JP2023087981A - Control device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a control device which can surely operate various robots even in the case of a temporary change in environment of an area.SOLUTION: A control device 10 for operating an autonomously traveling robot R in a prescribed area generates tasks to be executed in the area by the robot R and a schedule in accordance with which the tasks should be performed, on the basis of information about an environment of the area and information of the robot R and causes the robot R to execute the tasks in accordance with the generated schedule.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a control device suitable for operating a robot in a predetermined area such as a facility.

In recent years, building facilities have been providing services by operating various autonomous robots for purposes such as cleaning, security, guidance, transportation, and delivery. In general, a service user (user) uses a robot operating system to use the service (see Patent Document 1, for example). After receiving reservation and operation information from the user through the robot operating system, the robot itself senses the surrounding environment with its own sensors, judges the situation, plans a route, and autonomously travels to its destination. do. Since sensing information is limited, it is not always possible for robots to act autonomously in all facility environments.

When operating a robot in a facility, the robot manufacturer (robot provider) determines the facility environment (movable route, off-limits area, etc.). environment”). See Reference 2). By doing so, the robot can act smoothly in a normal facility environment.

JP 2021-113917 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2019-3602

However, due to specific events or emergencies that are different from normal, the facility environment (temporary movement route restrictions, temporary access restrictions or relaxation, etc.). environment”), the robot may not be able to fully grasp the situation autonomously with only its on-board sensors, and may not be able to act. As a temporary measure to solve such a problem, there is a measure such as resetting the robot by the manufacturer, but there is a problem that it takes time and effort. As another countermeasure, there is a method of providing the robot with an automatic collection function of facility environment information, an advanced route search function, a travel control function, etc., as in the above-mentioned conventional patent document 2. However, there is a problem that robots equipped with such functions are not easily available, and even if they are available, they are expensive. As a result, in some cases, the robot must be operated under the risk that the robot cannot act, or the operation of the robot must be stopped. Therefore, there is a demand for a control device that can operate various robots in a dynamic environment, including not only high-performance and expensive robots, but also low-performance and low-cost robots.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a controller capable of reliably operating various robots even when the environment in a predetermined area changes temporarily.

In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, a control device according to the present invention is a control device for operating an autonomously traveling robot in a predetermined area, comprising information about the environment of the area and information about the environment of the robot. A task to be executed by the robot in the area and a schedule for executing the task are generated based on the information of (1), and the robot is caused to execute the task according to the generated schedule.

Further, in the invention described above, another control device according to the present invention is a reservation operation unit operated by a user to reserve use of the robot; A use reservation input to the reservation operation unit suitable for the environment of the area based on the information aggregation unit, the information on the environment in the facility aggregated by the information aggregation unit, and the information on the robot. a task processing unit that generates the task for realizing a robot operation corresponding to the information and the schedule for executing the task, and causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule; and

In another control device according to the present invention, in the above invention, the task processing unit sets the robot to be used based on usage reservation information input to the reservation operation unit. .

Further, in another control device according to the present invention, in the above-described invention, the task processing unit refers to a reservation processing unit that performs predetermined reservation processing based on the use reservation information, and the information aggregation unit. , a task creation unit that analyzes the robot motion required for the environment of the region and, based on the analysis result, creates the schedule for the task for realizing a predetermined robot motion suitable for the environment of the region; and a task execution unit that causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule while referring to the information about the environment of the area aggregated by the information aggregation unit and the information of the robot. characterized by

A control device according to the present invention is a control device for operating an autonomously traveling robot in a predetermined area, wherein the robot operates in the area based on information about the environment of the area and information about the robot. A task to be executed and a schedule for executing the task are generated, and the task is executed by the robot according to the generated schedule, so that various robots can be reliably operated even when the environment of the area changes temporarily. It has the effect of being able to

In addition, according to another control device of the present invention, a reservation operation unit operated by a user to reserve the use of the robot, and an information collection unit that collects information about the environment of the area and information about the robot. and corresponding to the use reservation information input to the reservation operation unit suitable for the environment of the area based on the information on the environment in the facility collected by the information collection unit and the information on the robot. and a task processing unit that generates the task for realizing the robot motion and the schedule for executing the task, and causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule. There is an effect that the robot can be used efficiently in consideration of the environment.

Further, according to the other control device of the present invention, the task processing section sets the robot to be used based on the reservation information input to the reservation operation section. An effect that a robot can be used is produced.

Further, according to another control device according to the present invention, the task processing unit includes a reservation processing unit that performs predetermined reservation processing based on the usage reservation information, and a reservation processing unit that refers to the information aggregating unit, a task creation unit that analyzes the robot motion required for the environment of the region and, based on the analysis result, creates the schedule for the task for realizing a predetermined robot motion suitable for the environment of the region; and a task execution unit that causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule while referring to the information about the environment of the area aggregated by the information aggregation unit and the information of the robot. By suspending and resuming the task according to the information about the environment of the robot and the information of the robot, there is an effect that the optimum operation of the robot can be realized.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a control device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a robot operating system applied to this embodiment. FIG. 3 is a processing flow diagram corresponding to the embodiment of the control device according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view corresponding to an embodiment of the control device according to the invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a schedule of a comparative example. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the schedule of an embodiment of the present invention.

An embodiment of a control device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In addition, this invention is not limited by this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, a control device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention is for operating an autonomously traveling robot in a predetermined area such as a facility, and a plurality of users P (service users) and , and the robot R provided for service use. This control device 10 systematically and automatically allocates detailed actions required by the robot considering the facility environment to a series of action tasks, and manages and executes these tasks according to a schedule. It enables the robot to act according to different environments in the environment. The control device 10 is composed of a reservation operation section 12 , an information aggregation section 14 , a task processing section 16 and an operation command section 18 .

Here, the facility environment is a static environment such as a movable route or an off-limits place, or a dynamic environment such as temporary movement route restriction, temporary entry restriction or relaxation, or congestion. The actions of the robot are operations such as travel route/route point planning, travel timing judgment, travel start/end, speed adjustment, temporary stop, and restart. Also, by executing tasks according to the schedule, the robot performs a series of actions.

In this embodiment, the drive control of the robot R is performed by the robot R itself. That is, in this embodiment, a well-known robot R is used. As shown in Fig. 2, the existing robot R performs operations such as traveling to a target destination point (reservation dispatch), switching map information indicating a target location, starting/ending running, adjusting speed, pausing/restarting, etc. and an information unit 24 having a function of acquiring information such as the real-time state of the robot R and distributing it to the outside. The reservation operation unit 22 and the information unit 24 are generally provided as functions of the robot R. Operation control from the reservation operation unit 22 to the robot drive control unit 20 is performed through a network communication line. The robot drive control unit 20 senses the environment around the main unit with the built-in sensor, estimates its own position and judges the situation, plans a route based on map information in the facility, etc., and can autonomously travel to the destination. be.

The reservation operation unit 12 of the control device 10 is operated by the user P to reserve the use of the robot R, and replaces the reservation operation unit 22 of the robot R. The user P can reserve the use of the robot R through the reservation operation unit 12, operate the robot R, and use the robot use service.

The information aggregating unit 14 collects and organizes and aggregates facility environment information such as related events in the facility, usage rules, congestion status, and facility information. Information includes information obtained from sensors and monitoring systems installed within the facility, and facility usage rules determined according to the actual conditions of facility operation (travel routes, waypoints, waiting areas, waiting time), and information on the state of the robot R itself from the robot R. By referring to the information aggregating unit 14, the user P can grasp the overall situation of the facility, the state of the robot, and the movement route, waypoint, and movement timing suitable for the actual situation of the facility.

The task processing unit 16 has a reservation processing unit 16A, a task creation unit 16B, and a task execution unit 16C.

The reservation processing unit 16A performs reservation processing based on usage reservation information such as a reservation operation from the user P. ) or start usage timing.

The task creation unit 16B refers to the information aggregation unit 14 and the reservation processing unit 16A, analyzes the necessary action (robot motion) of the target robot R required for the facility environment, and based on the analysis result, Create a schedule of tasks to achieve behavior appropriate to the facility environment. More specifically, based on the results of the analysis, actions such as subdivided travel routes, travel to waypoints, and travel start timing are assigned to tasks, and a schedule is created by prioritizing each task. , Register the created schedule in the database.

The task execution unit 16C executes tasks according to the schedule registered in the database. In the processing within the task, the robot R is caused to execute the task according to the schedule while referring to the facility environment information and the robot state information of the information aggregating unit 14 . Related operation tasks of the robot R are performed via the motion command unit 18 and the reservation operation unit 22 of the robot R. FIG.

The motion command unit 18 is connected to a reservation operation unit 22 of the robot R through a network communication line. Run R. The action command sent from the action command section 18 is set corresponding to the task in the task execution section 16C of the task processing section 16. FIG.

(Processing flow example)
Next, an example of the processing flow of the control device 10 of this embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 3, a user P first uses a robot-using service application on a computer terminal to input usage reservation information such as service usage and robot travel to a destination (step S1). The input usage reservation information is transmitted to the task processing section 16 through the reservation operation section 22 . The transmitted use reservation information is registered in the reservation list of the database by the reservation processing unit 16A of the task processing unit 16 (step S2). , select an available target robot R, etc. (step S3). If the target robot R can be selected (Yes in step S3), the process proceeds to the next step.

Next, the task creation unit 16B of the task processing unit 16 analyzes the behavior of the selected target robot R, which is suitable for the facility environment, while referring to the facility information, the robot state, etc. of the information aggregation unit 14. (Step S4), by assigning a series of action tasks (Step S5), assigning a series of action tasks such as determination of waypoints/travel routes and travel timing and actions (start/end of travel, speed adjustment, pause/restart), etc. is created, and the created schedule is registered and managed in the database (step S6).

Next, the task execution unit 16C of the task processing unit 16 starts a series of tasks according to the registered schedule (step S7), and executes the tasks of steps S8 to S10 until the series of tasks indicated in the schedule is completed. Execution is automatically repeated (step S11). In the use timing determination task in step S8, the use start timing is determined for the user P via the reservation operation unit 12. FIG. In the facility status determination task in step S9, the information aggregation unit 14 is referenced to determine the status of the facility environment. In the robot motion command task of step S10, a motion command is transmitted to the robot drive control unit 20 via the motion command unit 18. FIG. When the schedule ends (Yes in step S11), the use of the target robot R ends (step S12), and the use of the user P ends (step S13).

According to the control device 10 configured as described above, it is possible to operate the robot R through the reservation operation section 12 of the control device 10, and to check the robot status, facility information, etc. through the information aggregation section 14. . In other words, the state of the robot R is delivered to the information aggregating unit 14 via the information unit 24 of the robot R. FIG.

According to this embodiment, the reservation operation section 22 of the robot R operates the robot drive control section 20 via the motion command section 18 by executing the task of the task processing section 16 . More specifically, the control device 10 creates tasks in accordance with the facility environment in the task creation section 16B of the task processing section 16, and sequentially transmits motion commands to the robot drive control section 20 via the motion command section 18. By doing so, the robot R is centrally managed. In this way, in addition to user P's usage reservation information and robot status information, a schedule consisting of a waypoint movement task, a situation determination task, a behavior control task, etc. is created in consideration of the facility environment, and dynamic route planning is performed. By making it possible, it is possible to run smoothly in the facility. Since the operation of the robot is managed according to the schedule, each task can be stopped or restarted according to the information about the environment in the facility and the information about the robot. By doing so, the optimum operation of the robot can be realized.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, the robot can be reliably operated even when the environment in the facility changes temporarily. Therefore, the robot can be used continuously without any worry even if the facility usage rule is changed due to a specific event, an emergency, or the like. Also, the user can efficiently use the robot in consideration of the facility environment. By introducing this control device 10, the facility manager can determine convenient waypoints, robot running start timing, etc. according to various actual conditions of facility operation.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and may be any robot as long as the framework of detailed actions and schedule implementation can be applied, for example, self-propelled robots such as mobility and equipment. .

(Example)
Next, examples of the present invention will be described.
As shown in FIG. 4, in this embodiment, a scenario is assumed in which a robot that moves in a hallway in a building provides a delivery service from a point N0 to a destination point N1. The travel route is appropriate as a facility usage rule, and the robot travels in compliance with the usage rule. As a comparative example, a case is set in which the robot autonomously travels from the point N0 to the destination point N1 along the shortest route indicated by the dotted line.

In the comparative example, since there are no facility environment restrictions, a schedule as shown in FIG. 5 is generated. Then, the robot is delivered to the destination point N1 by executing the task according to the generated schedule. In this case, first, the schedule is started (step T0), the service start reception is executed, the timing of the user and facility status is confirmed (step T1), and after that the robot is run to the destination point N1 ( Step T2), and end the schedule (step T3).

It is now assumed that an event of road closure due to facility construction has occurred in zone A on the shortest route. In this case, as a first measure, it is necessary to set a route that does not pass through zone A for the robot as a temporary use rule of the facility environment, and to take a detour. As a second response, since Zone B on the detour route may become congested depending on the time of day and the robot may not be able to pass through, the congestion status of Zone B is determined, and travel timing and route changes are made. is necessary. Furthermore, as a third countermeasure, considering the possibility that the destination point N1 will be occupied by another event immediately before arrival, it is necessary to change to another adjacent destination point N2.

In the conventional response, the first response was to limit the travel range so that the robot would not pass through zone A, and the robot itself would search for a route in a roundabout way. As for the second countermeasure, the congestion situation in zone B was determined, and countermeasures such as changing the route were taken. As for the third response, we have added a function to determine whether the destination point can be entered and to change the destination. In this way, conventionally, robots have been required to take many measures in spite of temporary changes in the facility environment.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, not only the traffic closure information in zone A, but also the congestion information in zone B and the entry permission/inhibition information for point N1 are aggregated in the information aggregation unit 14 . Based on this information, necessary waypoints and travel timings are determined, and robot action tasks such as motion commands and travel commands are created. The created schedule for this embodiment is shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 6, this embodiment consists of tasks of steps U0 to U7. In the present embodiment, a task of commanding movement to the waypoints M1 and M2 (steps U2 and U3) is added to the comparative example. Also, a task of determining the congestion status of zone B (step U4), a task of moving to the destination point N1 or the adjacent point N2 based on the result (step U5), or a task of commanding movement to the waypoint M3 (step U61) and then a task of moving to the destination point N1 or the adjacent point N2 (step U62) are added. Step U0 corresponds to step T0 in the comparative example, step U1 corresponds to step T1 in the comparative example, and step U7 corresponds to step T3 in the comparative example. In the tasks of steps U5 and U62, the information aggregating unit 14 refers to the facility status to determine whether or not the destination point N1 can be entered, and based on the result, the destination is changed to the adjacent point N2. , to move to the changed adjacent point N2.

By executing the tasks according to this schedule, the robot can be delivered to the destination point. By doing so, it is possible to avoid stopping the use of the robot and adding new functions to the robot, as in conventional systems.

As described above, according to the control device of the present invention, a control device for operating an autonomously traveling robot in a predetermined area, based on information on the environment of the area and information on the robot, A task to be executed by the robot in the area and a schedule to execute the task are generated, and the task is executed by the robot according to the generated schedule, so that even if the environment of the area changes temporarily, the task can be reliably performed. , can operate various robots.

In addition, according to another control device of the present invention, a reservation operation unit operated by a user to reserve the use of the robot, and an information collection unit that collects information about the environment of the area and information about the robot. and corresponding to the use reservation information input to the reservation operation unit suitable for the environment of the area based on the information on the environment in the facility collected by the information collection unit and the information on the robot. and a task processing unit that generates the task for realizing the robot motion and the schedule for executing the task, and causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule. Robots can be efficiently used in consideration of the environment.

Further, according to the other control device of the present invention, the task processing section sets the robot to be used based on the reservation information input to the reservation operation section. Robots can be used.

Further, according to another control device according to the present invention, the task processing unit includes a reservation processing unit that performs predetermined reservation processing based on the usage reservation information, and a reservation processing unit that refers to the information aggregating unit, a task creation unit that analyzes the robot motion required for the environment of the region and, based on the analysis result, creates the schedule for the task for realizing a predetermined robot motion suitable for the environment of the region; and a task execution unit that causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule while referring to the information about the environment of the area aggregated by the information aggregation unit and the information of the robot. By suspending and resuming tasks according to information about the environment of the robot and information about the robot, optimal operation of the robot can be realized.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the control device according to the present invention is useful for operating a robot that autonomously travels in a facility environment such as a building. Suitable for

10 control device 12, 22 reservation operation unit 14 information aggregation unit 16 task processing unit 16A reservation processing unit 16B task creation unit 16C task execution unit 18 motion command unit 20 robot drive control unit 24 information unit P user R robot

Claims (4)

A control device for operating an autonomously traveling robot in a predetermined area,
A task to be executed by the robot in the area and a schedule for executing the task are generated based on the information about the environment of the area and the information of the robot, and the task is executed by the robot according to the generated schedule. A control device characterized by: a reservation operation unit operated by a user to reserve use of the robot;
an information aggregating unit that aggregates information about the environment of the area and information of the robot;
A robot suitable for the environment of the area and corresponding to the usage reservation information input to the reservation operation unit, based on the information on the environment in the facility collected by the information collection unit and the information on the robot. a task processing unit that generates the task for realizing an action and the schedule for executing the task, and causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule;
2. The control device of claim 1, comprising: 3. The control device according to claim 2, wherein the task processing unit sets the robot to be used based on the use reservation information input to the reservation operation unit. The task processing unit
a reservation processing unit that performs predetermined reservation processing based on the reservation information;
related to the task of analyzing the robot motion required for the environment of the region by referring to the information aggregating unit, and realizing a predetermined robot motion suitable for the environment of the region based on the result of the analysis; a task creation unit that creates the schedule;
a task execution unit that causes the robot to execute the task according to the schedule while referring to the information about the environment of the area aggregated by the information aggregation unit and the information of the robot;
4. A control device according to claim 2 or 3, characterized by comprising:

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