JP3538922B2 - Window cleaning 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 window cleaning robot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 31355 discloses a "window-wiping robot" as shown in FIGS. In FIG. 7, balance winches 3a and 3b are provided on the roof of the building.
The window-wiping robot 2 is suspended from ropes 4a and 4b extending from this. In this way, the window 1 is automatically wiped. The window wiping robot 2 includes four vacuum pads arranged diagonally inside the outer frame 5 as shown in detail in FIG. 6a, 6b, 6c, 6
d, four cylinders 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d for connecting these vacuum pads to each other, and a support made of a material such as a sponge for covering the inner and outer peripheral portions thereof.

When the window wiping robot 2 moves upward, for example, the vacuum pads 6c and 6d are attracted to the window 1, while the vacuum pads 6a and 6b are released. In this state, a cleaning agent or the like is ejected from an ejection port (not shown) formed in the support, and simultaneously the cylinders 7a and 7b
To extend the vacuum pad 6a located forward.
Vacuum pads 6c and 6d with adsorbed vacuum pads 6b and 6b
And move it upwards. Next, the front vacuum pads 6a and 6b are sucked to the window 1, the rear vacuum pads 6c and 6d are released from the window 1, and the cylinders 7a and 7b that have been operated to extend earlier are sucked to the vacuum pads 6a and 6b. At the same time, the rear vacuum pads 6c and 6d are moved upward, and the window wiping robot 2 is moved upward by a predetermined stroke. As described above, the robot 2 moves upward, but the downward movement is completely opposite to the above-described case, and the vacuum pads 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d and the cylinders 7a,
The operation is performed by operating 7b, 7c, and 7d. Similarly, while moving in the left-right direction, the window surface is cleaned, and dirty detergent water and the like are successively sucked from the suction pipe and discharged to the outside. .

However, when the robot body 2 moves, the reaction force of the vacuum pad adsorbed on the window 1 is used, so that it is considered that a very strong suction action is required. Pads 6a, 6b, 6c,
6d and a cylinder 7 to which the tip is connected
It is considered that the support structure of the support members a, 7b, 7c, and 7d in the support body is complicated.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-150821 discloses a "glass cleaning apparatus for buildings", in which a window-wiping robot is moved up, down, left and right by a selective vacuum action of a vacuum pad.
Similar to the above publication, the air cylinder is moved by the expansion and contraction action of the air cylinder. At that time, a large reaction force is applied to the vacuum pad adsorbed on the window glass, so that a strong vacuum action is required.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and provides a windowing robot which does not require a large suction force on a vacuum pad and has a simple supporting structure for a suction mechanism. The purpose is to do.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a main rotating shaft rotatably provided at each of four corners of a rectangular frame, a first arm having one end connected to the main rotating shaft, A first bearing member coupled to the other end of the first arm; a first rotating shaft pivotally supported by the first bearing member; a sub-drive ring spline-engaged with the first rotating shaft; A second arm having one end coupled to the drive ring, a second bearing member coupled to the other end of the second arm, a second rotating shaft pivotally supported by the second bearing member; First and second vacuum pads respectively attached to the distal end of the second rotating shaft, a main driving unit for rotating the main rotating shaft, a sub-driving unit for rotating and driving the first rotating shaft , A window cleaning robot comprising a vacuum pump connected to each of the first and second vacuum pads via a switching valve, and a cleaning liquid jetting means; , It is achieved by.

[0008]

By rotating the main drive ring fixed to the main rotation shaft clockwise or counterclockwise by the main drive unit, the first drive ring is connected to the first arm via the first arm.
The first rotating shaft that is supported by the bearing member is rotated around the main rotating shaft. Similarly, by rotating the first rotating shaft clockwise or counterclockwise by the sub-drive unit, the second bearing member connected to the second arm via the second arm is supported by the second bearing member. The two rotation axes are rotated about the first rotation axis. At this time,
The first vacuum pad attached to the tip of the first rotating shaft is in a non-vacuum state, and the second vacuum pad attached to the tip of the second rotating shaft is
If the vacuum pad is vacuumed and adsorbed to the window glass, the windowing robot can move freely in parallel with the window glass surface.

[0009]

1 and 2, on a roof of a building 10, a roof hoisting device 12 having a built-in control device in which information on the wall surface of the building is input is mounted on a bogie 13 and moves left and right along a guide rail 14. It is arranged movably. A windowing robot 15 according to the present invention is suspended from the lower end of a wire rope R that hangs downward from the hoisting device 12.
Now, the window cleaning robot 15 is in a state of being attracted to one of the many windows 11 of the building 10. Hereinafter, details of the window cleaning robot 15 will be described with reference to FIGS.

A cleaning liquid tank 17 and a vacuum pump 18 are mounted on an upper portion of a frame 16 having a substantially rectangular planar shape. The vacuum pump 18 is connected to an electric wire embedded in a wire rope R (not shown). It is configured to obtain power. Further, a polisher exchanging device 20 is attached to a lower portion of the frame body 16, and in this embodiment, four spare polishers are provided, so that a wide range of glass surface can be cleaned. Further, a position sensor (not shown) is built in the frame body 16 and always detects the relative position of the robot 15 with respect to the window glass 11.

A polisher device 42 is attached to a movable member 24 which is guided by a pair of guide members 23 disposed on the frame 16 and is movable in the vertical direction. It is movable laterally with respect to the bottom. The polisher device 42 includes the drive motor 19
And a polisher 40 fixed to the lower end of the rotating shaft. The required polisher liquid is supplied from the cleaning nozzle 41 to the window glass through a pipe connected to the cleaning liquid tank 17 (not shown). It is configured to be ejected. Here, the vertical movement of the moving member,
The movement of the polisher device 42 and the driving of the drive motor 19 are configured to obtain drive power via an electric wire buried in the wire rope R, not shown.

At the four corners of the frame 16, vacuum suction mechanisms 21A, 21B, 21C and 21D having the same structure are mounted. Hereinafter, the details of the vacuum suction mechanism 21B will be described as a representative.

At the four corners of the frame 16, main motors M for rotating the main rotation shaft 31 clockwise and counterclockwise are attached. A main drive ring G is fixed to the main rotation shaft 31b, and one end of a first arm 32b is fixed to the main drive ring G, and the other end of the first arm 32b can rotate the first rotation shaft 36b. It is fixed to the first bearing member 33b to be supported. The first rotating shaft 36b is driven to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise by the sub motor m. An auxiliary drive ring g is spline-engaged with the first rotating shaft 36b,
Further, one end of a second arm 34b is fixed to the auxiliary drive ring g, and the other end of the second arm 34b is fixed to a second bearing member 35b that rotatably supports the second rotation shaft 37b. Further, in this embodiment, a pad lifting / lowering device V which is operated by an electric motor is installed in each vacuum pad, and has a structure capable of getting over a projection on the wall surface of the building.

First and second vacuum pads B ₁ and B ₂ are attached to the lower ends of the first rotary shaft 36b and the second rotary shaft 37b, and these have a known configuration. Although not shown, they are connected to the vacuum pump 18 via piping to which switching valves are respectively connected.

The windowing robot according to the embodiment of the present invention is constructed as described above. Next, the operation of the robot will be described.

The window-wiping robot 15 raised and lowered by the hoisting device 12 through the wire rope R to the predetermined window 11 of the building 10 is provided with vacuum suction mechanisms 21A, 21B, 21C attached to the four corners of the frame 16 and By operating 21D, it is adsorbed on the window glass 11 and supports the robot 15 itself. In addition, as the operation state of the window cleaning robot 15, the polisher device 42 is located on the left side of the moving member 24, and the moving member 24 is located above the guide member 23.
A predetermined amount of the cleaning liquid is continuously ejected from the cleaning nozzle 41 toward the window glass 11, and the polisher 40 starts rotating and starts cleaning the window glass 11 by driving the drive motor 19, and at the same time, the entire polisher device 42 is moved by the moving member. Start moving to the right along 24. When the polisher device 42 reaches the right end of the moving member 24, the moving member 24 descends by a predetermined length. Then, the polisher device 42 starts to move leftward. By repeating these operations, the window glass 11 in the movement range Q of the polisher
Is washed.

After wiping the window of the predetermined area Q , the robot 1
5 is to change places.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the case where the window cleaning robot 15 moves to the right will be described. Now, the robot 15 has the vacuum pads A ₁ , A ₂ , B ₁ , B ₂ , C as shown in FIG. 5A.
₁ , C ₂ , D ₁ and D ₂ are located, and several vacuum pads are always adsorbed to the window glass. In this state, FIG.
As shown by hatching, the vacuum pads A ₁ , B ₁ , C ₁ and D ₁ are brought into a vacuum state by switching a switching valve (not shown), and the other vacuum pads A ₂ , B ₂ , C
The ₂ and D ₂ the switching valve to the non-vacuum state. Next, by driving the sub motor m, the vacuum pads A ₂ and B ₂ are driven to rotate clockwise by a predetermined angle in the drawing, and the vacuum pads C ₂ and B ₂ are rotated.
₂ and D ₂ is rotated counterclockwise by the same predetermined angle. This causes each vacuum pad to assume a position as shown in FIG. 5B, and then the vacuum pads A ₁ , B ₁ , C ₁
And D ₁ are brought into a non-vacuum state by switching the switching valve, and the vacuum pads A ₂ , B ₂ , C ₂ and D ₂ are brought into a vacuum state. Then the vacuum pads B ₁ counterclockwise about the main rotating shaft 31b by a drive of the main motor M, The main rotating shaft 31d
The vacuum pads D ₁ by driving rotating 90 degrees clockwise to substantially equal distance in the width of the frame 16 of the window wiping robot 15 to the right as shown in FIG. 5C around the.

When the windowing robot 15 moves to the left, the vacuum pads may be rotationally driven to the opposite side from the above-described case of moving to the right. That is, the vacuum pad A
₂ and B ₂ are rotated counterclockwise and the vacuum pads C ₂ and D ₂ are rotated clockwise by a predetermined angle.
_The windowing robot 15 is moved to the left by a distance substantially equal to the width of the frame 16 by rotating the vacuum pad C1 90 degrees counterclockwise and ₁ clockwise.

Next, a case where the window cleaning robot 15 is moved upward and downward will be described with reference to FIG. First,
Each vacuum pad A ₁ , A ₂ , B ₁ , B ₂ , C ₁ , C ₂ , D
₁ and D ₂ to the state shown in Figure 6A. With the vacuum pads A ₂ , B ₂ , C ₂ and D ₂ in a vacuum state and the vacuum pads A ₁ , B ₁ , C ₁ and D ₁ in a non-vacuum state, the rotation of the main motor M causes the vacuum pads A ₁ , B ₁ , C ₁
And D ₁ 6B and is rotated window cleaner robot 15 as shown in Figure 6C can be moved upward and downward.

After the window cleaning robot 15 moves to a predetermined place, the polisher 42 starts operating again to perform a new cleaning range Q. The windowing robot 15 cleans the entire surface of the window glass 11 by repeating the above-described operation. However, the window cleaning robot 15 gets over a projection (a window frame, a crossbar, or the like) between the windows and, for example, moves to the right side. The case of moving to the window glass will be described below.

The window cleaning robot 15 is located at the right end of the window glass 11. Then, each vacuum pad operates as described above for the lateral movement, but the full vacuum pad once separates the polisher device 42 from the glass surface by the pad elevating device V. Then, it rises in order from the vacuum surface over the projection portion so as to separate from the glass surface, descends again after passing over the projection portion, and is sucked on the glass surface. By performing this operation by each vacuum pad, the window cleaning robot 15 can easily move over the projection and move to the adjacent window glass.

Further, when the polisher 40 continues to operate for a predetermined time, the polisher 40 becomes significantly worn or deteriorated, and the desired cleaning effect cannot be obtained.
Since the polisher device 42 moves to the position of 0 and is replaced with a new spare polisher by an automatic exchange mechanism (not shown), the window cleaning robot 15 can clean a wide range of window glass by one automatic operation. is there.

Window cleaning robot 15 according to an embodiment of the present invention
Performs the above operations, but can move up, down, left and right without applying a large reaction force to the vacuum pad as in the past, and since its mounting structure is almost the same as the joint structure of the robot, Extremely simple. Furthermore, unlike the prior art, in which the robot body moves continuously to clean the window glass, the cleaning operation and the moving operation are separate operations in the present invention. Since it is supported by several vacuum pads and the frame (frame) 16 of the robot 15 has an open structure, it hardly receives wind pressure due to gusts, so that the safety is high.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is, of course, not limited to these, and various modifications can be made based on the technical concept of the present invention.

For example, in this embodiment, the polisher 42
Was installed only in one place, but a plurality of windows
The cleaning efficiency of (1) may be increased. Further, the shape of the frame 16 may be a square or a horizontally long rectangle according to the shape of the window glass.

[0027]

As described above, according to the windowing robot of the present invention, since a large reaction force is not applied to the vacuum pad, the vacuum suction force can be made much smaller, and at the same time, a large Since no load is applied, there is no need to improve the strength of the window glass. Further, the mounting structure of the vacuum pad can be simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a working state of a window cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention together with a part of a building.

FIG. 2 is a partial longitudinal sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view showing details of a window cleaning robot in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing the operation of the window cleaning robot.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing another operation of the window cleaning robot.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a conventional window-wiping robot together with a building.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view showing details of the window cleaning robot in FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

15 Window cleaning robot 16 Frame 17 Cleaning liquid tank 18 Vacuum pump 31 Main rotating shaft 32 First arm 33 First bearing member 34 Second arm 35 Second bearing member 36 First rotating shaft 37 Second rotating shaft 41 Cleaning nozzle A ₁ First vacuum pad A ₂ second vacuum pad B ₁ first vacuum pad B ₂ second vacuum pad C ₁ first vacuum pad C ₂ second vacuum pad D ₁ first vacuum pad D ₂ 2 vacuum pads G main drive ring g sub drive ring M main motor m sub motor V pad elevating device

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A main rotating shaft rotatably provided at each of four corners of a rectangular frame, a first arm having one end coupled to the main rotating shaft, and a first arm coupled to the other end of the first arm. A first bearing member, a first rotating shaft supported by the first bearing member,
A sub-drive ring spline-engaged with the first rotation shaft, a second arm having one end coupled to the sub-drive ring,
A second bearing member coupled to the other end of the arm, a second rotating shaft pivotally supported by the second bearing member, and first and second shafts respectively attached to distal ends of the first and second rotating shafts; (2) a vacuum pad, a main drive unit for rotatingly driving the main rotary shaft, and the first
A sub-driving unit that rotationally drives a rotating shaft , a vacuum pump connected to the first and second vacuum pads via respective switching valves,
A window cleaning robot including a cleaning liquid jetting means. 2. The windowing robot according to claim 1, wherein the first and second rotating shafts are provided so as to be able to reciprocate in the axial direction. 3. The window-wiping robot according to claim 1, wherein a polisher device movable to clean an area surrounded by the frame is provided in the frame.