JPS61220978A - Mobile robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To aim at the promotion of a low center of gravity, by constituting a base plate with a horizontal part at the center and a tilt part at both sides, while attaching plural crawlers to this tilting part, in case of a mobile robot made up of attaching these plural crawlers consisting of rolling a crawler on the circumference of each rotary wheel, to the base plate. CONSTITUTION:This mobile robot 14 is provided with a base plate 15 consisting of a horizontal part 15a at the center and front and rear tilting parts 15b and 15c being combinedly installed at both the front and rear ends and extending upward from the horizontal part 15a, a symmetrical pair of crawlers 13a and 13b are attached to each of these tilting parts 15b and 15c. Each crawler 3 (13a and 13b) is constituted of a driving wheel 16, two driven wheels 17a and 17b to be situated at other apexes of a relatively flat triangle making this driving wheel 16 its apex and crawlers to be rolled on the circumference of these rotary wheels 16, 17a and 17b. And, the required apparatus 25 and a manipulator 26 are mounted on the support plate 24 rotatably installed on the horizontal part 15a of the base plate 15 via a fulcrum shaft 23.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention is characterized in that a plurality of crawlers are attached to a board on which equipment necessary for maintenance and inspection work is mounted or pulled. Related to mobile robots that run by climbing over objects.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Generally, at nuclear power plants, patrol inspections and periodic inspections of packing equipment are carried out to ensure safe operation, but inspection work during such patrol inspections and periodic inspections involves high radiation I! It will be done in the middle. Furthermore, when an abnormal situation that affects the safe operation of a nuclear couplant occurs, it is impossible for workers to deal with the abnormal situation without shutting down the plant.

Based on these points, a mobile robot that runs unmanned and automatically inspects atomic couplers has already been developed.As mentioned above, this mobile robot is equipped with the equipment necessary for maintenance and inspection work. Alternatively, it is constructed by attaching a running section to a board to be towed. Conventionally, wheel-type, leg-type, and crawler-type types of running parts are known.

Among these, legged running sections cannot stably go up and down stairs unless they have four or more legs, but those with four or more legs have the disadvantage of being complicated to control and slow speed. It has been difficult to put it into practical use so far.

In addition, the wheel-type running unit has excellent speed and stability when running on a flat place, but when climbing stairs, as shown in Fig. 4 (A), the wheel-type running unit There is a problem in that the radius r must be larger than the step h1 of the stairs 2, and therefore, in order to be able to climb the stairs 2 with large steps, wheels 1 with a large diameter must be provided.

In contrast to the leg type and wheel type described above, the running part of the crawler type, which consists of a plurality of crawlers with belts wrapped around a rotating wheel composed of a driving wheel and a driven wheel, is located between the leg type and wheel type. It has a low center of gravity, large carrying capacity, and excellent ability to overcome obstacles, but it has the drawbacks of poor steering performance and slow running speed due to its heavy weight.

In order to overcome these drawbacks, a crawler 3 has already been developed, as shown in FIG. 4(B) 1, which has a shape in which the upper part of an arc is cut off and the arc surface is used as a running surface. . This crawler 3 has the advantage of being able to climb the stairs 2 if the height h2 is slightly higher than the step h1 of the stairs 2, but the center of gravity is still high and the shape is unnecessary for running. There is a problem with this.

To examine this in detail, FIGS. 5 and 6 show a mobile robot 4 to which the crawler 3 of FIG. 4(B) is applied, and the mobile robot 4 is equipped with equipment not shown. It has a substrate 5 of. A pair of crawlers 3 are attached to the front and rear portions of the board 5 at intervals on the left and right sides. In each O-RA 3, a crawler belt 8 is wound around one driving wheel 6 and three driven wheels 7, 7..., and the belly belt 8 of the part necessary for running is arranged in an arc shape by a guide plate 9. It is configured to do the following.

In such a mobile robot 4, since the distance between the lower surface of the roller 3 and the substrate 5 is large, the shape and shape of the equipment (not shown) on the substrate 5 are affected when the mobile robot 4 moves up the stairs 2 shown by the solid line in FIG. Heavy weight
Depending on the situation, the mobile robot 4 may fall. In addition, since the parts necessary for running in direct contact with the floor, stairs, etc. when running in each 0-ra 3 are limited to the range of each arrow shown in Fig. 6, the crawler 3 is used for running. This means that there are many parts that are not covered, and it can be said that the shape is useless as a running part.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made with these points in mind, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile robot equipped with a crawler type running section that lowers the center of gravity and reduces as much as possible unnecessary parts during running. purpose.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention is a mobile robot in which a plurality of crawlers each having an abdominal band wound around a rotating wheel constituted by a driving wheel and a driven wheel are attached to a substrate, and a d-device is mounted or towed by this substrate. , the substrate has a horizontal portion,
and at least one inclined part continuous to extend obliquely upward from the horizontal part, and the crawler is constructed by winding a crawler belt around three rotating wheels, and the inclined part of the base plate It is characterized by having a crawler attached to it.

[Embodiments of the invention]

The present invention will be explained below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the mobile robot 14 of the present invention in detail. The base plate 15 of the mobile robot 14 has a horizontal portion 15a in the center, and horizontal portions connected to the front and rear ends of the horizontal portion 15a. It is comprised of a front inclined part 15b and a rear inclined part 15c extending obliquely upward from the front. Further, a pair of crawlers 13a are provided on the front inclined portion 15b and the rear inclined portion 15c of the substrate 15, respectively.

13b (shown only at the front) are mounted on both sides of the board 15 at intervals on the left and right. Note that each crawler 13a, 13b is attached with an attachment number so as to be extendable and retractable in the front-rear direction of the board 15.

Each crawler 13 (generic name for crawlers 13a and 13b) is
It has one driving wheel 16 and two driven wheels 17a, 17b, and these three rotating wheels 16.17a, 17
b are arranged to form each apex of a relatively flat triangle with the driving wheel 16 as the apex. Furthermore, a belly band 18 is wound around the three rotating wheels 16° 17a, 17b, among which the driving wheel 16 and one driven wheel 17a
A guide plate 19 is disposed inside the abdominal belt 18 so that the crawler belt 18 between them forms an arc shape.

In the front crawler 13a of the mobile robot].14, the driven wheel 17a protrudes forward, and the driving wheel 16 in normal times.
The belt 18 between the driven wheels 17b and 17b is arranged so as to land on the ground, and the rear crawler 13b
a protrudes rearward, and is disposed such that the crawler belt 18 between the driving wheel 16 and the driven wheel 17b lands on the ground during normal operation.

Therefore, under normal conditions, the front crawler 1 of the mobile robot 14
3a, the belly band 18 between both driven wheels 17a and 17b is inclined downwardly at the rear, and the rear crawler 13b is arranged between both driven wheels 17a and 17b.
, 17b will be inclined toward the front.

The angle of inclination of this abdominal band 18 is made approximately equal to the angle of inclination of the front inclined part 15b and the rear inclined part 15C of the base plate 15. Therefore, the front inclined portion 15b and the rear inclined portion 15c of the substrate 15 are moved by the crawler 13a.

The height of the horizontal portion 15a of the substrate 15 can be reduced by locating it near each driven wheel 17b of the substrate 13b.

Before&! The board 15 includes a drive unit, a travel control unit, and a steering mechanism (not shown) necessary for running the crawler 13.
is installed. Further, the horizontal portion 15 of the substrate 15
A support shaft 23 extending in the transverse direction of the substrate 15 is disposed on the support shaft 23, and a support plate 24 is rotatably attached to the support shaft 23. Mounted on this support plate 24 are equipment 25 and a manipulator 26 necessary for inspection/repair work, recognition of the external world as a robot, travel guidance, and signal transmission. Further, the support plate 24 is driven by a drive unit (not shown) to the first device 25 and the manipulator 26.
In the figure, the standing position is shown as a solid line, and the crawler 1 is shown as a chain line.
It can be rotated to take a storage position between 3a and 13b. Note that a notch (not shown) into which the Il device 25 and the manipulator 26 can be fitted is formed in the center in the width direction of the front inclined portion 15b of the substrate 15.

Next, the operation of the above-mentioned embodiment will be explained.

FIG. 2 shows the traveling state of the mobile robot 14 described above. The solid line position in the figure shows the state of going up and down the stairs 2, and the chain line position in the figure shows the state of movement from the level ground to the stairs 2 or from the stairs 2 to the level ground. It shows.

When going up and down the stairs 2, specifically, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 13b, thereby lowering the center of gravity of the mobile robot 14, making it possible to stably ascend and descend even steep stairs 2. Note that when going up the stairs 2, it is necessary to lock the steering of the front crawler 13a and only operate the steering of the rear crawler 13b.

According to the embodiment described above, the center of gravity can be lowered by storing the equipment 25 and the manipulator 26 in a pair of front crawlers, which improves running performance such as climbing stairs and over obstacles, and improving foot support during running. This improves performance and allows the overall size to be reduced.

FIG. 7 shows the difference in the height of the substrate 5.15 of the conventional mobile robot 4 and the mobile robot 1-14 of this embodiment, and the height of the substrate 15 of the mobile robot 14 of this embodiment is ,
The thickness n of the substrate 5 of the conventional mobile robot 4 can be made lower by α.

Further, when the equipment 25 and the manipulator 26 are stored, the entire passage cross-sectional area of the mobile robot 14 becomes a passage cross-sectional area comparable to that of the traveling section, which improves the accessibility to various equipment in the nuclear power plant. As a result, inspection work can be performed remotely and automatically, reducing radiation exposure for workers, improving reliability, and
Inspection time can be shortened and abnormal situations can be detected and dealt with early.

Furthermore, the rotary wheel 16.17a of the roller 13.

17b has a triangular shape, and the belt 18 is wound around it, so that the weight ω of the crawler 3 can be reduced compared to the conventional one, improving running performance and reducing the number of parts.

Incidentally, in contrast to the above-mentioned embodiment, the number of crawlers 13 is not necessarily two pairs, and may be one pair and one piece, totaling 3L&l, or a combination of a roller and wheels. Furthermore, the shape of the roller 13 is not limited to that of the illustrated embodiment. Roughly speaking, the substrate 15 may be used to tow equipment or the like via a strip or the like.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As mentioned above, the mobile robot of the present invention lowers the height of the board compared to conventional robots and has a smaller number of crawler rotating wheels, which lowers the center of gravity and eliminates unnecessary parts during movement. The result can be a significant reduction.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the mobile robot according to the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams showing the operation of the mobile robot of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4(A). (B) is an explanatory diagram illustrating the conventional wheel type and crawler type running parts, Figs. 5 and 6 are explanatory diagrams showing the operation of a mobile robot equipped with a conventional crawler type running part, and Fig. 7 FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the difference in height of the substrate in the moving days of FIG. 1 and FIG. 5; 14... Mobile robot, 15... Board, 16...
Drive wheel, 17a, 17b... Driven wheel, 18... Crawler track, 19... Guide plate, 15a... Horizontal part, 15b...
...Front inclined part, 15C... Rear inclined part, 24...
Support plate, 25...equipment, 26...manipulator. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of crawlers each having a crawler track wound around a rotating wheel constituted by a driving wheel and a driven wheel are attached to a substrate,
In the mobile robot in which a device is mounted or towed by this board, the board is constituted by a horizontal part and at least one inclined part connected to extend obliquely upward from the horizontal part, and . A mobile robot, wherein the crawler is constructed by winding a crawler belt around three rotating wheels, and the crawler is attached to an inclined portion of the substrate. 2. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the device is mounted so as to be rotatable about a support shaft supported by the substrate.