JPS5985504A - Video method for remote control supervision - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ensure a remote control with high efficiency and with no misoperation by using a TV camera of a large picture angle and another TV camera of a small picture angle to photograph a supervising area and its periphery and obtaining a combined picture of both cameras. CONSTITUTION:The working object part (a) of a manipulator 1 is projected on a screen 10 of a monitor TV9 by a TV camera 7 of a long-focus lens. While a TV camera 8 of a short-focus lens projects the periphery of the part (a) on a screen 12 via a projecting device 11 of a video projector. Then a combined picture of the part (a) and its periphery is obtained. Thus an operator can know unconsciously the peripheral situation from the picture on the screen without shifting largely the eyes while looking at the supervising area through a monitor TV of high image resolution. In such a way, a remove control is possible with no misoperation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a video method for monitoring a manipulator or the like when remotely controlling it.

When a power manipulator or the like is used in a nuclear facility or the like, the manipulator is remotely operated. In this case, the manipulator has conventionally been monitored by simply arranging a number of monitor televisions. Therefore, the operator has to combine images from a number of monitor televisions in his or her head, which poses a major difficulty in remote operation. Also, when photographing an object from a distance, it is necessary to use a zoom lens to get close-up on the camera side, but the monitor image of such an object has a small screen.
Unable to understand the surroundings of the object, the user becomes anxious and unable to operate the manipulator. If the monitor image is small, it is difficult to get a sense of the operating speed, and it becomes impossible to give appropriate movement to the manipulator. On the other hand, attempts have been made to use large images such as those produced by video processors, but this inevitably leads to other drawbacks such as poor image quality and the inability to judge details.

The present invention was made for the purpose of providing a method that can overcome the drawbacks mentioned above in the conventional method of viewing images of manipulators, etc. Take a picture with a TV camera and display the image on a monitor TV, and also take a picture of the surroundings including the monitoring point - Take a picture with a TV camera with a large angle of view, and use iF' to position the image at the center of the screen of the monitor TV. The system is characterized in that a combined image of the monitored location and its surroundings is obtained by projecting the image on a screen.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The video method for remote control monitoring according to the present invention will be described in detail below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. This embodiment shows monitoring when a manipulator is used to perform work on a piping system in a place such as a nuclear facility that is inaccessible to workers.

1 is a manipulator, and 2 is a piping system to be worked on. The manipulator 1 consists of a base 3 and two arms 4 extending from the base and having multiple degrees of freedom, and a gripping section 5 at the tip can perform various operations on a workpiece.

A television camera (2) angle α) 7 with a long focus (telephoto) lens and a television camera (angle of view β) 8 with a short focus (wide angle) lens are installed on the base 3 of the manipulator 1 via a pan head 6. It is. These television cameras 7.8 can be freely directed toward the work target of the manipulator 1 by remotely controlling the pan head 6. on the other hand.

A monitor television 9 for projecting the image of the television camera 7 with a lens having a small angle of view is installed in an operation room 7 which is formed apart from the place where the work object is located. ABCD
The section where is divided is the screen 10 of the monitor TV 9. The television camera 8 with the wide-angle lens is connected to a projection device 11 of a video processor installed in the operation room, and the image projected by the chimp camera 8 is enlarged and displayed on this projection device 11. A screen 12 is formed approximately in the center of the screen 10 of the monitor television 7 and in approximately the same plane as the screen 10. In the figure, EF
The screen 12 is a portion divided by GH.

In this embodiment, a reflection type screen (projection onto the screen from the viewing side) is used as the screen, but a transmission type screen (projection from the back side of the screen) may also be used. Since the screen 10 of the monitor television 7 is located in the center of the screen 12, the image projected onto the screen 12 and the image on the screen 10 of the monitor television 7 overlap. If the two images overlap and become difficult to see, a mask corresponding to the screen 10 (ABCD) may be applied to the image projected by the projection device 11 of the video processor.

However, since the brightness of the screen 10 of the monitor television 7 is generally higher than the brightness of the image projected on the screen 11-12,
In many cases, it is not necessary to take measures such as those described above. In the figure, 13 is an operating device such as the manipulator 1, a television camera 7, 8, etc., and 14 is an operator.

In the above apparatus, the work target part a of the shimanibrator 1 is projected onto the screen 10 of the monitor television 9 by the television camera 7, and the surroundings of the work target part a are projected by the television camera 8 through the projection device 11 of the video projector. screen 1
Step 2 is to obtain a combined image of the part to be photographed and its surrounding parts. Although the operator 14 cannot clearly distinguish the periphery of the large image without moving his eyes, he can simply look at the screen 10 (ABCD) of the monitor television 9 live. In reality, if you do not move your eyes, the monitor image (screen A
I can understand only 11 parts of BCD), but I can understand only 11 parts of
-114 is able to unconsciously move his eyeballs and understand the entire screen (4BCI) in detail, and also unconsciously understands the image projected by the video processor's projection device 11 around it as the surrounding situation. be.

Although there may be some changes in the above-mentioned device depending on the purpose and future development of equipment, considering the current economic efficiency and practical effects, the screen of the monitor television 7 or Image size (diagonal length of ABCD)
Screen EF to increase the size of the image by S and the projection device 11
'The diagonal length of GH) L is approximately as follows.

9 to 50 inches in S, 80 to 170 inches in L, 3 to 8 in L/S seems appropriate for remote control; for example, 5 = 22 inches, L 120 inches,
L/S: 5.5 0EFGH: A large image of approximately 2.44 x 1.83 m is considered. Further, the operator 14 preferably has a power of about 1 to 3 trL.

As described above in detail based on the embodiments, according to the video method according to the present invention, the monitoring location is photographed using a television camera with a small angle of view, and the image is displayed on a monitor television, and the monitoring location is A television camera with a large angle of view is used to photograph the surrounding area, including the monitoring area, and the image is projected onto a screen located approximately in the center of the monitor television to obtain a combined image of the monitoring area and its surroundings. As a result, the operator can unconsciously check the surrounding situation from the image on the screen without having to shift his/her line of sight while viewing the area necessary for monitoring on a high-resolution monitor TV, and can monitor the area efficiently. Furthermore, far-reaching operations can be performed without erroneous operations. Since the operator does not have to assemble an image in his head by looking at multiple screens as in the past, the burden on the operator is greatly reduced. Furthermore, compared to the method that uses only the large screen of conventional video processors, a higher resolution can be obtained for the important part (center), and a superior sense of realism can be obtained compared to observing only the small image of a monitor TV. . Furthermore, compared to using a large monitor television with a large screen to obtain a screen of comparable size to that obtained by the present invention, this method has the advantage of being inexpensive and providing high resolution in the necessary areas. be.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawing is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the imaging method according to the present invention. In the drawings, 1 is a manipulator, 2 is a piping system, 7 is a television camera with a small angle of view, 8 is a television camera with a large angle of view, 9 is a monitor television, and 11 is a projection device. Patent applicant: Meiden Co., Ltd. Patent attorney Mitsuishi Shibu (1)

Claims (1)

[Claims] Tf&19 captures the monitoring area using a TV camera with a small angle of view.
Then, the image is displayed on a monitor television, and the surroundings including the monitoring point are photographed using a television camera with a large angle of view, and the image is projected on a screen located at the center of the monitor television screen for monitoring. An imaging method for remote control monitoring characterized by obtaining a combined image of a location and its surroundings.