KR102386669B1 - CONTACT MODULE THAT COMPLEMENTS THE CHARGING DOCKING OF Autonomous Mobile Robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a contact module for complementing charging docking of an autonomous mobile robot (AMR). More specifically, the purpose of the present invention is to effectively perform battery charging of an AMR. According to the present invention, the contact module for complementing charging docking of an AMR comprises: a housing; an elastic member provided to the housing; and a terminal unit connected to a front end of the elastic member and electrically connected to a charger of the AMR.

Description

CONTACT MODULE THAT COMPLEMENTS THE CHARGING DOCKING OF Autonomous Mobile Robot}

The present invention relates to a contact module that supplements charging docking of an AMR, and more particularly, to effectively charging a battery of an autonomous driving robot.

An autonomous mobile robot (AMR) refers to a robot that uses a GPS device, a camera, a laser, etc. to look around itself, detect obstacles, select an optimal route using wheels or legs, and find a destination.

Such autonomous driving robots are being used in various fields such as vacuum cleaners.

Usually, since such an autonomous driving robot moves through various routes, it has a battery inside and repeats the process of docking the autonomous driving robot to a charging station to charge the battery after being used for a predetermined time.

The prior art Registration Patent No. 10-1600809 (hereinafter referred to as the prior art) relates to an autonomous driving mobile robot having a side charging means, a charging station for the same, and a charging system including the same, and more particularly, to the driving direction of the mobile robot. a side charging unit installed along at least one side so as to be parallel and having a charging terminal; By including a charging station that is provided in parallel to the driving direction of the autonomous driving mobile robot and provides a power supply unit having a power terminal on a surface facing the charging terminal, the mobile robot moves out of the mission path and moves to a separate charging position This is to greatly shorten the charging time because the charging terminal of the side charging part can be docked to the power terminal of the charging station even when the original driving direction is maintained without changing the direction.

However, this prior art has a problem that heat generation, wiring scorching and welding, fire, etc. may occur as the terminals are not precisely in close contact.

The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems, and improves the mechanical contact accuracy of the terminals so that the AMR can suppress heat generation, fire, and decrease in charging efficiency due to connection (contact) errors when docking for charging. An object of the present invention is to provide a contact module that supplements the charging docking of the AMR that allows the connection to be made more precisely.

The present invention for the purpose of solving the above problems has the following configuration and features.

A contact module supplementing the charging docking of AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot), comprising: a housing; an elastic member provided in the housing; and a terminal connected to the front end of the elastic member and electrically connected to the charger of the AMR.

In addition, the front end is connected to the elastic member and the rear end is inserted into the housing, a hollow portion formed inside the tube body, a passage portion formed through the inner and outer sides of the tube, the passage portion in a state in which the front end is connected to the terminal portion and a switch means comprising: a wire moving in the front-rear direction in the hollow part; can

In addition, the switch means may include a step portion including a connecting part made of a conductive material and connected to the terminal, and a protruding part made of a conductive material and protruding outward from the connection part and connected to the front end of the electric wire.

In addition, the terminal part may include a coupling groove formed from the outside to the inside, and the connection part may be inserted into the coupling groove.

In addition, the elastic member may include a body, and an insertion portion protruding backward from the body to be inserted into the hollow portion.

In addition, the passage portion may be formed to be inclined forward as it proceeds from the inside to the outside.

In addition, the inner opening of the passage portion may be disposed at a rear end of the insertion portion, and the outer opening of the passage portion may be disposed at a front end of the insertion portion.

In addition, the elastic member may include a body and a fitting portion protruding forward from the front end of the body, and the terminal portion may include a fitting groove formed on the rear end side so that the fitting portion is inserted.

The present invention having the above configuration and characteristics includes an elastic member connected to the rear end of the terminal part, so that heat generation, fire, and charging efficiency decrease due to connection (contact) error when the AMR is docked for charging can be suppressed, It has the effect of improving the mechanical contact accuracy of the terminals so that the connection is made more precisely.

1 is a perspective view for explaining a contact module supplementing the charging docking of the AMR according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a contact module supplementing the charging docking of the AMR.

Since the present invention can have various changes and can have various forms, implementation examples (態樣, aspects) (or embodiments) will be described in detail in the text. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to the specific disclosed form, it should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The terminology used herein is only used to describe a specific embodiment (aspect, aspect, aspect) (or embodiment), and is not intended to limit the present invention. The singular expression includes the plural expression unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, terms such as comprises or consists of are intended to designate that the features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof described in the specification exist, but one or more other features It is to be understood that it does not preclude the possibility of the presence or addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related art, and should not be interpreted in an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in the present application. does not

~1~, ~2~, etc. described in the present specification are only to be referred to to distinguish that they are different components, and are not limited to the order of manufacture, and their names in the detailed description and claims of the invention are may not match.

Throughout this specification, when a part is said to be “connected” with another part, it is not only “directly connected (including electrical connection)” but also “indirectly connected ( including electrical connection)".

1 is a perspective view illustrating a contact module supplementing the charging docking of the AMR according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the contact module supplementing the charging docking of the AMR.

The contact module (C) supplementing the charging docking of the AMR according to an embodiment of the present invention has a connection error of terminals in the process of connecting an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and a charger charging the battery of the autonomous driving robot. For the sake of minimizing

1 and 2, the device (a contact module (C) supplementing the charging docking of the AMR according to an embodiment of the present invention) includes a housing 1, an elastic member 2, and a terminal part 3 includes

The housing 1 may be installed on the floor, etc., and may correspond to a case in which an installation space is formed.

The elastic member 2 is connected to the housing 1 . Although it will be described in more detail in the following description, the elastic member 2 may be installed by being connected to the front end of the tube body 41 to be described later in which the rear end is inserted into the front end of the housing 1 .

Here, the front end (front, etc.) means the left end (left direction, etc.) with reference to FIG. 2, and the rear end (rear side, etc.) means the right end (right direction, etc.) with reference to FIG. 2, in the following description shall apply the same.

The elastic member 2 is a material that is elastically deformed, and may be, for example, a resin material such as SBR rubber or vibration-proof rubber, but is not limited thereto.

The terminal part 3 is connected to the front end of the elastic member 2 and is electrically connected to the charger of the AMR. As will be described in more detail in the following description, the terminal part 3 is a conductor, and the contact part 45 (eg, a metal material) electrically connected to the charger via a wire 44 of the switch means 4 to be described later. ) can be electrically connected to.

Conventionally, in the process of docking the AMR and the charger to charge the AMR, in the process of docking the AMR and the charger, the connection of the terminals often occurs, resulting in heat generation, which may cause internal wiring burnt, welding, fire, etc., and the charging efficiency is reduced. There were problems such as degradation.

However, as the device includes the elastic member 2 provided at the rear end of the terminal part 3 as described above, as the AMR moves backward for docking, the elastic member 2 is elastically deformed to adjust the position of the AMR. Therefore, there is an advantage that the connection between the terminals for charging can be made more precisely. In other words, since it is possible to minimize the connection error between terminals during docking through this, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of heat generation, burnt wiring, welding, fire, etc., reduce the charging docking failure rate, and improve charging efficiency. There is an advantage that the accuracy (density) can be improved.

In addition, in the prior art, an electronic device for separately moving the stopped AMR was used to reduce the connection error of the terminals during the docking process. There is an advantage that there is

1 and 2, the device has a switch means (4) including a tube body (41) having a front end connected to the elastic member (2) and a rear end inserted into the front end of the housing (1) may include

Illustratively, the housing 1 may include an installation groove recessed from the front end to the rear side so that the rear end of the tube body 41 is inserted, and a key groove recessed outwardly from the installation groove.

In addition, the tube body 41 may include a key protruding outwardly so as to be inserted into the key groove from the outer periphery.

Here, the inner side means the center line side parallel to the longitudinal direction (left and right direction based on FIG. 2) of the tube body 41, and the outer side means the radial direction (up and down direction based on FIG. 2) from the center line side. , will be equally applied in the following description.

As described above, since the tube body 41 includes a key and the housing 1 includes a keyway, rotation of the tube body 41 while connected to the housing 1 is suppressed, and the AMR presses the terminal part 3 to Even when a load is applied to the tube body 41 , rotation of the tube body 41 with respect to the housing 1 can be suppressed, so that the tube body 41 and the housing 1 can be coupled more structurally and stably.

The switch means 4 is a hollow portion 42 formed inside (inside) the tube body 41, the inner and outer sides of the tube body 41 are penetrated, and the passage portion 43 communicates with the hollow portion 42. ), the electric wire 44 moving in the front-rear direction in the passage part 43 and the hollow part 42 with the front end connected to the terminal part 3, and to limit the rear movement of the electric wire 44 It may include a contact portion 45 that covers the opening of the rear end of the tube body 41 and is electrically connected to the charger.

As shown in FIG. 2 , in a state in which docking is not made, the wires 44 may be spaced apart from the contact parts 45 . The contact part 45 is electrically connected to a charger for supplying power to the battery of the AMR in a conventional manner.

After the AMR moves to the rear end for docking and comes into contact with the terminal part 3, when the terminal part 3 is pressed to the rear end side, the terminal part 3 moves to the rear side as the elastic member 2 is elastically deformed. and the electric wire 44 physically and electrically connected to the terminal part 3 moves to the rear end side through the passage part 43 and the hollow part 42, so that the electric wire 44 and the electric wire 44 are disposed on the rear end side. Contact portions 45 may be interconnected. In this case, the power of the charger can be supplied to the battery side of the AMR through the device.

In this way, the device includes the switch means 4, so that the AMR is charged only when the terminal part 3 moves to the rear side by a predetermined distance, and in a state where the terminal part 3 is not pressurized to sufficiently move to the rear side, the charger It has the advantage of being able to control that the power of the AMR is not supplied.

That is, as the AMR moves to the rear for docking, the electric wire 44 is spaced apart from the contact portion 45 while the elastic member 2 is elastically deformed and the position of the AMR is adjusted so that the power of the charger is not supplied to the AMR. It can be done, and the elastic member 2 is elastically deformed by sufficiently pressing the terminal part 3, and the AMR and the charger are electrically connected only when the position of the AMR is adjusted. (3) Between) There is an advantage that current flow can be minimized in case of erroneous contact.

As described above, the terminal part 3 and the electric wire 44 are electrically interconnected. The switch means 4 is made of a conductive (conductive) material and has a connection part 461 and a conductive material connected to the terminal part 3 and is provided to protrude outward from the connection part 461 and is electrically connected to the front end of the wire 44 , may include a stepped portion 46 including a physically connected protruding part 462 .

Illustratively, the terminal part 3 includes a coupling groove recessed from the outside to the inside, and the connection part 461 may be inserted into the coupling groove.

Here, the inner side means the center line side of the terminal part 3 parallel to the longitudinal direction (left and right direction based on FIG. 2) of the tube body 41, and the outer side means the radial direction (up and down direction based on FIG. 2) from the center line side. ) means

As described above, since the connecting part 461 of the stepped part 46 is inserted into the coupling groove and connected to the terminal part 3, it is structurally stable.

The front end of the electric wire 44 is supported by the rear end of the protruding part 462 and connected (connected by a conventional method such as welding), and as the protruding part 462 moves to the rear end, the protruding part 462 is connected to the electric wire ( 44) can be moved to the rear side.

That is, since the switch means 4 includes the stepped portion 46, there is an advantage that the terminal portion 3 can easily move the electric wire 44 to the rear side as the terminal portion 3 moves to the rear side.

Meanwhile, referring to FIG. 2 , the elastic member 2 has a body 21 , and an insertion part provided to protrude backward to be inserted into the body 21 and the hollow part 42 formed inside the tubular body 41 in the body 21 . 22) may be included.

Through this, the elastic member 2 and the tube body 41 can be structurally and stably coupled to each other through the groove-protrusion structure, and the elastic member 2 and the tube body 41 can be detachably coupled to each other so that they can be separated from each other. Therefore, there is an advantage that the maintainability of the elastic member 2 and the tube body 41 can be improved.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the inner opening of the passage part 43 communicating with the hollow part 42 is disposed on the rear end side than the insertion part 22 , and the outer opening of the passage part 43 is the insertion part (22) may be disposed on the front end side. That is, the passage part 43 may be inclined forward as it progresses from the inside to the outside.

In this way, as the passage portion 43 is inclined forward as it progresses from the inside to the outside, the electric wire 44 is easily moved forward and backward in the passage portion 43 and the hollow portion 42 by the terminal portion 3 . can make it happen

In addition, as described above, the electric wire 44 proceeding to the hollow portion 42 through the passage 43 is arranged such that the inner opening of the passage portion 43 is disposed on the rear end side than the insertion portion 22 is inserted into the insertion portion 22 . ) can be avoided. In addition, since the outer opening of the passage portion 43 is disposed on the front end side than the insertion portion 22, the amount (length) of the wire 44 exposed to the outside in the passage portion 43 and the hollow portion 42 can be minimized. This can effectively protect the electric wire 44 and has the advantage that the electric wire 44 can be suppressed from being tangled.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the elastic member 2 may include a fitting portion 23 protruding forward from the front end of the body 21 . In this case, the terminal part 3 may include a fitting groove recessed from the rear end to the front so that the fitting part 23 is inserted.

Through this, the terminal part 3 and the elastic member 2 can be structurally and stably coupled, and since the terminal part 3 and the elastic member 2 can be detachably coupled, the elastic member 2 and the terminal part 3 It has the advantage of improving the maintainability of

The present invention described above with reference to the accompanying drawings is capable of various modifications and changes by those skilled in the art, and such modifications and changes should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

A contact module that complements the AMR's charging dock: C
Housing: 1 Elastic member: 2
Body: 21 Insertion: 22
Fitting: 23 Terminal: 3
Switch means: 4 Tube body: 41
Hollow section: 42 Aisle section: 43
Wire: 44 Contacts: 45
Step part: 46 Connection parts: 461
Extruded part: 462

Claims (8)

As a contact module that complements the charging docking of AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot),
housing;
an elastic member provided in the housing; and
a terminal part connected to the front end of the elastic member and electrically connected to the charger of the AMR;
including,
A tube having a front end connected to the elastic member and a rear end inserted into the housing, a hollow formed inside the tube, a passage formed through the inner and outer sides of the tube, and the passage with the front end connected to the terminal a switch means comprising: an electric wire moving in the front-rear direction in the hollow part; and a contact part that covers the rear end opening of the tube body to limit the rear movement of the electric wire and is electrically connected to the charger;
A contact module that supplements the charging docking of the AMR, characterized in that it further comprises. delete The method according to claim 1,
The switch means,
Charging docking of AMR, characterized in that it further comprises a connecting part made of a conductive material and connected to the terminal part, and a stepped part comprising a protruding part made of a conductive material and protruding outward from the connection part and connected to the front end of the electric wire. Complementary contact modules. 4. The method according to claim 3,
The terminal part includes a coupling groove formed from the outside to the inside, and the connection part is inserted into the coupling groove. The method according to claim 1,
The elastic member,
A contact module supplementing the charging docking of the AMR, characterized in that it comprises a body, and an insertion part protruding backward from the body to be inserted into the hollow part. The method according to claim 1,
the passage,
A contact module that complements the charging docking of AMR, characterized in that it is inclined forward as it progresses from the inside to the outside. 6. The method of claim 5,
The contact module supplementing the charging docking of the AMR, characterized in that the inner opening of the passage portion is disposed on the rear end side than the insertion portion, and the outer opening of the passage portion is disposed on the front end side than the insertion portion. The method according to claim 1,
The elastic member,
It includes a body, and a fitting portion provided to protrude forward from the front end of the body,
The terminal part,
A contact module supplementing the charging docking of the AMR, characterized in that it comprises a fitting groove formed on the rear end so that the fitting portion is inserted.

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