JP2002154383A - Turn control device for camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent fatigue and mis-operation of an operator, by making operation easily performable of an on-vehicle camera. SOLUTION: A self-propelled vehicle provided with a camera 4 turnably mounted and a remote controller 9 for performing running operation and turn operation of the camera 4, are provided with a turn angle detector 3 for detecting a direction of the camera 4, a steering angle detector 2 detecting a steering angle of the vehicle, and a controller 1 obtaining a deviation between an advancing direction of the vehicle and the direction of the camera 4 based on input information from the turn angle detector 3, the steering angle detector 2, and the remote controller 9 to control the direction of the camera 4 so as to be conformed to the advancing direction of the vehicle.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a turning control device for an on-vehicle camera used mainly for remotely controlling a self-propelled vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some self-propelled vehicles used for work or the like are designed so that an operator can remotely control the vehicle without sitting in a driver's seat in view of a work environment and safety measures. Such a vehicle is equipped with a camera in order to confirm the road surface condition in the traveling direction of the vehicle and the presence or absence of obstacles when the vehicle is remotely controlled.

A conventional in-vehicle camera is mounted on a vehicle so as to be rotatable by an electric turntable, and is operated by operating a lever or a switch of a remote control so as to capture necessary images. Had become.

[0004]

When the vehicle is remotely controlled, the operator needs to perform not only the vehicle's original traveling operation such as forward / backward movement and steering but also the operation of the camera at the same time. The operation becomes complicated, and operator fatigue or erroneous operation is likely to occur. The present invention solves the above-described problem when remotely controlling a self-propelled vehicle. The operation of an on-vehicle camera is easy, and the road surface condition in the traveling direction of the vehicle and the presence or absence of an obstacle are easily confirmed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera turning control device capable of preventing operator fatigue and erroneous operation.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A camera turning control device according to the present invention is a self-propelled type provided with a camera rotatably mounted and a remote control for performing a driving operation and a turning operation of the camera. In a vehicle, a turning angle detector for detecting a direction of a camera, a steering angle detector for detecting a steering angle of the vehicle, a vehicle based on input information from a turning angle detector, a steering angle detector, and a remote control. The above problem is solved by providing a controller that obtains a deviation between the traveling direction of the camera and the direction of the camera and controls the camera to match the traveling direction of the vehicle.

In this turning control device for a camera, information on the steering angle of the vehicle from the steering angle detector, information on the direction of the camera from the turning angle detector, and running, steering, and turning operations of the camera from the remote control device. Enter information into the controller. The controller obtains a deviation between the traveling direction of the vehicle and the direction of the camera based on the input information, and automatically controls the direction of the camera so as to match the traveling direction of the vehicle.

[0007] According to the camera turning control device, since the image of the traveling direction of the vehicle can always be captured without performing the turning operation of the camera, remote control of the self-propelled vehicle is easy and fatigue of the operator is obtained. And erroneous operation can be prevented. When particularly necessary, the camera can be turned in any direction by manually operating the remote control.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a camera turning control device showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of operation of an operation lever of a remote control, and FIG. 3 is a self-propelled type. It is explanatory drawing of operation | movement of a vehicle and a camera. The self-propelled vehicle 10 has a traveling mechanism configured by a known hydro-static transmission (HST) or a torque converter and a power shift transmission, and travels by switching a traveling hydraulic circuit by a traveling control valve 7. ing.
The traveling control valve 7 is an electromagnetic switching valve, and is switched between forward and backward by energizing a forward solenoid 71 or a reverse solenoid 72.

This vehicle 10 is provided with a hydraulic steering mechanism, and performs steering by switching a hydraulic circuit for steering by a steering control valve 6. The steering control valve 6 is an electromagnetic switching valve, and is switched between right turn and left turn by energizing the right turn solenoid 61 or the left turn solenoid 62. The steering structure of the vehicle 10 is provided with a steering angle detector 2 for detecting a steering angle.

A camera 4 is mounted on the vehicle 10 such that the camera 4 can be turned by a turntable 5. The turntable 5 includes an electric motor 51 for turning drive and a speed reducer 52, and a turn angle detector 3 is provided on a rotation shaft of the turntable 5. In this vehicle 10, the remote control 9 is used for remote control.
Is used. The remote controller 9 includes a traveling operation lever 92, a camera turning operation lever 93, and a transmission antenna 91, and as shown in FIG. A signal, a steering operation signal for turning right and left by operating the travel operation lever 92 right and left, and a camera turning operation signal for turning right and left by operating the camera turning operation lever 93 right and left are transmitted from the transmission antenna 91. The signal is sent to the receiving unit 11 of the controller 1 via the receiving antenna 8 installed on the vehicle 10.

It is to be noted that other operation means such as an operation switch may be used in place of the traveling operation lever 92 and the camera turning operation lever 93. The controller 1 includes a receiving unit 11, an input unit 1,
2, A / D conversion unit 13, arithmetic processing unit 14, storage unit 1
5, an output section 16, and a power supply stabilizing circuit 17. The input side of the steering angle detector 2 is connected to the power supply stabilizing circuit 17 of the controller 1, and the output side of the steering angle detector 2 is the A of the controller 1.
Connected to the input unit 12 via the / D conversion unit 13,
The voltage corresponding to the steering angle of the vehicle is output to the A / D converter 13, A / D converted, and sent to the input unit 12 as a digital signal.

The turning angle detector 3 has an input connected to the power supply stabilizing circuit 17 of the controller 1 and an output connected to the A of the controller 1.
Connected to the input unit 12 via the / D conversion unit 13,
A voltage corresponding to the turning angle of the camera is output to the A / D converter 13, A / D converted, and sent to the input unit 12 as a digital signal. The power supply stabilizing circuit 17 of the controller 1 is connected to a power supply 18.

The forward solenoid 71, the reverse solenoid 72 of the travel control valve 7, the right turn solenoid 61, the left turn solenoid 62 of the steering control valve 6, and the electric motor 51 of the turntable 5 are connected to the output section 16 of the controller 1. They are connected and controlled by signals from the controller 1. The controller 1 receives a traveling operation signal and a camera turning operation signal from the remote controller 9 via the receiving antenna 8, the receiving unit 11, and the input unit 12 by the arithmetic processing unit 14, and the arithmetic processing unit 14 determines whether or not each operation is performed. And the information from the steering angle detector 2 and the turning angle detector 3 and the various information necessary for steering stored in the storage unit 15 are retrieved and referenced.

When performing remote control using the remote control 9, the operator first operates the traveling operation lever 92 to move forward or backward according to the traveling direction. Then, a forward or backward traveling operation signal is transmitted from the transmitting antenna 91 to the receiving antenna 8. When the traveling operation signal received by the receiving unit 11 enters the arithmetic processing unit 14 via the input unit 12, the arithmetic processing unit 14 sends a control signal from the output unit 16 to the forward solenoid 71 or the reverse solenoid 72 of the traveling control valve 7. And the traveling hydraulic circuit is switched to cause the vehicle 10 to travel forward or backward.

When steering, the operator turns the operating lever 92 to the right or left according to the steering direction. Then, a steering operation signal for turning right or left is transmitted from the transmitting antenna 91 to the receiving antenna 8. When the steering operation signal received by the receiving unit 11 enters the arithmetic processing unit 14 via the input unit 12, the arithmetic processing unit 1
The control unit 4 sends a control signal from the output unit 16 to the right turn solenoid 61 or the left turn solenoid 62 of the steering control valve 6 to switch the steering hydraulic circuit so that the vehicle 10 turns right or left.

When turning the camera, the operator turns the camera turning operation lever 93 right or left in accordance with the turning direction. Then, a camera turning operation signal of turning right or turning left is transmitted from the transmitting antenna 91 to the receiving antenna 8. When the camera turning operation signal received by the receiving unit 11 enters the arithmetic processing unit 14 via the input unit 12, the arithmetic processing unit 14 sends a control signal from the output unit 16 to the electric motor 51 of the turntable 5 to turn the camera. Then, the electric motor 51 is driven with the polarity according to, and the camera 4 is turned right or left.

When the camera turning operation lever 93 is not operated and is in the neutral position, no camera turning operation signal is input, and therefore, the arithmetic processing unit 14 calculates the steering angle and the forward / rearward direction stored in the storage unit 15 in advance. The turning target angle information for each combination is referred to (calculated as necessary), and compared with the turning angle information at that time detected by the turning angle detector 3, the traveling direction of the vehicle 10 and the direction of the camera 4 are compared. The deviation is obtained, the output of the turntable 5 to the electric motor 51 is controlled so that the direction of the camera 4 coincides with the traveling direction of the vehicle 10, and the camera 4 is turned to the target position and then stopped as shown in FIG. .

An image captured by the camera 4 is transmitted to a monitor (not shown) installed at a place where an operator is located by wire or SS radio, and the operator remotely controls the vehicle 10 while watching the image on the monitor. . According to the turning control device of the camera, since the image of the traveling direction of the vehicle 10 can be always captured without performing the turning operation of the camera 4, the remote control of the vehicle 10 is easy and the fatigue and erroneous operation of the operator are prevented. it can. When particularly necessary, the camera 4 can be turned in any direction by manually operating the camera turning operation lever 93 of the remote control 9.

The camera turning control device according to the present invention comprises:
It can be mounted on a vehicle other than the tire type as shown in FIG. 3, for example, a crawler type vehicle or the like. When mounted on a crawler type vehicle, a detector for detecting the rotational speed ratio of the drive shafts of the left and right crawler belts may be provided as a steering angle detector.

[0020]

As described above, according to the camera turning control device of the present invention, the operation of the on-vehicle camera when the vehicle is remotely controlled is simple, and the road surface condition in the traveling direction of the self-propelled vehicle is easy. It is possible to easily confirm the presence or absence of obstacles and obstacles, thereby preventing operator fatigue and erroneous operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a camera turning control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of an operation lever of the remote control.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of a self-propelled vehicle and a camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 controller 2 steering angle detector 3 turning angle detector 4 camera 5 turntable 6 steering control valve 7 traveling control valve 8 receiving antenna 9 remote control device 10 vehicle 11 receiving unit 12 input unit 13 A / D conversion unit 14 arithmetic processing Unit 15 Storage unit 16 Output unit 17 Power supply stabilization circuit 18 Power supply 51 Electric motor 52 Reduction gear 61 Right turn solenoid 62 Left turn solenoid 71 Forward solenoid 72 Reverse solenoid 91 Transmission antenna 92 Traveling operation lever 93 Camera turning operation lever

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A self-propelled vehicle including a camera rotatably mounted and a remote controller for performing a driving operation and a turning operation of the camera, a turning angle detector for detecting a direction of the camera. A steering angle detector for detecting a steering angle of the vehicle, and a deviation between a traveling direction of the vehicle and a direction of the camera based on input information from a turning angle detector, a steering angle detector, and a remote control device. And a controller for controlling the direction of the vehicle to match the traveling direction of the vehicle.