CN215003685U - Detection robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The application discloses inspection robot belongs to agricultural machine technical field. The detection robot comprises a main body part, a supporting mechanism, a vision sensor, an upper computer, a driving assembly and a control module. The drive assembly includes: a wheel; the first motor is arranged in the center of the wheel and used for driving the wheel to move; a driving arm disposed between the left side wall of the main body and the first motor and between the right side wall of the main body and the first motor; and a second motor located in the receiving chamber of the main body part for driving the driving arm to move in a vertical direction. The detection robot can adjust the height of the main body part from the ground by utilizing the movement of the driving arm in the vertical direction, so that the detection robot is allowed to smoothly run according to a preset route, and the bottom-touching condition in the running process is avoided.

Description

Detection robot

Technical Field

The utility model relates to the field of agricultural machinery, in particular to inspection robot.

Background

The autonomous navigation technology is a core technology for realizing intellectualization, informatization and automation of agricultural robots of greenhouses (such as vegetable greenhouses or fruit greenhouses). In modern agricultural production work, autonomous navigation is an important guarantee for agricultural machinery to realize fertilization, pesticide spraying and harvest automation, and machine vision navigation has the advantages of good real-time performance, wide application range and unlimited distance, and is a key technology for realizing precise agriculture. The machine vision has obvious advantages in the aspects of price, robustness, local positioning and the like, so that the machine vision is suitable for complex crop row-ridge positioning environments and irregular plots or signal shielding environments.

Based on this, it is an urgent need to solve the problem to optimally design a set of detection robot which is simple in operation, high in navigation precision, economical and practical and capable of increasing the passing ability.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

In order to solve at least one aspect of the above problems and disadvantages in the related art, the present application provides an inspection robot, in which a driving arm of the inspection robot is movable in a vertical direction, so as to adjust a height of a main body part of the inspection robot from a ground surface, thereby preventing a bottoming phenomenon from occurring during a driving process.

According to an aspect of the present application, there is provided an inspection robot including: the main body part comprises a top wall, a bottom wall, a front side wall, a rear side wall, a left side wall and a right side wall, wherein the top wall, the bottom wall, the front side wall, the rear side wall, the left side wall and the right side wall form an accommodating chamber; a support mechanism located on the top wall; a vision sensor located on the support mechanism; the upper computer is positioned on the top wall and is communicated with the visual sensor; a drive assembly located on the left and right side walls of the main body portion; a control module located in the containment chamber and in communication with the upper computer for controlling movement of a drive assembly, wherein the drive assembly comprises: a wheel; the first motor is arranged in the center of the wheel and used for driving the wheel to move; a driving arm disposed between the left side wall and the first motor and between the right side wall and the first motor; a second motor located in the receiving chamber for driving the driving arm to move in a vertical direction.

In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present application more comprehensible, preferred embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.

Drawings

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present application will become apparent and readily appreciated from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

fig. 1 is a perspective view of an inspection robot according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the inspection robot shown in FIG. 1 viewed from another angle;

FIG. 3 is a front view of the inspection robot shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the inspection robot shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a side view of the inspection robot shown in FIG. 1;

fig. 6 is a side view of a main body portion of the inspection robot shown in fig. 1;

fig. 7 is a perspective view of a driving arm of the inspection robot shown in fig. 1;

fig. 8 is a perspective view of a support mechanism of the inspection robot shown in fig. 1;

FIG. 9 is a front view of the support mechanism shown in FIG. 8, wherein the support mechanism carries a vision sensor;

FIG. 10 is a top view of the support mechanism shown in FIG. 9;

fig. 11 is a plan view of the inspection robot shown in fig. 1, in which a top wall of a main body portion of the inspection robot is removed.

Detailed Description

The technical solution of the present application is further specifically described below by way of examples and with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the specification, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar components. The following description of the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings is intended to explain the general principles of the application and should not be taken as limiting the application.

In an embodiment, both satellite navigation and visual navigation can be used in the field of agricultural machine navigation. The satellite navigation needs to travel along a preset path, the working efficiency is related to the manual setting of the path, the anti-interference capability is poor, and the problem of repeated operation is easy to generate. In contrast to satellite navigation, visual navigation does not depend on satellite signals and base stations, and has become a hot spot in the research of automatic navigation technology in recent years. The detection robot based on the machine vision detects the surrounding environment in real time through the camera, dynamically analyzes the obtained image in real time, and detects to obtain the virtual navigation line of the robot. The robot path navigation system has the advantages that the robot vision technology is used for path navigation of the side detection robot, the camera can perform image information acquisition operation for a long time, labor cost can be effectively reduced, the robot path navigation system is favorable for recognition and navigation of the detection robot to the current environment, and operation efficiency is improved.

According to the general concept of the present application, there is provided an inspection robot including: the main body part comprises a top wall, a bottom wall, a front side wall, a rear side wall, a left side wall and a right side wall, wherein the top wall, the bottom wall, the front side wall, the rear side wall, the left side wall and the right side wall form an accommodating chamber; a support mechanism located on the top wall; a vision sensor located on the support mechanism; the upper computer is positioned on the top wall and is communicated with the visual sensor; a drive assembly located on the left and right side walls of the main body portion; a control module located in the containment chamber and in communication with the upper computer for controlling movement of a drive assembly, wherein the drive assembly comprises: a wheel; the first motor is arranged in the center of the wheel and used for driving the wheel to move; a driving arm disposed between the left side wall and the first motor and between the right side wall and the first motor; a second motor located in the accommodating chamber for driving the driving arm to move in a vertical direction. The driving arm of the detection robot can move in the vertical direction, so that the height of the main body part of the detection robot from the ground is adjusted, and the phenomenon of bottom contact during driving is avoided. Thus, the detection robot can smoothly run in a greenhouse, and the trafficability characteristic is improved.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 1 and 5, an inspection robot 100 is provided. The inspection robot 100 includes a main body 10, a support mechanism 20, a vision sensor 30, an upper computer 40, a drive assembly 50, and a control module 60. A vision sensor 30 is located on the support mechanism 20 for capturing image information (e.g., crop row-to-row information). The upper computer 40 communicates with the vision sensor 30 to receive image information (such as crop row-to-row information) collected by the vision sensor 30, and the upper computer 40 can extract a travel navigation route required by the detection robot according to the received image information. The control module 60 communicates with the upper computer 40 to receive signals (e.g., a travel navigation route) from the upper computer 40 and drives the drive assembly 50 to move according to the signals.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 1-4, the body portion 10 includes a top wall 11, a bottom wall 12, a front side wall 13, a rear side wall 14, a left side wall 15, and a right side wall 16. In the embodiment, the top wall 11, the bottom wall 12, the front side wall 13, the rear side wall 14, the left side wall 15 and the right side wall 16 form a containing chamber 17 to contain components of the inspection robot. As shown in fig. 1, the support mechanism 20 is provided on the top wall 11; the upper computer 40 is arranged on the top wall 11; the driving assembly 50 is disposed on the left and right side walls 15 and 16; the control module 60 is disposed in the accommodation chamber 17.

In an embodiment, the upper computer 40 includes a signal receiving module and an image processing module. The signal receiving module is used for receiving the image signal from the vision sensor 30. The image processing module is used for analyzing the image signal. The image processing module comprises an image capturing module and an image recognition module, the image capturing module is used for collecting ridge row information of the greenhouse, and the image recognition module is used for recognizing ridge row interesting regions of the greenhouse and further transmitting recognition results to the upper computer 40.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 1-2, the drive assembly 50 includes a wheel 51, a first motor 52, a drive arm 53, and a second motor 54. In one example, the wheels 51 can be omni wheels. In one example, the first motor 52 is disposed at the center of the wheel 51 and is used to drive the wheel in motion. For example, the first motor 52 may be a brushless motor or a brushed motor. In one example, a drive arm 53 is disposed between the left sidewall 15 and the first motor 52 and between the right sidewall 16 and the first motor 52 for moving the wheel in a vertical direction. In one example, a second motor 54 is located in the receiving chamber 17 for driving the driving arm 53 in a vertical direction. For example, the second motor 54 may be a servo motor or a stepper motor. In the illustrated embodiment, the drive assembly 50 includes four wheels 51, four first motors 52, four drive arms 53, and four second motors 54. However, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto, and the driving assembly of the present application may further include other numbers of wheels, the first motor, the driving arm, and the second motor as long as the numbers thereof are equal.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the driving assembly 50 further includes a bearing 55 and a shaft sleeve 551 sleeved outside the bearing for connecting the second motor 54 and the driving arm 53. In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 6, the driving assembly 50 further includes first fixing holes 56 and stopper holes 57 on the left and right sidewalls 15 and 16. In one example, the first fixing holes 56 are located closer to both ends of the left and right side walls 15 and 16 than the stopper holes 57. In the embodiment, as shown in fig. 7, the driving arm 53 is provided with a stopper pin 531 and a second fixing hole 532 at one end connected to the left and right side walls 15 and 16. The stopper pin 531 protrudes from the driving arm 53 to extend closer to the connection end than the second fixing hole 532. In one example, a bushing 551 with a built-in bearing 55 is disposed in the second fixing hole 532, the first fixing hole 56 is aligned with the second fixing hole 532, and the bearing 55 is connected to the second motor 54 (e.g., a rotating shaft of the second motor) via the first fixing hole 56, so that the second motor controls the movement of the driving arm. A stopper pin 531 is movably disposed in the stopper hole 57 to allow the driving arm to move in a vertical direction. For example, the second motor 54 includes a sensor, an encoder, and a driver, the sensor collects and detects the height of the robot 100 (e.g., the bottom wall of the main body) from the ground, and transmits a signal to the encoder, the encoder feeds back a position or a moment reference value based on the received signal and transmits the position or the moment reference value to the driver, and the driver adjusts the magnitude of the driving current based on the received signal, so as to adjust the position of the driving arm 53 in the limiting hole 57, and further adjust the distance between the bottom wall 12 of the main body 10 and the ground.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 6, the limiting hole 57 has an arc shape, and the limiting hole 57 and the first fixing hole 56 are concentric circles. In one example, the central angle of the limiting hole 57 is 30-60 degrees, preferably 45 degrees, and the specific angle can be adjusted as required. In an embodiment, the second motor 54 is connected to the bottom wall 12 of the inspection robot by a fastening nut, so that the second motor 54 is integral with the bottom wall 12.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 1-2, the drive assembly 50 further includes a fender 58, the fender 58 covering at least a portion of the outside and at least a portion of the periphery of the wheel to prevent dirt from being splashed onto the inspection robot 100 by the rotation of the wheel and to minimize the possibility of the vision sensor 30 being obscured. In one example, the fender tile 58 includes a top portion 581 and lateral portions 582 that connect to the sides of the top portion 58. The top portion 581 is arcuate and covers at least a portion of the outer periphery of the wheel 51 to prevent mud from splashing onto the top of the wheel. The lateral portion 582 includes a first semicircular segment 5821 and a second semicircular segment 5822 that are concentric and extend in opposite directions and cover at least a portion of the outboard side of the wheel 51. The first semicircular section 5821 has a diameter greater than that of the second semicircular section 5822, and the second semicircular section 5822 is coupled to the hub center of the wheel to secure the fender 58 to the wheel 51.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 8, the support mechanism 20 includes a base 21, a bracket 22, and a third motor 23, and the vision sensor 30 is provided on the support mechanism 20 to allow rotation thereof, thereby improving a scanning range of the vision sensor 30. In this way, the vision sensor 30 can collect more abundant information of the crop row of the surrounding image. In one example, the base 21 is located on the top wall 11. In the illustrated embodiment, the base 21 is circular, but it is clear to a person skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto, and that other suitable shapes, such as square, rectangular, triangular, etc., may be provided. In one example, the bracket 22 is disposed on the base 21, and the vision sensor 30 is disposed on the bracket 22. In one example, a third motor 23 is provided under the base 21, the third motor 23 being connected to the bracket 22, for example, via a hole in the base 21, and configured to drive the bracket 22 to rotate about a vertical axis to rotate the vision sensor 30. For example, the vision sensor 30 may be rotated 0-180 degrees about a vertical axis by rotation of the bracket 22. For example, the third motor 23 may be a brushless motor or a brush motor.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 8, the support 22 includes a base frame 221 and two vertical frames 222, and the two vertical frames 222 respectively extend from two ends of the base frame 221, perpendicular to a plane in which the base frame 221 is located. In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 9, the support mechanism 20 further includes a sleeve 24 positioned between the two vertical shelves 222 and a fourth motor 25 positioned within the sleeve 24. A visual sensor 30 is disposed on the outer wall of the sleeve 24. The fourth motor 25 is used to drive the sleeve 24 to rotate about the horizontal axis such that the vision sensor 30 rotates about the horizontal axis by 0-180 degrees. In this way, the vision sensor 30 can collect more abundant information of the crop row of the surrounding image.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 9 and 10, the support mechanism 20 further includes a fifth motor 26 located within the sleeve 24 and a moving end 27 located at both ends of the sleeve 24. In the embodiment, as shown in fig. 8, the two vertical frames 222 are provided with slide rails 223 at both sides opposite to each other. The fifth motor 26 can move the moving end 27 along the vertical axis within the slide rail 223, thereby changing the position of the vision sensor 30 in the vertical direction. In this way, the vision sensor 30 can collect more abundant information of the crop row of the surrounding image.

In an embodiment, the vision sensor 30 may be a monocular camera, a binocular camera, or a trinocular camera. In an example, a monocular camera is used as a vision sensor, and since the monocular camera can rotate or change position in the vertical direction, the image between crop rows in the visual field range right in front of the detection robot 100 can be collected in real time, the crop row navigation guide line is extracted through the upper computer, the detection robot is guided to walk, and then accurate row alignment operation is realized. For example, the camera may be an inductively coupled device (CCD) camera, which is less disturbed by ambient light and thus may improve image quality. Therefore, the method still has strong robustness under the conditions of seedling shortage, more weeds and nonstandard plant spacing.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 1 and 3, the inspection robot 100 further comprises an alarm module 70 in communication with the control module 60 to improve the safety of autonomous navigation of the inspection robot. In one example, the alert module 70 includes a pre-crash sensor 72. In one example, the crash sensor 72 is positioned at the front centerline of the bottom wall 12 for optimal crash performance. In one example, the collision avoidance sensor 72 includes any of an ultrasonic wave collision avoidance, a microwave collision avoidance, a mechanical collision avoidance, an electro-optical collision avoidance, and a radar collision avoidance. The collision avoidance sensor 72 detects obstacles in the forward direction in real time and transmits the detected signals to the control module 60, and the control module 60 plans and detects the travel route of the robot based on the received signals. For example, the control module 60 generates a corresponding command and transmits the command to the first electric machine to control the direction of advance of the wheels 51. In one example, a protective cover and a protective plate (e.g., a transparent protective plate) positioned over the protective cover are disposed around the pre-crash sensor 72 for protecting the pre-crash sensor.

In an embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the alarm module 70 includes an alarm horn 74 for alerting the operator. In one example, the warning horn 74 is disposed at the front centerline of the bottom wall 12 and the warning horn is disposed above the pre-crash sensor 72 for optimal warning effectiveness. The alarm horn 74 may be, for example, a piezo buzzer, although it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto, and other suitable alarm horns may be used as desired. When the control module 60 determines that the operator needs to be alerted, the control module 60 generates a corresponding signal (e.g., a low level signal) and transmits it to the alarm horn 74, in which case the alarm horn 74 is triggered, thereby effecting control of the alarm horn.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 1, the inspection robot 100 further includes a supplementary light 80 to supplement a light source for the vision sensor 30. In one example, the inspection robot 100 includes two fill lights 80 disposed at left and right ends of the front wall 13. It is clear to those skilled in the art that other numbers of fill-in lamps may be provided according to the embodiments of the present application. The fill light 80 may be an LED light source, for example.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 11, the inspection robot 100 further includes a power module 90 for supplying power to components (e.g., motors) of the inspection robot 100. The power supply module 90 is located in the accommodation chamber 17 and includes a power supply 92 and a power supply box 94, wherein the power supply box 94 protects the power supply 92. The power supply box 94 is provided therein with power supply box wall walls to divide the power supply box 94 into a plurality of accommodation spaces in which the power supplies 92 are located. In the illustrated example, the power supply box 94 includes 8 accommodation spaces.

Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Claims (10)

1. An inspection robot, comprising:

the main body part comprises a top wall, a bottom wall, a front side wall, a rear side wall, a left side wall and a right side wall, wherein the top wall, the bottom wall, the front side wall, the rear side wall, the left side wall and the right side wall form an accommodating chamber;

a support mechanism located on the top wall;

a vision sensor located on the support mechanism;

the upper computer is positioned on the top wall and is communicated with the visual sensor;

a drive assembly located on the left and right side walls of the main body portion;

a control module located in the receiving chamber and in communication with the upper computer for controlling movement of the drive assembly,

wherein the drive assembly comprises:

a wheel;

the first motor is arranged in the center of the wheel and used for driving the wheel to move;

a driving arm disposed between the left side wall and the first motor and between the right side wall and the first motor;

a second motor located in the receiving chamber for driving the driving arm to move in a vertical direction.

2. The inspection robot of claim 1, wherein the driving assembly further comprises a bearing, a shaft sleeve sleeved outside the bearing, and a first fixing hole and a limiting hole on the left side wall and the right side wall,

wherein the driving arm is provided at one end connected to the left and right side walls with a stopper pin and a second fixing hole protruding from the driving arm, the stopper pin being closer to the end than the second fixing hole.

3. The inspection robot of claim 2,

the first fixing hole is aligned with the second fixing hole, the shaft sleeve is arranged in the second fixing hole, the bearing is connected with the second motor through the first fixing hole,

the limiting pin is movably arranged in the limiting hole.

4. The inspection robot of claim 3, wherein the limiting hole is arc-shaped, the limiting hole and the first fixing hole are concentric, and a central angle of the limiting hole is 30-60 degrees.

5. The inspection robot of claim 1, wherein the drive assembly further comprises a fender covering at least a portion of an outer side and at least a portion of an outer periphery of the wheel.

6. The inspection robot of claim 5, wherein the fender includes a top portion and a lateral portion connected to a side of the top portion, the top portion being arcuate and covering at least a portion of an outer periphery of the wheel, the lateral portion including a first semicircular segment and a second semicircular segment and covering at least a portion of an outer side of the wheel, the first semicircular segment having a diameter greater than a diameter of the second semicircular segment, the second semicircular segment being connected to a hub center of the wheel.

7. The inspection robot of any of claims 1-6, wherein the support mechanism comprises:

a base disposed on the top wall;

the bracket is arranged on the base, and the vision sensor is arranged on the bracket;

and the third motor is arranged below the base, and the first motor is connected with the bracket and is used for driving the bracket to rotate around a vertical axis.

8. The inspection robot of claim 7, wherein the support comprises a base frame and two vertical frames extending from two ends of the base frame and perpendicular to a plane of the base frame,

the supporting mechanism further comprises a sleeve positioned between the two vertical frames and a fourth motor positioned in the sleeve, the vision sensor is arranged on the outer wall of the sleeve, and the fourth motor is used for driving the sleeve to rotate around a horizontal axis.

9. The inspection robot of claim 8, wherein the support mechanism further comprises a fifth motor located within the cannula and a moving end located at both ends of the cannula,

two opposite sides of the two vertical frames are provided with slide rails,

the fifth motor is used for enabling the moving end to move along a vertical axis in the sliding rail.

10. The inspection robot of any one of claims 1-6, further comprising:

a collision avoidance sensor and an alarm horn positioned at the front center line of the bottom wall,

wherein the warning loudspeaker are located above the anti-collision sensor, and the anti-collision sensor and the warning loudspeaker are respectively communicated with the control module.

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