JP2791048B2 - Control device for self-propelled robot - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a self-propelled robot, and in particular, can freely set the traveling range of the self-propelled robot, thereby enabling the robot to be used in a room intended for the self-propelled robot. The present invention relates to a control device for a self-propelled robot that efficiently controls travel of a vehicle and improves safety.

[Conventional technology]

The traveling control method found in conventional automatic vacuum cleaners is disclosed in
As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-97608, an obstacle is detected by an ultrasonic transmitter and a receiver, and if there is an obstacle in front, the obstacle is stopped and the traveling direction is changed by 180 ° (two 90 ° rotations are performed). It is running. However, in the prior art, a broken arrow 84 in FIG.
As shown in the figure, when the door 74 is open, the automatic vacuum cleaner goes out of the room, and no consideration is given to the fact that the room to be cleaned cannot be cleaned.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

According to the above-described conventional technology, when an automatic cleaner is used in a room where a door or the like is open, as shown by a broken line arrow 84 in FIG. There was a problem that the room I wanted to clean could not be cleaned, and that people in other rooms could be dangerous.

An object of the present invention is to prevent a self-propelled robot from going out of an open place to another room even when a door or the like of the room in which the user wants to run is open, to perform cleaning or running in that room, and to perform other operations. The goal is to keep the people in the room safe.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, a control device for a self-propelled robot according to the present invention includes a wheel and a wheel driving device, a position measurement device that measures a self-position of the self-propelled robot, and detects a wall or an obstacle in a surrounding room. Detecting device, calculating the self-position, calculating the position coordinates of the obstacle, determining the running method, and instructing the wheel driving device to execute the running method; and positional information on the walls and obstacles in the room. In a self-propelled robot comprising a storage device for storing a traveling range, a traveling range input device for inputting a coordinate value of a traveling range of the self-propelled robot to the storage device is provided. Is controlled based on the position information.

[Action]

The self-propelled robot does not go out of the traveling range input by the input device, and does not go out to another room even if the door or the like is open.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of a self-propelled cleaning robot which is an embodiment of the self-propelled robot of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a left wheel, 2 is a left wheel drive motor, 3 is a gear case of the left wheel, 4 is a left wheel encoder for measuring the number of revolutions of the left wheel,
5 is a right wheel, 6 is a right wheel drive motor, 7 is a right wheel gear case, 8 is a right wheel encoder for measuring the number of rotations of the right wheel, 9 is an ultrasonic transceiver, 10 is a rotating disk, and 11 is a rotating disk. Disk
10 rotation axis, 12 is a parabolic antenna fixed to a rotating disk, 13 is an ultrasonic radar rotation motor, 14 is an ultrasonic radar encoder, 15 is a gyro, 16 is a vacuum cleaner, 17 is a vacuum cleaner 16
Dust suction port, 18 is a vacuum cleaner motor, 19 is a measurement circuit section, 20 is a control circuit section for controlling a self-propelled cleaning robot, 21 is a control power supply for the control circuit section 20, 22 is a power supply for driving the motor, 23 Is a body frame of the robot, 24 is a caster, and 25 is a robot body.

An operation unit 26 of the self-propelled cleaning robot includes a drive operation device 27 described below and a travel range input device 28 for setting coordinates of a travel range of the robot, which is a main component of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows details of the drive operation device 27 and the travel range input device 28 which is a feature of the present invention. In FIG. 2, 29 is an operation button for switching the robot of the drive operation device 27 to automatic traveling, 30 is an operation button for switching the robot to manual, 31 is a switch button for starting automatic traveling of the robot, 32 Is a switch button for stopping automatic and manual running of the robot, 33 is an operation button for manually moving the robot forward, 34 is an operation button for manually moving the robot backward, 35 is a robot that is manually moved to the right by 90 degrees. An operation button for turning, an operation button for manually turning 90 ° to the left, an operation button for manually turning the robot right U-turn, and an operation button for manually turning the robot left U-turn is there.

 The travel range input device 28 has the following configuration.

Reference numeral 39 denotes a push button for inputting the numeral 1 as a coordinate value of the traveling range of the robot. Similarly, 40 is the number 2 in the coordinate value
, 41 is the numeral 3 for the coordinate value, 42 is the numeral 4 for the coordinate value, 43
Is the numeral 5 for the coordinate value, 44 is the numeral 6 for the coordinate value, 45 is the numeral 7 for the coordinate value, 46 is the numeral 8 for the coordinate value, and 47 is the numeral 9 for the coordinate value.
And 48 are push buttons for inputting a numeral 0 as a coordinate value. Reference numeral 49 denotes a push button for inputting a plus sign to the coordinate values of the traveling range, and 50 denotes a push button for inputting a minus sign to the coordinate values.

The travel range of the robot of this embodiment is set by a rectangle as shown in FIG. 3, and the coordinate values of the travel range are XY coordinates (Xa, Ya) of points A and B, which are diagonal points of the rectangle. And (Xb, Yb).

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 51 denotes a button to be pressed when inputting or changing the X coordinate Xa of the rectangular point A in the travel range.
Similarly, 52 is a button pressed to input or change the Y coordinate Ya of the rectangular point A, 53 is a button pressed to input or change the X coordinate Xb of the rectangular point B of the travel range, and 54 is the Y button of the rectangular point B. This button is pressed when inputting or changing the coordinates Yb. 55 is the X coordinate value of point A of the rectangle in the travel range
It is a coordinate value display section for displaying Xa. Similarly, reference numeral 56 denotes a coordinate value display unit for displaying the Y coordinate value Ya of the point A in the travel range, 57 denotes an X coordinate value display unit for the point B in the travel range, and 58 denotes a Y coordinate value display unit for the point B.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the traveling control system in FIG. 1 and FIG. In Fig. 4, 2,4,6,8,9,14,1
5, 21, and 22 correspond to those in FIG. 27 is a drive operating device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and 28 is a travel range input device. Numeral 39 designates a coordinate input device representatively representing the push-buttons for inputting the coordinate values of 39 to 50 and codes in FIG. 2 and the push-buttons 51 to 54 for setting the distinction of the input coordinates. Reference numeral 55 denotes a coordinate value display section for displaying the coordinate values of the set traveling range. 63 is the control circuit unit 20 shown in FIG.
A central processing unit 64 is a storage device for storing the calculation result of the central processing unit 63 and the position data of the walls and obstacles of the room detected by the ultrasonic transceiver and the parabolic antenna. 65 is an ultrasonic radar detection circuit in the measurement circuit section 19 in FIG.
66 is a gyro measurement circuit connected to the gyro 15, 67 is a radar angle measurement circuit that measures the direction of the parabolic antenna 12,
68 is a wheel encoder measurement circuit.

 Next, the operation will be described.

The self-propelled cleaning robot of the present embodiment travels and cleans all over the room by repeatedly moving forward and turning 180 degrees while avoiding walls and obstacles in the room. The traveling of the robot is performed by driving the left wheel 1 and the right wheel by driving the left wheel drive motor 2 and the right wheel drive motor 6. An ultrasonic transceiver 9 and a parabolic antenna 12 shown in FIG. 1 are provided on the upper part of the robot, and are rotated counterclockwise by an ultrasonic radar rotating motor 13. The parabolic antenna 12 transmits the ultrasonic waves emitted from the ultrasonic transceiver 9 to the ultrasonic waves having sharp directivity (dashed arrows 12 in FIG. 1).
Change to a) and emit ultrasonic waves to the surroundings by the above counterclockwise rotation. The emitted ultrasonic wave is reflected when it hits a wall or an obstacle in a room, and among the reflected ultrasonic waves, those that have returned to the parabolic antenna 12 are received by the ultrasonic transceiver 9. An ultrasonic radar encoder 14 is connected to the rotating shaft 11 of the rotating disk 10 to which the parabolic antenna 12 is fixed, and the encoder 14 measures the emission and reception directions of the ultrasonic waves from the parabolic antenna 12.

The ultrasonic transmitter / receiver 9, the parabolic antenna 12, and the ultrasonic radar encoder 14 determine the time from when the ultrasonic wave is emitted to when it is received, and the direction in which the ultrasonic wave is emitted and received, to determine the wall and obstacles in the room. The position of the object is measured.

The gyro 15 measures a change in the direction of the self-propelled cleaning robot, that is, an angular velocity. A dust suction port 17 is connected to the cleaner 16, and absorbs dust in the width of the robot as the robot travels.

The central processing unit 63 in FIG. 4 calculates the self-position coordinates of the self-propelled cleaning robot, calculates the positions of the walls and obstacles in the surrounding rooms, and stores the position data of the walls and obstacles in these rooms.
The work stored in the memory 64, the judgment work for avoiding surrounding walls and obstacles, and the drive control of the right wheel 6 and the left wheel 2 are performed. Self-position coordinates are left and right wheel encoders 4,8
The running distance of the wheels from the wheel rotation speed data and the angle of change of the robot's orientation of the gyro 15 indicate the running start position as the coordinate origin, and the robot's direction at the starting position as the Y-axis direction of the XY coordinates. calculate. The position of the wall or obstacle is calculated by a method of superimposing on the robot's own position coordinates from the distance and direction data to the wall or obstacle measured by the ultrasonic transceiver 9, the parabolic antenna 12, and the radar encoder 14. .

As a method of storing the position of a wall or an obstacle in the storage device 64, the XY coordinates are divided into grids as shown in FIG. 6, and one bit of the memory address of the storage device 64 (eg, 90 ) Is assigned, and when a wall or an obstacle in the room is detected, writing is performed to a bit (example 92) of a memory address (example 91) of the storage device 64 corresponding to the coordinates.

Next, a method of setting the traveling range of the robot, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described.

An example in which the self-propelled cleaning robot runs in the room shown in FIG. 5 will be described. The robot is placed in the left corner 81 of the room along the left wall. Then, before the robot travels, the travel range according to the size of the room is set by the travel range input device 28 in FIG.

In the example of FIG. 2, the travel range of the robot is represented by coordinates (Xa, Ya) and (Xb, Yb) of points A and B on the diagonal of the rectangle, as described above with reference to FIG. Set. In FIG.
To set the X coordinate Xa of the point A to -100 cm, the user presses the button 51 for selecting the Xa, then presses the push button 50 for inputting a minus sign to the coordinate value, and then sets the coordinate value to 100.
Push button 39 for inputting 1 for the coordinate value in order to input
Then, the push button 48 for inputting 0 is pressed twice. With this input, the central processing unit 63 displays -100 on the Xa coordinate value display unit 55. To change the coordinate set value, press the push button 51 again, and then press the push button for inputting a numerical value again.

If you want to set the Y coordinate Ya of point A to -80 cm, press the button 52 for selecting Ya, then press the push button 50 for inputting a minus sign to the coordinate value, as in the case of setting Xa, and then press the coordinate button. To enter 80 for the value, push the pushbutton 46 for entering 8 for the coordinate value and the pushbutton 48 for entering 0. By this input, the central processing unit 63 displays -80 on the coordinate value display section 56 of Ya.
Is displayed.

To set the coordinates of the diagonal point B of the rectangle, set the X coordinate Xb of the point B
If you want to set it to 400 cm, push button 53 to select Xb, as in point A, then push button 42 to enter 4 in the coordinate value and push button to enter 0 to enter the coordinate value 400
Press 48 twice. With this input, the central processing unit 63 displays 400 on the Xb coordinate value display unit 57.

To set the Y coordinate Yb of the point B to 300 cm, press the button 54 for selecting Yb in the same manner as for the point A, and then set the coordinate value to 300 cm.
Is pressed twice to push the push button 41 for inputting 3 to the coordinate value and the push button 48 for inputting 0 to the coordinate value. With this input, the central processing unit 63 displays 300 on the Yb coordinate display section.

In the example of FIG. 2, the coordinates of the diagonal points A and B of the rectangle in the traveling range are (−100 cm, −80 cm) and (400 cm, 300 cm).
These set coordinate values are appropriately set according to the size of the room. If you want to change the coordinate values,
While looking at 57, press the buttons 51 to 54 for selecting Xa, Ya, Xb, and Yb, and then press the push buttons 39 to 50 for inputting numerical values again.

When the coordinate values of the travel range described above are input, the central processing unit 63 calculates the coordinate value of the point A (Xa, Ya) and the coordinate value of the point B (Xb, Y).
The memory addresses and bits of the grid in FIG. 6 in the storage device 64 of b) are calculated.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the central processing unit 63 writes 1 into the rectangular address ABCD corresponding to the coordinate value of the running range in the memory address and bit of the storage device 64. In FIG. 3, point A is a bit in the storage device 64 corresponding to (Xa = −100 cm, Ya = −80 cm), and point B is (Xb = 400 cm, Yb = 300c).
m), the bit and the C point of the storage device 64 corresponding to (Xb = 400c)
m, Ya = −80 cm) in the storage device 14,
Point D is a storage device 6 corresponding to (Xa = −100 cm, Yb = 300 cm).
Bit 4

With the input of the travel range described above, the wall on the memory indicated by hatching in FIG. 3 is set in the storage device 64 in advance.

Next, in order to start traveling of the self-propelled cleaning robot, an operation button 29 for automatically moving the robot shown in FIG. 2 is pressed, and then a switch button 31 for starting automatic traveling is started.
push. Thus, the central processing unit 63 instructs the left and right wheel drive motors 2 and 6 to move forward. Central processing unit 63 while moving forward
Calculates the self-position coordinates of the robot by the wheel encoder.
The calculation is performed based on the wheel rotation speed data by the gyro 15 and the wheel rotation speed data by the gyro 15. Also, while moving forward, the central processing unit 63 sets the vertical position as viewed from the robot's own position (the rotation center of the parabolic antenna) of a room wall or an obstacle detected by the ultrasonic transceiver 9, the parabolic antenna 12, and the radar encoder 14. 1 is stored in the bits 94, 95, 96, and 97 of the grid of the storage device 64 shown in FIG.

Also, during forward movement, the central processing unit 63 issues a command to drive the vacuum cleaner motor 18 and absorbs dust of the width of the robot body 25 by the cleaner 16 and the dust suction port 17.

The central processing unit 63 searches for 1 in the bit of the grid in front of the robot in the storage device 64, but if there is no 1, it determines that there is no wall or obstacle ahead and proceeds forward. continue. Conversely, when 1 is stored, the central processing unit 63 instructs the wheel drive motors 2, 6 to stop, and then instructs the wheel drive motors 2, 6 to turn the robot by 180 °.

In FIG. 5, at the position 83 near the door 74 opened by the self-propelled cleaning robot, the obstacle information on the upper wall 73 of the room is not stored near 100 in FIG. However, in this embodiment, the running range is previously written in the wall ABCD on the memory described in FIG. Therefore, the central processing unit
63 searches the wall 61a in front of the robot of the wall 61 between the preset BDs in FIG. 8 by searching, instructs the wheel drive motors 2, 6 to stop, and then instructs a 180 ° turn to the right, Command forward 85 again.

Thereafter, while the central processing unit 63 stores the position data of the wall and the obstacle in the storage device 64, the memory bit ahead of the robot in the storage device 64 stores 1 in other words, that is, the wall or the obstacle in the room ahead. While avoiding them, continue traveling while judging whether there is any information.

The running locus is shown by a solid line in FIG. 5 and FIG.
2,83,85,86,88.

According to the present embodiment, the travel range of the self-propelled cleaning robot is set in advance, and a wall in the memory corresponding to the presence of a room wall is set in the storage device 64. Even when used in a room where
There is an effect that the room to be cleaned can be surely cleaned without going out to another room from the door or the like.

In addition, since the robot does not go out of the door or the like to another room, there is an effect that the safety of a person in another room can be improved.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, the travel range of the self-propelled cleaning robot is input as coordinate values in advance, and data is written into a storage device that stores position information of walls and obstacles in a room as if there were a wall at the boundary of the travel range. The travel range is set in advance.

Therefore, even when the self-propelled cleaning robot is used in a room where a door or the like is open, it does not go out of the door or the like to another room, so that the room to be cleaned can be reliably performed. There is.

In addition, since the self-propelled cleaning robot does not go out of the opened door to another room, there is an effect that safety of a person in another room can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of a self-propelled cleaning robot according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a travel range input device of the present invention, and FIG. Explanatory diagram showing a wall setting method, FIG. 4 is a system block diagram of a self-propelled cleaning robot, FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of a traveling room and traveling locus, and FIG. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a storage method of a room wall or an obstacle, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence between a travel range setting wall and information of an actual room wall. is there. 1,5 ... wheel, 2,6 ... wheel drive motor, 9 ... ultrasonic transmitter / receiver, 12 ... parabolic antenna, 15 ... gyro, 16
…… Vacuum cleaner, 20 …… Control circuit part, 27 …… Drive operation device,
28 …… Driving range input device, 29 …… Automatic driving operation button,
30 Start button, 32 Stop button, 33 to 38
Manual operation button, 33-48 …… Coordinate value input button, 49-50
…… Sign input button, 55-58 …… Coordinate value display section, 63 ……
Central processing unit, 64 storage device.

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G05D 1/02 A47L 9/00 102 JOIS

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A wheel and a wheel driving device, a position measuring device for measuring a self-position of a self-propelled robot, an obstacle detecting device for detecting a wall or an obstacle in a surrounding room, a calculation of the self-position, and an obstacle In a self-propelled robot including a central processing unit that calculates the position coordinates of an object and determines a traveling method and instructs a traveling method to a wheel driving device, and a storage device that stores position information of a room wall or an obstacle, A traveling range input device for inputting a coordinate value of a traveling range of the robot to the storage device; and a traveling control of the self-propelled robot based on the position information within a traveling range determined by the coordinate values. A control device for a self-propelled robot characterized by the following.