JPH02208584A - Starting switch device for automatic door - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to open an automatic door for the minimum required time by providing an opening/closing-time determining part which outputs a starting signal for the automatic door in response to the moving speed of a body. CONSTITUTION:When a body enters into a detecting area, the fluctuation in electric signal of a body detector 1 is detected with a signal judging part 3. A speed operating part 6 computes the moving speed of the body. In an opening/ closing-time determining part 7, the following values are set beforehand: a time which becomes shorter when the moving speed becomes faster; and a distance from the detector 1 to the body which becomes longer when the moving speed becomes faster. The time or the distance for the speed data from the operating part 6 is monitored. At the time when the body reaches the end of said distance or the specified time is elapsed for the body, a starting signal for an automatic door is outputted. When a human body moves at a quick speed, the door is opened quickly when the human body enters into the detecting area. Conversely, when the speed is slow, the door is opened slowly after the human body enters into the detecting area. Therefore, energy can be saved, and external noises can be prevented.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention is an automatic system for controlling the opening/closing operation of an automatic door by detecting that an object such as a human body approaches a predetermined area near the automatic door. This invention relates to a door activation switch device.

<Prior Art> As a starting switch device for controlling the opening and closing of such an automatic door, a rubber mud switch, which is made of two metal plates facing each other with a predetermined gap and entirely coated with waterproof rubber, has been used for a long time. However, this rubber cape switch has various drawbacks due to the fact that it uses an object contact detection method. To overcome this drawback, a non-contact detection type electronic cloak type object detector has been devised and put into practical use, but in recent years, other non-contact type object detectors that can easily set and change the detection area have been developed. Object detectors tend to be used frequently. These non-contact object detectors include heat-ray (passive infrared) type detectors that utilize fluctuations in radiated infrared light flux based on the temperature difference between the background of the detection area and the moving object, and those that utilize the time difference between transmitted and received waves. An ultrasonic type that uses the Doppler effect, an infrared type that projects infrared rays and detects changes in the amount of light reflected from an object, and a radio wave (radar) type that uses the Doppler effect of microwaves. etc. exist.

Each of the start switch devices using each of these object detectors has a configuration as shown in FIG. explain. In the object detector 1, an infrared beam emitted from a predetermined detection area set by the optical system is focused by the optical system and enters the infrared detecting element of the object detector 1, and the infrared detecting element enters the infrared detecting element. Converts infrared light flux into an electrical signal proportional to its variation and outputs it.
After this electric signal is amplified by the amplifier 2, it is compared with a reference signal of a certain level by the signal determining section 3, and it is determined whether the electrical signal is equal to or higher than the level of this reference signal. That is, the signal discriminator 3 constantly monitors the amount of variation in the signal strength, that is, the infrared luminous flux, and outputs a detection signal when it detects a variation exceeding the detection sensitivity set by the reference signal, and this detection signal activates the door activation relay 4. is turned on, and relay 4 in this on state
Electricity is supplied to the door operation control unit through the motor, and the motor is driven to rotate to open the automatic door.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> By the way, in any of the object detectors of the non-contact detection type described above, the detection area is set in the vicinity of the automatic door as described above, and the detection area is When an object such as a human body enters the area, a detection signal for door activation is output, the door activation relay 4 is turned on, and the automatic door is opened. For example, the automatic door is kept open for a certain period of time, about one second, and then the automatic door is closed. However, once the detection area is set, it does not change, so for example, if a person walks slowly and passes through an automatic door, the detection area will change from the moment the human body enters the detection area until after a certain period of time has elapsed after passing through the detection area. If the automatic door remains open for a relatively long period of time, and if air conditioning such as cooling or heating is being performed inside, there is a problem of energy loss and external noise entering. Therefore, if the range of the detection area is set narrowly, the above problem can be alleviated considerably, but in this case, if a human body tries to quickly pass through the automatic door, even if the human body approaches the automatic door, The automatic door will not open fully, resulting in the vehicle stopping in front of the automatic door or colliding with it.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and provides an automatic door that can be controlled to open for the minimum necessary time depending on the moving speed of an object passing through the automatic door. The technical problem is to provide an activation switch device.

Means for Solving the Problems> In the present invention, as a technical means for achieving the above-mentioned problems, an automatic door start switch device is configured as follows. That is, an object detector is installed near an automatic door and outputs an electric signal that fluctuates when a moving object such as a human body enters a predetermined detection area set near the automatic door; In an automatic door start switch device comprising a signal discriminator that detects fluctuations in an electric signal of a detector and outputs an object detection signal, the automatic door start switch device comprises: A speed determination means for calculating the moving speed of the object, and a time period that is set shorter as the speed becomes faster or longer as the speed becomes faster, corresponding to the speed data output from the speed judgment means. The present invention is characterized by comprising an opening/closing timing determining means for outputting an activation signal for the automatic door when the detected object reaches a distance from the object detector.

When an object such as a human body or a car moves toward the automatic door and enters the detection area, the electrical signal output from the object detector changes, and the signal judgment unit detects this fluctuation. A detection signal of the object is output, and based on the output of the detection signal, the speed determining means calculates the moving speed of the object based on the output electric signal of the object detector. The opening/closing timing determining section is set with at least one of a time that becomes shorter as the moving speed becomes faster, or a distance from the object detector to the detected object that becomes longer as the moving speed becomes faster,
The opening/closing timing determining unit monitors the time or distance corresponding to the speed data from the speed determining means, and outputs an activation signal for the automatic door after the time has elapsed or when the detected object reaches the specified distance. Therefore, if the human body is moving at a fast speed, the automatic door will be opened quickly after the human body is detected entering the detection area, and conversely, if the human body is moving at a slow speed, the automatic door will be opened quickly after the human body is detected. Since the automatic door is opened slowly after entering the area, the automatic door is opened for the minimum amount of time necessary depending on the speed of movement of the person passing through the automatic door, which saves energy during cooling and heating. , it is possible to prevent noise from entering from outside as much as possible.

<Example> Hereinafter, preferred examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(a), Embodiment 1 In FIG. 1 showing the block configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, the same or equivalent parts as in FIG. 9 are given the same reference numerals, and the object detector 1 In this embodiment, a case will be explained in which an ultrasonic Doppler sensor is used. Then, the distance calculation unit 5 calculates the distance between the object detector 1 and the object detector 1 based on the time from when the transmitted wave of the object detector 1 consisting of the ultrasonic Doppler sensor is emitted until the received wave reflected by the object detector 1 is received.
Calculate the distance from to the detected object. Further, the speed calculating section 6 calculates the moving speed of the detected object based on the frequency fluctuation of the received wave received by the object detector 1. Further, the opening/closing timing determining section 7 is constituted by a microcomputer, and first determines the moving direction of the detected object based on the output signals of the distance calculating section 5 and the speed calculating section 7, and then determines the moving direction and the detected object. The timing for outputting the activation signal to the door activation relay 4 is determined from the distance to the object and the moving speed of the detected object.

As shown in FIG. 2, object detectors 1 are installed inside and outside the automatic door 8, respectively.
A pair of configurations shown in FIG. 1 are provided. In addition, the detection area of each object detector 1 is from the automatic door 8 to 1 (0,1 m) to L (4
m) range. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the opening/closing timing determination unit 7 also includes a relationship between the distance from the object detector 1 to the object to be detected and the moving speed of the object to be detected, in order to determine the timing to output the activation signal. Data is stored in advance, and a program is set to determine the timing of outputting the activation signal based on the data, as shown in FIG. 4, which will be described later. In the same figure,
The shaded area is the area where the activation signal is output, and the positive number shown on the right in the distance from the object detector 1 is the distance when approaching the automatic door 8, and the negative number shown on the left is the area when the automatic door 8 is approached. The distances when moving away from the door 8 are shown, respectively, and X shows the distance from the object detector 1 indicating the insensitive area of the object detector 1. Therefore, when the detected object H moves in the direction approaching the automatic door 8 as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2, the faster the moving speed, the farther the detected object H moves from the automatic door 8. When the object to be detected moves away from the automatic door 8, the activation signal is output when the detected object moves away from the automatic door 8 by 1 m.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. The signal discrimination unit 3 compares the electrical signal output from the object detector 1 and amplified by the amplifier 2 with a reference signal of a certain level, and constantly monitors whether the electrical signal is higher than the level of the reference signal. It outputs a detection signal when it detects a variation exceeding the set detection sensitivity based on the reference signal. The opening/closing timing determining unit 7 constantly monitors whether or not the object H entering the detection area is detected depending on whether a detection signal is input from the signal determining unit 3 (step S1).
)are doing. When the detected object H that has entered the detection area is detected and a detection signal is output, the distance calculation section 5 and the speed calculation section 6 are triggered and driven by this detection signal, and the speed calculation section 6 drives the amplifier 2. The moving speed of the detected object H is calculated based on the frequency fluctuation of the electric signal from the object detector 1 (step S2), and the distance calculation unit 5 receives the received wave reflected from the transmitted wave of the object detector 1 from the time of emission. The distance from the object detector 1 to the object H to be detected is calculated based on the time taken to detect the object H (step S3).

The speed data from the speed calculation unit 6 and the distance data from the distance calculation unit 5 are both input to the opening/closing timing determining unit 7, and the opening/closing timing determining unit 7 first determines whether the detected object H is the automatic door or not based on the distance data. 8 (step S4). In other words, when the distance data corresponds to L (4 m), the automatic door 8
It is determined that the object is approaching , and the distance data is / (0,
1 m), it is determined that the vehicle is moving away from the automatic door 8. If it is determined that the detected object H is approaching the automatic door 8, it is determined whether the detected object H has reached the distance corresponding to the moving speed of the speed data based on the data shown in FIG. Discrimination (Step S)
5) To be done.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the first detected object H1 enters the detection area at a speed of l m/sec and moves toward the automatic door 8, and the second detected object H2
enters the detection area at a speed of 0.5 m/SeC and moves toward the automatic door 8, the third detected object H3 stops in front of the automatic door 8, and the fourth detected object H4 automatically moves toward the automatic door 8. It is assumed that the object moves within the detection area almost parallel to the door 8.

In addition, Ll, L2. L3. L4 indicates distances of 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, and 4 m from the object detector 1, respectively.

The first detected object H1 is detected at position L4, but as is clear from FIG.
When the distance data corresponding to is input, a door open signal is output (step S6). In other words, the activation signal becomes high level and the door activation relay is energized. Second
The detected object H2 is similarly detected at the position L4 when it enters the detection area, but the object H2 is detected at the position L4, which is 2 m from the object detector 1.
A door open signal is output after waiting until the position 2 is reached. Also, the third detected object H3 is 1 point from the object detector position.
Since it is stationary at a position within m, the door open signal continues to be output regardless of the moving speed. Furthermore, since the fourth detected object H4 moves parallel to the automatic door 8, the distance from the object detector 1 does not change much, and the speed calculation unit 6 provides speed data of 1 m/sec or less. is output,
The automatic door 8 will not open unless the user approaches the automatic door 8 considerably.

On the other hand, if the distance data at the time of output of the detection signal from the signal discriminator 3 corresponds to 1 (0, 1 m) and it is determined No in step S4, the distance data corresponding to 1 m corresponds to the distance It is determined whether or not the input has been received from the calculation unit 5 (step S7), and the detected object H is located within 1 m from the object detector 1.
A door close signal is output (step S8). That is, the activation signal from the opening/closing timing determining section 7 becomes low level, the power supply to the door activation relay 4 is stopped, and the automatic door 8 is closed.

In this way, the automatic door 8 opens at a quick timing for an object moving at a fast speed, and at a slow timing for an object moving at a slow speed. The automatic door 8 will be opened for the minimum amount of time required depending on the moving speed of the automatic door 8. Furthermore, even if the object is moving within the detection area, the automatic door 8 will not be opened unless it gets very close to the object that does not pass through the automatic door. No need to open or close.

(b), Embodiment 2 The configuration shown in FIG. 1 may be modified. That is, an ultrasonic sensor or an infrared sensor is used as the object detector 1, and only the distance to the object to be detected is detected based on the output electric signal. For example, in an ultrasonic sensor, the detected object H is measured by measuring the time from irradiating ultrasonic waves to the detected object H until receiving the reflected received waves.
The infrared sensor measures the distance to the detected object H using a triangulation method. These object detectors 1 are driven periodically, for example, every 0.5 seconds, and the distance calculation section 5 periodically calculates the distance. The speed calculation section is different from that shown in FIG. 1 and is configured to calculate the amount of change in distance data periodically output from the distance calculation section 5. In addition, the opening/closing timing determining section also stores the distance of the detected object H from the object detector 1 shown in FIG.
The amount of change in distance data for turning on the activation signal is set for each distance data in accordance with the relationship with the moving speed. In other words, in this example, distance data is output every 0.5 seconds, so if the distance data is 4 m, the change will be 0.75 m, if the distance data is 3 m, the change will be 0.5 m, and if the distance data is 3 m, the change will be 0.5 m. In this case, the amount of change is set to 0.25 m, and the activation signal is turned on when the amount of change exceeds this set value, and the same operation as in the first embodiment is obtained.

In addition, since the amount of change in this distance data for each fixed time corresponds to the moving speed of the detected object H, if the moving speed is calculated from the amount of change in the distance data in the speed calculation section, it is possible to Object detector 1 that can only detect distances of
Although speed data can be obtained in addition to distance data, the opening/closing timing determining device can have the same configuration as that shown in FIG. 1, and operate almost the same as that shown in FIG. 1.

(C), Embodiment 3 It is also possible to have a configuration in which the distance calculating section 5 in FIG. 1 is deleted. That is, by using an ultrasonic Doppler sensor or a radio wave Tombler sensor as an object detector, only the moving speed of the object to be detected is detected from the frequency fluctuation of the reflected reception wave from the object to be detected. In the opening/closing timing determining section, an opening operation delay time corresponding to the moving speed as shown in FIG. 6 and an opening operation holding time corresponding to the moving speed as shown in FIG. 7 are respectively set. The opening operation delay time is the delay time until the detected object is detected and the activation signal is turned on when the detected object approaches the automatic door.For example, when the detected object approaches the automatic door, When the detected object H enters the detection area and is detected at a distance L (4 m) from the object detector 1, the detected object H enters the detection area and is detected at a distance L (4 m) from the object detector 1. Timing of the opening operation delay time is started. On the other hand, the opening operation holding time is such that when the detected object H passes through the automatic door 8 and moves away from the automatic door 8, the activation signal is turned off after the detected object H is detected by the object detector 1 on the opposite side. The detected object H enters the detection area on the opposite side and is detected at a distance of 1 (0,1 m) from the object detector 1. Measurement of the opening operation holding time starts from the time when H is positioned.

For example, when the detected object H approaches the automatic door 8 and its moving speed is 0.3 m/sec, the automatic door 8 will be opened 4 seconds after it is detected;
2 after being detected when the moving speed is 1.0m/5ecO
After seconds have passed, automatic door 8 will be opened, and the movement speed will be reduced to 2.
When it is more than m1sec, the automatic door 8 is opened immediately.

On the other hand, when the detected object H moves away from the automatic door 8, and the moving speed is 0.3 m/sec, the automatic door 8 will remain open for 3 seconds after being detected, and the moving speed When the moving speed is 1.0 m/sec, the automatic door 8 is held open for 2 seconds after being detected, and when the moving speed is 2 m/sec or more, the automatic door 8 is kept open for 1 second after being detected. or retained. Furthermore, if the detected object H moving away from the automatic door 8 suddenly changes direction and approaches the automatic door 8 again, safety can be ensured by continuing to keep the automatic door 8 open. .

(d), Embodiment 4 In addition, as a modification of Embodiment 3, the speed calculation unit with a complicated configuration that calculates the moving speed from the amount of variation in the frequency of the reflected received wave is deleted, and in its place, the speed reference A speed discriminator is provided which sets a value and classifies the moving speed into three stages of the same, fast, and slow based on this reference value, and the opening/closing timing determining section includes:
The opening operation delay time and the opening operation holding time are respectively set corresponding to the three speeds classified by the speed discrimination section. For example, set as shown in the table below.

In this embodiment, since a speed determining section having a simpler configuration than the speed calculating section is used, there is an advantage that the circuit configuration can be simplified.

(e), Example 5 In addition, when using a hot wire type, infrared type, or radio wave type as an object detector to detect only the presence of a moving object that has entered the detection area, the following configuration may be used. Bye. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, each object detector 1 provided on both sides of the automatic door 8 has two detection areas al, a2 and a3. Set a4 using an optical system or the like. When the detected object H approaches the automatic door 8, the speed detection section changes the speed from the detection of the detected object H in the first detection area a1 to the detection of the detected object H in the second detection area a2. The moving speed is calculated based on the elapsed time until the time of detection. Similarly, when the detected object H moves away from the automatic door 8, the speed detection section moves from the time when the detected object H is detected in the third detection area a3 to the fourth detection area a.
The moving speed is calculated based on the elapsed time until the detection of the detected object H in step 4. Others are the above-mentioned Example 3 or Example 4
Similarly, the automatic door 8 is opened after the opening operation delay time corresponding to the detected moving speed has elapsed, or the automatic door 8 is closed after the opening operation holding time has elapsed.

<Effects of the Invention> Since the present invention is configured and operates as described above, it produces the following effects. That is, according to the automatic door activation switch device of the present invention, when an object such as a human body moves at a high speed, the automatic door is opened quickly after the object enters the detection area, and vice versa. When an object moves at a slow speed, the automatic door is opened at a slow timing after the object enters the detection area. Since the automatic door can be opened only for a certain period of time, it is possible to save energy during cooling and heating, and to prevent noise from entering from outside as much as possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of its detection area, and Fig. 3 shows the distance of the object to be detected from the object detector and the detection area for determining the opening/closing timing. FIG. 4 is a flowchart, FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view for explaining the operation, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the moving speed of the detected object and the object approaching the automatic door according to another embodiment of the present invention. Figure 7 shows the relationship between the moving speed of the detected object and the opening/closing operation delay time for determining the opening timing of the automatic door. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a detection area according to still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional example. 1--Object detector 3--Signal discrimination section 6-Speed calculation section (speed discrimination means) 7--Opening/closing timing determining section (opening/closing timing determining means) 8--Automatic door H, H1 to H4--Detected Object patent applicant Optex Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An object detector that is installed near an automatic door and outputs an electric signal that fluctuates when a moving object such as a human body enters a predetermined detection area set near the automatic door; In an automatic door start switch device comprising a signal discriminator that detects fluctuations in an electrical signal of an object detector and outputs an object detection signal, the detection signal is output based on the output signal of the object detector. a speed determining means for calculating the moving speed of the object; an opening/closing timing determining means for outputting an automatic door activation signal when a detected object reaches a distance from the object detector.