JPH07224542A - Fall prevention mechanism for wall robot - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To prevent the wall surface moving robot from falling due to the suction means. [Structure] A pair of support frames (4, 5) are connected to each other so that they can move relative to each other, and each support frame is provided with an extension / contraction drive leg (7) equipped with a suction means (8) for adhering to a wall surface, and extension / contraction drive of one of the support frames is performed. A wall surface moving robot capable of moving along a wall surface by performing relative motion of the other side support frame while being attached to the wall surface 2 of the building 1 by the attraction means of the legs and alternately performing this motion. One upper winding device 9 configured and provided on the upper part of the building, and a pair of left and right lower winding devices 13a, 13b provided on the lower part of the building, respectively, ropes 11, 1
4a and 14b are fixed to the wall surface moving robot and supported at three points. [Effect] It moves while sticking to the wall surface of a building such as a spherical gas holder, and causes work such as flaw detection of welding beads. When the robot moves from the wall surface, it does not move like a pendulum or a swing. Stable support

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fall prevention mechanism for a wall surface moving robot that moves while sticking to a wall surface of a building such as a spherical gas holder to perform work such as flaw detection of a welding bead.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, as a wall surface moving robot used for ultrasonic flaw detection of a spherical gas holder, there is a wall surface moving robot that uses a vacuum suction cup as a suction means for a wall surface. This wall surface moving robot connects, for example, a pair of support frames to each other so that they can move relative to each other, and each support frame is provided with a telescopic drive leg provided with a vacuum suction cup, and the vacuum suction cups of the telescopic drive legs of either one of the support frames are provided. By this, relative movement of the support frame on the other side is performed in a state of being attached to the wall surface of the building, and by alternately performing this movement, it is possible to move along the wall surface. In this way, the welding bead is moved while sticking to the wall surface of the building, and the flaw detection operation of the welding bead is performed by the flaw detection device installed on the support frame.

In the work of such a wall-mounting robot,
In order to prevent the robot from falling from the building when the vacuum suction cup cannot be sucked due to a malfunction or the like and is peeled off from the wall surface, a fall prevention mechanism such as a life rope device must be installed.

As a conventional example of such a fall prevention mechanism, a mechanism for suspending and supporting the robot only from the upper part by a winch rope provided on the upper part of the building, or both the upper part and the lower part of the building are provided. There is a mechanism that supports the robot from above and below with a winch rope.

[0005]

In the mechanism for suspending and supporting the robot only with the rope from above, the robot detached from the wall is dangerous because it makes a pendulum motion. In particular, when the building is spherical like a spherical gas holder and the robot is working in the lower hemisphere, the dropped robot makes a large pendulum motion in the front-back and left-right directions, which is very dangerous.

Further, even in the mechanism for supporting the robot from above and below by the rope from the upper part and the rope from the lower part, each rope is loosened to some extent so as not to hinder the mobility of the robot. Can not stop the movement of. Therefore, the present invention aims to solve such a problem.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, a pair of support frames are connected so that they can move relative to each other, and each support frame is provided with a telescopic drive leg provided with a suction means to a wall surface. Is provided, the relative movement of the support frame on the other side is performed in a state in which the support frame on one side is attached to the wall surface of the building by the suction means of the expansion / contraction drive leg, and this movement is alternately performed on the wall surface. A wall-mounting robot capable of moving along the wall is constructed, and one upper winding device provided on the upper part of the building and each rope of a pair of left and right lower winding devices installed on the lower part of the building are attached to the wall surface. We propose a fall prevention mechanism that is fixed and supported by a mobile robot.

Further, the present invention proposes that, in the above structure, a plurality of upper winding devices are provided or movable in the circumferential direction of the building.

Further, the present invention proposes that, in the above-mentioned structure, a plurality of pairs of lower winding devices are provided or movable in the circumferential direction of a building.

According to the present invention, in the above structure, the upper winding device and the lower winding device are configured as winches.
Then, it is proposed that the lower winding device comprises an emergency locking type winding device.

[0011]

[Operation] Since the robot that is detached from the wall surface of the building due to the malfunction of the suction means is supported at three points by the rope from the upper part and the ropes from the left and right sides of the lower part, even if each rope is slack before detaching. , It is stably supported at the position determined by each length, and has no pendulum or swing motion.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an example in which the fall prevention mechanism of the present invention is applied to ultrasonic flaw detection of a wall surface 2 of a spherical gas holder 1. FIG. 2 is a view taken in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 1 conceptually shows an example of a robot 3. First, the wall surface moving robot 3 will be described. Reference numeral 4 is an outer support frame formed in an annular shape, and 5 is an inner support frame, which are connected so as to be capable of relative movement. In this case, the relative movement means the support frame 4,
5 relative movement in one direction and their relative turning. Reference numeral 6 conceptually shows a drive mechanism for performing these relative movements. Specifically, the drive mechanism 6 is, for example, a linear movement mechanism using a ball screw, a turning mechanism using a gear, or the like as appropriate. Can be configured to. Each support frame 4 and 5 is provided with a telescopic drive leg 7 using a cylinder device or the like, and a vacuum suction cup 8 is provided at the tip end side thereof. An ultrasonic flaw detector A is installed on the inner support frame 5.

FIG. 3 shows a telescopic drive leg 7 of both supporting frames 4 and 5.
The vacuum sucker 8 of FIG.
In this state, when only the telescopic drive leg 7 of the inner support frame 5 is shortened and the vacuum suction cup 8 is separated from the wall surface 2, the robot 3 moves the telescopic drive leg 7 of the outer support frame 4. It is adsorbed and supported on the wall surface 2 only by the vacuum suction cup 8 of
The inner support frame 5 becomes movable. In this state, the movement mechanism 6 can move the inner support frame 5 upward in the figure to bring it to the state shown in FIG.

In this way, the inner support frame 5 is moved by a predetermined distance, the telescopic drive leg 7 of the inner support frame 5 is extended, and the vacuum sucker 8 is moved.
After abutting against the wall surface 2, the vacuum suction cup 8 of the telescopic drive leg 7 of the inner support frame 5 is also brought into the supporting state of the robot 3 by operating and sucking the vacuum suction cup 8. In this state,
Next, when only the telescopic drive leg 7 of the inner support frame 4 is shortened and the vacuum suction cup 8 is separated from the wall surface 2, the robot 3 is adsorbed and supported on the wall surface 2 only by the vacuum suction cup 8 of the telescopic drive leg 7 of the inner support frame 5. , The outer support frame 4 becomes movable, and in this state, the movement mechanism 6 moves the outer support frame 4 upward in the figure, and then the telescopic drive leg 7 of the outer support frame 4 is extended to move the vacuum suction cup 8 The state shown in FIG. 3 can be achieved by abutting against the wall surface 2 and performing vacuum suction. By alternately performing the relative movement of the outer support frame 4 and the inner support frame 5 as described above, the robot 3 can be moved along the wall surface 2. In the above embodiments, the suction means is the vacuum suction cup 8, but a magnet can also be used.

As described above, reference numeral 1 is a spherical gas holder, and a winch 9 as an upper winding device is installed on the upper part of the spherical gas holder so as to be movable laterally along the guide rail 10. A plurality of winches 9 are provided in the upper circumferential direction. Therefore, these winches 9 correspond to the circumferentially divided range of the gas holder 1 and are configured to move within that range. In addition, one winch can be configured to move over the entire circumference.
Reference numeral 11 is a rope unwound from the winch 9, and a supporting member 12 such as a hook is provided at the tip of the rope.

On the other hand, in the lower part of the gas holder 1, a pair of right and left emergency lock type winding devices 13 (13a, 13b) are installed as a lower winding device. The winding device 13 has an emergency lock mechanism similar to that used in a seat belt winding device of an automobile, and the rope 14 is freely paid out from the winding device 13 in a normal pulling operation. When a shock occurs, the retractor inside is locked and it is impossible to extend.

Such an emergency lock type winding device 13 is
A plurality of gas holders 1 are installed in the circumferential direction of the gas holder 1 at positions appropriately separated from the center c, respectively, and adjacent ones are paired. Therefore, the pair a, b corresponds to the range divided in the circumferential direction of the gas holder 1. In addition, the pair of emergency lock type winding devices 13a and 13b may be configured to be movable in the circumferential direction. Further, as the lower winding device, a winch can be used instead of the emergency locking type winding device.

In the above structure, when the robot 3 performs flaw detection on the lower hemisphere of the gas holder 1, first, the robot 3 is held by the holder 16 of the work vehicle 15 such as a full-rotation forklift truck and the predetermined position of the lower hemisphere. The vacuum suction cup 8 is brought into contact with the wall surface 2 with the telescopic drive leg 7 side facing upward. In this state, the vacuum suction cup 8 is attracted to the wall surface 2 and the robot 3 is attached to the wall surface 2. Next, the tip of the rope 11 hung from the winch 9 is connected to the connecting cord 17 of the robot 3. The rope 11 is used in the corridor 18 of the gas holder 1.
Since it passes through the gap 19 between the wall surface 2 and the wall surface 2, the space between the support legs 20 of the corridor 18 is the movement range.

Next, the ropes 14 of the winding devices 13a and 13b located on both sides of the point where the robot 3 is attached.
a and 14b are fed out and connected to the robot 3. In this way, the robot 3
1 and the ropes 13a and 13b from the lower left and right sides. Reference numeral 21 is a cable that connects the robot 3 and the equipment in the control room 22, and this cable 21 is an air hose for operating the vacuum suction cup 8, a water hose for supplying water as a contact medium, power supply, and control. It includes a cable.

In the above structure, when the robot 3 is moved along the wall surface 2 by alternately performing the above-mentioned relative movement, the length of the rope 11 is adjusted by the winch 9 so as not to hinder the movement of the robot 3. . On the other hand, rope 14
For a and 14b, the winding force is adjusted in advance so that the winding force can be paid out from the winding devices 13a and 13b with a tensile force that does not hinder the movement of the robot 3. By such an adjustment, the robot 3 can move along the wall surface 2 and perform a predetermined flaw detection without being hindered by the ropes 11, 13a, 13b.

In the above operation, when the robot 3 is peeled from the wall surface 2 and dropped due to the suction failure of the vacuum suction cup 8, the winch 9 supports the robot 3 with the current length of the rope 11. On the other hand, the winding devices 13a and 13b are impacted via the ropes 14a and 14b due to a slight drop of the robot 3, so that the winding devices 13a and 13b are locked and the ropes 14a and 14b are unwound. The robot 3 will be unable to
It is also supported by a and 14b.

Therefore, when the robot 3 is slightly dropped, it is supported at three points by the rope 11 from the upper part and the ropes 14a and 14b from the left and right sides of the lower part. There is no pendulum-like or swing-like movement that occurs in the mechanism.

[0023]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the present invention has a pendulum shape when it is dropped from the wall surface of a wall surface moving robot that moves while adhering to the wall surface of a building such as a spherical gas holder and performs work such as flaw detection of a welding bead. There is an effect that it can be stably supported without making a swing movement.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an example in which a fall prevention mechanism of the present invention is applied to ultrasonic flaw detection on a wall surface of a spherical gas holder.

FIG. 2 is a view on arrow A in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual explanatory diagram showing an example of a wall surface moving robot.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual explanatory view showing a state where the inner frame is moved from the state of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 spherical gas holder 2 wall surface 3 wall surface moving robot 4 outer support frame 5 inner support frame 6 drive mechanism 7 telescopic drive leg 8 vacuum suction cup 9 winch 10 guide rail 11 rope 12 support member 13a, 13b emergency lock type winding device 14a, 14b Rope 15 Work vehicle 16 Retainer 17 Connection string 18 Walkway 19 Gap 20 Support leg 21 Cable 22 Control room A Ultrasonic flaw detector

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A pair of support frames are movably connected to each other, and each of the support frames is provided with a telescopic drive leg having a suction means for adhering to a wall surface, and the telescopic drive leg of one of the support frames is attracted. By performing relative movement of the support frame on the other side while being attached to the wall surface of the building by means of the means, and by alternately performing this movement, a wall surface moving robot capable of moving along the wall surface is constructed. A wall moving robot, characterized in that one upper winding device provided on the upper part of the building and a pair of left and right lower winding devices provided on the lower part of the building are fixedly supported by the wall moving robot. Fall prevention mechanism 2. The fall prevention mechanism for a wall surface moving robot according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of upper winding devices are provided in a circumferential direction of the building. 3. The upper winding device is configured to be movable in the circumferential direction of the building.
Fall prevention mechanism for mobile robots 4. The fall prevention mechanism for a wall surface moving robot according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of pairs of lower winding devices are provided in the circumferential direction of the building. 5. The fall prevention mechanism for a wall surface moving robot according to claim 1, wherein the lower winding device is configured to be movable in the circumferential direction of the building. 6. The fall prevention mechanism for a wall surface moving robot according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the upper winding device is a winch. 7. The fall prevention mechanism for a wall surface moving robot according to claim 1, 4, or 5, wherein the lower winding device is a winch. 8. The fall prevention mechanism for a wall mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the lower winding device is an emergency locking type winding device.