JPH06138940A - Autonomous mobile robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To omit the reloading of the path data by generating an optimum path between the present position and a target position by the parallel processing. CONSTITUTION:A data fetching means 40 fetches the peripheral distance data on a robot main body and also reads the position coordinates and the traveling direction angle of the robot out of a dead-reckoning device 6 to transmit these data, coordinates and angle to a path following means 41 as the present time information. Meanwhile the means 40 transmits the data on the position coordinates to a path generating means 42. The means 42 generates an optimum path from the data on the moving environment of a map data base, etc., and based on the coordinates of a target position and the present position and gives the optimum path to the means 41. Thus the means 41 decides the traveling speed and the steering angle of the robot based on the received distance data, the data on the robot position coordinates, the data on the traveling direction angle, and the pat data. Then the means 41 gives a command to a wheel rotational speed/direction controller 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an autonomous mobile robot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a route to be traveled by an autonomous mobile robot has been generated offline by an external computer or the like based on map data of the mobile environment, and loaded on the autonomous mobile robot at the time of execution of the migration.

[0003]

As described above, in the method of loading the moving route to the autonomous mobile robot at the time of executing the movement, the autonomous mobile robot starts to move, and for example, to avoid the obstacle to reach the target. When it is necessary to change to the route of, the new route is reloaded from the external computer, and there is a problem that it takes time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to take in distance data, position data and direction data when moving to determine a traveling speed and a steering angle. While it is in the air, it always generates an optimal route from the current position to the destination by parallel processing, providing an autonomous mobile robot that does not need to reload the route data even if the route changes as before. There is.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a wheel rotation speed / direction control device for controlling the wheel rotation speed and the direction of a wheel of a robot, and an empty space distance around the robot or An ultrasonic sensor for measuring a distance to an object existing around the device, a dead reckoning device for obtaining an absolute position and a traveling direction of a robot, and distance data, position data and direction for driving the ultrasonic sensor and the dead reckoning device. Data capturing means for reading data, route generating means for determining an optimal route to be followed by the robot from the data of the moving environment based on the position data, the direction data and the robot's arrival target given from the outside, and the distance data. Based on the position data, the direction data, and the optimum route data, the robot should take a new speed. And a route tracking means for giving a command to the wheel rotation speed / direction control device so that the steering angle is determined and the values of the traveling speed and the steering angle are set, and the data fetching means, the route generating means and the route following means in parallel. It is provided with a parallel arithmetic processing unit that executes operations simultaneously.

[0006]

According to the structure of the present invention, the route generation means of the robot itself always generates an optimum target reaching route during movement, and the route is calculated based on the optimum route data, the distance data, the position data and the direction data. In order to give a command to the wheel rotation speed / direction control device so as to determine the traveling speed and the steering angle that the robot should newly take by the follow-up means, and to obtain the values of these traveling speed and the steering angle,
Even if there is a route change as in the past, it is not necessary to create route data offline and reload it.

[0007]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 2
1 is a perspective view of a robot according to an embodiment. The robot shown in the drawing has traveling wheels 2 on the front and rear, left and right of a lower portion of a robot body 1, and two front and rear end surfaces on both side surfaces of the robot body 1. The ultrasonic sensors 3 are provided respectively, and the parallel arithmetic processing unit 4 is provided on the upper surface of the robot main body 1, so that the traveling wheels 2 can rotate by themselves.

The traveling wheels 2 ... The rotational speed and steering angle are controlled by the wheel rotational speed / direction control device 5 shown in FIG. 1, and an electric motor or the like is used as a drive source for traveling and steering. It Further, the traveling wheels 2 are provided with a dead reckoning device 6 for determining the absolute position of the robot based on the number of revolutions of the traveling wheels 2, and for determining the traveling direction of the robot from the direction of the traveling wheels 2.

The ultrasonic sensors 3 ... Are for measuring the distance of the vacant space around the robot body 1 during movement or the distance to an obstacle. The parallel processing device 4 is
Data capturing means 4 for capturing the distance data measured by the ultrasonic sensors 3, ..., The absolute position data of the robot obtained by the dead reckoning device 6, and the data of the traveling direction.
0, the distance data captured by the data capturing means 40, the absolute position data of the robot obtained by the dead reckoning device 6, and a database such as map data of the moving environment from the arrival target position input from the outside. The route generation means 42 for obtaining an optimum route to be followed by the robot, the distance data transmitted through the sensor data acquisition means 40, the absolute position data of the robot, the traveling direction data, and the route generation means 42. It comprises a route following means 41 for determining a new traveling speed and a steering angle based on the route data and giving a command to the wheel rotation speed / direction control device 5, and these means 40, 41, 42 are operated in parallel. I do.

The data fetching means 40 operates based on the flowchart shown in FIG.
The ultrasonic sensors 3 attached to the periphery of the robot are sequentially activated, the distance data for one round is taken in, and then the current position coordinates (Xc, Yc) of the robot are received from the dead reckoning device 6.
And read the direction angle. The position coordinates (Xc, Y
c) is set, and position coordinates (Xc, Yc), distance data and direction data are set in the route tracking means 41 and the channel of the information communication network. These data are transmitted to the respective means 41 and 42 as the data at time i. Then, after that, the process of fetching the data at time i + 1 is started.

The route generating means 42 operates based on the flow chart shown in FIG. 4. When the position coordinate (Xc, Yc) at time i is read from the channel of the information communication network, this position coordinate data and the position before movement are read. Based on the position coordinates (Xg, Yg) of the reaching target position given in advance, the candidate route is selected by referring to the optimal route selection table (Table 1). The table is provided with a series of coordinates of points to be passed to reach the target, according to a range including the position coordinates (Xc, Yc) of the current position and the position coordinates (Xg, Yg) of the target position to be reached. It was created based on map data of the moving environment.

[0012]

[Table 1]

When the route generating means 42 refers to the table and selects a candidate, it compares the length of the candidate with the length of the current following route and determines that the shorter route is the optimum route. As a result, when a change is required, a new route is set in the channel of the information network to the route tracking means 41 and transmitted.
The route follower 41 operates based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 5, and reads the distance data at the time point i, the position coordinates (Xc, Yc) of the robot, and the data of the heading direction from the channel of the information network. Further, if a route is set in the channel of the information network, this is read and a new following route is set. In order to follow this route, new traveling speed and steering angle values are determined based on the distance data, position coordinates (Xc, Yc), and traveling direction angle data, and the traveling speed and traveling direction angle of the robot are determined. The wheel rotation speed / direction control device 5 is instructed to correspond to the value. After that, the time is updated, and the operation returns to the operation of reading the next data at time i + 1 from the data fetching means 40 through the channel of the information network.

Note that the route generation method of the route generation means 42 is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, the moving environment is divided as shown in FIG.
Store as an adjacency between two points, such as point B on the top, point C on the right, point D on the bottom, and point E on the left.
Then, when the destination G is given, a sequence of points such as S → F → D → A → B → G → may be generated by tracing the adjacency relationship. However, it is not suitable for the route generation means when controlling the robot in real time, and the series of points to be traced is given in advance as a table as in the above embodiment, there is no need for searching, and only reference by the current position and the destination is possible. A certain method is preferable because the processing time is shorter.

[0015]

According to the present invention, the wheel rotation speed / direction control device for controlling the wheel rotation speed and the direction of the wheel of the robot and the empty space distance around the robot or the distance to an object existing around the device are measured. An ultrasonic sensor, a dead reckoning device for obtaining an absolute position and a moving direction of a robot, a data loading means for driving the ultrasonic sensor and the dead reckoning device to read distance data, position data and direction data, the position data, Route generating means for obtaining an optimum route that the robot should currently follow from the data of the moving environment based on the direction data and the target of the robot given from the outside, and the distance data, the position data, the direction data, and the optimum route data. Based on this, the robot determines a new traveling speed and steering angle, and And a parallel processing device for executing the data fetching means, the route generating means, and the route following means in parallel and at the same time so as to give a command to the wheel rotation speed / direction control device so as to obtain the values of the degree and the steering angle. Since it is equipped with, the robot itself always generates an optimal target reaching route when moving, and the traveling speed and steering angle of the robot are determined so that the route following device can follow the optimal route. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the time required for reloading without having to reload the data of the route created offline every time the route is changed as in the conventional case.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the above-mentioned data fetching means.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the above route generation means.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the above-mentioned route tracking means.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of another example of the route generation method of the above route generation means.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Ultrasonic Sensor 4 Parallel Processing Device 5 Wheel Rotational Speed / Direction Control Device 6 Dead Reckoning Device 41 Route Tracking Means 42 Data Importing Means 43 Route Generating Means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wheel rotation speed / direction control device for controlling a wheel rotation speed and a wheel orientation of a robot, and an ultrasonic sensor for measuring a vacant space distance around the robot or a distance to an object existing around the device. , A dead reckoning device for obtaining an absolute position and a moving direction of a robot, a data loading means for driving the ultrasonic sensor and the dead reckoning device to read distance data, position data and direction data, the position data, direction data and external Based on the target of the robot given by the robot, route generation means for obtaining an optimal route that the robot should currently follow from the data of the moving environment, and the robot based on the distance data, the position data, the direction data and the optimal route data. Decides a new advancing speed and steering angle, and these advancing speed and steering A route tracking means for giving a command to the wheel rotation speed / direction control device so as to obtain a ringing angle value, and a parallel arithmetic processing device for executing the data fetching means, the route generating means, and the route following means in parallel and simultaneously. An autonomous mobile robot characterized by what it has done.