JP7069632B2 - Control devices, moving objects, and distributed control programs for moving objects - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a control device for moving a moving body, a moving body, and a distributed control program for the moving body.

Patent Document 1 describes a monitoring system that moves and controls a flight device to a position suitable for dealing with a monitoring target.

More specifically, the surveillance system comprises at least a flight device for monitoring the ground from the sky and a center device. The center device has a storage unit that stores the depression / elevation angle for the monitored target for each control type, and when there is an input of a control signal including the control type, the center device refers to the storage unit and refers to the target position corresponding to the depression / elevation angle corresponding to the control type. It is provided with a target calculation unit for calculating a target position and a flight device control unit for moving the flight device to a target position.

In addition, covering control is a control method in which each moving object is divided into regions by a Voronoi diagram defined by a perpendicular bisector with a neighboring moving object, and moves autonomously and decentrally to the center of gravity of its own region. It is known (Non-Patent Document 1).

The moving body repeatedly moves to the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential in the Voronoi region surrounded by the perpendicular bisectors between the moving bodies. Also, the definition of the Voronoi region can change from moment to moment.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-118996

J. Cortes, S. Martinez, T. Karatas, and F. Bullo, Coverage Control for Mobile Sensing Networks, IEEE Transactions on Tobotics and Automation, 20 (2), pp.243-255, (2004)

However, in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, the logic does not assume a plurality of moving objects. In addition, a detailed orbit plan must be applied to the moving object.

Further, in Patent Document 1, since the centralized processing is performed by the center device, the calculation load is high, and when the scale becomes large, the solution cannot be obtained within a realistic time.

Further, in the above-mentioned Non-Patent Document 1, since the area is divided using only the position information of the moving body in the vicinity, a situation may occur in which the moving body follows a point of low importance or risk depending on the initial arrangement of the moving body. sell.

In consideration of the above facts, the present invention considers the above facts, and under autonomous distributed control, a control device, a moving body, and a distributed control program for moving bodies that can follow and monitor high-risk points regardless of the initial placement of moving bodies. The purpose is to obtain.

The control device according to the present invention is arranged in a region in charge that does not interfere with each other, and is provided with a plurality of moving bodies each equipped with sensors whose monitoring range can be changed, and a fixed sensor as needed, and the plurality of movements. It is a control device in the distributed control system of a moving body that moves so as to change the area in charge while avoiding collision by transmitting and receiving position information between the bodies, and is responsible for the risk in the area in charge of the own moving body. A movement information acquisition means for acquiring the position of the center of gravity of the area and transmitting / receiving the risk in the area in charge and the position of the center of gravity of the area in charge to and from the moving body of another machine, and the center of gravity of the area in charge of the moving body of the own machine. A movement control means that calculates a position obtained by weighting the position and the position of the center of gravity of the area in charge that is the maximum risk among the surrounding areas in charge as a target position and moves the moving body to the target position. It is composed of including.

According to the control device of the present invention, a plurality of moving bodies are provided, each of which is arranged in a area in charge that does not interfere with each other and is equipped with a sensor whose monitoring range can be changed by moving within the area in charge. By sending and receiving position information to and from each other, the moving objects are moved so as to change the area in charge while avoiding collision. For example, covering control can be applied as a control when the moving body is moved while avoiding a collision.

Here, the movement information acquisition means acquires the risk in the area in charge of the own machine moving body and the position of the center of gravity of the area in charge, and the risk in the area in charge and the area in charge of the moving body of the other machine. Send and receive with the position of the center of gravity. Then, the movement control means calculates the position obtained by weighting the position of the center of gravity of the area in charge of the own moving body and the position of the center of gravity of the area in charge of the maximum risk among the surrounding areas in charge as the target position. Move your own moving object to the target position.

As a result, under autonomous distributed control, it is possible to follow and monitor high-risk points regardless of the initial placement of moving objects.

Further, the weight for calculating the target position is determined according to the risk in the area in charge of the own moving body.

Further, the position of the center of gravity of the area in charge is the position of the center of gravity in consideration of the risk in the area of responsibility.

Further, the movement control means controls so that the repulsive force defined by the function of the distance between the moving bodies acts on the moving body of the own machine when the moving body of the own machine is in the area in charge of the moving body of the other machine. ..

Further, the risk in the area in charge is the blind spot area where the sensing information by the fixed sensor cannot be obtained.

The program according to the present invention is a distributed control program for a moving body that operates a computer as the above-mentioned control device.

The moving body according to the present invention is a moving body provided with the above-mentioned control device.

As described above, the present invention has an excellent effect that, under autonomous distributed control, it is possible to follow and monitor high-risk points regardless of the initial arrangement of moving objects.

The distributed control system of the moving body according to the present embodiment is shown, (A) is a block diagram of a control system for operating the moving body applied to the present embodiment, and (B) is a region where the moving body moves. It is a plan view of. It is a plan view of the Voronoi-divided region which concerns on this embodiment, (A) shows when the risk potential is specified, and (B) shows after the movement of the moving body based on control rule 1. It is a plan view which shows the positional relationship between the moving body, the Voronoi region, and the risk potential which concerns on this embodiment, (A) is when the risk of moving body 10 # 1 is small, (B) is the moving body 10 # 1. The case where the magnitude of the risk becomes larger than a certain level is shown. It is a plan view showing the positional relationship between a moving body, a Voronoi region, and a risk potential. When each moving body moves to the center of gravity of the risk potential in the Voronoi region of its own machine, (B) is each movement. The case where the body moves to the target position calculated by the calculation method according to the present embodiment is shown. It is a flowchart which shows the risk potential monitoring control routine which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the application example of the distributed control system of a moving body, (A) is an example when it is used for the purpose of monitoring, (B) is an example when it is used for the purpose of monitoring, (C) is the purpose of investigation. (D) is an example when it is used for the purpose of sensing, (E) is an example when it is used for the purpose of rescue, and (F) is an example when it is used for the purpose of forecasting. ..

FIG. 1 shows a moving body 10 applied to the distributed control system of the moving body according to the present embodiment, and a region 12 to which the moving body 10 moves. FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a control system for operating a moving body 10 (see FIG. 1B) applied to the present embodiment. Further, FIG. 1B is a plan view of a region 12 in which the moving body 10 moves. There are a plurality of moving bodies 10 in the region 12, and they can move independently.

As shown in FIG. 1 (A), the moving body 10 can move unmanned within the range of the area 12, and is equipped with a control device 14 equipped with a microcomputer that performs control including the movement.

The microcomputer of the control device 14 has a CPU 16A, a RAM 16B, a ROM 16C, an input / output port (I / O) 16D, and a bus 16E such as a data bus or a control bus connecting them. A monitoring module 18, a mobile module 20, a position recognition module 22, and a communication module 24 are connected to the I / O 16D.

For example, the control device 14 activates a mobile distributed control program stored in advance in the ROM 16C by the CPU 16A, and controls the operations of the monitoring module 18, the mobile module 20, the position recognition module 22, and the communication module 24.

(Monitoring module 18)
A typical device applied to the monitoring module 18 is a camera, which captures a specific monitoring range (field of view) from the position of the moving body 10.

The monitoring module 18 is not limited to imaging by a camera, and may detect geographical features (landmarks) by irradiation with radio waves (radar, laser, ultrasonic waves, etc.).

(Moving module 20)
The moving body 10 of the present embodiment is a flying body (for example, a drone), and as a device applied to the moving module 20, includes a plurality of propellers driven by independent drive sources (motors), and is a motor. By controlling the drive of the vehicle, it is possible to fly in the target direction and stop (hover) in the target position space.

The moving body 10 is not limited to the flying body, and may be a moving module 20 that moves on the ground or on the water, or a plurality of devices may be used in combination. Further, in a broad concept, the swinging motion mechanism of the fixedly arranged surveillance camera may be defined as the moving module 20.

That is, it suffices if the monitoring range of the monitoring module 18 can be changed.

(Position recognition module 22)
The position recognition module 22 is a function of recognizing the position of the moving body 10 of the own machine, and has GPS, a laser, a radar, an ultrasonic wave, a motion capture, a camera, a wireless communication, and a wireless intensity as devices for obtaining position information. It is equipped with at least one sensor of, odometry, and landmark.

The position recognition module 22 recognizes the position of the moving body 10 of the own machine by the coordinates in the three-dimensional space or the like based on the result (detection signal) detected by the sensor.

In addition to recognizing the position of the moving body 10 of the own machine, the position recognition module 22 acquires the position information of the moving body 10 of another machine via the communication module 24 described later, calculates the mutual distance, and has a plurality of positions. Recognize the relative positional relationship of the moving body 10.

(Communication module 24)
The communication module 24 includes a wireless communication device as a device. Wireless communication is a function of communicating between mobile bodies 10 and includes a position information transmission / reception unit that transmits / receives position information and a designated monitoring target area (sometimes referred to as "risk potential") in the boronoi area of the own machine. It is equipped with a risk transmission / reception unit that transmits / receives the magnitude of risk and the position of the center of gravity (risk information). In addition, radio strength (distance information) may be used to acquire the position information of the moving body 10 of another machine.

Further, in the wireless communication of the communication module 24, the monitoring information transmission unit that transmits the result of monitoring by the monitoring module 18 (for example, image pickup information in the case of a camera) to the base station that collectively manages the monitoring, and the base station , A monitoring target information receiving unit that receives monitoring target information indicating a designated monitoring target area is provided.

In the control device 14 of each moving body 10, the region 12 shown in FIG. 1B is divided into Voronoi based on the position information from the position recognition module 22.

Voronoi division is to analyze the sphere of influence of each point (here, the position of the moving body 10), and when the set of points with the shortest distance to the moving body 10 is represented by one polygon, each Is called the Voronoi region. For example, in FIG. 1 (B), in the Voronoi division in a two-dimensional plane, the boundary line of the Voronoi division is a perpendicular bisector of a line segment connecting the moving bodies 10 (chain line 26 in FIG. 1 (B)). In each Voronoi region (1) to (n) partitioned by 26, there is always one moving body 10. The variable n is the Voronoi division number, and n = 17 in FIG.

In the present embodiment, the moving bodies 10 move freely with each other within the range of the region 12, and the Voronoi region changes each time. FIG. 1B is a Voronoi region when each moving body 10 moves from the position of the dotted line to the position of the solid line.

Further, in the present embodiment, in the region 12 shown in FIG. 1 (B), the monitored region (risk potential) 28 is designated as shown in FIG. 2 (A), and the monitored region (risk potential). The monitoring target information representing the designation of 28 shall be obtained from the base station.

In the present embodiment, the area of the risk potential 28 of one unit is equal to the area of the monitoring range that can be monitored by the monitoring module 18 of one mobile body 10. That is, when the center of one moving body 10 overlaps with the center of the risk potential 28 shown in the rectangular network, the entire risk potential 28 becomes the monitoring range.

The area of the risk potential 28 and the area of the monitoring range do not necessarily have to be 1: 1.

The position of each moving body 10 in FIG. 2 (A) is the same as the position in FIG. 1 (B), and each moving body 10 transmits and receives position information to and from each other, and the Voronoi region of the moving body 10 of the own machine is used. It will move toward the risk potential 28 within.

FIG. 2B is the result of each moving body 10 moving with respect to FIG. 2A, and is a control of the prior art in which the moving body 10 moves toward the risk potential 28 while maintaining the Voronoi region.

Here, in the control of the prior art, a situation occurs in which all the risk potentials 28 cannot be set as the monitoring range of the moving body 10.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, a movement rule that is simple and achieves a high coverage of the risk potential 28 is established in consideration of the actual environment.

Specifically, the control device 14 has the center of gravity position ( _gi ) of the risk potential 28 in its own Voronoi region and the center of gravity position of the risk potential 28 in the Voronoi region having the maximum total risk among the nearby Voronoi regions (gi). g _M ) is weighted and moved to the target position (X _i ^* ) of the next step.

The target position (X _i ^* ) of the next step is calculated by the following formula.

However, X _i [t] is a position vector (vector consisting of x-coordinate and y-coordinate) at time t of the moving body i. Further, β _i [t] is a weight (0 ≦ β ≦ 1) determined by the magnitude of the risk in the Voronoi region of the moving body i. For example, the weight β _i [t] is a weight function that becomes 1 when the risk M _i [t] in the Voronoi region of the moving body i is sufficiently small and 0 when the risk M _i [t] is sufficiently large. Normal distribution function as a weight function

May be designed using. Here, M _i [t] in the above equation (2) is the magnitude of the risk in the Voronoi region of the mobile body i, and σ _β is the variance of β _i [t].

FIG. 3 shows the calculation result of the target position of each moving body 10 when the normal distribution function of the above equation (2) is used as the weighting function. In FIG. 3, the circle indicates the target position of each moving body 10, and the cross indicates the center of gravity of the risk potential of the Voronoi region of the moving body 10.

In FIG. 3A, the moving body 10 # 1 having a low risk in the boronoy region moves to the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential of the boronoy region of the moving body 10 # 2 according to the movement rule of the equation (1), and is in the boronoy region. The moving body 10 # 2 and the moving body 10 # 3 having a sufficiently high risk of the above move to the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential of their own boronoy region.

Further, when the risk in the Voronoi region of the moving body 10 # 1 becomes larger than a certain level, the target position of the moving body 10 # 1 becomes the Voronoi region of the moving body 10 # 1 as shown in FIG. 3 (B). The position of the center of gravity of the risk potential within and the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential within the Voronoi region of the moving body 10 # 2 at the maximum risk are weighted.

Further, FIG. 4 shows the results when the conventional technique and the present technique are applied to the actual machine for nine moving bodies 10. FIG. 4A is an example of calculating the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential 28 in the Voronoi region of the moving body 10 of the own machine as a target position as a comparative example. FIG. 4B shows the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential 28 in its own Voronoi region and the risk potential 28 in the Voronoi region having the maximum total risk among the neighboring Voronoi regions by the method described in the present embodiment. This is an example of calculating the target position by weighting the position of the center of gravity.

In addition, when moving to the surrounding Voronoi region (also referred to as "cut-in"), in order to avoid collision with another moving body 10, by defining a negative potential at the destination to be moved, another moving body is used. Prevents you from entering the area.

In the real environment, it is necessary to consider the overshoot of the position control and the disturbance generated between the moving bodies 10. The collision avoidance method in the real environment is shown below.

Specifically, when the control device 14 of each moving body 10 enters the Voronoi region of another moving body 10 in the vicinity, the control device 14 places a negative potential at the position of the other moving body 10 in the vicinity and moves. Calculate the repulsive force acting between the bodies (Control Rule 2). Then, the target velocity is calculated by the following equation using the target velocity V _i ^* and the repulsive force obtained from the target position calculated by the control rule 1.

However, n is the total number of moving bodies 10, and _Lij is a parameter that is 1 when there is a moving body 10 in the vicinity of the i-th moving body 10 and 0 when there is no moving body 10. C ₁ and σ are positive constants and are parameters that are set in consideration of the number of moving objects and the actual environment.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a risk potential monitoring control routine according to the present embodiment, and mainly shows a flow specialized for movement control of the moving body 10.

In step 100, information on the moving body 10 of the own machine is collected. That is, while recognizing the position information of the own machine in the area 12 (see FIG. 1 (B)), the magnitude of the risk of the risk potential 28 in the boronoi area of the own machine, and the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential 28, the position of the center of gravity of the other machine is recognized. The position information of the own machine, the magnitude of the risk of the risk potential 28 in the boronoi region of the own machine, and the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential 28 are transmitted to the moving body 10.

In the next step 102, information on the moving body 10 of another machine (moving body 10 other than the own machine existing in the area 12) is collected. That is, the position information of the other aircraft, the magnitude of the risk of the risk potential 28 in the boronoy region of the other aircraft, and the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential 28 are collected, and the process proceeds to step 104.

In step 104, the input calculation according to the control rule 1 is executed. That is, the Voronoi region of each moving body 10 is sequentially set, and the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential 28 in its own Voronoi region and the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential 28 in the Voronoi region having the maximum total risk among the neighboring Voronoi regions. And are weighted to calculate the target position of the next step.

In the next step 106, the input calculation according to the control rule 2 is executed. That is, when entering the boronoy region of another moving body 10 in the vicinity, a negative potential is placed at the position of the other moving body 10 in the vicinity, and the repulsive force acting between the moving bodies is calculated in the above step 104. The target speed is calculated using the target speed obtained from the determined target position.

In step 108, the moving body 10 of the own machine is controlled by using the target position and the target speed calculated in steps 104 and 106 as control inputs.

In step 110, it is determined whether or not the coverage of all risk potentials 28 has been achieved, and if affirmative, this routine ends. If a negative determination is made in step 110, the process returns to step 100 and the above steps are repeated.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the control device of each moving body determines the position of the center of gravity of the risk potential in the boronoy region of the own moving body and the boronoi which is the maximum risk in the surrounding boronoi region. By calculating the position obtained by weighting the risk potential in the area with the center of gravity position as the target position and moving the own moving object to the target position, under autonomous decentralized control, regardless of the initial placement of the moving object, It is possible to follow and monitor high-risk points.

Further, since the control of each moving body is the distributed processing using only the position / observation information of the neighboring moving bodies, the calculation load is reduced as compared with the centralized processing. In addition, moving objects can be controlled in real time regardless of the scale of the system.

In addition, even if a part of the moving body breaks down, the area is divided by the remaining moving bodies excluding the broken moving body, and the overall optimum arrangement can be calculated. can.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications and applications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, the monitored area may be a blind spot area. As an example, when the site of a house is monitored by a fixed surveillance camera, the blind spot area of the fixed surveillance camera may be designated as the monitoring target area. Further, when the site of the parking lot is monitored by a fixed surveillance camera, the blind spot area of the fixed surveillance camera may be designated as the monitoring target area. In this case, since the blind spot of the fixed surveillance camera changes depending on the number and position of the parked vehicles, the surveillance by the moving body 10 is effective.

Further, when it is located in the Voronoi region of another moving body, the control for avoiding the collision between the moving bodies may be performed other than the control for applying the repulsive force. For example, when the moving body is located in the Voronoi region of another moving body, the moving body changes the altitude, defines a new Voronoi region, and moves in each Voronoi region to achieve the target. You may try to reach the position.

Further, the area 12 (external environment area, area in charge) in the present embodiment can be set regardless of land, sea and air.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the purpose of applying the distributed control of the moving body in the present embodiment includes monitoring, monitoring, investigation, sensing, rescue, forecast, and the like. More specifically, in the case of a relatively narrow area, there are monitoring of vehicles and pedestrians in a parking lot, monitoring of traffic of vehicles at intersections, monitoring of suspicious persons such as houses, and the like. In the case of a relatively large area, there are excavation surveys, search for victims at disaster sites (rescue), forest condition management, forecasts by weather surveys, etc.

Further, as the moving body 10 (actuator), a drone capable of aerial photography is mentioned, but for example, another moving body such as a vehicle or a boat may be autonomously distributed and controlled.

10 Mobile 14 Control device 18 Monitoring module 20 Mobile module 22 Position recognition module 24 Communication module 28 Risk potential

Claims (8)

A plurality of mobile bodies each equipped with a sensor whose monitoring range can be changed, and a fixed sensor as needed, which are arranged in a responsible area that does not interfere with each other, and the plurality of mobile bodies transmit and receive position information to each other. Therefore, it is a control device in a distributed control system of a moving body that moves so as to change the area in charge while avoiding a collision.
Acquires the size of the risk and the position of the center of gravity of the designated monitored area in the area in charge of the own mobile body, and the size of the risk of the monitored area in the area in charge with the other mobile body. A means of acquiring movement information that sends and receives the position of the center of gravity and the position of the center of gravity.
The position obtained by weighting the position of the center of gravity of the risk in the monitored area of the area in charge of the own machine and the position of the center of gravity of the risk in the area in charge of the area that is the maximum risk among the surrounding areas in charge. A movement control means that calculates as a target position and moves the own moving body to the target position,
Control device including. The risk in the monitored area is designated as a distribution and
The control device according to claim 1, wherein the risk magnitude and the position of the center of gravity of the monitored area are calculated from the risk distribution. The control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the weight for calculating the target position is determined according to the risk of the monitored area in the area in charge of the own moving body. A claim that the movement control means controls the repulsive force defined by a function of the distance between the moving bodies to act on the moving body of the own machine when the moving body of the own machine is in the area in charge of the moving body of another machine. The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the monitored area in the area in charge is a blind spot area where sensing information from the fixed sensor cannot be obtained. The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the area in charge is a Voronoi region surrounded by perpendicular bisectors between moving bodies. Computer,
A distributed control program for a moving body that operates as the control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6. A moving body including the control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 .

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