JP2544507B2 - Vehicle cleaning equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device for vehicles, especially for heavy vehicles.

As an automatic cleaning device for a conventional vehicle, a spray nozzle that sprays cleaning water inward is provided inside a movable gate-shaped structure, and a brush that rotates around a vertically extending shaft is provided. The vehicle is stopped inside the portal structure within the range of movement of the portal structure, the cleaning water is sprayed from the spray nozzle toward the vehicle body, and the rotating brush is brought into contact with the side surface of the vehicle body to rotate. A system in which a gate type structure is moved over the entire length of an automobile for cleaning is widely used.

In this type of cleaning device, when the side surface of the vehicle body is formed of a vertical plane, the side surface of the vehicle body is strongly hit with the jet water, and the rotating brush is appropriately slidably in contact with the side surface of the vehicle body for good cleaning. However, depending on the model of the vehicle, the side surface is not necessarily one vertical plane, and there are those with a slightly inclined upper part, those with a protruding central part, and those with a partially recessed part. In this case, it may occur that the entire side surface cannot be uniformly cleaned.

Further, with the vehicle cleaning device having this configuration, it is difficult to clean the front and rear surfaces of the vehicle body, especially in a large vehicle having a wide vehicle body width.

Similarly, for cleaning the side surface of a railroad vehicle, a rotating brush provided inside the gate-shaped structure that moves parallel to the rail is brought into contact with the side surface of the vehicle, or between the rotating brushes of the fixed gate-shaped structure is fixed to the vehicle. Generally, a method of passing through is used.

The front and rear surfaces of the vehicle cannot be cleaned by moving the vehicle along the track or moving the cleaning device parallel to the track. From the viewpoint, various mechanical cleaning devices have been proposed.

For example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-4748 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-60305, a cleaning brush having a length extending over the entire height of the vehicle body and rotatable about a vertical axis is provided at the side of the front and rear ends of the vehicle. Railway fixed in the direction or extendable / contractible along the front-rear surface of the vehicle from a movable platform, and the cleaning brush holder is slightly movable in the vehicle front-rear direction and is held at the tip of a variable-length and rotatable arm Vehicle cleaning devices have been proposed.

Further, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 55-65248 discloses a rotating brush extending below the raceway surface to extend the width of the vehicle between the tips of a pair of arms that pivot in a vertical plane circle around a spindle perpendicular to the raceway. There has been proposed a front and rear surface cleaning device for a vehicle that holds the vehicle and moves the vehicle forward or backward while rotating the brush while pressing the rotating brush against the entire surface or the rear surface of the vehicle while rotating the brush around the spindle.

It is believed that these vehicle cleaning devices will significantly improve the cleaning work on the front and rear end surfaces of conventional rail vehicles, such as vertical planes or cylindrical surfaces having a large radius of curvature.

By the way, some high-speed trains such as JR and private railways have complicated three-dimensional curved surfaces at the front and rear parts of the front and rear ends of the train. Conventionally, the cleaning of that portion is performed by manually attaching a cleaning tool such as a mop to the tip of the rod, which is disadvantageous in that it requires a great deal of labor and danger and that complete cleaning is difficult. or,
It is not possible to perform cleaning with the vehicle front and rear end cleaning device in which the vertical rotating brush over the entire height of the vehicle body and the horizontal rotating brush over the entire width of the vehicle are brought into sliding contact with the front and rear end faces of the vehicle.

Even if the front and rear surfaces of the vehicle are simple shapes that can be cleaned by the proposed vehicle surface cleaning device, the same device is used to clean all the side surfaces, front and rear surfaces, and roof surface. It is not possible, and the vehicle must be moved and cleaned with another device if necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-described actual situation of vehicle cleaning that has been conventionally implemented and proposed, the present invention has a complicated shape in which a side surface and front and rear surfaces of a vehicle body have a three-dimensional curved surface and an uneven portion. Provided is a vehicle cleaning device capable of thoroughly cleaning the side surface, front and rear surface and roof surface of a vehicle with the same car washing device even if the side surface has a slightly inclined portion or a concave projection. The task is to do.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the vehicle cleaning device according to the present invention has a cleaning means attached to the arm tip, and the arm tip moves in a range including the cleaning width of both vehicles to be washed near one horizontal plane. Then
And a multi-joint arm robot that can be displaced in any posture,
A horizontal guide member which is provided with an open upper side of each of the washed vehicles and extends parallel to the vehicle center line at both stopped positions of the washed vehicles and extends outside the vehicle width range to cover the entire length of the vehicle; A traveling platform that can be guided by a guide member, a vertical guide member that is fixed to the traveling platform and extends vertically in a range exceeding the entire cleaning range of both vehicles to be washed, and the articulated arm robot are mounted. And a robot supporting means having an elevating member that can be moved up and down by being guided by the vertical guide member.

If the above-mentioned device is provided on both sides of each position for washing the car, the left and right sides can be washed simultaneously in parallel, and the robot arm can be extended up to the center line of the vehicle body.

Operation Since the vehicle cleaning apparatus of the present invention is configured as described above, the traveling platform is moved along the horizontal guide member, the elevating member is moved up and down along the vertical guide member, and the articulated arm robot is moved up and down. By expanding and contracting in the horizontal plane where the member is located, the cleaning member provided at the tip of the robot arm can cover the entire range from the top to the bottom of the side surface of the vehicle even if the side surface has an inclination or a concave protrusion. In addition to being able to thoroughly scan and wash, the traveling platform is stopped near the front and rear ends of the vehicle to raise and lower the elevating member, and the tip of the robot arm is preset according to the shape of the front and rear end surfaces of the vehicle. The front and rear end surfaces of the vehicle include complicated curved surfaces such as a three-dimensional curved surface by moving the cleaning means on the path and displacing the tip of the arm so that the cleaning means has a posture along the outer surface of the vehicle. It is possible to wash the bear without even in the case. Further, since this cleaning device is provided with the vertical guide member, the articulated robot can be moved up and down along the vertical guide member, and even on a large vehicle such as a large tall sightseeing bus, the side surface,
The robot can be cleaned from the top to the bottom of the front and back without extending the robot too much, and the roof can be easily cleaned.

Example Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 are a plan view and a front view, respectively, in the vicinity of one end of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a cleaning apparatus for a large automobile such as a bus, and FIG. 3 is a configuration of the robot. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example.

A horizontal guide rail 3 extends horizontally outside the width range of the vehicle 1 and in a range covering the entire length of the vehicle 1, parallel to the center line 2 when the vehicle 1 to be washed is stopped at a predetermined position. ing. The horizontal guide rail 3 is engaged with a traveling table 4 which can travel along the horizontal guide rail 3. It should be noted that the motor for traveling the traveling platform 4 is not shown in the figure.

A vertical guide rail 5 extending vertically beyond the height of the washing range of the vehicle 1 is fixed to the traveling platform 4. A vertical guide rail 5 is engaged with a lift table 6 that moves up and down along the vertical guide rail 5, and the lift table 6 includes an articulated arm robot.
10 is installed.

As shown in the figure, the supporting means for supporting the arm robot 10 is provided by opening the upper portions of both the cars to be washed.

1 and 2 show this articulated arm type robot 10.
FIG. 3 schematically shows the structure of the actuator. The reference numerals of the actuators (driving members such as motors and cylinders) shown in FIG. 3 correspond to the reference numerals shown in FIG. The functions of each arm of this multi-joint arm type robot and each actuator M1 to M7 for moving and elevating the robot are as follows.

M1: For brush rotation M2: For arm rotation M3: For arm rotation M4: For arm bending M5: For arm bending M6: For robot movement M7: For robot movement In addition, the robot lifting and robot movement motors are
Not shown in FIG.

With the above configuration, the tip of the robot can freely rotate, expand, contract, swing, and twist within the horizontal plane on which the lifting table 6 is located.

Note that the combination of movable parts that displace the tip of the robot arm to any position near the one horizontal plane and to any position is not limited to this example.

A cleaning brush 11 is attached to the tip of the arm.
The cleaning brush 11 is a roller type, rotates around its axis by the motor M1, and a cleaning spray nozzle (not shown) is provided side by side. Cleaning water is sprayed toward the car body.

The movement control for the arm brush to scan thoroughly along the shape of the outer surface of the vehicle body to be cleaned and to be cleaned by the cleaning brush 11 is such that a program is set in advance for each vehicle model having a different shape, and the vehicle model of the vehicle to be cleaned is set. It is possible to employ a publicly known appropriate control method such as program control according to a program corresponding to the above, or a combination of scanning control using a partial touch sensor.

At the time of non-cleaning, if the robot 10 is swung to a position right above the horizontal guide rail 3 and the lifting platform 4 is lowered and held at the lowest position, the front and rear parts of the vehicle will not be blocked by the cleaning device. The vehicle can be moved in and out freely from the car wash position.

Although the embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the cleaning device for a large automobile has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a cleaning device for a railway vehicle.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, by providing the vehicle cleaning device having the above-mentioned configuration on both sides of the vehicle at the cleaning position, both sides of the vehicle can be simultaneously cleaned in parallel and each robot can be cleaned. Since the cleaning range can be divided by the vehicle center line, the arm extension of each robot can be shortened.

Effects As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to continuously and automatically clean both side surfaces, front and rear end portions, and roof surface of a vehicle with the same cleaning device. Even if the front and rear parts include a three-dimensional curved surface, concave projections, etc., the entire surface can be washed, and remarkable effects can be obtained in labor saving, mechanization, and improvement in safety of car washing work.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an essential part of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a large-sized automobile cleaning apparatus, FIG. 2 is a front view thereof, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory view schematically showing the configuration of the robot. 1 ... Vehicle 2 ... Center line 3 ... Horizontal guide member 4 ... Traveling base 5 ... Vertical guide member 6 ... Lifting member 10 ... Articulated arm type robot 11 ... Rotating brush for cleaning (cleaning means) M1 to M7 …… Actuator

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A multi-joint arm robot in which a cleaning means is attached to the arm tip, the arm tip moves in a range including the cleaning width of both vehicles to be washed in the vicinity of one horizontal plane, and can be displaced in any posture. A horizontal guide member that is provided with the upper sides of the car wash open and that is parallel to the vehicle center line at both vehicle stop positions and extends outside the vehicle width range to cover the entire length of the vehicle, and the horizontal guide. A traveling platform which is guided by a member and is capable of traveling, a vertical guide member which is fixed to the traveling platform and extends vertically in a range exceeding the entire cleaning range of both vehicles to be washed, and the articulated arm robot are mounted. And a robot supporting unit having an elevating member that can be moved up and down by being guided by the vertical guide member. 2. The vehicle washing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the above-mentioned apparatus is provided on both sides of both vehicle washing stop positions.