JP5192598B1 - Work system with self-propelled device - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a work system that enables automation of work in an apparatus that requires a person to operate while walking along a predetermined route.
An operation terminal includes a control terminal, a camera, a self-propelled work robot provided with an AR tag for a robot and a wireless communication device, and a reference AR tag set in a work area. Means for acquiring and storing a photographed work area image; means for enabling input of travel path information associated with work contents on the displayed work area image; and storing the input travel path information; Means for recognizing the reference AR tag and acquiring and storing the reference coordinate information; means for recognizing the AR tag for the robot from the work area image and acquiring and storing the coordinate information of the work robot; And a means for coloring the traveling road with a color corresponding to the work content and displaying it superimposed on the read work area image.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a work system using a self-propelled device, for example, a system (a field painter system) in which a line drawing device can automatically draw a drawing on the ground based on a drawing input by a user.

  In recent years, the progress of robot technology has been remarkable, and a wide variety of robots have been developed one after another, playing an active role in various fields such as industry, nursing care and medical care.

  For example, in Patent Document 1, a tank for storing paint, a gun for spraying paint, a supply device for supplying paint to the gun from the tank, and a ground provided on both sides of the gun and rotating on the paint surface A pair of regulating discs, and a gutter member provided on the front side in the advancing direction between the pair of regulating discs, for removing the paint adhering to the side surface of the regulating disc and causing it to flow forward A line marker is disclosed in which a tray for storing the paint flowing down the saddle member is mounted on a carriage.

  Patent Document 2 discloses an autonomous traveling type line car equipped with a lime storage unit, a battery as a power unit, a tire, a self-propelled power unit, a lime discharge unit, and an operation unit. Is disclosed.

JP 2011-000407 A JP 2008-243166 A

When an athletic meet or sports competition is held at a school or stadium, a tool for drawing white lines of lime called line drawing is used, but conventional line drawing draws the line as expected. This is difficult, and is a very complicated operation that requires more time and people.
Further, in an apparatus such as a mowing apparatus that requires a person to operate while walking along a predetermined route, automation of work has been required.

  This invention makes it a subject to provide the system which can implement | achieve automation of the operation | work by a self-propelled apparatus.

The inventor considered that by developing a self-propelled working robot that performs work automatically, for example, line drawing work can be easily performed, and ground preparation at an athletic meet or the like can be simplified.
Also, by drawing pictures and characters while cooperating on the stadium etc. with multiple units, the work of “line drawing”, which only has the purpose of drawing a line on the ground, to a work with a new expression method rich in amusement I thought it could be sublimated.

The present invention comprises the following technical means.
[1] An operation terminal including an input device, a storage device, a display device, and a communication device, a camera that transmits an image captured on the operation terminal, a self-propelled work robot including an AR tag for a robot and a wireless communication device, A work system comprising a reference AR tag installed in a work area, wherein an operation terminal acquires a work area image captured by a camera and stores it in a storage device, and a work area displayed on a display device The road information associated with the work content on the image can be input by the input device, the input road route information is stored in the storage device, and the reference AR tag is recognized from the work area image stored in the storage device. A means for acquiring reference coordinate information and storing it in a storage device; and a robot AR tag is recognized from a work area image stored in the storage device, and the coordinate information of the work robot is acquired and stored in a storage device. And means for reading the travel route information stored in the storage device, coloring the travel route with a color corresponding to the work content, and displaying the travel route image on the display device in a superimposed manner on the work area image read from the storage device. And a working robot having a powder storage container divided into a plurality of compartments, a discharge port communicating with each storage container, and an opening / closing member that communicates or blocks each compartment and the discharge port. The robot AR tag, a wireless communication device and a drive / control system having a plurality of wheels, and the drive / control system travels based on the travel path information input based on a command from the operation terminal, and, working system characterized Rukoto can discharge the powder at a predetermined coordinate position.
[2] The work system according to [1], wherein the operation terminal includes means for causing the display device to display a work area image on which the trajectory information of the work robot is superimposed.
[ 3 ] The work system according to [ 1 ] or [2] , wherein the work robot can simultaneously discharge powder from two or more sections at a predetermined coordinate position.
[ 4 ] The work system according to [ 1 ] or [ 2 ], wherein the operation terminal includes means for causing the display device to display travel path information colored in the same color as the discharged powder.
[ 5 ] The work robot includes a leveling member that is pulled by being in contact with the ground, and a drive device that makes the leveling member non-contact with the ground or is in contact with the ground. The work system according to [ 1 ], [ 2 ] , [3], or [ 4 ], wherein the leveling member can be brought into contact with the ground at a predetermined coordinate position based on the command.

[ 6 ] The operation terminal enables the input device to input travel route information associated with a plurality of work robots on the work area image displayed on the display device, and the input travel route information is stored in the storage device. The working system according to any one of [1] to [ 5 ], further comprising:

According to the present invention, it is possible to greatly reduce the labor of manual line drawing work.
Moreover, it is possible to automatically draw a complicated figure with lime powder with high accuracy without using a skilled worker.
Furthermore, it becomes possible to automatically realize operations such as mowing that are performed according to a certain traveling path.

1 is an overall view of a line drawing system according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a front surface of a line drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 1. FIG. The perspective view which shows the rear surface of the line drawing apparatus which concerns on Example 1. FIG. Operation computer with operation screen Examples of AR tags that make up markers Block diagram of drive / control system of line drawing device The perspective view which shows the mowing robot which concerns on Example 7. FIG.

Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be described with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to the examples. In addition, Example 2 is a reference example.

The first embodiment relates to a line drawing system that can automatically draw lines and figures input to an operation computer on the ground easily. The line drawing system of the present embodiment can express various colors by mixing lime powders of up to four colors.
Augmented reality “AR” technology was used to measure the position and tilt of the line drawing device 3. AR is a technology for adding information to a real environment using a computer. For example, it is possible to recognize a tag photographed by a camera, calculate coordinate information such as position, tilt, angle, etc., and based on that, display a synthesized image such as CG with a real image photographed by the camera It is. The system configuration and operation method of this embodiment will be described below.

[Constitution]
As shown in FIG. 1, the line drawing system of the present embodiment includes an operation computer 1, markers 2 and 31-A to 31-E, a line drawing device 3, and a camera 4 as main components.

(Operation computer)
The operation computer 1 is a commercially available so-called personal computer, and includes a storage device such as an HDD, a display device such as a liquid crystal display, and an input device such as a mouse / keyboard.
A dedicated operation program created in the processing language is installed (stored in a storage device) in the operation computer 1. The operation program can display an outdoor image acquired from the camera 4 on the screen, a created figure, a trajectory of the line drawing device 3 and the like, and an arbitrary figure that the user wants to draw can be created on the screen. And a communication function for converting graphic information created by the paint function into a line drawing command including trajectory information, travel speed, color information, and the like, and transmitting the line drawing command to the line drawing apparatus 3.

The display function displays the captured image of the camera 4 on the screen as a campus. On this campus, the user can create a figure with the paint function and specify the coloring. Also, the graphic (traveling road) created by the user is superimposed or hidden, the AR tag of the line drawing device 3 is recognized from the captured image, the coordinate information is acquired, and the trajectory is superimposed or displayed. It can be hidden. The locus is preferably colored in the same color as the color of the discharged powder (including mixed colors) based on the association between the time and the operating state of the rotating brush. By displaying the trajectory of the line drawing device 3 and the state of line drawing on the screen in real time, the user can confirm the deviation between the created figure (running path) and the actual drawing. The trajectory information is preferably displayed in a color corresponding to the work content.
In addition to the means to draw a figure with lines including straight lines, curves, and wavy lines, the paint function is a circle, ellipse, semicircle, sector, polygon (triangle, quadrangle, pentagon, etc.), rounded polygon (rounded triangle, A rounded quadrangle, a rounded pentagon, etc.) and a means for drawing by a stamp method including a star shape.

  The operation computer 1 is connected to a wireless network such as a LAN, and transmits a line drawing command to the line drawing device 3 via the wireless network. For example, when the user inputs a figure as displayed on the screen of FIG. 4 by the paint function, it is converted into a line drawing command and transmitted to the line drawing device 3. The communication between the operation computer 1 and the line drawing device 3 may be one-way communication, but may be two-way communication in order to receive a signal from the sensor unit.

(marker)
In the line drawing system, a total of six markers are used. One reference marker 2 is installed on the ground, and five markers 31 -A to 31 -E are installed in the line drawing device 3.
The reference marker 2 is for setting reference coordinates of an image taken by the camera 4. The reference marker 2 uses, for example, an AR tag as shown in FIG. The reference marker 2 is fixed so as not to shift to a corner on the ground to be drawn (see FIG. 1).
The markers 31-A to 31-E can acquire the position information of the line drawing device 3. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, five markers (AR tags) are installed on the five surfaces (upper surface and four side surfaces) of the casing 34 of the line drawing device 3. The five markers are installed regardless of the height of the installation location of the USB camera 1 because the marker may not be recognized depending on the height of the installation location of the USB camera 1 only with the marker on the upper surface of the housing. This is so that the marker can be recognized.

(Line drawing device)
The line drawing device 3 is a four-wheel device that automatically travels based on a line drawing command from the operation computer 1. The line drawing device 3 includes a housing 34, a leveling member (brush 32) for erasing the line, and a drive / control system (FIG. 6) having four wheels 33. In the present embodiment, one line drawing apparatus 3 is used, but a plurality of lines can be interlocked. The line drawing device 3 may be a three-wheel device.

The brush 32 can be raised and lowered by a brush driving device described later, and the line is erased by leveling the ground at the lowered position.
The housing 34 includes a powder storage container divided into four therein, and can store lime powder of a plurality of colors. The powder container is in communication with the discharge port 35. The discharge port 35 is blocked by a rotating brush (not shown), and lime powder is not discharged when the rotating brush is not rotating, but is discharged only when the rotating brush is rotating.
The five markers (AR tags) described above are attached to the upper surface and four side surfaces of the housing 34. The housing 34 is fixedly provided with a drive / control system.

As shown in FIG. 6, the drive / control system includes a wheel drive device, a discharge unit, a brush drive device, a control unit, and a sensor unit. The wheel drive device according to the present embodiment includes, for example, a front wheel chassis, a rear wheel chassis, and a controller.
The front wheel chassis is provided with a front wheel axle 33 and a steering device that steers the front wheels in response to a command from the control unit. Then, power is supplied from a 24V battery shared with the rear wheel chassis. The steering device for the front wheel chassis is electrically connected to the control unit through a signal line, and changes direction in response to a command from the control unit.
The rear wheel chassis includes an in-wheel motor that drives the rear wheels. This motor is powered by a 24V battery shared with the front wheel chassis. The rear wheel chassis is electrically connected to the control unit through a signal line, and receives a command from the control unit to rotate the rear wheel.
The controller controls the rotational speed and steering of the rear wheels. The rotation speed of the rear wheels is controlled so that the line drawing device 3 travels at a constant speed in principle. This is because it is easy to control the thickness of the line to a constant width by running at a constant speed.
The front wheel chassis in the above example is for changing direction and the front wheels are not driven. However, instead of the steering device, an in-wheel motor is provided on the front wheels, and the turning operation is performed with the undriven wheels as axes. Good (Note that due to procurement parts, the prototype used a configuration using four in-wheel motors).

  The discharging unit includes four DC motors connected to four rotating brushes (not shown), a driver IC, and a 12V battery. The driver IC receives a command from the control unit and discharges lime powder by rotating the rotating brush by operating the four DC motors. The rotation of the rotating brush is not linked to the rotation of the wheel, and rotates independently upon receiving a command from the control unit.

  The brush driving device includes a DC motor connected to the leveling brush 12, a driver IC, and a 12V battery. The brush drive device can move the brush up and down using a chain mechanism (not shown). The driver IC receives a command from the control unit and moves the brush up and down by operating the DC motor.

  The control unit receives a signal from the sensor unit and receives a command from the operation computer 1 to control the wheel driving device, the discharging unit, and the brush driving device. The control unit includes an analog input / output port, a CPU, a wireless module, and a 5V battery. In this example, an XBee wireless module was mounted on an Arduino substrate to produce a control unit. The control unit of the present embodiment can perform bidirectional communication with the operation computer 1 via the wireless LAN by the wireless module. The control unit can transmit the operating state of the rotating brush to the operation computer 1 in association with the time acquired from the internal clock, and by using this information, the operation computer 1 has discharged the trajectory information. It becomes possible to display the same color as the color of the powder.

  The sensor unit includes a digital compass and an acceleration sensor, and provides measurement data for correcting a line drawing command and a shift in the operation of the line drawing apparatus 3. The digital compass is for obtaining the direction of the vehicle body. For example, if the ground is muddy and the drawing device 3 does not change direction as planned, the digital compass detects it and issues an alarm to the operation computer 1. The acceleration sensor is for measuring the speed of the line drawing device 3 and correcting the operation. For example, when there is a slope on the ground, the acceleration sensor detects that the traveling speed of the line drawing device 3 has slowed, and the target speed is realized by controlling the in-wheel motor that drives the rear wheels.

(camera)
The camera 4 is a general USB camera having 300,000 pixels or more, and is installed at a position where the marker 2 installed on the ground can be accurately recognized, for example, a building window. An image captured by the camera 4 is transmitted to a computer connected via a USB extension cable. In FIG. 1, the camera 4 is installed in the building, but the camera 4 may be installed near the operation computer 1 as long as the AR tag can be captured.

(lime)
Lime prepared red, green, blue, yellow and white. The colors that can be expressed by mixing are often different from the mixing of the paints, so it is preferable to confirm in advance by experiments. For example, when mixing 20 g of red and 20 g of yellow, 40 g of orange or scarlet lime is obtained, whereas when mixing 25 g of red and 25 g of green, 50 g of purple lime is obtained (in the case of paint) (Yellow), when 13 g of red and 13 g of blue were mixed, 26 g of cobalt blue lime was obtained (purple in the case of paint).

[Method of operation]
It is assumed that the USB camera 4 is installed at a position where the entire ground can be imaged, the marker 2 is installed at the end of the ground within the range where the camera can shoot, and the line drawing device 3 is installed on the ground.
When photographing with the USB camera 4 is started, the operation program detects the marker 2 and an arbitrary marker 31 of the line drawing device 3 from the photographed image, and calculates relative position information of the line drawing device 3. Subsequently, the operation program creates a background image based on ground inclination information and size information in the captured image and displays it on the screen.

  The user draws an arbitrary figure as a travel path of the line drawing device on the campus displayed on the screen. This figure needs to be composed of one or more lines. Since a portion that does not discharge lime powder can be provided in the travel path, it is not essential to be able to realize it with a single stroke. This figure can be colored in a plurality of colors, and the lime powder corresponding to the colored color is discharged. When the user who has completed the drawing clicks the “draw start” button displayed on the screen, a line drawing command is generated based on the figure drawn on the campus and is transmitted to the line drawing apparatus 3.

  The line drawing device 3 moves along a figure (that is, a traveling path) created by the user. At locations where coloring is performed in the traveling path, the rotating brushes respectively provided in the four storage containers rotate, and lime powder of a color corresponding to the coloring instruction is discharged. The discharge of lime powder is not limited to a single color, and it is possible to mix colors. On the contrary, in the place made into colorless in a running path, a rotating brush does not rotate and lime powder is not discharged | emitted.

  While the line drawing apparatus 3 is running, the captured image of the USB camera 4 is displayed on the screen in real time. The figure (running road) created by the user and / or the trajectory of the line drawing device 3 can also be displayed superimposed on the captured image, thereby allowing the user to check the deviation between the running road and the actual drawing. The traveling speed and direction of the line drawing device 3 are automatically corrected based on the measurement data from the sensor unit. However, if the drawing deviation is significant despite the automatic correction, the line drawing device 3 may be urgently stopped. it can. In this state, the figure (running path) may be corrected again by the paint function, and the line drawing command may be regenerated.

According to the line drawing system of the present embodiment described above, it is possible to solve the problem of manual line drawing variation. Also, it is not limited to inorganic line drawing work in athletic events, etc., drawing a picture expressed in multiple colors, assuming the ground or stadium as a canvas, or huge characters that can be seen from the air (for example, It is possible to draw SOS characters, advertising characters, and human character standing lines at the time of disaster.
Furthermore, it is possible to automatically clean a figure drawn with lime powder.

  The second embodiment relates to a mowing system capable of automatically mowing a robot according to a figure input to an operation computer. The main difference from the first embodiment is that the line drawing device 3 is replaced with a mowing robot 5. In conventional mowers, a human supports the main body and pushes it in the direction of the grass to cut grass such as turf. However, with the mowing system of this embodiment, the grass is automatically cut only by specifying the first mowing operation. It becomes possible to mow.

[Constitution]
The automatic mowing system of the present embodiment includes the operation computer 1, the markers 2 and 31-A to 31-E, the mowing robot 5, and the camera 4 as main components.
Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the mowing robot 5 has a mowing unit 41 for mowing the lawn mowing mechanism, a storage container 42 for winding and storing the mowing lawn with a roller, and a traveling for moving the apparatus. It is comprised with the apparatus 43 (for example, a wheel, a caterpillar). The mowing unit 41 basically uses a rotary saw, but the attachment can be changed in accordance with the length and type of grass.
A dedicated operation program created in the processing language is installed (stored in a storage device) in the operation computer 1. Similar to the first embodiment, the operation program has a display function, a paint function, and a communication function. In the present embodiment, in the paint function, work (for example, whether or not mowing is performed, the type of grass to be cut, the cutting height, the cutting width, etc.) to be performed can be specified. Can be colored and displayed in different colors.

[Method of operation]
An example of the work of mowing the lawn on the ground will be described.
The user installs the USB camera 4 at a position where the entire range of the grass to be cut can be photographed, and installs the marker 2 at the end of the ground within the range that can be acquired by the camera 4. The operation computer 1 calculates the relative position information of the mowing robot 5 from the markers 2 and 31-A to 31-E in the camera image. At the same time, the computer 1 creates a campus having a background image corresponding to the ground to be worked on, which is created based on ground inclination information and size information viewed from the camera 4 and displays the campus on the display device. The user inputs an arbitrary line / figure (running path) to this campus using the paint function of the operation program. In this line / figure, it is possible to set a portion to cut grass and a portion not to cut.

  The user draws an arbitrary figure that becomes a travel path of the lawn mower on the campus displayed on the screen. This figure needs to be composed of one or more lines. Since it is possible to provide a portion that does not mow the lawn while traveling, it is not essential that it can be realized with a single stroke. When the user who has completed the drawing clicks the “start lawn mowing” button displayed on the screen, a command is generated based on the figure drawn on the campus and transmitted to the lawn mowing apparatus 3.

  The mowing robot 5 moves along a figure (that is, a traveling path) created by the user. The lawn mowing blade rotates at the drawing point of the running line and mows the lawn. On the contrary, the blades do not rotate and the turf is not mowed at the colorless spots in the road.

  While the mowing robot 5 is traveling, the captured image of the USB camera 4 is displayed on the screen in real time. A figure (running road) created by the user can be displayed superimposed on the captured image, so that the user can confirm the deviation between the running road and the actual drawing. The traveling speed and direction of the mowing robot 5 are automatically corrected based on the measurement data from the sensor unit. However, if the drawing shift is significant despite the automatic correction, the mowing robot 5 can be stopped urgently. In this state, the figure (running path) may be corrected again by the paint function, and the line drawing command may be regenerated.

  According to the line drawing system of the present embodiment described above, it is possible to ease the difficult work of mowing by hand. Moreover, it is possible to draw a picture or a huge character expressed by the presence or absence of grass by considering a grassy plane such as a lawn as a canvas, as well as cutting unnecessary grass.

  It is a feature of the present invention that a machine can automatically draw a line instead of a human so that a clean and accurate "line can be created". Compared to existing methods, anyone can easily draw complex figures, and it can also be expected to reduce personnel. Furthermore, it is possible to apply amusement-related applications such as messages such as SOS during disasters, realization of new art based on the ground or stadium as a canvas, and advertising by drawing huge advertisements.

1 Computer for operation 2 Marker (for reference coordinate setting)
3 Line drawing device 4 Camera 5 Mowing robot 31A to E Marker (for position acquisition)
32 Brush 33 Wheel 34 Case 35 Lime outlet

Claims (6)

An operation terminal including an input device, a storage device, a display device, and a communication device;
A camera that transmits the captured image to the operation terminal;
A self-propelled working robot equipped with an AR tag for a robot and a wireless communication device;
A work system comprising a reference AR tag installed in a work area,
The operation terminal
Means for acquiring a work area image photographed by the camera and storing it in a storage device;
Means for enabling the input device to input travel route information associated with work content on the work area image displayed on the display device, and storing the input travel route information in a storage device;
Means for recognizing the reference AR tag from the work area image stored in the storage device, acquiring reference coordinate information and storing it in the storage device;
Means for recognizing the robot AR tag from the work area image stored in the storage device, acquiring coordinate information of the work robot, and storing the coordinate information in the storage device;
Means for reading the travel route information stored in the storage device, coloring the travel route with a color corresponding to the work content, and displaying on the display device superimposed on the work area image read from the storage device ,
The working robot
A housing having a powder storage container divided into a plurality, a discharge port communicating with each storage container, and an opening / closing member that communicates or blocks each partition and the discharge port;
An AR tag for a robot attached to the housing;
A wireless communication device and a drive / control system having a plurality of wheels,
Working system drive and control system, it travels based on the travel path information inputted based on the instruction from the operation terminal, and characterized by Rukoto can discharge the powder at a predetermined coordinate position. 2. The work system according to claim 1, wherein the operation terminal includes means for causing the display device to display a work area image on which the trajectory information of the work robot is superimposed. The work system according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the work robot can simultaneously discharge powder from two or more sections at a predetermined coordinate position. 3. The work system according to claim 1, wherein the operation terminal includes means for causing the display device to display travel path information colored in the same color as the discharged powder. The working robot
A leveling member pulled against the ground; and
A driving device that makes the leveling member non-contact with the ground or makes contact with the ground,
Working system according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the drive and control system, a leveling member at a predetermined coordinate position based on a command from the operation terminal can be brought into contact with the ground. The operation terminal enables the input of the travel path information associated with a plurality of work robots whose work contents are displayed on the work area image displayed on the display device, and stores the input travel path information in the storage device. either working system of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises means.