JPH02224986A - Moving mechanism with multiple leg - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately detect the existence of an obstacle irrespective of the condition of a floor face or the postures of legs by providing a distance sensor for detecting an obstacle or the difference in level in front on the front end portion of each leg of a moving mechanism. CONSTITUTION:The conditions on the periphery and in front of a multiple-leg moving mechanism 1 are photographed by means of a TV camera 4 on a universal head 3. Further, an obstacle or the difference in level in front is detected by a distance sensor 34 installed on each leg front end portion 13a, 13b of the moving mechanism 1, while detecting the landing condition of each leg portion on the floor face by means of approach sensors 32, 33 and pressure sensitive sensors 30, 31. The image signal from the TV camera 4 and the condition signals from the sensors 30-34 are inputted into a condition recognizing device to grasp the course condition of a moving course. Based on the grasped result of the course condition, the landing positions and the walking mode of the leg portions are determined by a moving mechanism control device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a movement mechanism suitable for working robots and the like used in nuclear power plants and other various plants.

(Prior art) With the increasing demands for safety and working environments, in various plants where manual inspection and work are difficult, such as nuclear power plants, it is necessary to move to inspection and work areas scattered within the plant. The need for work robots to perform inspections and perform various tasks is increasing.

However, conventional work robots have not been equipped with a movement mechanism that satisfies all the required functions, which has been a major obstacle to the practical application of mobile work robots.

In other words, the passageways inside the plant are very crowded, there are steps such as weirs and stairs, and obstacles such as piping and equipment are spread over a wide area, so The moving mechanism used is a four-wheeled rlL.
cannot be used.

Therefore, it has been proposed to adopt a multi-leg movement mechanism using a plurality of legs, and many developments have been made.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In a multi-legged moving mechanism, during movement, the legs must be sequentially lifted and moved forward while maintaining the center of gravity, and the control is extremely complicated.

For this reason, at present, only those with limited conditions such as a flat floor condition have been put into practical use.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and provides a multi-leg movement mechanism that has the added function of accurately grasping the condition of the passageway and road surface in which the vehicle is moving. The purpose is to

[Structure of the invention] (Means for solving the problem) The multi-leg moving mechanism of the present invention is attached to a moving mechanism main body,
A pan head that rotates and swings up and down, a television camera mounted on this pan head to photograph the surrounding conditions, and a distance sensor attached to the tip of the leg of the moving mechanism to detect obstacles and steps in front. , a proximity sensor and a pressure-sensitive sensor that detect the state in which the legs have landed on the floor, and an image signal from the television camera and status signals from the distance sensor, proximity sensor, and pressure-sensitive sensor, and detect the movement mechanism. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a state recognition device 61u that grasps the movement route, and a movement mechanism control device that determines the landing position of the leg and the walking mode based on the result of understanding the path state.

(Function) In the mobile device +1-1 of the present invention configured as described above, the passage is very complicated, there are steps such as weirs and stairs,
Alternatively, even in the case of a blunt having a large number of pipes, it is possible to reliably walk based on other positions of the legs and walking mode depending on the state of the pipes.

(Example) Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of a multi-leg moving mechanism according to the present invention. On a main body 2 of the multi-leg moving mechanism 1, a pan head 3 equipped with a rotating and vertical swinging mechanism is attached. This pan head is equipped with a television camera 4 and a wireless transmitter/receiver 5 for photographing the surrounding state of the multi-legged moving mechanism 1.

The radio transceiver 5 is coupled via radio waves to the radio transceiver 8 of the operation panel 7 on the ground station 6 side, and performs various detection f. transmits and receives signals and control signals.

There are four legs 10 at the four corners of the main body 2 of the multi-leg moving mechanism 1.
a and 10b (the other two are not shown).

These legs are provided with leg actuators 11a and llb driven by motors at the base and middle joints of each leg.
, 12a, 12b, and each leg 10a,
Leg actuators 14a, 1 are provided with powder brakes at the joints between the lower end of the leg 10b and the leg tips 13a, 13b.
4b is provided.

An actuator servo circuit 20, a sensor circuit 21, and a controller 22 are provided at the center of the lower surface of the main body 2 of the multi-leg moving mechanism 1.

Leg tips 13a, 13b (these have the same structure,
In the following explanation, the suffixes a and b will be omitted and will simply be 13.
Display as . This is the same for other same-structure shrines as well. ) is provided with pressure sensors 30, 31 and proximity sensors 32, 33 on the lower surface, and a distance sensor 34 on the front surface in the direction of movement, as shown in FIG. 35 indicates a powder brake.

In the multi-legged moving mechanism of the present invention configured as described above, when a command from the operation panel 7 installed at the ground station is received via the wireless transceiver 8.5, the control controller 22 operates based on the command. A control signal is generated to drive the leg actuators 118% 11b% 12a, 12b, 14a, and 14b to move each leg 10a and 10b up and down to move the multi-leg moving mechanism 1.

In this case, obstacles and steps in front of the moving direction of the multi-legged moving mechanism 1 are detected by the distance sensor 34, and the state where the legs have landed on the floor is detected by the proximity sensor 32.3B and the pressure sensor 30.31. Detected. These sensors 3
The signals from 0 to 34 and the signal from the television camera 4 are processed by the sensor circuit 21 to determine their respective states.

When moving the multi-legged moving mechanism described above, please refer to Fig. 3(a).
In the situation shown in , the reflected waves are no longer input to the distance sensor 34, making it impossible to accurately detect stairs or obstacles in front of you, and making it difficult to detect whether you are landing on your feet or on the floor. cannot be detected accurately. In order to accurately detect these states, as shown in Figure 3(b),
The leg tip 13 must always be in a horizontal state at the time of detection. Therefore, a method of attaching an inclinometer to the leg tip 13 and controlling the joint angle so that the leg tip 13 becomes horizontal based on the detected inclination angle is also being considered. Due to the large size, the leg tip 13 becomes large and the control becomes complicated, which is not practical.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the following method is adopted in order to keep the leg tip 13 horizontal without using an inclinometer.

■ Leg tip 13 is off the floor (proximity sensor 3
2.33 is off), the powder brake 35 provided at the joint at the tip of the leg is released (unlocked).

The tip of the monopod is designed to maintain a stable horizontal position when the powder brake 35 is released.
5 is released, the leg tip 13 becomes horizontal and maintains that position.

■ A state in which the leg tip 13 is close to the floor (proximity sensor 3
2.33 is on), the powder brake 35 provided at the joint at the tip of the leg is excited (locked).

→As a result, the leg tip 13 maintains the horizontal state before exciting the powder brake 35.

Thus, according to the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4(a),
As shown in (b), even if the floor surface is not horizontal, the leg tips 13 maintain the horizontal state before exciting the powder brake 35, so the distance to the stairs or obstacle 40 in front can be accurately determined. Can be measured.

In addition, since the television camera 4 is mounted on the pan head 3 which has two degrees of freedom (swivel and vertical swing), it can photograph the surroundings and the front of the multi-leg movement mechanism 1, and can take pictures of the surroundings and the front of the multi-leg movement mechanism 1. and the state of the obstacle 40 are photographed. The video signal is taken in by the sensor circuit 21 and subjected to image processing to detect the presence or absence of steps or obstacles 40, and the state of the moving route (whether it is flat or uneven, etc.). Therefore, the multi-legged moving mechanism 1 can be moved smoothly.

In addition, in the above explanation, an example was described in which a leg actuator using a powder brake is applied to the joint between the leg and the tip of the leg, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, it may be possible to use a leg actuator instead of the powder brake. An adsorption method using a solenoid coil may also be used.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the multi-legged moving mechanism according to the present invention, the presence or absence of a step or an obstacle can be accurately detected by the distance sensor attached to the tip of the leg, regardless of the condition of the floor surface or the posture of the leg. What's more, the TV camera on the pan head can take pictures of the surroundings and the front of the multi-legged moving mechanism, and by capturing the footage and performing image processing, the distance sensors at the tips of the legs can detect steps and obstacles. Since it can be determined in advance, route status can be more accurately determined, system configuration can be simplified, and high reliability can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the multi-leg movement mechanism of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially longitudinal explanatory diagram showing a specific example of the configuration of the leg tips in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3(a) , (b) are explanatory diagrams for explaining the operation of the conventional device, and FIGS. 4(a) and (b) are explanatory diagrams for explaining the operation of the present invention device. l...Multi-leg movement mechanism 2...Main body 3...Camera head 4...TV camera 5 .8...Radio transceiver 6...Ground station 7......Operation panel 10a, 10b-...Legs 11a, llb, 12as 12bs 1
4a. 14b... Leg actuator 13. 13a, 13b-leg tip portion 20... Actuator servo circuit 21
......Sensor circuit 22...Control controller 30.31.
...Pressure sensor 32.33...Proximity sensor 34...Distance sensor 35...Powder brake 40...
...Obstacle agent Patent attorney Nori Ken Yudo Chika Ken Daishimaru

Claims (1)

[Claims] A pan head that is attached to the main body of the moving mechanism and rotates and swings up and down, a television camera that is mounted on this platform and that takes pictures of the surrounding conditions, and a television camera that is attached to the tip of the legs of the moving mechanism and that monitors obstacles and obstacles in front of the moving mechanism. A distance sensor that detects a step, a proximity sensor and a pressure-sensitive sensor that detect when the legs land on the floor,
a state recognition device that captures an image signal from the television camera and state signals from the distance sensor, proximity sensor, and pressure-sensitive sensor, and grasps the movement route of the moving mechanism; A multi-legged locomotion mechanism, comprising: a locomotion mechanism control device that determines the landing position and walking mode of the multi-legged locomotion mechanism.