JPH08329286A - Station work service robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain the station work service robot which can freely move in a station by providing the main body of station work equipment such as an automatic vending machine and an automatic fare adjusting machine with a self-running mechanism. CONSTITUTION: A cleaning unit 19 equipped with a water sprinkling nozzle 19a, a rotary brush 19b, and a suction type dust collector 19c is provided under the main body 1 of the station work service robot, and wheels W, W... for moving the main body 1 are provided. The respective wheels W, W... driven by the motor M and speed change mechanism M' of a driving unit 20 to rotate and the direction of the wheels W, i.e., the travel direction of the main body 1 can be determined. The driving unit 20 is so constituted that it is controlled according to a program incorporated in a controller; and an antenna line is embedded under the floor surface in a station yard and the main body can be moved along the antenna line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a station service robot such as an automatic ticket vending machine, an automatic checkout machine, or a user guide device installed in a station.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, station service equipment such as an automatic ticket vending machine and an automatic checkout machine are fixed at a predetermined position in a station yard to perform predetermined stationwork processing such as ticket issuing processing and settlement processing. .

[0003]

However, since the station service equipment such as the above-mentioned conventional automatic ticket vending machines are fixed, the user has to go to the installation site, which is lacking in customer service. There was a flaw.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to provide a station service robot which can freely move inside a station.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a station service robot according to the present invention is an autonomous system for moving inside a station to a main body of station service equipment such as an automatic ticket vending machine or an automatic checkout machine. It is characterized by the provision of a traveling mechanism. In addition, the system program for controlling the main body of the station service device is rewritten according to the reinforcement learning result by inputting information on the environment of the main body of the station service device, and the system has a reinforcement learning means that evolves. I am trying.

[0006]

In the above structure, the main body of the station service device can move within the station yard by the autonomous traveling mechanism.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a station service robot according to an embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a front view of the back side thereof. The station service robot main body (hereinafter referred to as “main body”) 1 has a slant on the customer service surface 2 side. It is formed into a type and is designed so that it is easy for the user to operate.

The display unit 3 is provided on the upper part of the customer service surface 2 and whether or not the main body 1 is in an operating state, or the service contents of the main body 1, for example, ticketing processing, settlement processing, various types of guidance processing such as train guidance. Is configured to be displayed.

On the customer service surface 2 below the display unit 3, there are provided a speaker 4 used for providing voice guidance to the user and a microphone 5 used for inputting by the voice of the user. At the same time, on the slant portion of the customer service surface 2, a touch-panel type display screen 6, a magnetic ticket insertion slot 7 for inserting a magnetic ticket on which magnetic data such as a commuter pass or a ticket is recorded, and an IC card having a contact terminal An IC card insertion slot 8 for inserting a card, an antenna 9 for communicating with a non-contact type IC card, an insertion slot 10 for inserting a coin into the main body 1, a bill insertion slot 11 for inserting a bill into the main body 1, Change outlet 12 and main body 1 for discharging change
Is provided with a ticket issuing port 13 for issuing tickets such as a boarding ticket and a settlement ticket.

In the figure, V is a video camera provided on the customer service surface 2 and is constructed so that a user or the like located on the customer service surface 2 side can be imaged. The same video camera is also installed on the side of the main unit,
It is configured to be able to capture an image of the surroundings. Further, S is a pyroelectric type human detection sensor, and is configured to detect infrared rays emitted from a user located on the customer contact surface 2 side to detect the user.

Around the lower portion of the main body 1, there is provided a guard ring G with a cushion for protecting the main body 1 from an impact when another object collides. A large number of sensors P, P, ..., Which are optical sensors for detecting the positions of obstacles, are arranged around the guard ring G, the main body 1, and the tip of a hand H'described later.

On the side surface of the main body 1, a hand unit H having a hand H'approaching the hand of the robot is provided.
It is used when the user points in the direction in which he or she should proceed, or when performing various tasks.

In the figure, B and B are button switches respectively provided on the customer service surface 2 and the back surface 2'which is a back side of the customer service surface 2. When the button switch B is pressed, the main body 1 is pressed.
Is configured to stop operating.

At the upper part of the back surface 2'of the main body 1, there is provided a staff operation panel 14 operated by a staff, and a numeric keypad 1 for inputting predetermined data is provided there.
4a and a display screen 14b are provided. Further, on the back surface 2 ', a lock door 15 of a recovery safe (not shown) for taking out money thrown into the main body 1, and a water supply port 16 for supplying water to a tank 19' of a cleaning unit 19 described later. Further, a discharge box 17 for discharging collected dust is provided, and a connection terminal 18 used for charging the battery and an antenna coil 18a for receiving and charging a power wave are provided.

A cleaning unit 19 having a water spray nozzle 19a, a rotating brush 19b and a suction type dust collector 19c is provided in the lower portion of the main body 1, and wheels W, W ... For moving the main body 1 are provided. ing. These wheels W, W
Are rotationally driven by the motor M and the speed reduction mechanism M ′ of the drive unit 20, and are configured to be able to determine the direction of the wheels W thereof, that is, the traveling direction of the main body 1. The drive unit 20 is configured to be controlled according to a program incorporated in a controller described later, but an antenna wire is embedded in the floor surface of the station yard and moved along the antenna wire. You can also

Inside the main body 1, there is provided a transmitter / receiver 2 having an antenna A for wirelessly communicating with a management machine (not shown) provided in a management room such as a station office.
Further, a battery 22 provided with a charger 22a is provided, and the battery 22 constitutes a drive source of the main body 1.

In the figure, reference numeral 23 is a controller for controlling the main body 1 as a whole, and its block configuration is shown in FIG. That is, like the above-mentioned units, the controller 23 is driven by being supplied with electric power from the battery 22, and uses the system program stored in the ROM 24 and the working data stored in the RAM 25 to perform arithmetic processing. It has a central processing unit (CPU) 26.

The ROM 24 is composed of a rewritable and non-volatile memory represented by an EEPROM.
Then, the contents of the system program in the ROM 24 are rewritten by the reinforcement learning result in the reinforcement learning unit 37 for performing reinforcement learning based on the information input to the main body 1, for example, the input information from the environment of the main body 1. . For example, for a service that has been frequently requested so far, the system program is rewritten so that a service that has a high request frequency can be given priority over other services in the future.

The CPU 26, via the I / O unit 27, a ticket issuing unit 28 when the main body 1 is used as an automatic ticket vending machine, and a settlement unit 29 when the main body 1 is used as an automatic settlement machine. Money inserted into the main body 1 when the main body 1 is used as an automatic ticket vending machine, that is, coins inserted into the coin insertion slot 10 and a bill insertion slot 11
Banknotes inserted in the banknote are checked and, if necessary, change change outlet 1
The money processing unit 30 that discharges the change is connected to 2.

Further, the CPU 26 has an I / O unit 2
A display driver 31 that displays the display content of the display unit 3 via 7, a display input driver 32 that displays and inputs the touch panel display screen 6, and a predetermined voice to the user via the speaker 4. Voice generation unit 33 for guidance
And a voice recognition unit 36 for analyzing and recognizing the voice of the user inputted from the microphone, and a drive unit 20 for rotating the wheels W, W ...
A hand unit H for expanding and contracting or rotating the hand H ', a sensor unit 34 for taking in the sensor inputs of the video camera V, the human detector S and the sensors P, P ... An operator processing unit 34 that inputs and outputs the operation panel 14, an input driver 35 that receives an input signal of a button switch B that is pressed during an emergency stop, and a transceiver 21 are connected.

Incidentally, in FIG. 3, a magnetic ticket processing unit for processing the magnetic ticket taken in from the magnetic ticket insertion port 7,
An IC card processing unit for processing the IC card inserted from the IC card insertion port 8 or the IC card communicated via the antenna 9 is omitted.

Next, the operation control of the main body 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. A program is incorporated so that the basic operation control of the main body 1 is classified according to whether or not it is a rush hour.

That is, when the button switch B is pressed and the emergency stop state is not entered, or when the operator performs the recovery process when the emergency stop occurs, the main body 1 performs a predetermined operation described later according to a predetermined program. (Step 100 is negative or Step 102 is affirmative. Hereinafter, step is referred to as S).

In the rush hour (Yes at S104),
When a special mission command from the staff operation panel 14 (passenger regulation guidance service command in the example of FIG. 4) or a special mission command by radio from the management center is received via the transmission / reception unit 21, the special mission command. Is executed (S106
No, S110), otherwise, the customer service is fixed at a predetermined position and ordinary customer service such as ticketing processing or settlement processing is performed (S106 No, S108). As the above-mentioned special mission command, for example, when a train disconnection accident occurs and guides the user to that effect, the main body 1 moves to the ticket gate with the drive unit 20 activated, and the display unit 2 Train interruption guidance is performed, and the hand H'performs an operation of blocking passage.

When the main body 1 is not in the rush hour (S
104), or unless the staff or the management center instructs the fixed position to carry out normal processing such as ticketing processing (Yes at S112, S114), as a rule, wanders the premises according to a predetermined program. (No at S112).

If the main body 1 is wandering and there is no special command from the staff or the management center (No at S116), the cleaning unit 19 is operated to clean the premises (Yes at S118,
S120), while the main body 1 is wandering, depending on the user,
When there is any service request from the display screen 6 including the touch panel (Yes in S122), the service process according to the request is performed (S124). In FIG. 4, the above-mentioned service shows that the main body 1 communicates with the host computer of the bank through the transceiver 21 and the management center (not shown), and the main body 1 performs the ATM service.

When the guide service is requested from the display screen 6 while the main body 1 is wandering, or when there is an input to that effect by voice from the microphone 5, the display screen 6 is answered in response to the request, Alternatively, voice guidance is given from the speaker 4. Further, if necessary, the main body 1 can move and guide the user to the ticket gate or the office (S126 affirmative, S128, S130 affirmative, S1.
32).

When the user inputs a travel guidance request from the display screen 6 while the main body 1 is wandering (Yes at S134), service processing such as hotel reservation is performed (S1).
34, affirmative, S136). Further, during this wandering, not only the ticket issuing process and the settlement process can be performed, but also a predetermined amount of money can be accumulated in the IC card that can be used as the SF card. That is, the IC card is inserted into the IC card insertion slot 8 or the IC card is communicated with the antenna 9, and then predetermined money is inserted from the coin insertion slot 10 or the bill insertion slot 11 to obtain the amount data of the IC card. Can be rewritten (Yes at S138, S140). In addition,
The stacking of the IC cards C can be naturally performed even when the main body 1 is fixed at a predetermined position (S1).
08, or S114).

When the main body 1 is wandering around, a special task can be performed by a command from a staff member or a management center (S
116 affirmation). For example, when there is a suspicious object in the station yard, the suspicious object can be grasped by the hand H ′ while checking with the video camera V, and the drive unit 20 can move the main body 1 to a safe predetermined place (Yes at S142, S144). ).

While the main body 1 is wandering, maintenance or management of other main bodies is performed according to a command from a staff member or a management center, or a station staff remotely performs various customer service such as direct guidance by wireless. It is also possible (S146 affirmative, S148. Or S146 negative, S150 affirmative, S1
52).

Each time the series of service operations are completed,
Reinforcement learning is performed and the result is reflected in the system program, and if necessary, the system program is rewritten (S154 affirmative, S156).

As described above, the main body 1 according to this embodiment is
In addition to customer service such as ticketing processing and guidance processing, since it can be robotized and moved, various tasks such as cleaning can be performed.

[0033]

The station service robot according to the present invention is
Since it has an autonomous traveling mechanism, it is possible to move customer service such as ticketing processing and guidance processing and to perform various services such as cleaning. Since the reinforcement learning means is provided, the system program is rewritten according to the result of the reinforcement learning.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main body according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the back surface of the main body.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a controller.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Station service robot main body (main body) 2 Customer contact surface 3 Display section 4 Speaker 5 Microphone 6 Display screen 7 Magnetic ticket insertion slot 8 IC card insertion slot 9 Antenna 10 Coin slot 11 Banknote slot 12 Change deposit slot 13 Ticketing Mouth 14 Staff operation panel 19 Cleaning unit 20 Drive unit 21 Transmitter / receiver 22 Battery 37 Reinforcement learning unit B Button switch S Human detector P Optical sensor V Video camera H Hand unit H'Hand W Wheel

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A station service robot, wherein an autonomous traveling mechanism for moving within a station premises is provided in a main body of station service equipment such as an automatic ticket vending machine or an automatic checkout machine. 2. The system program for controlling the main body of the station service equipment is rewritten according to the reinforcement learning result by inputting information on the environment of the main body of the station service equipment, and the system has a reinforcement learning means which is evolved. A station service robot according to claim 1.