JP3189317B2 - Mobile work robot - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile work robot which automatically performs a work, such as an automatic floor cleaner or an automatic floor finisher.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various types of mobile work robots have been developed which automatically perform work by adding a travel drive device, sensors, and travel control means to work equipment. For example, a self-propelled vacuum cleaner has a suction nozzle or a brush at the bottom of the main body as a cleaning function, a traveling and steering means as a moving function, a distance measuring means for detecting an obstacle during traveling and measuring the distance, and a position. And a position recognition means for recognizing the cleaning area. The distance measuring means recognizes the cleaning area by the position recognition means while moving along a wall or the like around the cleaning area, and moves within the cleaning area to move the entire cleaning area. Is to clean.

[0003]

In the conventional mobile work robot having the above-mentioned structure, the installation portion of the distance measuring means of the main body is on a smooth body outline line. However, when the work is performed, a sudden external impact such as contact or collision may be applied to the distance measuring means. Then, when the distance between the main body and the surrounding object becomes very small, the distance measuring means cannot distinguish the direct wave from the transmitting element from the reflected wave from the surrounding object, and cannot measure a short distance. Further, since the installation portions of the distance measuring means cannot be separated, mutual influences of a plurality of distance measuring means cannot be easily investigated.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional configuration, and a distance measuring means which plays an important role for a mobile work robot is provided with a sudden external force such as a contact or collision. It is a first object of the present invention to provide a mobile work robot having a configuration that is less likely to receive an impact and can measure a short distance.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a mobile work robot in which only the installation portion of the distance measuring means of the main body is individually taken out and the influence of the plurality of distance measuring means can be easily checked.

[0006]

A first means of the present invention for achieving the first object is a driving means and a steering means for moving a main body, and a distance measurement for measuring a distance to an object around the main body. Means, travel control means for controlling the drive means and the steering means based on the information from the distance measuring means to control the travel of the main body, and the distance from the distance measuring means to the surrounding object to the outer peripheral surface of the main body. The distance measuring means is provided with a calculating means for converting the distance from the camera and a working means for performing a work such as cleaning, and the installation section of the distance measuring means is a mobile working robot having a step inside.

According to a second means of the present invention for achieving the second object, in addition to the structure of the first means of the present invention, a moving device in which an installation portion of a distance measuring means of the main body can be separated from the main body. It is a working robot.

[0008]

According to the first means of the present invention, the installation portion of the distance measuring means is provided with a step inside, and the distance measuring means, which plays an important role for the mobile work robot, contacts or collides due to the action of the step. It is less susceptible to sudden external impacts, and can measure short distances.

According to the second means of the present invention, only the installation portion of the distance measuring means is individually taken out and the influence of the plurality of distance measuring means can be easily examined.

[0010]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) Hereinafter, an overall configuration of a self-propelled vacuum cleaner which is an embodiment of the first means of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Reference numeral 11 denotes a main body of the self-propelled cleaner, and 12L and 12R denote drive wheels provided on the left and right sides of the main body 11, respectively, which are independently driven by drive motors 13L and 13R. 14 is the body 1
1 is a driven wheel rotatably attached to the front of the vehicle 1. As described above, the drive wheels 12L and 12R, the drive motors 13L and 13
The R and follower wheels 14 constitute driving means for moving the main body 11 and steering means. Reference numerals 13'L and 13'R denote rotation detectors composed of rotary encoders and the like connected to the drive motors 13L and 13R, respectively, and constitute moving distance measuring means, and detect the number of shaft rotations of the drive motors 13L and 13R. (Hereinafter referred to as moving distance measuring means 13 '). 1
Reference numeral 5 denotes two left and right movable members protruding from the main body 11 from the side portion to the front portion of the main body 11, around which a buffer 16 made of an elastic material is attached. The movable body 15 is attached to the main body 11 via a holding section 17 and is rotatably supported. Reference numeral 18 denotes a buffer attached to the rear of the main body 11. Reference numeral 19 denotes a brush implanted around the rotating plate 20, which is rotated by a motor 21 provided on the movable body 15 in the direction parallel to the floor and inward of the main body 11, to sweep dust on the floor. . Reference numeral 22 denotes an electric blower, 23 denotes a dust collection chamber, and 24 and 25 denote filters provided therein. Reference numeral 26 denotes a floor nozzle provided at the center of the bottom of the main body 11, and is connected to the dust collection chamber 23 via a connection pipe 27. The brush 19, the motor 21, the electric blower 22, the dust collection chamber 23
-The filters 24 and 25 constitute cleaning means. 3
Numeral 0 denotes a direction measuring means for measuring the direction of the main body 11, which in this embodiment comprises a rate gyro and an integrator for integrating the output.

Reference numeral 31 denotes a distance measuring means for measuring a distance to an object in front of and on the left and right sides of the main body 11, which is constituted by an ultrasonic sensor provided around the main body 11.
a is provided with a step 35 toward the inside, and has a distance D from the outer peripheral surface of the main body 11. Reference numeral 32 denotes a drive motor 13L-1 based on information from the direction measuring means 30 and the distance measuring means 31.
This is a traveling control unit that controls the 3R and controls traveling of the main body 11. Reference numeral 33 denotes a power supply including a storage battery or the like for supplying power to the whole.

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of the present embodiment, based on which the operation of the present embodiment will be described. Information of the direction measuring means 30, the distance measuring means 31, and the moving distance measuring means 13 'is transmitted to the traveling control means 32. At that time, the output of the distance measuring means 31 is converted into a distance from the outer peripheral surface of the main body 11 by the calculating means 34. The traveling control means 32 determines these information and outputs a control signal to the drive motors 13L and 13R to control the moving direction and the moving distance of the main body 11.

Next, the measurement distance conversion operation of the calculating means 34 will be described with reference to FIG. The distance measuring means 31 is a pair of both a transmission-only element and a reception-only element, and the transmission element first emits an ultrasonic wave for a certain period of time. The reflected wave emitted when the ultrasonic wave strikes an object existing outside the main body 11 returns to the main body 11 side and is caught by the receiving element. The calculating means 34 measures the distance L to the surrounding object from the time difference from the moment of the launch to the reception of the reflected wave. However, in the conventional device, when an object exists within a short distance d, a direct wave, in which an emitted wave goes directly to a receiving element, and a reflected wave cannot be temporally distinguished, and distance measurement cannot be performed.
In this embodiment, the installation portion of the distance measuring means 31 is configured so as to be offset by a distance D from the outer peripheral surface of the main body 11, and the distance D
Ignoring the reception within the time corresponding to, and removing the influence of the direct wave. That is, the distance D is input to the calculating means 34 in advance, and the distance l from the outer peripheral surface of the main body 11 to the surrounding object is calculated from the distance D and the measured distance L of the distance measuring means 31. Therefore, even for an object at a short distance from the main body 11, since the distance D exists at least, the distance can be measured.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the main body 11
Since the step 35 inward is provided in the installation portion 31a of the distance measuring means 31, the influence of sudden external impact such as contact or collision can be avoided. In other words, the distance measuring means 31 is guarded by the portions A and B of the main body 11 shown in FIG. 1, and does not directly impact the distance measuring means 31. Further, it is possible to realize a mobile work robot that can measure a short distance by using the outer peripheral surface of the main body 11 as a reference (distance 0).

The shape of the step 35 is preferably slightly open outward so that the step 35 reflects ultrasonic waves and does not adversely affect the distance measurement. Further, there is no problem even if the length of the offset D is different for each of the plurality of distance measuring means 31 due to the body shape of the main body 11 or other reasons. Further, the arrangement of the pair of the transmitting element and the receiving element of the distance measuring means 31 may be any of the horizontal direction in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction in the vertical direction.

(Embodiment 2) Next, an embodiment of the second means of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the overall configuration of this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted. In this embodiment, the installation portion 31a of the distance measuring means 31 in FIG.
And can be separated from the chassis 11a. Also, the cover 11b of the main body 11 can be separated and handled independently.

With the above configuration, the mutual influence of the plurality of distance measuring means 31 (wraparound from other pairs, interference,
When it is desired to separately investigate the blind spots and other troubles separately from other functions of the mobile work robot, only this portion can be freely removed and easily investigated.

[0018]

As described above, according to the first means of the present invention, the driving means and the steering means for moving the main body, the distance measuring means for measuring the distance to the object around the main body, and the driving means Travel control means for controlling the steering means based on the information from the distance measuring means to control the travel of the main body, and calculation for converting the distance from the distance measuring means to the surrounding object to a distance from the outer peripheral surface of the main body Means for performing operations such as cleaning, and the installation portion of the distance measuring means is provided with a step inside so that the distance measuring means receives sudden external impact such as contact or collision. A mobile work robot that is difficult to measure and can measure a short distance can be provided.

Further, according to the second means of the present invention, in addition to the first means, the installation portion of the main body of the distance measuring means is separable from the main body, so that only the installation portion of the main body of the distance measuring means is provided. It is possible to provide a mobile work robot that can be easily taken out to easily examine the influence of a plurality of distance measuring means and the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a mobile work robot which is an embodiment of a first means of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the mobile work robot.

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of traveling control means of the mobile work robot.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the principle of distance measurement of the means of the mobile work robot and the conversion of the measured distance of the calculation means.

FIG. 5 is a side view of an installation portion of a distance measuring means of the mobile work robot which is an embodiment of the second means of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Main body 12 Drive wheel 13 Drive motor 13 'Moving distance detecting means 14 Follower wheel 30 Direction measuring means 31 Distance measuring means 31a Installation part of distance measuring means 32 Travel control means 34 Calculation means 35 Step

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Osamu Eguchi, Inventor 1006, Kadoma, Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A47L 11/10 A47L 11/24 G05D 1/02

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A driving means and a steering means for moving a main body, a distance measuring means for measuring a distance to an object around the main body,
Traveling control means for controlling the driving means and the steering means based on information from the distance measuring means to control traveling of the main body; and a distance from the distance measuring means to a surrounding object being a distance from an outer peripheral surface of the main body. A mobile work robot comprising: a calculation means for converting the distance into a distance; and a work means for performing a work such as cleaning, and an installation portion of the distance measurement means is provided with a step inside. 2. The mobile work robot according to claim 1, wherein an installation portion of the distance measuring means is separable from the main body.