JPH0511839A - Moving robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a detecting means for a movement track which minimizes the overlap of the track of the moving robot and the quantity of undone operation and is simple and small in error by charging a heat generating material for drawing a heat track on a movement path in driving wheels and equipping a body part with sensors which detect the heat track. CONSTITUTION:A cleaning robot 1 comes close to a wall surface S as it travels along a wall surface P. This wall surface S is detected by the ultrasonic sensors 10 and 11 and while one driving wheel 41 is stopped, the other driving wheel is rotated to turn the cleaning robot 1 by 180 deg., so that the robot travels toward a wall surface Q. At this time, the track is formed with the heat of the travel path along the wall surface P and an infrared camera 12 detects this track, so that the robot travels while properly changing its direction so that the current travel path does not overlap with the detects track. Thus, the cleaning robot 1 cleans the room 18 in every nook and corner while repeatedly returning on the wall surfaces Q and S.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile robot which moves in a wide area such as a cleaning robot, and more particularly to a mobile robot which has a moving locus detecting means for moving within the moving area in a shortest time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional mobile robot, especially a cleaning robot which needs to move to every corner of a room, uses internal data from an internal sensor such as an encoder or a gyro. The control has been performed in which the traveling locus of the robot is calculated and stored to minimize the overlap of the loci.

However, there has been a problem that an error occurs in a running locus due to the internal data due to a wheel slip or a sensor error, resulting in a large overlap of loci and overwork.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The problem to be solved by the present invention is to detect a moving locus, which is simple and has a small error, for minimizing the overlapping of loci of a mobile robot and the unfinished work as seen in the prior art. To provide.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a mobile robot having a moving wheel on a bottom portion thereof, the moving wheel being filled with a heat-generating substance for drawing a heat locus on the moving path, and the body portion being provided with the heat-generating material. It is equipped with a sensor for detecting the trajectory.

[0006]

When the mobile robot advances, a region having a higher temperature than other parts is formed in the moving path due to the heat generated by the heat-generating substance of the moving wheel. This area becomes a moving locus with heat and is detected by the sensor of the torso part, so that the mobile robot does not overlap with the path previously passed by this sensor or the work is left unfinished. Move while correcting the route to.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the mobile robot of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a cleaning robot 1 as an example of a mobile robot, and FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the same. First, in FIG. 1, 2 is a body part of a mobile robot, 3 is a body part 2 on which the moving parts 41 and 42 filled with a heat-generating substance as used in a heater or a disposable body warmer are provided. A pedestal portion arranged rotatably, 5 is a handle for manually moving the cleaning robot 1 from one room to another room, and 6 and 7 are stacks of the mobile robot 1 arranged on the upper surface of the body portion 2. A switch for operating the gate and a switch for operating the stop, 8 is a memory card for storing the layout of the room to be cleaned, which is also arranged on the upper surface of the body 2, 9 is an entrance / exit of the memory card, and 10 is A plurality of ultrasonic sensors for detecting forward obstacles arranged on the side surface of the body 2, 11 are ultrasonic sensors for detecting lateral obstacles similarly arranged on the side of the body 2, 12 Is the driving wheels 41, 4 on the bottom of the pedestal 3 An infrared camera which is provided in the vicinity of 2 and detects infrared rays along the path traced by the driving wheels 41 and 42, 13 is an AC code for supplying power to the mobile robot 1, 14 is the body 2 and the pedestal 3 It is a winding mechanism portion of the AC cord 13 housed in the constricted portion formed between the two.

Further, in FIG. 2, reference numeral 15 is a caster provided at the front and rear of the bottom of the body portion 2, 16 is the moving wheel 41,
A motor provided on each of the driving wheels 41 and 42 for applying a driving force to the driving wheels 41, 42.
It is Reference numeral 17 is a control unit which functions to change the traveling direction by adjusting the rotational speeds of the left and right moving wheels 41 and 42.

The exothermic substance is, for example, iron oxide (exothermic temperature 4
(0 to 50 ° C.) or a heating wire may be used. FIG. 3 shows a driving wheel 41,
42 is a cross-sectional view of 42, with the outermost tire made of urethane rubber
The iron oxide accommodating portion 45 is provided on the tire 43 side of a wheel 44 made of a material such as aluminum wound around 43. Mechanism in which the iron oxide is movably packed in the storage portion 45 and is densely packed so as not to disturb the balance of the driving wheels 41 and 42, and an exothermic reaction occurs due to collision of iron oxide particles due to rotation of the driving wheels 41 and 42. It has become.

The infrared camera 12 is 0.02-0.15
The one having a minimum detection temperature of ° C and a measurement temperature range of -50 to 1000 ° C is used. The viewing angle is 10-30
Use the one at °.

The floor surface to be cleaned is covered with carpet, P tiles and linoleum. Generally, the heat conduction equations of these materials are expressed by the equation 1.

[0013]

[Equation 1]

However, T is the current floor surface temperature, and T ₀ is the driving wheels 41, 4
The initial temperature of the floor when 2 passes, T _a is the ambient air temperature, t is the elapsed time, ρ is the material density of the floor, C _p is the specific heat of the material of the floor, and D is half the thickness of the material. is there. A graph of this is shown in Fig. 4, in which an exponential curve is drawn until the temperature of the floor warmed by the driving wheels 41, 42 returns to the ambient temperature, and the temperature change becomes slower with time, It takes several hours to return to ambient temperature.

On the other hand, the cleaning robot is 30 cm / s.
Since it moves at a speed of ec, it does not take an hour to make a round trip on any large floor, and the infrared camera 12 can detect the difference in temperature from the surroundings of the previously passed locus.

FIG. 5 is a view showing one of the cleaning paths of the cleaning robot 1. In this case, when approaching the wall surface of the room, the direction is changed by 180 ° at that point, and the direction is opposite to that.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a state of detection of a moving path by the infrared camera 12 of the cleaning robot in the position shown in FIG. In the figure, the trajectory of the moving wheel 42 which has already passed is shown by a broken line A, and the field of view of the infrared camera 12 is shown by a chain line B.
It can be seen that the locus A of the floor surface showing a temperature higher than the ambient temperature is captured within the field of view of the infrared camera 12. Thus, the cleaning robot constantly moves while capturing the locus A in the field of view of the infrared camera 12.

The operation of the mobile robot having the above construction will be described below.

A rough layout of the room is given as initial information from the memory card 8 to the cleaning robot 1 placed at the start point St of the room 18 shown in FIG. 5, and the start switch 6 is pushed to start it. Start moving from the point. During the movement, the ultrasonic sensors 10 and 11 detect an obstacle each time, and the control unit 17 controls the rotation speeds of the driving wheels 41 and 42 to avoid the obstacle, and the shortest route (in this case, the vertical direction Start along the wall P).

The moving wheels 41, 42 are heated by the heat-generating substance inside thereof, and marks the paths through which heat has passed. Then, the infrared camera 12 is activated from the start point St and detects the mark due to the heat applied by the moving wheels 41 and 42 in the range of the field of view. Is not formed, and the movement direction is not controlled by the detection of the infrared camera 12.

As the vehicle continues to move along the wall surface P, it approaches the wall surface S in due course. This wall surface S is the ultrasonic sensor
The moving direction of the cleaning robot 1 is set to 1 by detecting with 10 and 11 and stopping the driving wheel 41 and rotating only the driving wheel 42.
Turn around 80 ° and move toward wall Q. At this time, the trajectory of the traveling path due to heat is formed by the movement of the robot 1 along the wall surface P. The infrared camera 12 detects this locus and advances while changing the direction appropriately so that the current traveling route of the cleaning robot 1 does not overlap with this locus. In this way, the cleaning robot 1 proceeds so as not to overlap with the route that has already passed, and cleans the entire room 18 while driving back on the wall surfaces Q and S.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment in which, unlike the example of FIG. 5, the cleaning of the room 18 is performed while turning from the end toward the center. In this case as well, the infrared camera 12 detects the trajectory of the moving wheels 41 and 42, and detects this and the overshoot.
Cleaning is performed by controlling the traveling direction of the cleaning robot 1 so as not to wrap.

In FIG. 8, the cleaning robot 1 is divided into a suction robot 1a for sucking dust and dust on the floor and a finishing robot 1b for polishing the floor by supplying water or detergent, and the robots 1a, 1b share the cooperation. An example is shown in the case of performing the work. The preceding suction robot 1a has a heat-generating substance on its moving wheel, and marks the path that the heat-generating substance has passed through. Finishing robot 1b accompanying
Detects the thermal trajectory of the suction robot 1a by its infrared camera, and follows the suction robot 1a while controlling the traveling direction so as to match the thermal trajectory. Of course, the suction robot 1a itself proceeds so as not to overlap the trajectory of the route attached by the infrared camera itself. In this case, since the locus can be drawn by the suction robot 1a, the finishing robot 1b accompanying it does not necessarily need to have a heat-generating substance on the moving wheel.

[0024]

The present invention is a mobile robot having a moving wheel on the bottom, and the moving wheel is filled with a heat-generating substance for drawing a heat locus on the moving path, and the body part detects the heat locus. Since the mobile robot is equipped with a sensor, even if the mobile robot performs complicated traveling in which tracks such as straight lines and circular arcs are combined, it is possible to travel in an area that needs to be traveled in a short time and in a short time. In addition to shortening the work time, the work can be performed with almost no unworked area left.

Further, when a plurality of robots cooperate to perform the work, the trailing robot follows the trail of the preceding robot, and the trailing robot passes the same trail as the preceding robot. Therefore, the work efficiency becomes extremely high.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a cleaning robot as an embodiment of a mobile robot of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the cleaning robot.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a driving wheel.

FIG. 4 is a temperature characteristic diagram of a floor surface.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing one of the work patterns of the cleaning robot.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a relationship between a locus of a moving wheel that has passed and a moving wheel and an infrared camera of a cleaning robot that is running.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing another work pattern of the cleaning robot.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a work pattern when the work is shared by two mobile robots.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mobile robot having a moving wheel at the bottom, wherein the moving wheel is filled with a heat-generating substance for drawing a heat trajectory on the moving path, and the body portion is equipped with a sensor for detecting the heat trajectory. A mobile robot characterized by that. 2. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the mobile robots are provided, and the heat trajectory of the front mobile robot is followed by the rear mobile robot while tracing.