JP3493708B2 - Walking simulator, control method thereof, and predictive control method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a walking simulator and a walking simulator which allow walking in any direction without changing the spatial position.
And a predictive control method thereof .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the realization of virtual reality has made it possible to easily experience a state of being in a space that does not actually exist. In virtual reality, the subject wears a headset that displays a stereoscopic image created by computer graphics technology on his / her head, and the viewpoint on the image is automatically moved according to the walking direction and distance. You can enjoy the atmosphere as if you were in that space.

[0003]

In virtual reality, the image displayed in front of the subject's eyes can be moved to any distant place by computer graphics technology. But,
When the subject walks in the image, it involves movement in a real space, so for example, to enjoy the atmosphere of walking in vast nature or a building, a large space is actually required for the subject to move, This could not be achieved in a small room in a building.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is suitable for virtual reality and the like, and a walking simulation apparatus capable of walking in an arbitrary direction without changing a spatial position and a control method thereof. Another object is to provide a predictive control method .

[0005]

The invention according to claim 1 is
A floor configured to be capable of carrying a person on the spot in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane, the person being on the floor
A moving floor that can walk in the direction, and a moving floor driving means that drives the moving floor in any angle direction within the plane,
Position detecting means for detecting the position of the person on the moving bed, and moving bed drive control means for controlling the moving bed driving means so that the position of the person detected by the position detecting means is always at a predetermined position. It will be done.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the moving floor drive control means floats above the moving floor of a person on the moving floor.
It is characterized by including a predictive control means for predicting a moving state of a person based on the detection of the moving state of one foot and predictively controlling the moving bed driving means so as to match the predicted result. The invention according to claim 7 is a floor configured so that a person can be carried and transported on the spot in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane.
And the person can walk on the floor in any direction.
A moving bed that can, comprising a moving bed drive means for driving the moving bed in an arbitrary angular orientation of that plane, the drive for the moving bed drive means is arranged around the predetermined origin of the moving bed A method of controlling a walking simulator that drives the moving floor in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane according to a driving direction and a driving speed ratio of a section, the method comprising: obtaining a position of a person on the moving floor; Calculating a driving direction and a driving speed ratio of each of the driving units necessary for returning the position of the person to the predetermined origin of the moving floor, and the calculating unit according to the calculated driving direction and the driving speed ratio. Driving each drive unit to return the position of the person to a predetermined origin on the moving floor. The invention according to claim 8 is a floor configured so that a person can be carried on the spot and conveyed in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane, and the person walks on the floor in an arbitrary direction.
A predictive control method for a walking simulator, comprising: a moving floor capable of moving and a moving bed driving means for driving the moving floor in an arbitrary angular direction within a plane thereof. Detecting the positions of the left and right feet, and floating the detected left and right feet of the person from the moving floor
The method includes the steps of predicting the direction and speed of walking from the movement of the position of one foot, and driving the moving bed in the direction opposite to the predicted direction.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the position of the person on the moving floor is detected and the moving floor is drive-controlled so as to always come to the predetermined position. Therefore, the person can determine the spatial position on the moving floor. It can walk in any direction without changing, and can be applied to virtual reality or the like.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the moving floor is driven by detecting the movement of the first moving foot of the human body during walking and predicting the movement of the person based on the detected movement. Can be driven early, which makes it possible to follow the movement of a person well.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, (a) is a vertical cross-sectional view of the walking simulator 10, and (b) is a plan view. The walking simulator 10 supports a rigid sphere 14 on a base 12 so that it can rotate in any direction on the spot. A fixed floor 16 is arranged above the base 12 in a state of being fixed to a wall surface 18 around the fixed floor 16. A circular opening 20 is formed at the center of the fixed floor 16, and the top of the rigid sphere 14 is exposed from the opening 20 to form a moving floor 22. A person 23 walks on the moving floor 22.

The rigid sphere 14 may be one that allows the visible light and infrared rays of the position detecting sensor to pass therethrough, and is, for example, a hollow sphere made of transparent vinyl chloride, transparent hard acrylic resin or the like having a thickness that does not crush even if a person gets on it. Can be composed of Rigid sphere 14
2, the size of the step surface (moving floor) 22
Is a circle with a diameter of 1 m and a convex shape with a height of 10 cm,
The radius of the sphere is about 130 cm. In order to reduce friction when the rigid sphere 14 rotates, the rigid sphere 14 is rotatably supported on the base 12 by 3 to 5 steel balls 24.

Around the rigid sphere 14, three driving units 26 for rotatably driving the rigid sphere 14 are arranged at equal intervals, for example. The drive unit 26 (26-1 to 26-3) is shown in FIG.
As shown in enlarged form, a motor 30 (step motor or the like) is fixed to the tip of a hydraulic arm 28 fixed to the wall surface 18, and a drive roller 3 made of rubber or the like is attached to the rotation shaft of the motor 30.
It is configured by attaching 2. The peripheral surface 32a of the drive roller 32 is rounded so that the hydraulic arm 28 makes contact with the peripheral surface 14a of the rigid sphere 14 at a right angle to the equator position (center position in the vertical direction of the sphere) with an appropriate pressing force. There is. The rotation axis of the drive roller 32 is set in the horizontal direction, whereby the rigid sphere 14 is rotationally driven in any direction with an arbitrary axis in the horizontal direction passing through the center point 36 of the sphere as the rotation axis. Therefore, the moving floor 24 formed on the top of the rigid sphere 14 can move in an arbitrary angular direction within its horizontal plane.

A weight 40 is housed inside the rigid sphere 14. The weight 40 is supported on the inner peripheral surface of the rigid sphere 14 through three to five steel balls 43 arranged on the lower surface of the weight 40. positioned. A column 42 is erected vertically at the center of the weight 40, and a sensor unit 38 is arranged thereon so as to face the inner peripheral surface of the top of the rigid sphere 14 with a minute gap.

On the upper surface of the sensor section 38, as shown in FIG. 4, a large number of position detecting sensors 44 having a light projector and a light receiver are arranged upward at a predetermined interval. Each sensor 44 projects sensor light 45 such as visible light or infrared light above it, and is reflected by the soles 48 of the feet 46 that land on or float above the moving floor 22 above it. The position of the left and right feet 46 is detected by receiving the light.
As shown in FIG. 4A, assuming that the size of the foot (shoe) 46 is b × c (normally c> 2b), the arrangement interval a of the position detection sensor 44 should be set to, for example, a <b. You can With this setting, the sensor 4 is placed on the sole of each foot 46.
Approximately 2 or more 4 will be included.

The sensor unit 38 shown in FIG. 1 contains an arithmetic unit 50 for calculating the position of the person 23 on the moving floor 22 based on the detection information of the position detection sensor 44. Arithmetic unit 5
0 is, for example, the center of gravity of a polygon or a straight line (FIG. 4A) formed by all the sensors 44 that detect left and right feet is determined as the center of gravity of the person 23, and this is output as information of the position of the person 23. can do. The information on the position of the person thus obtained is wirelessly transmitted from the antenna 52 to the outside.

A horizontal sensor (not shown) is provided in the sensor unit 38 in order to correct the shake of the sensor unit 38 caused by the movement of the rigid sphere 14, and the arithmetic unit 50 detects the position based on the detection information. The position information of the sensor 44 is corrected to calculate the position of the person 23. The position detection sensor 44, the horizontal sensor, the arithmetic device 50, the wireless device, etc. are driven by a battery (not shown) arranged in the sensor unit 38.

A control unit 54 is arranged on the fixed floor 16. The control unit 54 receives the position information of the person 23 sent from the sensor unit 52 by the antenna 56, and each drive unit 26-1 to 26- necessary for returning the position to the central position 22a of the moving floor 22. The driving direction and the driving speed of No. 3 are calculated, and the driving units 26-1 to 26-3 are driven.

Drive units 26-1 to 26 by the control unit 54
The driving method of -3 will be described. Now, as shown in FIG. 5, coordinates X and Y in the horizontal direction with the center position 22a of the moving floor 22 as the origin are set. Here, it is assumed that the position indicated by P in FIG. 5 is detected as the position of the person 23.
In this case, in order to return the person 23 to the center position 22a of the moving floor 22, it is sufficient to move the position of the point P along the locus indicated by the dotted line F. That is, if the angle of the locus F with respect to the Y axis is θ, it is sufficient to rotate the rigid sphere 14 in the arrow H direction around the axis G that is rotated by + θ ° in the X axis in the horizontal direction. To realize such rotation, the drive unit 2
The drive rollers 32 of 6-1 to 26-3 are attached to the rigid sphere 14
Distance r1 between each contact position and the rotation axis G at
The driving may be performed at a speed ratio according to r2 and r3. That is, assuming that the radius of the rigid sphere is d, r1 = d sin (60 ° −θ) r2 = d sin (60 ° + θ) r3 = d sin θ, and therefore the driving units 26-1, 26-2, 26 By driving -3 at a speed ratio of sin (60 ° -θ): sin (60 ° + θ): sin θ, the person at the point P can be returned to the center position 22a of the moving floor 22.

In the above embodiment, the position of the center of gravity of the person is obtained and feedback control is performed so that the position is at the center position of the moving bed 22, but in order to improve the responsiveness of the operation of the moving bed 22. , Predicting the direction and speed of a person's gait in advance from the movement of the left and right foot positions (the position of the foot floating from the moving floor 22 can also be detected, so the movement of the foot can be known from the change in that position). Thus, the predictive control for driving the drive unit 26 early can be performed together. In that case, in addition to the position of the center of gravity of the person, the arithmetic unit 56 determines the position of the center of gravity of each of the left and right legs such that the position of the sensor 44 that detects the foot is connected to each other. Obtain it as a position and send it to the outside.

Prediction control means 60 is incorporated in the control unit 54, predicts the direction and speed of walking from the movements of the positions of the left and right feet, and moves the rigid sphere 1 in the opposite direction.
By driving No. 4, the followability to the movement of the person 23 can be improved.

Further, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, when the sensor portion 38 rotates in the horizontal direction, the position detected by the sensor 44 deviates from the actual position. In order to prevent this, for example, as shown in FIG. 6A, magnets 62 are attached at a plurality of positions on the outer periphery of the weight 40 at equal intervals, and the base 1
By attaching a magnet 64 of opposite polarity to the magnet 2 so as to face it and keeping them in a suction state, the weight 4
A direction in which 0 does not rotate horizontally can be considered. Further, as another method, as shown in FIG.
A bar code 66 indicating the circumferential position of the weight 40 is written on the entire circumferential surface of the weight 40. On the other hand, a bar code reader 68 is installed on the base 12 to read the bar code 66, and the read information is calculated by an arithmetic unit (see FIG. a)) Send to sensor 44
A possible method is to correct the position information of.

[0021]

Other Embodiments Although the sensor for detecting the position of the person is arranged inside the rigid sphere 14 in the above embodiment, it may be arranged outside. Fig. 7 shows an example of the fixed bed 1
A light projector 70 and a light receiver 74 are arranged in the X-axis direction across the moving floor 22 on the upper surface of the movable member 6, and a light projector 72 and a light receiver 76 are arranged opposite to each other in the Y-axis direction. Light beams 78 and 80 are emitted from the light projectors 70 and 72 in the horizontal direction at predetermined intervals in the X-axis and Y-axis directions, and are received by the light-receiving elements of the light-receivers 74 and 76. Since the light rays at the positions where the feet 46, 46 are present are blocked, the moving floor 22 is detected depending on the presence or absence of the received light signal at each position in the X axis direction and the Y axis direction.
The position of the upper foot 46 can be detected.

Further, FIG. 8 shows another example, in which the TV camera 82 is arranged downward just above the center position 22a of the moving floor 22, and the image signal thereof is processed by the image processing circuit 84. By doing so, the position of the person 23 on the moving floor 22 can be detected. Rigid sphere 14 in both FIGS.
Does not have to be transparent, and metal spheres, FRP spheres and the like can be used.

Further, although the moving bed is made of rigid spheres in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in FIG. 9, the flexible curtain 86 having a large area is covered on the step 88 and is driven by a driving unit 90 using rollers, so that the person 2
3 is a flexible curtain 8 in any direction without moving the position in space
You can walk to the end of 6. in this case,
As the sensor for detecting the position of the person 23, if the flexible curtain 86 is transparent, for example, an optical sensor embedded in the upper surface of the step 88 can be used, and if not transparent, for example, on the upper surface of the step 88 at predetermined intervals. Arranged pressure sensors can be used.

The present invention is not limited to virtual reality, and can be used for various training applications such as a walking training device.

[0025]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the position of a person on the moving floor is detected and the moving bed is drive-controlled so as to always stay at the predetermined position. Thus, a person can walk in any direction without changing the spatial position, and can be applied to virtual reality and the like.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the movement of the foot that first moves in the human body during walking is detected, and the movement of the person is predicted based on the detected movement of the foot to drive the moving floor. Can be driven early, which makes it possible to follow the movement of a person well.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view and a plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the moving floor 22 of FIG.

3A and 3B are a side view and a plan view showing a detailed configuration of a drive unit 26 in FIG.

4A and 4B are a plan view and a vertical cross-sectional view showing a detailed configuration of the sensor unit 38 in FIG.

5 is a plan view showing a driving method of the driving unit 26 in FIG. 1. FIG.

6 is a front view showing a measure against horizontal rotation of the weight 40 in FIG. 1. FIG.

7A and 7B are a plan view and a vertical sectional view showing another embodiment of the position detecting means.

FIG. 8 is a layout view and a detection processing block diagram showing still another embodiment of the position detection means.

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view and a plan view showing another embodiment of the moving bed.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Walking simulator 22 moving floor 23 people 26 Drive Unit (Drive Means) 44 Position detection sensor (position detection means) 54 control unit (moving floor drive control means) 60 Predictive control means

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Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A floor constructed so that a person can be placed and transported on the spot in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane, the person being the floor.
A moving floor capable of walking on an arbitrary direction, a moving floor driving means for driving the moving floor in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane, and a position detecting means for detecting a position of a person on the moving floor. A walking simulator comprising: a moving floor drive control means for controlling the moving floor drive means so that the position of the person detected by the position detecting means is always at a predetermined position. 2. The moving floor drive control means predicts a moving state of a person on the basis of detection of a moving state of a foot of the person floating on the moving floor of the person on the moving floor, and conforms to the prediction result. The walking simulator according to claim 1, further comprising a predictive control means for predictively controlling the moving floor drive means. 3. The moving floor comprises a rigid sphere top,
A rigid sphere rotates around an arbitrary horizontal axis passing through the center of the sphere.
Claim 1 or which is rotationally driven as an axis of rotation in an arbitrary direction.
2. The walking simulation device described in 2. 4. A state in which a fixed floor is fixed to a wall surface around the fixed floor.
And an opening is formed in the fixed floor.
And the top of the rigid sphere is exposed to form the moving floor.
The walking simulator according to claim 3. 5. The walking simulation device according to claim 1 , wherein the walking simulation device is used for walking a virtual reality subject whose viewpoint on an image is movable. 6. The walking simulator according to claim 1, which is used for walking training. 7. A floor configured so that a person can be carried and transported on the spot in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane, the person being the floor.
It comprises a moving floor that can walk on an arbitrary direction, and a moving floor driving means that drives the moving floor in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane, and the moving floor driving means is a predetermined part of the moving floor. Is a control method of a walking simulator that drives the moving floor in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane according to the driving direction and the driving speed ratio of each driving unit arranged around the origin of the moving floor. A step of obtaining the position of the person, a step of calculating a drive direction and a drive speed ratio of each of the drive units necessary for returning the obtained position of the person to a predetermined origin of the moving bed, and the calculated A method of controlling a walking simulator, comprising the step of driving each of the driving units according to a driving direction and a driving speed ratio to return the position of a person to a predetermined origin on the moving floor. 8. A floor configured so that a person can be placed and transported on the spot in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane, the person being the floor.
A predictive control method for a walking simulator, comprising: a moving floor capable of walking in an arbitrary direction and a moving floor driving means for driving the moving floor in an arbitrary angular direction within the plane. Detecting the positions of the left and right feet of the person on the moving floor, and the detected left and right feet of the person floating from the moving floor.
A predictive control method for a walking simulator, comprising: a step of predicting a walking direction and a speed from the movement of the foot position of one foot ; and a step of driving the moving floor in a direction opposite to the predicted direction.