Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a mobile robot with a door opening and closing device, which solves the problem that the existing transfer robot cannot realize automatic door opening.
The specific scheme is as follows: a mobile robot with door opening and closing device comprises a robot frame, an outer shell and a driving wheel train, wherein the outer shell is coated on the robot frame to form a robot main body in a matched mode with the robot frame, and the driving wheel train is arranged at the bottom of the robot main body; the door opening and closing device is also included:
the robot body is internally provided with a storage cavity, one side of the storage cavity is provided with an opening part corresponding to the position of the opening part, and the robot body is also provided with a movable door for opening and closing the opening part;
the door opening and closing device is arranged at a position close to the opening part in the robot main body and comprises a pivoted rotating arm and a driving mechanism for driving the rotating arm to rotate;
the rotating arm is also provided with a suction part for sucking the box grid door and a collision part for abutting against the box grid door and moving along the box grid door.
The invention further adopts the technical scheme that the suction part is a magnetic suction part or a negative pressure suction part.
The invention further adopts the technical scheme that the suction part is a magnetic roller which is pivoted on the rotating arm; the outer wall surface of the magnetic roller can be abutted against the compartment door to form the abutting part.
According to a further technical scheme, a vertically extending sliding rail is arranged at the position of the opening part, and the movable door is arranged on the robot main body in a vertically sliding manner through the sliding rail; the rotating arm is pivoted at the position inside the sliding rail by a vertically arranged pivot shaft, and the driving mechanism is a driving motor arranged at the position of the pivot shaft.
The invention further adopts the technical scheme that the robot also comprises a picking and placing device, wherein the picking and placing device is arranged in the robot main body and comprises a lifting mechanism, a translation mechanism and a conveying mechanism, the lifting mechanism is arranged on the robot main body, the translation mechanism is arranged on the lifting mechanism, and the conveying mechanism is arranged on the translation mechanism.
According to a further technical scheme, the conveying mechanism is a comb-shaped hollowed-out comb fork.
The invention further adopts the technical scheme that the conveying mechanism comprises a conveying belt assembly and a conveying motor, and the conveying motor is in transmission connection with the conveying belt assembly.
The invention further adopts the technical scheme that the conveying mechanism further comprises a friction roller; the direction of the conveyor belt assembly towards the opening part is defined as the front, and the friction roller is arranged at the position in front of the conveyor belt assembly and is arranged at the lower position in the vertical direction of the conveyor belt.
The invention further adopts the technical scheme that the conveyor belt assembly comprises a plurality of annular conveyor belts which are arranged at intervals in parallel; the conveying mechanism further comprises a lifting mechanism, and the lifting mechanism is provided with a comb-shaped bracket which is matched with the conveying belt assembly and is hollowed out in a comb-shaped mode so as to be used for lifting articles on the conveying belt assembly.
The invention further provides a top door opening assembly, which is arranged at the top of the robot main body through a locking piece and is used for opening the storage cavity from the top.
The beneficial effects are that: the mobile robot of the invention forms a mobile carrying robot by arranging the driving wheel system and the robot main body; meanwhile, the robot main body is provided with a rotating arm at the opening part of the storage cavity, the rotating arm is provided with a suction part and a collision part, the suction part sucks the electromagnetic unlocked cell door, and the rotating arm is rotated to realize that the cell door is opened towards the inside of the storage cavity; in the process of opening the door, the sucking part continuously keeps adsorbing the compartment door so as to ensure the opening state of the compartment door, realize the direct conduction of the compartment cabinet and the storage cavity, then, realize the transportation of the package by the existing package pushing or taking device, and reverse the door opening and closing device, thus realizing the locking of the compartment door, and solving the problem that the existing transfer robot cannot automatically open the door.
Detailed Description
For further illustration of the various embodiments, the invention is provided with the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate embodiments and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the embodiments. With reference to these matters, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand other possible embodiments and advantages of the present invention. The components in the figures are not drawn to scale and like reference numerals are generally used to designate like components.
The invention will now be further described with reference to the drawings and detailed description.
Example 1
As shown in fig. 1 (a) and 1 (b), this embodiment provides a mobile robot with a door opening and closing device, and the mobile robot 1 includes a drive train 11, an outer case 12, an opening 14, a top door opening assembly 17, a movable door 18, an electromagnet chuck 20, and the like.
The mobile robot is provided with a robot frame, and the outer shell 12 is sleeved on the robot frame so as to seal the robot frame and form a robot main body in a matching way with the robot frame; the drive train 11 is installed below the robot body for achieving horizontal movement of the robot body. In this embodiment, the driving gear train 11 is a two-wheel differential gear train driven by two motors, and as shown in the figure, comprises two driving wheels 11a and four passive universal supporting wheels 11b; of course, in other embodiments, the drive train 11 may be a multi-wheel drive train driven by more motors.
The outer housing 12 and the moveable door 18 are typically formed of opaque hard shell material to protect the interior structure of the robot and also to protect the privacy of the items. The opening 14 is located on a vertical plane of the outer housing 12, which plane needs to have a large plane area to meet the requirements of conforming to the side of the storage device having the compartment door, and the shape of the other sides may not be limited. The opening 14 is in accordance with the height of the compartment 4 on the storage device, and has a length and width slightly larger than the compartment door 6 of the corresponding compartment, so as to allow the compartment door (see the part with the reference number 6 in fig. 5 (a)) to be screwed in and out. The robot body is internally provided with a storage cavity 13, the inner side of the opening 14 is provided with the storage cavity 13 for storing goods, the space size of the storage cavity is larger than the storage space size of a box (see the part with the reference number 4 in fig. 5 (a)), and further the opening 14 is arranged on one side surface of the storage cavity.
The top door opening assembly 17 is a door with a lock, which may be in the form of a swing door, a side-by-side door, or a side-by-side door, and in this embodiment, a side-by-side door structure is employed, including two side-by-side cover plates 17a and 17b, which are horizontally pushed along a sliding rail inside the top door opening assembly 17. The lock of the top door opening assembly 17 is usually an automatic lock, and can be automatically unlocked, and the top door opening assembly 17 can be further provided with a motor and a screw mechanism, so that the cover plates 7a and 17b can be automatically pushed open, and a receiver can directly take and put articles from the top opening of the robot without bending down to take and put articles from the opening 14. The movable door 18 is mounted inside the housing 12 at the position of the opening 14, and is slightly larger than the opening in size, and is controlled by a movable door lifting mechanism 19 (not shown) to move along a vertically arranged sliding rail to adjust the height. The movable door 18 is normally in the raised position, and completely closes the opening 14 to prevent the internal structure of the robot from being exposed. When the picking and placing operation is performed, the movable door 18 can be lowered to a position where the opening 14 is fully opened. Electromagnet chucks 20 are mounted around the opening 14, in this embodiment two, with chuck surfaces protruding from the outer housing 12 for close suction with the ferrous outer surface of the storage device. The upper front part of the robot is typically provided with a display 21 for displaying information and supporting man-machine interaction. In addition, various environment sensing sensors such as laser radar, ultrasonic radar and the like can be arranged outside the robot.
As shown in fig. 2 (a), the robot includes mainly a robot frame 22, a door opening/closing device 15, a movable door lifting mechanism 19, a pick-and-place device 16, and the like. The robot frame 22 is of a frame structure, is fixedly arranged above the driving wheel train 11, and is mainly used for providing structural support for the outer shell 12, various sensors and other components, and is formed by connecting a sheet metal part frame 22a and a metal bottom plate 22b of a frame type in the embodiment; in other embodiments, the structure may be made of aluminum profile structural members, and the shape and structure thereof are not particularly limited. The door opening and closing device 15 is used for opening or closing the compartment door, and is usually installed at the middle upper part of two sheet metal frames 22a at the rear side of the opening 14, and is visible when the movable door 18 descends. Since the compartments on the storage device are generally symmetrically arranged left and right, the opening portion 14 of this embodiment is provided with a door opening and closing device 15 on each of the left and right sides. The movable door lifting mechanism 19 is arranged at the lower part of the sheet metal part upright posts at the two sides of the movable door 18, is a linear displacement mechanism consisting of a small motor, a synchronous belt, a screw rod and a nut, and realizes the lifting of the movable door 18 through the rotation of the motor and the transmission of the screw rod and the nut. The picking and placing device 16 consists of a first lifting module L1, a fork translation linear module H1 and a comb fork 9 with a comb hollowed-out shape, and can pick and place and lift articles. The first lifting module L1 is installed in the middle of the lower half of the robot, and the bottom of the first lifting module L is connected with the metal bottom plate 22b of the robot frame 22 through a structural member. The fork translation linear module H1 is mounted on top of the first lifting module L1, and the comb fork 9 is mounted on the sliding part of the fork translation linear module H1. The first lifting module L1 and the fork translation linear module H1 can realize horizontal telescopic movement and lifting movement of the comb fork 9.
In this embodiment, the pick-and-place device 16 is disposed in the robot body and includes a lifting mechanism, a translation mechanism, and a conveying mechanism.
As shown in fig. 3 (a) and 3 (b), the pick-and-place device 16 is composed of a first lift module L1 as a lift mechanism, a fork translation linear module H1 as a translation mechanism, and a comb fork 9 as a conveying mechanism. The first lifting module L1 and the fork translational linear module H1 are respectively used for realizing linear lifting motion and linear translational motion, and of course, various linear motion modules, such as a screw nut motion module, a synchronous belt motion module and the like, can also be adopted. This embodiment employs a motion module in the form of a lead screw nut. Preferably, the first lifting module L1 adopts a telescopic mechanism using a multi-stage screw rod and a multi-stage square tube guide sleeve, and the telescopic mechanism is commonly used for manufacturing a tatami lifter. The multi-stage square tube guide sleeve generally comprises 2-4 sections of square tubes, the sizes of which are sequentially reduced, and only two sections of square tubes 40a and 40b are shown as illustrations in the figure. In the telescopic mechanism, engineering plastic sheets are stuck on four surfaces between each pair of adjacent square pipes to form interference fit, and meanwhile, small friction force is kept. The lowermost square tube 40a and the uppermost square tube 40b are fixedly connected with the lower end plate 41a and the upper end plate 41b, respectively, and the lower end plate 41a is fixedly mounted on the metal bottom plate 22b of the robot frame 22 through a connecting piece. Inside the square tube is provided with a multi-stage nested screw S1, the bottom end of the screw is fixed on the lower end plate 41a, and the top end of the screw is sequentially provided with a hexagonal head and an optical axis from top to bottom, wherein the optical axis is matched with a bearing seat on the upper end plate 41b, and a synchronous pulley 42b is fixed on the hexagonal head. A motor M1 is fixedly mounted on the upper end plate 41b, and drives the synchronous pulley 42b to rotate through a synchronous pulley 42a and a synchronous belt 43 on an output shaft of the motor, so as to drive the screw rod S1 to rotate, thereby realizing the expansion and contraction of the first lifting module L1. Similarly, the fork translation linear module H1 is a very common screw nut linear module, and includes an upper end plate 41b, a motor M2, a synchronous pulley 44a, a synchronous belt 45, a synchronous pulley 44b, a screw S2, a nut N2, a guide rail 46, a slider 47, and a sliding table 48, where when the motor M2 rotates, the sliding table 48 moves back and forth along the guide rail 46. The comb fork 9 is fixedly arranged on a sliding table 48 of the fork translation linear module H1 or is made into a part with the sliding table 48, so that horizontal telescopic movement can be realized.
Fig. 4 is a schematic structural view of a door opening and closing device of the mobile robot in this embodiment. Since the compartment doors of most express cabinets are usually designed as side-hung doors in a bilateral symmetry mode, a robot is provided with a bilateral symmetry left side door opening and closing device and a right side door opening and closing device by default. The door opening and closing device 15 mainly comprises a roller 51 with magnetism, a rotating arm 52 and a steering engine 53. Wherein, the magnetic roller 51 is a suction part which can be sucked with the cell door and is arranged at the tail end of the rotating arm 52; the root of the rotating arm 52 is connected with the output shaft of the steering engine 53; the steering engine 53 is mounted on the robot frame 54, and the steering engine output rotating shaft is parallel to the rotating shaft of the compartment door. When the compartment door is opened, the rotary arm 52 is driven to rotate outwards to enable the magnetic roller 51 to be in contact with and adsorbed on the iron compartment door 6, and then the rotary arm 52 rotates inwards to pull the compartment door 6 open. During the process of opening the compartment door, the magnetic roller rolls on the compartment door, so that the outer edges thereof can be kept in contact to form the abutting portion. The rotation direction is opposite to the rotation direction of the case door when the case door is closed. When the compartment door is closed and locked by the lock inside the compartment, the rotary arm 52 rotates inward, so that the magnetic roller is disengaged from the compartment door, and the movable door 18 can ascend to close the opening 14 to protect the internal structure of the robot and the privacy of the articles because the rotary arm 52 is retracted inside the opening 14. For some express cabinet cells adopting the up-swing door, the door opening and closing device 15 should be installed above the opening 14, and the rotation axis of the steering engine 53 is parallel to the rotation axis of the up-swing door. Of course, in other specific embodiments, the suction portion may be a negative pressure suction portion or an electromagnetic force roller, and the door opening effect may be achieved.
With reference to fig. 5 (a), 5 (b) and 5 (c), the working procedure of this embodiment is as follows:
after the docking is completed, the face of the robot having the opening 14 is brought into close contact with the face of the storage device 2 having the cell door, and at this time, the opening 14 of the robot is aligned right and left with the door of the cell 4 and is uniform in height. Wherein the opening 14 is slightly larger than the door 6 of the compartment 4. The robot housing 12 and the housing of the storage device are removed in order to more clearly show the internal configuration of the robot 1 and the storage device 2, and the relative positions of the robot 1 and the cells 4. When the mobile robot and the external storage device are in butt joint, in order to protect the privacy of the articles, firstly, the adsorption operation is executed. The electromagnet sucker 20 on the robot is electrified to firmly adsorb the robot on the iron shell of the storage device. Because the suction of the electromagnet sucker is generally about hundreds of kilograms, a common person cannot easily move the mobile robot, and even if the robot moves, larger impact can be generated, so that an alarm can be triggered through the sensing of a sensor. The robotic pick-and-place operation performed thereafter will therefore be performed under fully shielded conditions, protecting the privacy of the item. The electromagnet adsorption mode which is easiest to implement is adopted, and the adsorption can be realized by a mechanical lock catch or a vacuum chuck. After the suction operation is completed, the electric lift gate 18 at the opening 14 is automatically lowered so that the opening 14 is completely opened. At this point, the robot 1 may send instructions to the storage device 2 informing the latter to unlock the electromagnet locks 6b of the compartment doors. Since the opening 14 is faced with the storage cavity 13 inside the robot with a reserved space, and the fork translation linear module H1 and the comb fork 9 inside the robot are positioned at a position low enough, the compartment door 6 can freely rotate 90 ° in the storage cavity 13 inside the robot without interference. In order to make the opening and closing angle of the cell door 6 turn from 0 to 90 degrees, the cell door is operated by using the door opening and closing device 15 on the robot, namely, the door opening and closing device 15 is rotated to the 0-degree position to be attracted with the cell door, and then the cell door is driven to rotate to the 90-degree position.
When the compartment door has been fully opened to the 90 position, after which the pick-and-place device 16 inside the robot will perform a lifting and horizontal extension action in succession. The first lifting module L1 is lifted so that the height of the comb fork 9 is equal to and slightly lower than the height of the comb support 5 in the cell, and then the fork translation linear module H1 is elongated so that the comb fork 9 is inserted below the comb support 5 in the cell 4; of course, in other general cells, the comb-shaped bracket is not required to be arranged, and the front ends of the comb-shaped forks are provided with inclined planes, so that the articles can be automatically shoveled. Thereafter the first lifting module L1 continues to rise a small height to disengage the item 3 from the comb support 5, and then the translational linear module H1 is retracted so that the comb fork 9 and the item 3 enter the storage cavity 13 of the robot. Considering that sometimes the placement of the objects 3 is relatively close to the inside of the compartment, in order to ensure that the objects completely enter the interior of the robot, a lifting action may be performed again, i.e. the comb fork 9 is lowered again to a slightly lower level than the comb support 5 and then sequentially extended, raised and retracted.
After the articles have been carried inside the robot body, the compartment door 6 cannot be closed at this time, otherwise it would hit the articles 3 and the comb fork 9. Therefore, after the article 3 completely enters the inside of the robot body, the first elevating mechanism L1 needs to be lowered to a sufficiently low position so that the highest point of the article 3 is lower than the lowest point of the compartment door 6. After this, we can actuate the door opening and closing device 15 to rotate the compartment door from the 90 ° position to the 0 ° position. The compartment door 6 remains closed once it is closed, due to the presence of the spring lock pin inside the electromagnet lock 6b of the compartment 4. After that, the door opening and closing device 15 is turned to a position of about 5 ° to be separated from the cell door, and then the movable door 18 is automatically lifted to completely close the opening 14. The robot then carries the item away from the storage device.
Example two
Referring to fig. 6, fig. 7 (a) and fig. 7 (b), the present embodiment provides a mobile robot having a structure substantially the same as that of the first embodiment, and the main difference is that the pick-and-place device in the first embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment.
The pick-and-place device 16 of this embodiment mainly includes: the device comprises a first lifting module L1 serving as a lifting mechanism, a conveyor belt translation linear module H2 serving as a translation mechanism, a friction roller serving as a conveying mechanism and a conveyor belt assembly T2. The forefront end of the conveyor belt translation linear module H2 is provided with a friction roller 60, and the friction roller can extend out of the horizontal opening 14 and finally contact with the articles in the external cell, and the friction roller 60 rotates to act on the articles to be transferred, so that the articles are shoveled on the conveyor belt assembly to realize transfer output. In this embodiment, the friction roller 60 and the outer edge of the conveyor belt assembly T2 are conveyed in the same direction.
Meanwhile, in this embodiment, the main difference is that:
1) The first lifting module L1 is composed of a separate screw rod S1, a nut N1, a guide rod 40c, a sliding sleeve 40d, an upper end plate 41c and a metal bottom plate 22 b. The main components of the first lifting module L1 are all located at one side of the robot, so that compared with the lifter mechanism made of the multi-stage screw and the multi-stage telescopic square tube in embodiment 1, the occupation of the space below the robot can be reduced, and the lifting stroke of the pick-and-place device 16 can be increased;
2) In this embodiment, only the friction roller 60 needs to be guaranteed to be in contact with the front surface of the articles to be transferred in the cells, so that a conveyor belt translation linear module H2 with a shorter stroke is adopted and is installed below the upper end plate 41c, the structure of the conveyor belt translation linear module H1 is basically the same as that of the translation linear module H1 in embodiment 1, and the conveyor belt translation linear module H1 also comprises a motor M2, a screw rod S2, a nut N2, a guide rail 46, a sliding block 47 and other parts, and the difference is that the stroke of the screw rod S2 is relatively short, so that the details are not repeated;
3) Instead of comb fork 9 in example 1, a friction roller and conveyor belt assembly T2 was used. The friction roller and conveyor belt assembly T2 mainly includes a friction roller 60, an active conveyor belt 61, a motor M3, a mounting bracket 62, a rotating shaft 63, and the like. The mounting bracket 62 includes a pair of front brackets 62a, a pair of rear brackets 62b and structural members connecting the front brackets 62a, two rotating shafts 63 are installed between the two front brackets 62a, two rotating shafts 63 are also installed between the two rear brackets 62b, and the driving conveyor belt 61 is sleeved on the four rotating shafts 63. The conveyor belt 61 is typically composed of a plurality of narrow strip-shaped conveyor belts of equal width, and the active conveyor belt 61 can be tensioned by adjusting the distance of the rotating shafts 63. The friction roller 60 and the motor M3 are mounted on a mounting bracket 62. The motor M3 drives the driving conveyer belt 61 to rotate through the synchronous belt and the synchronous belt wheel, and the friction roller 60 is in transmission connection with the motor M3. Of course, the above-mentioned friction roller 60 which rotates passively may be replaced by an electric roller, and the motor M3 and the corresponding timing belt transmission chain are not required.
The operation procedure of the pick-and-place operation in embodiment 2 is basically the same as that in embodiment 1, except that the article conveying manner is different, and the article 3 is moved between the cell and the robot by friction force by bringing the friction roller 60 into contact with the article after the linear conveyor belt translation module H2 carries the friction roller and the conveyor belt assembly T2 to translate.
Example III
This embodiment provides another mobile pick-and-place robot as shown in fig. 8 (a) and 8 (b). The construction of this embodiment is substantially the same as that of embodiment 2, with the main difference that the construction of the pick-and-place device 16 is changed to some extent.
The pick-and-place device 16 of this embodiment mainly includes: the conveyor belt lifting device comprises a first lifting module L1 serving as a lifting mechanism, a conveyor belt translation linear module H2 serving as a translation mechanism, a friction roller serving as a conveying mechanism and a conveyor belt assembly T2; meanwhile, the embodiment is further provided with a lifting mechanism, and the lifting mechanism comprises a second lifting module L2 and a comb-shaped bracket 64 arranged on the second lifting module L2.
1) The pick-and-place device 16 of this embodiment adds a second lift module L2 and comb brackets 64. The second lifting module L2 adopts a linear module composed of a motor M4, a screw rod S4, a nut N4, a guide rod sliding sleeve and the like. The module may be fixedly mounted on the upper end plate 41c of the first lifting module L1 on the side of the upper end plate 41c facing away from the horizontal opening 14, but it is obvious that in other embodiments it may be fixedly mounted on the upper half of the robot frame 22 on the side of the robot facing away from the horizontal opening 14. The sliding platform 70 is provided with comb-shaped brackets 64, the positions of the comb teeth of which are exactly aligned with the gaps between the narrow strip-shaped conveying belts of the driving conveying belt 61, and the widths of the comb teeth are smaller than the widths of the gaps. When the motor M4 rotates, the slide platform 70 and the comb-shaped bracket 64 are driven to vertically rise and fall by the screw nut kinematic pair. Before picking, comb carrier 64 may be lowered until its upper surface is slightly below the upper surface of active conveyor 61, and after picking, comb carrier 64 may be raised to lift articles 3 off of active conveyor 61.
2) The mounting positions of the first elevation module L1 and the conveyor belt translation straight line module H2 are moved to the lower half of the robot because the first elevation module L1 in this embodiment requires only a small elevation stroke.
As shown in connection with fig. 9 (a), the article 3 is now located inside the compartment 4. Before the grid door is opened, the second lifting module L2 lowers the comb-shaped bracket 64 to a position lower than the upper surface of the active conveyor belt 61, and then the first lifting module L1 lowers the friction roller and conveyor belt assembly T2 and the comb-shaped bracket 64 to a position lower than the lower edge of the grid door 6 through the motor M1 and the lead screw S1 driving chain to avoid collision with the grid door. The door opening and closing device 15 can then be turned to the 0 deg. position to attract the compartment door 6 and then bring the compartment door to the 90 deg. position as shown.
Referring to fig. 9 (b), after the compartment door 6 is opened, the first lifting module L1 lifts the friction roller and conveyor belt assembly T2 and the height of the first lifting module L1, so that the driving conveyor belt 61 and the comb-shaped bracket 64 are lifted to a position corresponding to the height of the bottom surface in the compartment 4, and then the conveyor belt translates the linear module H2, and translates the friction roller and conveyor belt assembly T2 towards the compartment 4 through the motor M2 and the screw S2 driving chain, so that the friction roller 60 clings to the articles to be transferred in the compartment and generates a certain positive pressure. Then, the motor M3 in the belt translation linear module H2 rotates to drive the active conveyor belt 61 and the friction roller 60 to rotate, wherein the rotation direction of the active conveyor belt 61 and the friction roller 60 is the same, and therefore the article 3 is transferred onto the active conveyor belt 61 by the friction roller 60. After the article 3 is transferred onto the active conveyor belt, it is located behind the bin gate 6.
Referring to fig. 9 (c), the second lifting module L2 lifts the article 3 higher than the uppermost end of the compartment door 6 by means of the motor M4 and the screw S4 driving chain. After the article 3 is lifted, it is shown in phantom because it is behind the bulkhead 17c of the top door opening assembly 17. After that, the conveyor belt translation linear module H2 will retreat, so that the friction roller and the conveyor belt assembly T2 retract inside the robot, then the first lifting module L1 descends, so that the upper surface of the friction roller and the conveyor belt assembly T2 is lower than the lowest end of the compartment door 6, and thereafter the compartment door can be driven to rotate from the 90 ° position to the 0 ° position by the driving door opening and closing device 15, thereby completing the action of closing the compartment door. After this, the door closing device 15 is turned from the 0 ° position to the 15 ° position to disengage from the compartment door 6, and then the door panel 18 is lifted to close the horizontal opening 14, the electromagnet suction cup 20 is powered down, and the robot 1 can drive away from the storage device 2.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.