JP4437422B2 - Wheeled vehicle - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wheel-type traveling vehicle.

  In general, a vehicle that is premised on unmanned operation, such as remote control or self-propelled type, needs to effectively prevent a stacking state in which the driving wheel 1 is lifted up during obstacle traveling and cannot move, and toppling over.

  And the thing of patent document 1 is known as a wheel type traveling vehicle effective in avoiding a stack state. In this conventional example, the vehicle includes a pair of wheels disposed at one end of the substrate and a pair of wheels disposed before and after a support member connected to the other end of the substrate so as to be vertically rotatable.

  Since the support member can rotate vertically with respect to the substrate, even if the front wheel of the support member rides on an obstacle, the landing of the other wheel on the traveling path is ensured, so the traveling is continued. be able to.

However, this conventional example is premised on manned operation, and does not include measures against falling or the like. And in order to prevent falls during unmanned driving, especially falling due to steep climbs, it is generally necessary to recognize the angle of the slope using a number of distance sensors such as optical or ultrasonic waves. There is a problem that it is expensive.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-611168

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to provide a wheel-type traveling device that can efficiently prevent a fall due to a stacked state and a steep slope.

  In the present invention, the wheel-type travel device vertically rotates a first wheel support portion 3 that supports both the drive wheel 1 and the auxiliary wheel 2 and a second wheel support portion 4 that supports only the auxiliary wheel 2. The wheels 1 and 2 are arranged at positions where the device can stand by itself as a whole. Only one or a plurality of auxiliary wheels 2 arranged in the lateral direction are arranged on the second wheel support portion 4 and cannot stand alone, and the first wheel support portion 3 and the second wheel support are supported. Since the connecting part with the part 4 is set at an intermediate position between the driving wheel 1 and the auxiliary wheel 2 on the first wheel support part 3, on the first and second wheel support parts 3, 4 Even when a load (L) is applied, both the driving wheel 1 and the auxiliary wheel 2 of the first wheel support portion 3 are loaded with the pressing force to the travel path. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2A, the drive wheel 1 is grounded to the traveling road surface with a predetermined pressure regardless of whether the bent portion of the inclined surface (S) is disposed before or after the first wheel support portion 3. Therefore, the stack state as shown in FIG. 2B does not occur.

  Moreover, the angle sensor 5 arrange | positioned at the connection part of the 1st, 2nd wheel support parts 3 and 4 is the actual inclination when the wheels 1 and 2 of the 1st wheel support part 3 ride on an inclined surface (S). Is detected accurately regardless of the road surface condition. On the other hand, since the relationship between the inclination angle of the inclined surface (S) and the occurrence of overturning can be known in advance, for example, when the output from the angle sensor 5 exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the vehicle is moved backward or signaled. It is possible to turn around the ground and bypass the inclined surface (S) or the obstacle, and it is possible to effectively prevent the fall without using a large number of complicated sensors.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the fall by a stack state and steep slope climbing can be prevented efficiently.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the wheel-type travel device is formed by supporting a drive wheel 1 and an auxiliary wheel 2 on first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4. The first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4 are connected to each other through a rotary hinge 6 so as to be vertically rotatable, and form a circular shape in a plan view in the connected state. In FIG. 1B, the first wheel support portion 3 is shown to be positioned below the second wheel support portion 4 for easy understanding, but is disposed on the same plane. It may be a thing.

  Two drive wheels 1 and 1 and one auxiliary wheel 2 are supported on the first wheel support portion 3. The drive wheels 1 can be driven to rotate in directions opposite to each other, and are arranged at positions close to the circumference on a circular center line. In addition, the auxiliary wheel 2 is arranged at the apex position of an isosceles triangle whose base is the line segment connecting the two drive wheels 1, and as a result, the wheel on the first wheel support 3 is Occupies three locations at 90 ° pitch.

  On the other hand, one auxiliary wheel 2 is supported by the second wheel support portion 4. The auxiliary wheel 2 on the second wheel support part 4 is arranged at a position opposite to the auxiliary wheel 2 on the first wheel support part 3 with a line segment connecting the drive wheels 1 and 1 therebetween, and these two auxiliary wheels. 2 and the two drive wheels 1 are located approximately at the apex of the rhombus. The auxiliary wheels 2 on the first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4 are connected to the wheel support portions 3 and 4 so as to freely turn (horizontal rotation).

  The rotary hinge 6 that connects the first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4 formed as described above is parallel to the line segment connecting the drive wheels 1 and 1 and forward of the line segment, that is, It arrange | positions in the position which approached the auxiliary | assistant wheel 2 side on the 1st wheel support part 3. FIG. The first wheel support portion 3 has a protrusion formed on the second wheel support portion 4 so that the first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4 can relatively rotate around the rotary hinge 6 without interfering with each other. A cutout portion 3a into which the portion 4a is fitted is formed, and the rotary hinge 6 is disposed at the abutting portion between the protrusion 4a and the cutout portion 3a.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, when the load (L) is placed on the first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4, as shown in FIG. The first wheel support part 3 rotates vertically around the rotary hinge 6 so that the auxiliary wheel 2 and the drive wheel 1 are brought into contact with the inclined surface (S) due to the load on the first wheel support part 3, for example, FIG. As shown in b), the driving wheel 1 does not cause a stuck state in which it floats in the air.

  On the flat ground, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), when the drive wheels 1 are rotated in opposite directions, couples are generated around the center of the circular shape indicated by the black dots in FIG. 4 (a). To do. In this state, since the auxiliary wheel 2 is turnable, the auxiliary wheel 2 faces in the lateral direction and follows the direction of the couple, and as a result, accurate belief turning is performed around the center of the circular shape. In addition, in the figure, the rotation center of each wheel 1 and 2 is shown with a dashed-dotted line.

  Further, since these wheels 1 and 2 are arranged on the first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4 that are circular in a connected state, only the front auxiliary wheel 2 is caught in the bag path and cannot turn. Problems such as falling into are completely prevented.

  An angle sensor 5 is attached to the connecting portion of the first and second wheel support portions 3 and 4. The angle sensor 5 can detect a relative angle change between the first wheel support portion 3 and the second wheel support portion 4, and a potentiometer or a pulse encoder can be used. The output from the angle sensor 5 is controlled. It is sent to the device 7 and various controls are performed.

  In the control device 7, the output from the angle sensor 5 is subjected to AD conversion, for example, and then input to the control unit 7 a operated by a computer program in which a traveling control algorithm is described. The control unit 7 a controls the motor control driver based on the angle detection result by the angle sensor 5 and adjusts the power transmission to the drive wheel 1.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of control in the control unit 7a. First, the control unit 7a controls the drive wheel 1 to move toward a predetermined purpose, and moves the device forward (step S1). When the control unit 7a receives the output from the angle sensor 5 (step S2), it determines whether or not the climbing is possible from the angle data (step S3), and if possible, searches the map database 8 and searches for the inclination angle. Is registered in the database 8 (step S4).

  When the inclination angle of the floor surface matches the registered value in step S4, the running is continued as it is (step S5). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S3 that climbing is impossible, or if the inclination angle of the inclined surface (S) is different from the registered value in step S4, the traveling is stopped, and then the vehicle is turned and retreated ( In step S6), the current position is identified (step S7), the route is recalculated (step S8), and the process returns to step S1.

  In the above, the case where one auxiliary wheel 2 is arranged on the second wheel support portion 4 has been shown. However, as shown in FIG. If a plurality (two in FIG. 4B) are arranged in the conditions, stability is improved and rollover is difficult.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. In the description of the present embodiment, components that are substantially the same as those of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals in the drawing, and description thereof is omitted.
In this embodiment, one driving wheel 1 and two auxiliary wheels 2 are arranged on the first wheel support portion 3. The auxiliary wheel 2 and the driving wheel 1 are arranged at positions where the driving wheel 1 and the auxiliary wheel 2 in the above-described embodiment are interchanged, and the auxiliary wheel 2 is parallel to the rotary hinge 6 and is in a circular diametrical direction. The drive wheel 1 is arranged on a perpendicular bisector of a line segment connecting the auxiliary wheels 2.

In this embodiment, the driving wheel 1 can be rotated horizontally, that is, can be steered, and the auxiliary wheel 2 on the base 1 wheel support 2 cannot be turned.
Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5A, when the driving wheel 1 is driven by horizontally rotating the driving wheel 1 by 90 ° horizontally and driving the driving wheel 1, turning around the center of the circular shape. It can be performed.

It is a figure which shows this invention, (a) is a top view, (b) is a side view. It is a side view which shows the driving | running | working state of an apparatus, (a) is an apparatus of FIG. 1, (b) is a figure which shows the apparatus which does not have a rotation hinge. It is a flowchart of a control part. It is a figure which shows operation | movement of an apparatus, (a) is a figure which shows a belief turning state, (b) is a top view which shows the modification of (a). It is a figure which shows other embodiment of this invention, (a) is a top view, (b) is a figure which shows the belief turning state of (a).

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Drive wheel 2 Auxiliary wheel 3 1st wheel support part 4 2nd wheel support part 5 Angle sensor

Claims (4)

A first wheel support portion in which driving wheels and auxiliary wheels are arranged in the front-rear direction;
A second wheel support unit that is coupled to be vertically rotatable at an intermediate position between the drive wheel and the auxiliary wheel, and supports one or a plurality of auxiliary wheels disposed rearward from the drive wheel;
An angle sensor disposed at the connecting portion of the wheel support portion,
A wheel-type traveling device that can determine the inclination of the road surface from the output from the angle sensor. In the first wheel support portion, a pair of drive wheels that can be driven to rotate reverse to each other are disposed on the left and right, and the auxiliary wheel is disposed in front of the first wheel support portion at the center position in the width direction.
2. The wheel-type travel device according to claim 1, wherein all the auxiliary wheels are mounted on the wheel support portion so as to freely rotate in a turning direction. In the wheel type traveling device according to claim 2,
In place of the auxiliary wheel on the first wheel support portion, one steerable drive wheel is arranged,
A wheel-type traveling device in which auxiliary wheels that are unable to turn are arranged instead of driving wheels. The first and second wheel support portions complement each other and form a circular shape centering on the center between the drive wheels in plan view,
And the wheel type traveling device of Claim 2 by which both an auxiliary | assistant wheel and a drive wheel are arrange | positioned in the said circular shape.