JPH0437736Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] "Industrial application field" This invention relates to mobile robots such as unmanned vehicles, and in particular, it facilitates the work associated with changing data stored in the storage means of mobile robots using an IC card. ,
The present invention relates to a mobile robot characterized in that the present invention is reliable.

``Conventional technology'' Currently, research into self-driving robots is being actively conducted. This type of mobile robot has wheels, crawlers, walking legs, etc. in its running section, and is adapted to move according to commands from a control section equipped with storage means.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the structure of a conventional mobile robot 1 having wheels on its traveling section. In this figure, 2 is a control unit equipped with a storage means, etc., 3 is a wheel drive unit, and 4a, 4b are motors that drive left and right wheels 5a, 5b.
A running section 6 is formed by the wheels 5a, 5b and the wheels 5a, 5b.

In such a configuration, when a destination is given, the control unit 2 searches for a travel route to the destination based on information stored in the storage means, and issues a travel command (hereinafter referred to as a command) as a result of the search. ) and supplies the command to the wheel drive unit 3. The wheel drive section 3 interprets this command and drives the wheels 5a, 5.
Drive b.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a conventional command (GO command). For example, when a command (60.100.10.30) is given to the control unit 2 or the wheel drive unit 3 (see figure a), the wheel drive unit 3 interprets this command and moves the mobile robot 1 as shown in the figure.
run. That is, the mobile robot 1 moves on the X-axis, starts cutting a curve at a point of X=60cm, passes a point of X=100cm, Y=10cm in a direction that makes a 30° angle with the X-axis, After that, go straight again. Therefore, if the new straight movement is defined as the new coordinate axis _X1 , the angle between the new coordinate axis X1 and the old coordinate axis X is 30°.

When the command GO (100.50.80.135) is given (see figure b), the mobile robot 1 moves straight on the Proceed until X=50
cm, passes through the point Y=80cm making an angle of 135° with the X axis.

In this way, the wheel drive section 3 interprets the command from the control section 2 and drives the wheels 5a, 5b.
In this case, the wheel drive unit 3 may control the wheels 5a, 5b by considering only the local coordinates. Furthermore, the control unit 2 manages the world coordinates based on the map data stored in the built-in ROM chip, and also allows the mobile robot 1 to reach the destination based on the similarly stored traveling condition data. Search routes and create commands.

``Problems that the invention attempts to solve'' By the way, the above-mentioned conventional mobile robots had the following problems.

That is, the data to be stored in the ROM chip is written in advance by a ROM writer on the ground. Then, the ROM chip with the data written thereon is attached to a socket arranged on the control board included in the control section 2 on the mobile robot side. this
The data written in the ROM chip must be changed every time the mobile robot's map data, speed, and other travel conditions change. Furthermore, the ROM chip has multiple legs, and when inserting the ROM chip into the socket, it is necessary to insert these multiple legs into the socket at the same time, which may cause the legs to break or bend during insertion. There are many cases where it is necessary to handle with care. Furthermore, when attaching a ROM chip to the board or replacing the ROM chip, it is necessary to take out the board itself from the control section 2, which takes time and effort to replace the ROM chip.

This invention was made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and the purpose of this invention is to facilitate and reliably perform work when changing or writing data stored in the memory built into a mobile robot. The aim is to provide a mobile robot that can

"Means for Solving Problems" This invention consists of a traveling means that travels according to a command indicating a travel route to a destination, a manipulator that performs work, teaching data that instructs the operation of the manipulator, and A mobile robot having a storage means for storing map data indicating geographic information of the entire route including the travel route, and a control means for controlling the operation of the manipulator based on the teaching data, detecting the traveling position while traveling. a detection means; a travel control means for controlling travel of the travel means to avoid deviation from the travel route based on the travel position detected by the detection means and the map data; teaching data storage means for storing teaching data corresponding to this in the storage means when the teaching is performed;
The IC card insertion section and the IC card inserted into the insertion section.
The above problem is solved by a mobile robot characterized by comprising data reading/writing means for reading and writing the teaching data and the map data between an IC card and the storage means.

"Operation" According to this invention, it is easy to change the data stored in the memory built into the mobile object to the data stored in the IC card, or to transfer the data stored in the memory to the IC card. Therefore, changing the data stored in the memory built into the mobile robot is easy and can be done reliably. In addition, since the data stored in the memory of the mobile object can be easily transferred to the IC card, by using the IC card in another mobile object, the data can be transferred to the memory of the other mobile object. can be easily and reliably copied to memory. Further, the detection means detects the traveling position of the mobile robot while it is traveling. Based on this traveling position and the map data stored in the storage means, traveling control is performed so that the mobile robot does not deviate from the traveling route.

"Embodiments" Hereinafter, embodiments of this invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a mobile robot according to an embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control circuit of the mobile robot.

In FIG. 1, 111 is a mobile robot body;
112 is a driving wheel, and 113 and 114 are idle wheels.
Reference numeral 111a indicates an upper plane of the moving body main body 111, and 115 indicates a manipulator attached near the rear of the center of the upper plane 111a. The manipulator 115
A grip portion 116 that opens and closes in the A-B direction is configured at the tip. Reference numeral 117 denotes an ultrasonic sensor in which a transmitting part and a receiving part are integrated, and the mobile body main body 11
It is buried in the side of 1. Reference numeral 118 denotes a key switch panel that is attached to a position slightly above the entire surface of the movable body 111 and is sometimes used when operating a mobile robot. This key switch is used as necessary when inputting a travel start signal for the moving body 111, when reading data stored in a card, when writing data to a card, etc. 119 is
This is an IC card insertion slot.

Next, in FIG. 2, reference numeral 208 denotes a central station located on the ground side, from which command data is sent to the mobile unit by radio. 209 is a card data reading and writing unit, and an IC
It is equipped with a card insertion hole 119, a card insertion socket, etc.

210 is a control unit, and 210M is a memory. This memory 210M includes a storage area where map data is stored, teaching data sent from the manipulator side during teaching work using the manipulator, command data sent from the central station 208,
A storage area is set for storing other necessary data.

The control unit 210 reads teaching data, map data, etc. from the IC card inserted into the card insertion hole 119, determines the type of each data, and temporarily stores it in a predetermined area of the memory 210M. and,
The teaching data is output to the manipulator 115. Further, the control unit 210 controls the manipulator 11
When the display operation is performed in step 5, the corresponding teaching data is stored in a predetermined area of the memory 210M.
On the other hand, the control unit 210 reads teaching data, map data, etc. stored in the memory 210M, and writes them into the IC card inserted into the card insertion hole 119. Furthermore, the control unit 210 outputs the command regarding running stored in the memory 210M to the command conversion unit 211.

The command conversion unit 211 receives a command from the control unit 210, converts the command sent in the form of a serial signal into parallel data, and supplies the parallel data to the command interpretation unit 212.

Here, the above command is GO (x.y.v.θ.ptr.N) It is of the form

However, x is the travel distance in the x-axis direction (positive: forward, negative: backward), y is the travel distance in the y-axis direction (positive: left, negative: right), v is the composite speed in the x and y directions, θ is the rotation angle (positive : counterclockwise) ptr is the scene pointer N is the node number reached after the command is executed. That is, the command gives each component of the traveling distance xy to the node N reached after execution, and also gives the traveling speed v and the rotation angle θ until reaching the next node together with the scene pointer ptr and the node number N. The miracle given by a series of commands then takes the form of a polygonal line trajectory connecting multiple nodes.

Here, the node refers to a driving state change point such as a stopping point, a branch point, or a work point. In addition, the scene pointer PTR specifies a group of information such as the distance to the left and right walls and changing points (edges) of the wall, and this information is compared and contrasted with information obtained from the ultrasonic sensor etc. described later. and is used to correct the actual position of the mobile robot.

The command interpreter 212 interprets the command given in the form of a polygonal trajectory as described above, and creates a travel pattern for the mobile robot. That is, the command interpreter 212 determines the optimum speed pattern and rotation pattern (see FIG. 4) to realize the traveling distance, traveling speed v, and rotation angle θ for each xy component given by a series of commands.
is executed as a running pattern, and the speed pattern signal vx of the x-axis component, the speed pattern signal vy of the y-axis component,
It outputs a rotation pattern signal θ, generates these pattern signals, and supplies these pattern signals to the servo command generation unit 213. Here, the traveling pattern described above changes depending on the type of traveling device so as to be a pattern suitable for the traveling device (wheels in this embodiment).

The servo command creation unit 213 is the command interpretation unit 2
The pattern signals vx, vy, and θ supplied from 12 are read at every predetermined sampling period, and these are compared with feedback signals vxf, vyf, and θf, which will be described later, to calculate deviation signals Δvx, Δvy, and Δθ.
These signals are converted into analog signals and then supplied to the servo control section 214. As a result, the servo control section 214 drives and controls the motors 4a and 4b so that the deviation signal becomes zero.

The amount of rotation of the motors 4a, 4b is
Encoders 5a, 5 connected to the rotating shaft of 4b
b is converted into an electric pulse by the orbit correction unit 2.
16.

The trajectory correction unit 216 calculates the travel distance by counting the pulse signals sent from the encoders 5a and 5b, and also obtains speed feedback signals vxf and vyf from the pulse signals. However, since wheels are used as the traveling device in this embodiment, only the feedback signal vxf in the x-axis direction is obtained.

The trajectory correction unit 216 also obtains the rotation angle from the left and right pulse signals, corrects it, and creates a rotation angle feedback signal θf. This modification is performed using the data sent from the environment recognition unit 217 and stored in the memory 210M, and the scene pointer
This is done by comparing with map data read using ptr as a key.

The above modifications will be explained below.

First, the memory 210M stores distance information between the walls on both the left and right sides of the travel route in association with distance information from the node, and for each changing point (edge) of the wall, the distance from the node and the distance from the node are stored. , and the distances to the walls on both the left and right sides are stored. A series of data from one node to the next node is associated with one scene pointer ptr,
Map data corresponding to the scene pointer ptr specified by the command is read out.

On the other hand, the actual distance from the mobile robot to the left and right walls is measured by the ultrasonic distance measuring section 219. That is, the ultrasonic ranging section 219 drives the ultrasonic transmitting section 220a to emit ultrasonic waves toward the wall, and the receiving section 220b receives the reflected waves. Measure the distance to.

This measurement result is supplied to the environment recognition unit 217,
The environment recognition unit 217 detects points where the distance to the wall changes, that is, edges.

The trajectory correction unit 216 reads the map data specified by the scene pointer ptr from the memory 210M, and also reads the actual distances to the left and right walls and the distance from the node to the edge supplied from the environment recognition unit 217. is compared with the map data and the following two types of corrections are made.

(1) Correct the rotation angle so that the distances to the left and right walls are approximately equal, that is, so that the mobile robot passes approximately in the center of the path, and create a rotation angle feedback signal θf.

(2) If the actual traveling distance from the node to the edge obtained by counting the pulse signals from the encoders 5a and 15b differs from the one obtained from the map data, the distance is corrected by adding or subtracting this difference. In other words, the count value of the pulse signal is modified by software by adding or subtracting the difference.

To summarize, the above corrections are based on the distance to the walls on both sides of the mobile robot, correcting the horizontal distance using the rotation angle, and detecting the edge (change point) of the wall and calculating the encoder count. It is broadly classified as modifying the value by software.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6.

In the following explanation, the case of going from node N0 to node N7 in FIG. 3 will be taken as an example, and it is assumed that the mobile robot 22 is facing in the direction of the next node N1 at node N0. Furthermore, for convenience of explanation, the distance between each node is assumed to be 10 m.

First, send the command to the central station 2 to node N7.
08, the control unit 210 controls the node N0
Find the shortest path from to N7, N0→N1→N4
→Determine the route from N5 to N7.

Note that, as this search method, known methods such as vertical search and horizontal search can be used. When the route is determined in this way, the control section 210 creates the following series of command data as data to be sent to the traveling section.

(1) GO (10000, 0, 2000, 0, P0, N1) (2) GO (10000, 0, 2000, −15708, P1, N4) (3) GO (10000, 0, 2000, +15708, P2, N5) (4) GO (10000, 0, 2000, −15708, P3, N7) (5) WAIT (0, 1, 0) Here, the first component 10000 in parentheses means that the distance between the nodes is 10 m ( = 10000 mm), and the second component 0 indicates that the distance component in the y-axis direction is zero. Also, the third component
2000 indicates that you should drive at 2km/h. Furthermore, the fourth component, −15708, is π/2
Indicates that it should be rotated clockwise.

The command WAIT instructs to temporarily stop the operation.
The components in parentheses are 0/1 for the warm deceleration stop/sudden stop, apply/not apply the brake after stopping, and servo off/on commands.

When such a command is received by the control unit 210, the command interpretation unit 212 first performs the above (1) and (2).
From the command, imagine a driving route as shown in Figure 3, and change the speed pattern as shown in Figure 4.
Create vx and rotation pattern θ.

In this case, the velocity pattern vx is from node N0 to
The vehicle gradually accelerates to S0, travels at a constant speed from point S0 where the speed reaches 2 km/h, and gradually decelerates from point S1 slightly before the corner.

On the other hand, the rotation pattern θ begins to curve to the right at this point S2, causing the mobile robot 22 to corner to the right, and begins to reverse the curve at point S3 corresponding to node N1.
At point S4, the mobile robot 22 completes the 90° cornering and returns to running in a straight line.

The speed pattern vx and the rotation pattern θ are sent to the servo command generation unit 13, and compared with the feedback signals vxf and θf from the trajectory correction unit 216,
Deviation signals Δvx and Δθ are generated and supplied to the servo control section 14, and the vehicle travels along the above travel pattern.

In this case, map information is read from the map section 18 by the scene pointers P0 and P1, and the above-mentioned corrections and
That is, a correction is made so that the mobile robot 22 comes to the center of the path, and a correction is made to the pulse counts from the encoders 15a and 15b.

Similarly, by commands (2) and (3), the node
The vehicle is controlled to travel in the direction of N4 to N5, and is controlled to travel at nodes N5 to N7 by the commands (3) and (4).
Then, the mobile robot 22 is decelerated before the node N7 by the WAIT command in (5), and when it reaches the node N7, the brake is applied and the mobile robot 22 stops.
When the mobile robot 22 reaches the node N7, it starts the manipulator 115 in response to a work start command signal issued from the control unit 210, and is then taught by the manipulator 115 based on the teaching data read out from the memory 210M. perform the work movements.

Since this embodiment is configured as described above, the teaching data obtained by teaching using the manipulator 115 of one mobile robot is written on an IC card, and this IC card is read into another mobile robot. Other mobile robots can be made to perform work based on the teaching data in the same way without any teaching work by the operator, and the teaching work by the operator can be saved. Furthermore, similarly to the teaching data, by copying map data to a plurality of mobile robots via an IC card, the same map data can be accurately and efficiently stored in a plurality of mobile robots.

Furthermore, since the teaching data and map data can be stored in an IC card and moved, these data can be modified at another location (for example, at a control station). Therefore, for example, correction work can be performed using a program dedicated to correction, etc., and detailed and efficient correction can be performed. That is, compared to performing correction work directly on each mobile robot, the correction work is extremely accurate and efficient, and is extremely convenient in terms of data maintenance. Furthermore, data such as teaching data and map data can be transferred and backed up, and a history of failures can be stored to be useful for later maintenance. For example, by reading failure records from the IC cards of multiple mobile robots, it is possible to know the distribution of failures by type.

Further, based on the pulse signals output from the encoders 5a and 5b, the travel distance, rotation angle, and other travel positions of the mobile robot can be calculated. Then, the traveling position is corrected based on this traveling position and the map data stored in the memory 210M. As a result, traveling control is performed so that the mobile robot does not deviate from the traveling route, and stability and reliability in traveling are improved.

"Effects of the invention" As explained above, according to this invention, the teaching data, map data, etc. stored in the IC card can be written into the storage means included in the mobile robot, or the data can be stored in the storage means. Since the robot is configured to be able to write teaching data, map data, etc. to the IC card, teaching data obtained by teaching one mobile robot can be written to the IC card. By transplanting the teaching data to other mobile robots via this IC card, it is possible to make the mobile robots perform similar tasks without having to teach each mobile robot individually. In other words, it is possible to achieve the effect of saving labor in teaching work.

Furthermore, similarly to teaching data, by copying map data to multiple mobile robots via an IC card, the same map data can be accurately and efficiently stored in multiple mobile robots. It will be done.

Furthermore, since the teaching data and map data can be stored in an IC card and moved, these data can be modified at another location (for example, at a control station). Therefore, compared to directly performing correction work on individual mobile robots, it is possible to perform correction work extremely accurately and efficiently.

Furthermore, by storing teaching data, map data, etc. in an IC card, an effect can be obtained in that it can be saved as backup data.

Furthermore, according to this invention, the detection means
The traveling position of the mobile robot while it is traveling is detected. Then, based on this traveling position and the map data stored in the storage means, traveling control is performed so that the mobile robot does not deviate from the traveling route. This provides the effect of improving safety and reliability when the mobile robot travels.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a mobile robot according to an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control system of the mobile robot, and Fig. 3 shows an example of the traveling route of the mobile robot. The plan view, Figure 4, is from node N0 through node N1 to node N4.
FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram showing the speed pattern and rotation pattern in the case of FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a plan view for explaining command examples of a conventional mobile robot. , and FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the mobile robot. 111...Mobile robot body, 119...Card insertion slot, 209...Card data reading/writing unit, 210...Control unit, 210M...Memory.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A traveling means that travels in accordance with a command indicating a travel route to a destination, a manipulator that performs work, teaching data that instructs the operation of the manipulator, and the entire route including the travel route. A mobile robot comprising: a storage means for storing map data indicating geographical information of the mobile robot; and a control means for controlling the operation of the manipulator based on the teaching data; travel control means for controlling travel of the travel means to avoid deviation from the travel route based on the travel position detected by the means and the map data; teaching data storage means for storing corresponding teaching data in the storage means; an IC card insertion section; and reading of the teaching data and the map data between the IC card inserted into the insertion section and the storage means. A mobile robot comprising: and data reading/writing means for writing data.