JPH07232671A - Suction movement type robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To maintain straight running properties during running, in an absorption movement type robot constituted to run through relative movement between outer and inner frames and vary a running direction through relative revolution. CONSTITUTION:An expandable drive leg having a sucking means is arranged at each of outer and inner frames intercoupled so that relative revolution and relative movement in one-way are practicable is provided. A revolving gear 19 is arranged on one side of the outer and inner frame. A drive gear 20 connected to a motor for revolution is arranged on the other side. An expansion contraction drive device 22 formed in such a manner that the tip of an actuating rod 25 is movable forward and backward to and from the tooth of a revolving gear is provided. A pressure contact body 26 to the revolving gear is mounted on the tip of the actuating rod and the pressure contact body is provided on the tip side with at least a soft resilient deforming part 29.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

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

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, as a suction-moving robot used for ultrasonic flaw detection on the wall surface of a spherical gas holder, two traveling telescopic drive legs equipped with a vacuum suction cup device are provided on a traveling device body equipped with a flaw detection device. Some of them move by supporting themselves by being attracted to the wall surface by the alternating motion of the driving legs.

In such an attracting and moving type robot, the traveling body is attracted to each of an outer frame and an inner frame which are connected so as to be capable of relative movement in one direction by, for example, a linear moving mechanism utilizing a ball screw. A telescopic drive leg provided with a means is provided, and while one of the vacuum suction cups is attached to the wall surface, the support frame on the other side is moved in one direction, and by alternately performing this movement, the wall surface is formed. It is designed to run straight in one direction while adsorbing to.

In addition to the above-described structure, the traveling device body is provided with, for example, a turning gear on one side of the outer frame or the inner frame and a turning gear on the other side in addition to the above-mentioned structure. A drive gear connected to the motor is provided to enable relative turning. That is, in this configuration, the traveling direction is changed by turning the other side supporting frame in the supporting state of the one side supporting frame and then turning the one side supporting frame in the supporting state of the other side supporting frame. Is supposed to do.

[0005]

In the suction mobile robot having such a turning function, the backlash between the turning gear and the drive gear causes a relative turning motion of the inner frame and the outer frame during traveling, and thus the straight traveling performance is improved. May damage. Therefore, the present invention aims to solve such a point.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, a suction means is provided on each of an outer frame and an inner frame which are connected so as to enable relative turning and relative movement in one direction. A telescopic drive leg is provided, a swing gear is provided on one side of the outer frame or the inner frame, and a drive gear connected to a swing motor is provided on the other side. An extension and contraction drive device is installed which is configured such that the tip end of the
A suction mobile robot is proposed in which a pressure contact member for a swivel gear is attached to the tip of the actuation rod, and the pressure contact member has a flexible elastically deformable portion at least on the tip side.

In the present invention, it is proposed that the pressure contact member has a structure in which a hard elastic deformation member is laminated on the rear side of the flexible elastic deformation member on the tip side and attached to the rigid plate.

[0008]

When the vehicle travels, the telescopic drive unit moves the actuating rod forward, and the press contact body attached to the tip of the actuating rod presses against the teeth of the turning gear. Since the flexible elastic deformable body formed on the tip end side of the press contact body is deformed so as to wrap the teeth, the movement of the teeth in the turning direction is reliably restrained.

By using a pressure contact body in which a hard elastic deformation body is laminated on the rear side of the flexible elastic deformation body on the tip side, the hard elastic deformation body can increase the elastic pressure contact force of the pressure contact body with respect to the teeth. The movement of the teeth in the turning direction can be more reliably restrained.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 are vertical cross-sectional views conceptually showing an example of the configuration of a suction-moving robot to which the present invention is applied, respectively, and the other vertical cross-sections, that is, cross-sections along the lines AA and BB. Is shown. In the figure, reference numerals 1 and 2 denote an outer frame and an inner frame, respectively, which form upper and lower annular frame parts a and b, respectively, and connect the annular frame parts a and b with a rod c. It has been configured. The lower annular frame portions of the respective support frames 1 and 2 (hereinafter, the annular frame portions corresponding to the respective support frames are
The reference numerals are combined and expressed as, for example, 1b and 2b. ) Adsorption means 3 is provided at the connecting position of the rods 1b and 2b.
The plurality of telescopic drive legs 4 provided with are fixed. The telescopic drive leg 4 includes a cylinder 5 fixed to the support frames 1b and 2b,
The suction means 3 is composed of a fixed piston rod 6, and the air pressure or hydraulic pressure generating means (not shown) is used to perform the expansion / contraction operation. Also, the adsorption means 3
Is a vacuum suction cup, and is configured to perform suction operation by a vacuum generating means (not shown). Besides this,
A magnet can also be used as the attraction means 3.

A ball screw 7 is provided on the upper annular frame portion 1a of the outer frame 1 in the front-rear direction. The ball screw 7 is driven to rotate by a traveling motor 8 and the ball screw 7 is also provided. A guide bar 9 is provided in parallel with. A nut 10 is screwed onto the ball screw 7, and the nut 10 is provided on an upper portion of a support shaft 11. Therefore, the support shaft 11 is configured to be suspended from the ball screw 7 by the nut 10. A slider 12 is movably fitted to the guide rod 9, and the slider 12 and the support shaft 11 are connected by a support rod 13. Therefore, the support shaft 11 is the support rod 1.
3, the slider 12, and the guide rod 9 prevent the ball screw 7 from swinging.

A support shaft 11 is provided on the annular frame portion 2a of the inner frame 2.
A support cylinder portion 15 that constitutes the thrust bearing portion 14 is provided so as to project upward, and the support shaft 11 is fitted into the support cylinder portion 15 and is rotatably supported by the thrust bearing portion 14. The support shaft 11 is provided with a swivel guide plate 16 and an annular frame portion 2a.
A swivel guide plate 16 is sandwiched between the upper and lower sides, and a guide support portion 18 provided with guide rollers 17 on the upper and lower sides and the lateral side is provided in a protruding manner. The guide supporting portion 18 can be configured so as to correspond to at least a plurality of places around the turning guide plate 16,
It can also be configured in an annular shape over the entire circumference.

Further, a swing gear 19 is provided on the outer periphery of the support cylinder portion 15.
Is provided, and a drive gear 20 that is screwed into the revolving gear 19 and a revolving motor 21 that drives the revolving gear 20.
Is supported by the turning guide plate 16.

Reference numeral 22 denotes an expansion / contraction drive device, which is composed of a cylinder 23 and an actuation rod 25 connected to a piston 24. The cylinder 23 is supported by a turning guide plate 16 and the actuation rod 25 is supported. Is configured to be able to advance and retreat with respect to the teeth of the turning gear 19. And actuating rod 25
A pressure contact member 26 is attached to the tip of the pressure contact member 2.
6 is a hard elastic deformable body 28 in order from the rigid plate 27 to the front side.
And a flexible elastic deformation body 29 are laminated and attached. These elastic deformable bodies 28 and 29 can be made of, for example, rubber having different hardness.

Further, a flaw detector 30 is installed on the annular frame 2a, and although the flaw detector 30 is not shown in the detailed construction, an appropriate number of ultrasonic probes are provided in the vertical and horizontal directions. It is configured to be movable to and from the flaw detection surface 31.

In the above-mentioned structure, the ball screw 7 is rotated by the traveling motor 8 in a state in which the telescopic drive leg 4 of the inner frame 2 is shortened from the state of FIG. 1 and the vacuum suction cup 3 is lifted to be separated from the flaw detection surface 31. Then, the nut 10 moves the support shaft 11 in the right direction in the drawing, for example, and as shown in FIG. 3, the support shaft 11 moves the inner frame 2 in the right direction.

After moving the inner frame 2 by a predetermined distance as described above, the extension / contraction drive leg 4 is extended, and the vacuum suction cup 3 is brought into contact with the flaw detection surface 31 and sucked by vacuum suction. Next, the expansion / contraction drive leg 4 of the outer frame 1 is shortened, and the vacuum suction cup 3 is lifted to be separated from the flaw detection surface 31. In this state, the traveling motor 8 is operated to rotate the ball screw 7 in the direction opposite to the above. In this state, since the nut 10 side is fixed, the ball screw 7 moves to the right, and therefore the outer frame 1 moves to the right. When the outer frame 1 reaches a position similar to that shown in FIG. 1, the traveling motor 8 is stopped, and then the extension / contraction drive leg 4 of the outer frame 1 is extended to attach the vacuum suction cup 3 to the flaw detection surface 31.
By contacting and adsorbing to the
The one-step movement operation is completed. In the above movement operation, the inner frame 2 is moved first, but the outer frame 1 can also be moved first.

Thus, the movement of the inner frame 2 with the outer frame 1 fixed and the outer frame 1 with the inner frame 2 fixed.
By alternately repeating the above movement, the robot can travel straight along the flaw detection surface 31, and therefore, the flaw detection device 30 can perform flaw detection at each position.

Next, in the case of changing the traveling direction, FIG.
From this state, the telescopic drive leg 4 of the inner frame 2 is shortened and the telescopic drive device 22 is shortened. In this state, when the turning motor 21 is operated to drive the drive gear 20 to rotate, the drive gear 20 becomes Slewing gear 1 screwed together
9 is driven, so that the inner frame 2 is supported by the thrust bearing portion 14 and the guide support portion 18 and pivots about the support shaft 11. In this way, the inner frame 2 is swung to a predetermined position and fixed, and then the telescopic drive leg 4 of the outer frame 1 is shortened. In this state, the turning motor 2 is turned.
When the drive gear 20 is rotated in the opposite direction by 1, the inner gear 2 is in a fixed state, so that the drive gear 20 is rotated by the turning gear 19
Satellite movement outside of. Therefore, the support shaft 11 rotates,
Therefore, the outer frame 1 turns in the same direction as the rotation direction of the inner frame 2 until then. Then, by stopping the turning at a position where the front side reference position of the outer frame 1 coincides with the front side reference position of the inner frame 2, the front side reference positions of both the inner frame 2 and the outer frame 1 coincide with each other, and the vehicle advances straight ahead. The vehicle is ready to run.
The means for matching the reference positions on the front sides of both the inner frame 2 and the outer frame 1 can be constituted by a limit switch, a rotary encoder, or the like.

By directing the traveling direction of the robot to a desired direction by the above-mentioned operation, when the telescopic drive device 22 is operated to extend the actuating rod 25, the pressure contact member 26 as shown in FIG.
Moves forward and comes into pressure contact with the teeth of the turning gear 19. (It should be noted that, in FIG. 4, for the sake of convenience, only the expansion drive device 22 on the right side is operated.)
When 6 is pressed against the teeth, the flexible elastic deformable body 2 on the tip side thereof
8 is elastically deformed by being pressed by the hard elastic deformable body 29 on the rear side so as to wrap the tooth, and the elastic elastic deformable body 29 can increase the elastic pressure contact force against the tooth. The movement of the tooth in the swiveling direction can be reliably restrained by the press contact body 26. And the turning gear 19 is the inner frame 2
And the pressure contact body 26 is supported on the outer frame 1 side via the swivel guide plate 16 and the support shaft 11, so that the outer frame 1 and the inner frame 2 are held so as to be unable to rotate relative to each other. To be done. Therefore, by running the robot in such a state as described above, its straight-ahead traveling property is favorably maintained.

[0021]

As described above, the present invention is composed of an outer frame and an inner frame which are connected so as to enable relative turning and relative movement in one direction. In the suction mobile robot in which the traveling direction can be changed by the relative rotation of the frame, there is an effect that the straight traveling performance can be favorably maintained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, which conceptually shows an example of the configuration of a suction mobile robot to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual vertical cross-sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 1, which conceptually shows an example of the configuration of a suction mobile robot to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory vertical sectional view showing a state where the inner frame is moved from the state of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of an essential part showing a state in which a turning gear is restrained by a pressure contact body.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Outer Frame 2 Inner Frame 3 Adsorption Means (Vacuum Sucker) 4 Telescopic Drive Leg 5 Cylinder 6 Piston Rod 7 Ball Screw 8 Traveling Motor 9 Guide Rod 10 Nut 11 Support Shaft 12 Slider 13 Support Rod 14 Thrust Bearing 15 Support Tube 16 swivel guide plate 17 guide roller 18 guide support 19 swivel gear 20 drive gear 21 swivel motor 22 telescopic drive device 23 cylinder 24 piston 25 actuating rod 26 pressure contact body 27 rigid plate 28 hard elastic deformable body 29 flexible elastic deformable body

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A telescopic drive leg having suction means is provided on each of an outer frame and an inner frame connected to each other so as to be capable of relative rotation and relative movement in one direction, and either the outer frame or the inner frame is provided. A swivel gear is provided on one side, and a drive gear connected to the swivel motor is provided on the other side, and the tip of the actuating rod is configured to move forward and backward with respect to the teeth of the swivel gear in one of the frames. A drive unit is installed, and a pressure contact member for the swivel gear is attached to the tip of the operating rod.
A suction-movable robot characterized in that a flexible elastically deformable portion is formed at least on the tip side. 2. The suction mobile robot characterized in that the pressure contact member has a structure in which a hard elastic deformation member is laminated on the rear side of the flexible elastic deformation member on the tip side and attached to a rigid plate.