JPH081552A - Self-moving marking robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable marking work while detecting a correct position of a robot by the robot itself in a room by providing a movable part, a position detection part, a marking part, and a lifting part, and providing the position detection part with a computer, a laser scan means, a light receiving sensor, an angle detection means, and a self-position detection means. CONSTITUTION:A robot 10 moves for marking on a ceiling surface while detecting a current position of the robot itself using poles 19 in a room having more than three poles 19. The robot 10 is provided with a movable part 11, a position detection part 12, a marking part 13, and a lifting part 14. The position detection part 12 is provided with a computer to which a geometric form and a position of each pole are inputted, a laser scan means, a sensor to receive reflected light of laser beam, a means to detect an edge of each pole 19, and detect an angle formed by the edge and the robot 10, and a means to calculate the self-position of the robot 10, taking the position of the edge of the pole 19 for reference. In addition, the lifting part 14 is provided with a sensor to detect its motion to/from the ceiling surface.

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 for automatically performing a marking operation at a construction site, etc. The present invention relates to a robot for marking out.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In air-conditioning a building structure such as a building and attaching a device to an electric facility, marking out the attachment position is indispensable. As a recent technology, a so-called "inking robot" has also appeared, but even with this kind of robot, humans make surveys in advance, lay a trajectory for the robot to move, and prepare marks to be passing points. It was necessary to recognize the position of oneself by doing things such as doing. In addition, even when the robot itself has a measuring capability, it is necessary to provide a measurement reference point as an origin for measuring the position, and to provide an optical reflector or a pole as a marker thereat.

[0003] However, these methods require human labor for surveying, and at the same time, they set up tracks and marks only for the construction robot to move at a construction site that changes daily. New preparatory work such as removal and removal occurred, and work efficiency was not always good.

A method has been considered in which the distance to an obstacle around the robot is measured using an ultrasonic sensor and the position of the robot itself is recognized by collating with the CAD data of the design drawing. Since the distance that can be detected by the sound wave sensor is short, there is a problem that the accurate position cannot be detected unless the construction robot is near a wall in a building or near a pillar.

Regarding marking-out work, there is no problem in workability when marking on the floor surface, but fluorescent lamps, air-conditioning outlets, sprinklers, etc. are installed on the ceiling surface, and therefore marking-out work is required. To do this, you have to use a stepladder or scaffold and put inking towards the ceiling. This was a very difficult task for humans, and it was pointed out that there were concerns such as falls.

Regarding the problem of self-position detection of a construction robot, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 57-108777 "Position Detection Device"
A solution has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-67476, "Movement Position Detection Device". However, the inventors of the present invention filed a further improved plan, and disclosed Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-42014, "Mobile Object Self-position detection method and device ".

Regarding the problem of the marking out work, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
In No. 39710 "Automatic marking-out apparatus", a marking robot for marking out on the floor surface using an XY plotter has been proposed, but no method for marking out toward the ceiling surface is described.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-350515 discloses an automatic marking method, in which a laser beam is directed toward the ceiling surface to indicate the marking position. There is a drawback that the surface of the material is burnt, there is a risk of fire and a danger to the human body, and that the laser irradiation device itself is extremely large and expensive and is difficult to put into practical use.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to carry out a marking out operation in which a construction robot draws an accurate figure while detecting its accurate position in a relatively wide room with columns. The purpose of this invention is to provide an autonomous mobile marking-out robot. Another object of the present invention is to improve the safety of the work of marking out on the ceiling surface, speed up the work, and improve the work efficiency.

[0010]

The above-described object of the present invention is to move a ceiling while detecting the current position of a robot using an existing pillar in a room in which three or more pillars extend vertically. An autonomous mobile marking-out robot for marking on a surface, which detects a moving unit for moving a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction and a self-position necessary for moving to a predetermined marking position. A position detecting section for drawing, a marking section having a drawing means for drawing on the ceiling surface, and a lifting section for moving up and down the marking section toward the ceiling surface. A computer for inputting the geometrical shape and position of the column, a laser scanning means for scanning while rotating the laser light in the horizontal direction,
A sensor that receives the reflected light of the laser light on the robot, an angle detection unit that detects the edge of each pillar and calculates the angle between each edge and the robot, and the edge of each pillar that is input to the computer. Position detecting means for calculating the position of the robot on the basis of the position of (1), and a sensor for detecting approach and contact with the ceiling surface is provided near the upper end of the lifting portion. This is achieved by an autonomous mobile marking-out robot.

[0011]

According to the present invention based on such a construction, the distance by which the angle at which the reflected light which is radiated by the laser light hits the object and returns is incident on the lens according to the distance from the object changes Using the measurement principle of, the position of the edge of the column can be determined because the detection distance changes abruptly at the boundary point between the column and its back (edge of the column). The position of the mobile robot itself can be accurately detected based on the position of the pillar. By performing the marking operation using the lift mechanism at the accurate position thus detected, it is possible to perform the marking operation for drawing an accurate figure.

Since three or more pillars can be used if they are installed in the room in advance, three or more pillars are installed in the room such as a relatively large factory building or department store. The work of the construction robot in the place is speeded up, and accurate positioning and work safety can be achieved.

The sensor for detecting the approach and the contact with the ceiling surface includes four contact operation type sensors arranged in a quadrangle on the same plane and a non-contact operation type sensor. It is preferable that the contact actuating sensor detects the approach to the ceiling surface and detects the contact with the ceiling surface and emits a signal. Hereinafter, the marking-out robot of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the embodiments of the accompanying drawings.

[0014]

1 shows a state in which an autonomous mobile marking-out robot 10 according to the present invention stands still in a room in which three or more columns 19 extend vertically.

The marking-out robot 10 has four subsystems, namely, a moving unit 11 for moving a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction, and a self-position required for moving to a predetermined marking position. The position detecting unit 12, the marking unit 13 having a pen for drawing on the ceiling surface, and the lifting unit 14 for moving up and down the marking unit 13 toward the ceiling surface.

The moving part 11 has a three-wheeled vehicle structure in which the driving wheels 21 are two wheels on the left and right and the casters 22 are one wheel, and the centers of the driving wheels 21 on the left and right are aligned with the center of the position detecting part 12. It is set. The left and right drive wheels 21 are independently driven by DC motors each having a built-in speed reducer, and are controlled so as to accurately move by data (moving distance and rotation angle) calculated by a computer mounted on the robot. Power is supplied from a battery 23 mounted on the robot. The method of movement is performed in a pattern of in-situ rotation-straight-in-place rotation.

The position detecting section 12 for detecting the self-position of the marking-out robot 10 is supported on the upper portion of the robot body via a horizontal adjuster 24. Adjacent to the position detection unit 12, a marking unit 13 for marking out the position of a lighting fixture, an air outlet for air conditioning, a sprinkler head for disaster prevention, etc. is installed on the ceiling.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the vertical column 19 is installed in a rectangular room. However, the vertical column 19 may be temporarily installed for measurement. The number of vertical columns 19 may be three or more.

FIG. 3 shows the overall structure of the position detector 12. As shown in FIG. 3, a semiconductor laser source 35 mounted on a horizontal support table 31 via a frame 32 and a housing 33 emits laser light. The laser source 35 is mounted on a turntable 36, and the turntable 36 is rotated by a driving force from a DC motor 39 fixed on the horizontal support table 31 via a hollow shaft 37 and a timing belt 38. To do. The rotation angle is detected by the rotary encoder 40.

In this way, the point laser light emitted from the laser source 35 is scanned 360 ° in the horizontal direction, and the pillar 19 is scanned.
However, if the approximate position of the column is known in advance, the region without the column can be skipped and the laser beam can be scanned by the required angle.

A linear CCD sensor 43, a bandpass filter 44, and a lens 45 are arranged above the turntable 36, and the lens 45 receives the laser light returned upon hitting the pillar 19. At this time, as is clear from FIG. 3, since the horizontal position where the laser light is emitted and the horizontal position of the lens 45 are vertically offset, the laser beam is incident on the lens 45 according to the distance to the reflected object. The angle of the incoming light changes and the distance can be detected.

In the present invention, the rotation angle of the laser beam scanning is measured by the rotary encoder 40, and the position of the robot is calculated using the relationship between the distance to the reflected object and the rotation angle. At that time, the position of the column 19 is detected by utilizing the fact that the light reflected at the edge portion of the column 19 changes abruptly, and the position inside the computer is calculated based on this to calculate the position of the robot. It employs a method of indexing.
This method is the same as the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-42014.

4 and 5 show details of the marking portion 13. As shown in FIG. 4, the marking portion 13 has the shape of an XY plotter which is floatingly supported on the upper end of the lifting portion 14 via a spring 50. As an example, the movable range L in the X direction is 660 mm, and the Y range is 660 mm. The movable range M in the direction can be set to 740 mm.

The marking unit 13 is provided with three stepping motors 51, 52 and 53, and can perform expansion / contraction operation of the two left and right slide arms 58 in the X-axis direction and slide operation in the Y-axis direction. it can. By combining these operations, circles, rectangles, crosshairs, letters, numbers, etc. can be drawn. When drawing a figure that exceeds the movable range, the figure is divided and the robot body moves and draws.

The marking portion 13 does not interfere with the scanning of the laser light while the laser scanning means scans the laser light while rotating the laser light in the horizontal direction, and because it passes through a door or the like when moving between rooms. It is held by the lifting portion 14 so as to be positioned below the laser beam to be scanned so as not to interfere with the above.

A pair of parallel track rails 46 are fixed on a fixed table 55, a moving table 56 is provided on the fixed table 55 for sliding in the Y-axis direction, and touch sensors 47 are attached upward at four corners. The photoelectric switch 48 is attached adjacent to two of the touch sensors. The photoelectric sensor 48 detects the approach to the ceiling surface and slows down the rising speed to prevent an impact.

A pair of opposed slide rails 57 are mounted on a moving table 56 extending in the X-axis direction.
A pair of slide arms 58 that can be separately driven on the rails are provided, and a pen 49 for drawing is attached near the tip of each slide arm 58. Each pen 49
The DC solenoid 54 is connected to the lower side of the touch sensor 47. The DC solenoid 54 is in the contracted position and the tip of the pen 49 touches the sensor 47 when the marking portion 13 moves upward.
It is in a lower position than.

When at least three of the four touch sensors 47 detect contact with the ceiling surface, the lifting motor 72 of the lifting section is stopped, and the marking section 13 performs a predetermined origin return operation and then the DC solenoid. It is set so that 54 extends to bring the tip of the pen 49 into contact with the ceiling surface.

6 and 7 show details of the lifting portion 14. As shown in FIG. 6, the first stage frame 6
1, 2nd stage frame 62, 3rd stage frame 63
It is configured to be step-expandable, and as an example, the length P of the base portion can be set to 350 mm, the length Q of the first step can be set to 880 mm, and the length R of the extendable portion can be set to a maximum of 1400 mm. Furthermore, by adding the height of the wheels, it is possible to support a ceiling height of up to 3070 mm.

7A and 7B show the details of the expansion / contraction mechanism of the lifting portion 14. When the motor 72 rotates, the ball screw 73 rotates via the timing belt 74, and the second-stage frame 62 rises.
The third frame 63 is guided by the vertical post 71 and the ball spline 77 by the cooperative action of the pulley 75 fixed to 2 and the wire 76 connected to the frames 61 and 63 so that the third frame 63 rises rapidly. Has become.

FIG. 8 is a connection circuit diagram with a computer mounted on the marking-out robot according to the present invention.
The position detection unit 12 is provided with a first board computer 85 including a first CPU 81, the optical signal received by the CCD sensor 43 is converted into an electric signal, and is transferred to the CPU 81 via the data processing unit and the DMA transfer board. Is sent. Similarly, the rotation speed signal detected by the rotary encoder 40 is sent to the CPU 81 via the interpolator and the encoder counter.

The CPU 81 sends a signal from the motor controller to the motor driver according to the program to drive the DC motor 39 to rotate. The DC motor 39 is provided with an encoder, counts the actual number of revolutions, and feeds back to the motor driver. Based on these data, the first computer 85 calculates the angle formed by each edge of the pillar and the robot, and calculates the current position of the robot by referring to the CAD data of the wall surface or the pillar input first. .

The first board computer 85 including the first CPU 81 is connected to the second board computer 85 via the RS232C cable.
Connected to the second board computer 86 including the CPU 82, and a serial interface board is inserted in the middle of the communication circuit.

The moving section 11, the marking section 13 and the lifting section 14 are connected so as to commonly use a second board computer 86 including a second CPU 82. The moving unit 11 is controlled by a computer by a DC motor 27 connected to the drive wheels 21, a rotary encoder adjacent to each motor, a motor driver and a motor controller, etc. Will be guided to a different position.

The marking section 13 and the lifting section 14 are controlled in relation to each other, and the touch sensor 47 shown in FIG. 4 is constituted by a limit switch, which is a signal for detecting the contact with the ceiling surface. Is sent to the CPU 82 via the parallel interface board together with the approach detection signal from the adjacent photoelectric switch 48, and the control signal is sent to the lifting motor 72 via the motor controller and the motor driver.

Similarly, the stepping motors 51, 52, 53 included in the marking unit 13 are also controlled by a control signal sent from the CPU 82 via a motor controller and a motor driver. The DC solenoid 54 for undulating the pen 49 is also connected to the CPU via the relay board.
It receives the signal from 82 and is controlled.

Furthermore, the marking-out robot 10 according to the present invention
It is necessary to input the geometrical shape and position of each column in the room in advance to the computer 82 when starting the operation of the RS232C cable in order to save the waste of mounting the input device on the robot. Data can also be transferred from an external computer 88 via the.

The work process of the marking-out robot according to the present invention is as follows. (1) The data of the edge of the pillar in the room and the data of the marking position and the marking pattern are input to the robot side computer from the external computer. (2) Install the robot at the start position in the room. The marking portion is lowered so as to be below the laser source that radiates the laser light. (3) The laser beam is rotationally scanned from the position detecting unit of the robot. (4) The edge of the pillar is detected to calculate the accurate position of the robot.

(5) The distance and angle to the mark-out position are calculated. (6) The wheel drive motor moves to the marking position. (7) The laser beam is rotationally scanned from the position detecting section of the robot. (8) It is determined whether the robot has reached the accurate marking position by detecting the edge of the pillar. If not, move again. (9) Raise the lifting section to bring the marking section closer to the ceiling surface.

(10) The photoelectric sensor determines whether or not the ceiling surface is approached. If it is not close, it keeps rising again. (11) Decelerate the rising speed. (12) Detecting that the touch sensor has touched the ceiling surface. (13) Put a pen upright and draw a squeeze figure with an XY plotter.

(14) The pen is laid down and the lifting portion is lowered. (15) Calculate the distance and angle to the next marking position. (16) The wheel drive motor moves to the next marking position. By repeating the above operation, it is possible to draw many marking shapes on the ceiling surface. FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the above work process.

[0042]

[Experimental example] In order to verify the operation of the marking-out robot according to the present invention, four acrylic pillars (600 x 600 mm) with white paint on the surface are set up in a room measuring 6 m long and 6 m wide, and A motion experiment was conducted. The exact position of the robot was measured with a transit, and the exact angle of the robot was determined by attaching a plumb bob to the front and back of the robot, measuring its coordinates, and calculating.

In order to verify the measurement accuracy of the position detector, robots were installed at 9 locations in the room and the self position was measured.
As a result of measuring 5 times at each point, the average error is 5 m
It was about m.

Next, as an autonomous movement experiment for marking out,
An experiment was performed to draw a square having a side of 400 mm. The floor of the environment used for the experiment is a linoleum-finished floor with a swell of up to 5 mm, and the ceiling for drawing is 2600 mm.
Installed at the height of. The coordinates of the vertices of the drawn square were measured by the transit in the same way as the position of the robot was determined. As a result of conducting the experiment three times at four locations, the error in the coordinates of the vertices of the square was about 10 mm on average.

[0045]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to carry out the marking operation at a predetermined point while the construction robot itself detects its accurate position in a relatively large room. Therefore, the difficult work using the conventional stepladder can be saved. Rails for construction robots, which were required in the past, are no longer necessary, and it is not necessary to install various signs. Since the shape and size of the blacked out figure can be freely selected, the efficiency of equipment construction can be dramatically increased. The present invention is not limited to the marking work on the ceiling, and can be widely applied to the marking work to the floor surface, the work of attaching various instruments to high places, the lifting work of parts, etc. The effect is extremely remarkable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an entire marking-out robot according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the arrangement of columns and robots in a room.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing details of a position detection unit of the robot.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing details of a marking portion.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing details of a marking portion.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing details of a lifting portion.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing details of a telescopic mechanism.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of a portion connected to a computer.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a work process of the marking-out robot.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Marking robot 11 Moving part 12 Position detecting part 13 Marking part 14 Lifting part 19 Pillar 23 Battery 27 Wheel drive motor 35 Laser source 39 Rotation drive motor 40 Rotary encoder 43 CCD sensor 45 Lens 47 Touch sensor 48 Photoelectric sensor 49 Pen 51, 52,53 Stepping motor 54 DC solenoid 72 Lifting motor 81,82 CPU 85,86 Computer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Reference number within the agency FI Technical display location G05D 3/12 Q // E04B 5/00 (72) Inventor Yoshio Tanaka 2-chome, Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo No. 4 Shinryo Corporation (72) Inventor Makoto Kajitani 2-8-1-304 Tsurumaki Kita, Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An autonomous mobile marking-out robot that marks a ceiling surface by moving while detecting the current position of the robot using an existing pillar in a room where three or more pillars extend in the vertical direction. A moving part for moving a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction, a position detecting part for detecting a self-position necessary for moving to a predetermined marking position, and drawing on the ceiling surface And a lifting unit for moving the marking unit up and down toward the ceiling surface, and the position detecting unit includes a computer for inputting the geometrical shape and position of each column. A laser scanning means for scanning the laser light while rotating it in the horizontal direction; a sensor for receiving the reflected light of the laser light on the robot; and an angle formed between each edge by detecting the edge of each pillar and the robot. An angle detecting means for calculating the degree, and a self-position detecting means for calculating the self-position of the robot with reference to the position of the edge of each column input to the computer are provided, and the lifting section is provided near the upper end thereof. An autonomous mobile marking-out robot, characterized in that a sensor for detecting approach and contact with the ceiling surface is provided in the. 2. The sensor for detecting approach and contact with the ceiling surface includes four contact operation type sensors arranged in a quadrangle on the same plane and a non-contact operation type sensor, and the non-contact operation type sensor. The autonomous mobile marking-out robot according to claim 1, wherein the type sensor detects the approach to the ceiling surface, and the contact-acting sensor detects the contact with the ceiling surface and issues a signal. 3. The autonomous mobile marking-out robot according to claim 1, wherein the marking means to be drawn on the ceiling surface is in the shape of an XY plotter which can be operated along two axes orthogonal to each other. 4. The marking means for drawing on the ceiling surface is below the laser light to be scanned while the laser scanning means scans the laser light while rotating the laser light in the horizontal direction and when moving between rooms. The autonomous marking-out robot according to claim 1, which is held by the lifting portion so as to be located at the position.