JPH02160483A - Manipulator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the fitting and removal of a manipulator onto an existing monorail by using the telescopic mechanism of a manipulator main body and the telescopic mechanism of a mobile truck. CONSTITUTION:A manipulator 4 is mounted on the mobile truck 5 equipped with the mechanism 6 expandable in the lower and upper directions of a pantagraph mechanism, etc., and carried to the instrument chamber in which a work object is installed. Then, the expansion mechanism 2 of the manipulator 4 and movile truck 5 is extended to the upper part respectively and the manipulator moving mechanism 1 of the manipulator 2 upper part is approached to the monorail 9 located at the instrument chamber ceiling part. In this case, the manipulator moving mechanism 1 has an instant fitting mechanism and so the manipulator 4 can easily be fitted to the monorail 4 of the ceiling part of the instrument chamber by extending to the upper part the expansion mechanism 2 of the mobile truck 5 and manipulator 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a repair robot system, and particularly to a manipulator suitable for improving work efficiency by facilitating attachment and detachment to an existing monorail.

[Conventional technology]

Manipulators were developed as general industrial robots,
It is widely used as a system for accurately performing repetitive tasks.

The issues currently being researched regarding manipulators are:
The main issues include reducing the weight of the manipulator, efficient drive systems, control technology using visual technology, autonomous control technology using artificial intelligence, and systemization technology using multiple manipulators. Furthermore, research is being conducted on combining it with moving mechanisms such as crawlers to make the work range more versatile.

In addition, since manipulators are systems that allow people to perform work in place of a single person, research is being widely conducted to enable them to perform work in places that are difficult for humans to access, such as nuclear facilities. . As a manipulator for a nuclear facility, it is common to install a manipulator at a work site to perform work in a very special environment or work target. However, in Plan l-, where a wide variety of equipment such as valves, pumps, tanks, etc. are installed, such as in nuclear power generation facilities, the work can be done with one manipulator rather than a dedicated system that is fixed in place. There is a need for a versatile manipulator system that can be moved to multiple locations to perform tasks.

One way to make a manipulator more versatile is to mount a drive source, control device, and manipulator on a moving mechanism such as an axle mechanism or crawler mechanism so that it can move independently to the work site.
Systems have been devised to perform work in multiple locations. However, with this method, there is a limit to the weight that can be loaded on the moving mechanism, and the manipulators that can be mounted are limited to relatively small ones. For this reason, the work of the manipulator must be limited to light work on small equipment.

In addition to the above-mentioned mechanism that can move over a wide range, the manipulator movement mechanism also includes a track that can be moved in the X and Y directions on the ceiling of the equipment room where the equipment to be worked on is installed, and the manipulator is mounted on the track. Therefore, methods have been devised to allow movement within the equipment room. This method is based on the catalog of Toray Engineering Co., Ltd.'s Electric Manipulators
ULATOR 8 <EMSM Systems>). However, this method uses a dedicated manipulator in the equipment room, and it goes without saying that it is not versatile.

On the other hand, when working on large valves, pumps, tanks, etc., the manipulator often has to have a large operating range in the L/downward direction. At the same time, since the object to be worked on is large, the handling weight of the manipulator is also large, and the manipulator itself must therefore be large.As mentioned above, if the manipulator is small, it will require a large moving mechanism such as wheels and crawlers. A manipulator can be mounted on a nuclear power plant to allow it to perform work in multiple locations, but a moving mechanism capable of mounting a large manipulator would itself be large, making it difficult to move around inside a nuclear power facility. Therefore, large numbers of large valves and pumps are installed in nuclear power generation facilities.

Currently, work on tanks and the like is carried out manually by a large number of workers using lifting equipment such as hoists, special jigs and tools installed in equipment rooms.

When having a manipulator perform such work,
As mentioned above, hang the manipulator from the ceiling and
Furthermore, although it is effective to provide a telescopic mechanism, in order to provide versatility to the manipulator, it is necessary to attach and detach the manipulator to a monorail on the ceiling of the equipment room. However, equipment rooms where large valves, pumps, tanks, etc. are installed generally have high ceilings, and the manipulators are also heavy, so in order for humans to install the manipulators on the monorail in the ceiling, temporary scaffolding is required. multiple people must work together. At nuclear power generation facilities, people are exposed to radiation, so if a large number of people spend a long time installing manipulators on the monorail, this will actually lead to an increase in radiation exposure, making the introduction of manipulators pointless.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above-mentioned conventional technology is effective in improving the versatility of small manipulators by mounting the manipulator on a moving mechanism such as a wheel system or a crawler system, which makes it easy to move to multiple work locations. Large-scale,
Moreover, no consideration was given to improving the versatility of manipulators that require a wide range of motion.
There was a problem with the method of moving the manipulator to multiple work locations and the method of attaching and detaching it.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a manipulator that enables the manipulator to be attached and detached from the monorail installed on the ceiling of the equipment room where equipment to be worked on such as large valves, pumps, tanks, etc. is installed, in a short time and with as few people as possible. The goal is to provide a system.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above purpose is to combine the expansion and contraction mechanism of the manipulator body to expand the range of movement in the upward and downward directions, and the expansion and contraction mechanism of the mobile trolley to move the manipulator between multiple work locations, and to further move the manipulator body. By providing a one-touch attachment/detachment mechanism in the mechanism section, the manipulator can be attached to the monorail that is pre-installed on the ceiling of the equipment room where the equipment to be worked on is installed before work begins, and then removed after work is completed. This is achieved by

[Effect]

The manipulator is placed on a moving trolley equipped with a mechanism capable of extending and contracting upward and downward, such as a pantograph mechanism, and is transported to an equipment room where the workpiece is installed.

In addition, the manipulator is equipped with a mechanism that can extend and contract in the upward and downward directions, and after being carried into the equipment room, the system carriage and the extension mechanism of the manipulator are each extended upward, and the manipulator moving groove machine on the upper part of the manipulator is moved into the equipment room. Approach the monorail on the ceiling. Since the manipulator moving mechanism has a one-touch mounting mechanism, the manipulator can be easily mounted to the monorail on the ceiling of the equipment room by extending the moving cart and the manipulator extension mechanism upward. Furthermore, since it is similarly easy to remove the manipulator from the monorail, it is also possible to move the manipulator to another equipment room and perform repair work on other mechanisms. This results in
The manipulator can be easily attached and detached, improving versatility.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a state in which the manipulator system is attached to a monorail in an equipment room, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which the manipulator system is carried into the equipment room.

As shown in FIG. 2, a moving cart 5 having a pantograph mechanism 6 and a pantograph upper/lower mechanism 7 is provided with moving casters 8, so that it can be easily moved by an operator. Since the purpose of the pantograph mechanism 6 of the movable trolley 5 is to freely raise and lower the upper surface of the movable trolley 5, it goes without saying that it is not limited to the structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The manipulator system also includes a manipulator 4 that performs work, a manipulator shoulder 3 to which the manipulator 4 is attached, a manipulator expansion/contraction mechanism 2 for moving the manipulator 4 upward and downward, and
It is comprised of a moving mechanism 1 for moving a manipulator 4 in the left-right direction in FIGS. 1 and 2.

When carrying the manipulator system into the equipment room, the pantograph mechanism 6 is set in the most contracted state, and the manipulator system is placed on the movable cart 5 with the manipulator telescoping mechanism 2 also in the most contracted state. The manipulator system carried into the equipment room operates the pantograph up/down mechanism 7 attached to the moving cart 5, extends the pantograph mechanism 6 upward, and also extends the manipulator extension/contraction mechanism 2 upward. 1 to approach the existing monorail 9. The moving mechanism 1 is provided with a mechanism for attaching the moving mechanism 1 to the existing monorail 9 with one touch. The mechanism will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5. Third
4(a) shows a cross-section of the state before being attached to the existing monorail 9. FIG. In addition, Fig. 3(b) and Fig. 4(b)
) shows the states of FIGS. 3(a) and 4(a) viewed from the side, respectively.

The movable trolley 5 (not shown in the figure) has a drive vehicle 15 for moving the manipulator system in the left-right direction in the figure, and a movable trolley 5 that comes into contact with the top surface of the existing monorail 9 and supports the entire movable trolley 5. A supporting vehicle 10 is attached to the vehicle. - one or more drive wheels 15 are attached to the movable trolley 5 via bearings 17;
A driving motor 16 is attached to 5, and by driving this driving motor 16, the driving wheel 15 rotates, the entire mobile cart 5 moves, and the manipulator system is moved in the left-right direction in the figure. It becomes possible to do so. Here, the support car 10 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is used. Drive vehicle 15
．． Drive motor 16. The structure and arrangement of the bearing 17 are merely examples, and therefore may have a structure and arrangement other than those shown in the drawings.

The movable trolley 5 is required to approach the existing monorail 9 from below and attach it to the existing monorail 9 with a single touch. Therefore, the movable trolley 5 is moved to the existing monorail 9.
The support car 10, which is positioned on the top surface of the existing monorail 9 after being installed, must be opened wider than the width of the existing monorail 9 before installation, as shown in FIG. 4(a). . Therefore, for one-touch installation, the mechanism is the fifth one.
As shown in the figure, link mechanism 11. guide rail 12,
It is composed of a guide car 13. The link mechanism 11 is
Link 11-a, link 11-b.

It is composed of five links, link 11-c, link 11-d, and link 11-e, and a guide wheel 13 is attached to the center of link 11-e. Link 11-e
has a structure that allows movement only in the upward and downward directions along the guide rail 12, and the supporting car 10 is movable only in the upward and downward directions along the guide rail 12.
A link 11-a is attached to one end and attached to the middle of the link 11-b, a link 11-c is attached to the other end of the link 11-b, and a link 11-c is attached to the link 11-c. It is attached to link 11-e via attached link 11-d. Further, a stopper 14 is attached to one end of the link 11-d.
1-d and link 11-c are restrained so as not to bend at an angle opposite to the state shown in FIG.

Here, the length of links 11-a to 11-d and the mounting positions of links 11-a and 11-b are determined by the width of the existing monorail 9, the diameter of the support vehicle 10, etc. Further, in FIG. 5, link 11-a and link 11-b are shown.

Each has a structure that allows it to move freely via its axis.

Depending on the required range of motion of the support vehicle 10, the same operation can be achieved even if the links 11-a and -b are fixed in a T-shape, for example.

When the movable trolley 5 approaches the existing monorail 9 from below in the state shown in FIGS. 4(a) and 5, the guide car 13 comes into contact with the lower surface of the existing monorail 9. Further, when the movable cart 5 is pushed up from below, the link 11-e to which the guy 1 (car 13 is attached) is pushed down along the guide rail 12 together with the guide car 13. Link 1
1-e is lowered, the link 11-a rotates to the left in FIG. 5 about the axis when attached to the link 11-e. Further, the link 11-c and the link 11-d rotate in a direction in which both are in a straight line.

Due to the movement of these links, the support car 10 attached to one end of the link 11-b rotates in the lower left direction in FIG. 5 and comes into contact with the upper surface of the existing monorail 9. This state is shown in FIG. 3(a). In the state shown in FIG. 3(a), the links 11-c and 11-d are linear.

A stopper (
(not shown) and avoid the angle shown in FIG. 5, the weight of the manipulator system is converted into a force that compresses links 11-c and 11-d. , it is possible to attach the manipulator system to the existing monorail 9 by setting the strength of the link mechanism 11 to the required strength.

When removing the manipulator system from the existing monorail 9, remove the stopper (not shown) that restrains the link 11-c and link 1-1-d from bending. By performing the reverse operation, the support vehicle 10 is no longer restrained.

According to this embodiment, a large manipulator system can be easily attached to and detached from an existing monorail with a small number of operators.

The examples shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 are other embodiments of the present invention.

The example shown in FIG. 6 is an example in which a notch is provided in a part of the existing monorail 9. The operator approaches the existing monorail 9 from below, inserts the moving mechanism 1 into the existing monorail 9 through the notch in the existing monorail 9, and as shown in FIG. 6(b), 6th
Move it slightly to the left in Figure (b). At this time, driving vehicle 1
5 and the lower surface of the existing monorail 9 are in contact with each other, the rotation of the drive wheel 15 causes the moving mechanism 1 to move along the existing monorail 9 to the left in FIG. The installation of the moving mechanism 1 is completed. Moreover, when the moving mechanism 1 is to be removed from the existing monorail 9, it can be easily achieved by performing the operation opposite to that used for attaching it. After the moving mechanism 1 is attached to the existing monorail 9, it is also possible to attach another member (not shown) to the notch of the existing monorail 9 to prevent the moving mechanism 1 from falling from the notch. However, as shown in FIG. 6, by attaching a limit switch 18 to the upper surface of the moving mechanism 1 and further attaching a signal generator 19 to the existing monorail 9, the moving mechanism 1 can be prevented from falling from the notch. This can be prevented. In this method, after the moving mechanism 1 is fully attached to the existing monorail 9, the limit switch 18
9, the limit switch 18 generates a signal indicating that the moving mechanism 1 is fully attached to the existing monorail 9. In response to this signal, the control device (not shown) of the manipulator system activates the fall prevention circuit, and the moving mechanism 1 approaches the notch in the existing monorail 9, causing the limit switch 18 to contact the signal generating section 19 again. By automatically stopping the moving mechanism 1 when a signal is generated, falling can be prevented.

In the example shown in FIG. 7, it is installed in advance on the ceiling of the equipment room.

- Attach one or more pulleys 21 and a hoisting rope 22 with a hook 23 attached to one end, and after carrying the manipulator system into the equipment room, hang one or more hooks to attach the moving mechanism 1. By attaching the hook 23 to the hook 24 and operating the hoisting rope 22, the moving mechanism 1 can be lifted up.For one-touch installation as shown in FIG. This is an example of attaching or removing.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to robotize most of the work in a nuclear power generation facility without making any modifications to the current nuclear power generation facility, which is effective in improving the versatility of the manipulator system. It is also effective in reducing the number of man-hours required during periodic inspections of nuclear power generation facilities and in reducing the amount of radiation exposure.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a manipulator system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an overall view showing the state of the manipulator system when it is carried into an equipment room. 3 is a sectional view of the moving mechanism shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the moving mechanism shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 is a diagram of the link mechanism for one-touch installation, and FIG. Cross-sectional view of the example (a
) and a perspective view (b), and FIG. 7 is a side view of the third embodiment. 1... Movement mechanism, 2... Manipulator expansion and contraction mechanism,
3... Manipulator shoulder, 4... Manipulator, 5... Moving trolley, 6... Pantograph mechanism, 7...
- Pantograph up and down mechanism. 3rd ward (α) (C) 乎

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A manipulator characterized in that it can be easily attached to and removed from an existing monorail by using a telescoping mechanism of the manipulator body and a telescoping mechanism of the movable trolley. 2. The manipulator according to claim 1, which is provided with a one-touch attachment/detachment mechanism to facilitate attachment/detachment of the manipulator to the existing monorail. 3. The manipulator according to claim 1, wherein a notch is provided in a part of the existing monorail to facilitate attachment and detachment of the manipulator to the existing monorail. 4. The manipulator according to claim 1, wherein a winding mechanism for the manipulator is provided on the existing monorail portion, and the manipulator is easily attached to and detached from the existing monorail.