources 11 and 13, respectively. They are installed above and behind the operator 6 so as to face each other. 1
5d operator 6's eye movement detector. FIGS. 2 to 6 are diagrams for explaining the operation of one embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

The operation of the above embodiment of the present invention will be explained.

In FIG. 1, an LED light source 1 detects the back and forth and left and right movements of the neck of a human operator 6 using a semiconductor optical position detector 1.
Measure at 2. At this time, unless the LED light source 1 is given directivity and the human operator 6 does not take an unreasonable posture,
Avoid affecting the semiconductor device detector 14. Further, the semiconductor device detector 14 measures vertical and horizontal movements of the human operator's neck using the LED light source 13 . At this time, the LED light source 13 is given directionality and the human operator 6
As long as the semiconductor device detector 12 remains in an unreasonable posture,
Try not to influence the situation. When the operator 6 moves his head, the positions of the LED light sources 11, 13 and the semiconductor device detectors 12, 14, . A three-dimensional operation amount proportional to the neck movement of the human operator 6 is measured in real time. The three-dimensional operation amount is transmitted to the control device 2 as an electric signal, and becomes a control command for the position of the tip of the ITv camera arm 4, that is, the ITV camera 3.

On the other hand, from the eye movement detector 15, as shown in FIG.
The coordinate values X and y of the gaze point on the visual field image are output. The distance l to the ITV monitor shown in FIG. 4 can be determined from the three-dimensional signal detected by the neck movement measuring device of the operator 6. With this l and the coordinate value Xe7 of the gaze point,
The line of sight vector can be found. The three components of this line-of-sight vector are converted into electrical signals as attitude control k of the ITV camera 3 and transmitted to the control device 2, and serve as an attitude command for the tip of the ITV camera arm 4, that is, the ffV camera 3. With this command and the position control command above, multi-axis IT
The V camera arm 4 makes the desired movement.

In this way, the operator 6 can recognize the image of the desired controlled object via the ITV monitor 5 using the ITV camera 3, and therefore, good remote control can be performed.

Note that FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams for explaining the two-dimensional position measurement method using the semiconductor device detector in the above embodiment, respectively. When the K light is incident on the semiconductor device detector (PSD), the incident position is A charge proportional to is generated. This charge is uniformly provided on the surface of FiPsD and is divided by the resistive layer in inverse proportion to the distance to the electrode. If these currents are IA and IB, the position signal obtained from this is similarly formed by forming a resistance layer on the front or back surface, and X
, Y, a two-dimensional PSD can be obtained by providing a pair of electrodes for each.

In addition, the eye movement detector 15 measures eye movement by detecting the amount of movement of an image formed on the cornea caused by the movement of the eyeball using an LED.
5, for example, an eye mark recorder (commercially available) can be used. 5 and 6 are diagrams for explaining the operating principle of the eye mark recorder, in which 2 is a field lens, 22 is a field photographing camera (MO8f
23 is an eye mark light source (near infrared light emitting diode), 24 is an infrared reflecting mirror, 25 is an eye mark optical axis, 26 is an X-axis adjustment mirror, 27 is a Y-axis adjustment mirror, 28 is a focus Adjustment lens, 29 is a reflective mirror, 30
is an eyemark photographing camera (MO8 type solid-state image sensor), which operates as follows.

(1) Field lens 21 on the front of the eye mark recorder
is the same subject that the subject is looking at at a horizontal angle of 60 degrees.
0, vertically with a field of view of 45°, and the image is focused on the solid-state image sensor CMO8) 22, which is a field-of-view camera. This image is then sent to the camera controller as a video signal.

(2) Near-infrared light emitting diode (L
The light of ED),>,v directly enters the inside of the cornea of the eyeball and creates a virtual image thereof.

(3) The LED virtual image inside the cornea is captured by the infrared reflecting mirror 24, passes to the X-axis adjustment mirror 26, then to the Y-axis adjustment mirror r7, and then passes through the focus adjustment lens 28 and the reflection mirror 29 to mark the eye mark. A solid-state image sensor CMO8), which is a photographing camera, forms an image on yO. This image is also sent to the camera controller as a video signal.

(4) Humans work their eye parts and move their eyeballs in order to move the image of the point of gaze to the central view on the retina. The structure of the eyeball is as shown in Figure 6, with a spherical cornea on the front surface of the eyeball.

Because of this structure, when the eyeball moves, the virtual image point produced by the eye mark light source on the cornea also moves slightly, and the amount of eye mark movement is magnified using an optical system and an electric circuit.

(5) The camera controller mixes the visual field image and the eye mark image, and further generates the eye mark into a sharp cross or mouth shape and displays it on the TV monitor. As a result, the eye mark moves on the visual field image.

In the above embodiments, error factors such as background light can be reduced by using a pulse-modulated LED as the LED light source, but the light source is not limited to an LEDK. Moreover, since multiple points can be measured simultaneously by using a plurality of LEDs and time-divisionally illuminating them in synchronization with the measurement circuit, it is not necessary to use only one light source for one PSD. If multiple devices are used, it is possible to measure the twisting angle of the neck to some extent.

Further, contrary to the above embodiment, even one light source can be measured by using a light source with weak directivity. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, a combination of an LED light source and a semiconductor device detector was described in order to non-contactly measure the movement of the operator's head. A combination with a detector may also be used. [Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be achieved.

(1) There is no conventional measurement arm that restrains the operator's head, so there is less burden on the operator.

(2) Since the operation f by the movement of the operator's head is a three-dimensional operation valve °, there is no need to move the neck in a complicated manner.

(3) Since the posture can be changed by the amount of operation by the operator's eyeball movements, ■ there is no need to take one's eyes off the TV monitor.

(4) Operator's head movement and TTV camera position;
By matching eye movements and the posture of the ITV camera,
The operability of the TV camera arm itself is also improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 to 6 are diagrams each for explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conventional example. It is a diagram. 2...Control device, 3...ITV camera, 11°13
... LED light source, 12.14 ... semiconductor device detector, 15 ... eye movement detector.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a remote control device that remotely controls a controlled object while monitoring it with an ITV camera, the control device for operating the ITV camera includes light sources or ultrasonic generation sources respectively mounted on the upper and rear parts of the operator's head. , each position detector is installed above and behind the operator so as to face each of the light sources or the ultrasonic generation sources, respectively, and detects the front-rear, left-right, up-down, and left-right movements of the operator's head, respectively. and an eye movement detector that detects the movement of the operator's eyeballs.