JPS61277233A - Repeater for communication of moving body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the occurrence of multipath troubles by providing a robot address discriminating circuit which distinguishes communication data to a robot and the other data from each other and allowing only one repeater to emit light at a time. CONSTITUTION:A delay gate circuit 23 holds reception data during comparison of the address and inputs reception data to a light emitting device 24 through a signal line 63, and transmission data is converted to an optical signal and is transmitted to the robot. The light emitted from the robot is inputted to a photodetector 36 and is converted to an electric signal and is inputted to a delay gate circuit 35. The address part of data is inputted to a reception register B34 also. The address of a controller 1 is always inputted to a comparator 33; and when the address of the controller 1 and contents of the register 34 coincide with each other, a signal line 64 is turned on, and the circuit 35 outputs data to a line 41 through a transmission amplifier 21. Thus, the occurrence of multipath troubles is prevented.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a communication device for communicating with a mobile object, and in particular to a mobile communication relay suitable for relaying data transmission between a mobile work robot in a plant and a central control space. Concerning vessels.

[Background of the invention]

As a means for data communication between a mobile work robot in a plant, such as a maintenance and inspection work robot in an atomic coupler plant, and a central control room, it is possible to use it because of the ease of movement of the robot and because it does not affect the instrumentation system. Optical wireless systems are considered advantageous. The inside of a plant is usually complexly partitioned by walls and machines, and it is being considered to install repeaters on walls or ceilings to enable wireless transmission with robots. In this case, multiple repeaters are required depending on the size of the plant. The repeater has the following functions.

(1) To transmit data from the controller to the robot, convert the data into an optical signal and emit light.

(2) Receives optical data from the robot, converts it into an electrical signal, and transmits it to the controller.

As an optical wireless device with mobile objects, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-1824
The one published in Publication No. 1 is known. This is an information transmission device that uses a laser beam to track moving objects, and transmits data between a tracking device (repeater) installed at a high place and a moving object.

For data communication from the controller to the robot (mobile object), only one repeater that covers communication in the location where the robot is located needs to emit light. In the conventional example described above, a communication method when there are a plurality of repeaters is not considered. In addition to the one repeater required for transmission between the controller and the robot, the remaining repeaters simultaneously transmit data and emit light, causing the following problems.

Due to differences in the length of the transmission path from the controller to each repeater and the circuit wiring within each repeater, the phase of the light emission signal of each repeater differs slightly. Furthermore, since the distance between the robot and each repeater differs, the optical path length of the light emission signal also differs. Therefore, a multipath failure may occur in which the optical signal level varies depending on the location. For this purpose, the S of the optical signal received on the robot side is
There is a problem that /N deteriorates or becomes unreceivable.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication repeater that is capable of high quality transmission without causing multipath failures.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides the C repeater with a robot address discrimination circuit that can distinguish between communication data to robots within its repeatable range and data that does not, and allows only one repeater to emit light at a time. The feature is that it prevents path failure from occurring.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 and subsequent figures.

FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of a mobile optical wireless transmission system. Transmission lines 40 and 41 from the controller 1 connect the repeaters SL and S2. 40 is a down transmission path (data transmission from the controller to the robot), and 41 is an up transmission path (data transmission from the robot to the controller).

1 controls mobile robots R1 and R2 through SL and S2. The repeater is 81. In addition to the two S2 units, transmission line 4
0.41 can be connected in a multi-drop manner. SL, S2
has a certain communication range as shown in this figure.

Before explaining the repeater (FIG. 1) of the present invention, the controller and the control circuit within the mobile robot will be briefly explained. FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the controller 1. CPU10
according to the transmission control program stored in ROM12,
A transmission circuit 14 is controlled through a bus 13. 14 transmits data to SL and S2 through transmission data 40, and
The data received through 1 is temporarily stored in RAMII.

11 also stores the current positions of R1 and R2.

The current position is transmitted as data from R1 and R2. The auxiliary storage device 16 stores the position of each repeater and can input and output data through the interface 15.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the control circuit 4o of the mobile robot. C
The PU 42 executes transmission control using the transmission control program stored in the ROM 44, and also controls the robot movement mechanism 49 using the robot control program (stored in the ROM 44).

42 and 49 are connected via a bus 45 and a moving mechanism control circuit 47. Further, the signal from the position sensor 48 is processed by the position detection circuit 46 to know its own position. This position data is read by 42 from 46 and temporarily stored in RAM 43.
The light emitter 51 passes through the transmission circuit 41 along with other data.
output as an optical signal. On the other hand, the optical signal from the repeater enters 41 through the optical receiver 50, is temporarily stored in 43, and is used to control the robot.

FIG. 5(a) shows the frame structure of transmission data. First, there is a transmission start flag FLAG, and then there is the destination address A.
, transmission data, and end flag FLAG are transmitted in this order.

The address is 1. SL, 32. Different values are assigned to R1 and R2. For example, when transmitting data from 1 to R1, A contains the address of R1.

FIG. 1 shows a repeater 5 (SL) implementing the present invention.

The configuration of S2) is shown below. The operation will be explained below.

When transmitting data from the controller to the robot, the transmitted data coming in from 40 passes through the receiving circuit 20 and enters the receiving register A 22 and the delay/gate circuit 23. Only the address A mentioned in FIG. 5(a) remains in the reception register. Comparator A25 contains the address of S. Comparators C26 and D27 contain addresses of robots currently within S's communication range. When there is only one robot, only 26 is valid, and 27 contains invalid data. If there is no robot within the communication range of S, both 26 and 27 contain invalid data. 25, 26
, 27 checks whether it matches or does not match the address contained in 22. If the contents of 25 match the contents of 22, the signal line 6
o is turned ON, and the delay gate circuit 23 receives the received data.
It is input to the reception buffer 29 through the signal line 62. 23 has the role of holding received data during the time when addresses are compared. When the contents of 26 or 27 match the contents of 22, the signal line 61 is turned on via the OR gate 28,
23 inputs the received data to the light emitter 24 through the signal line 63. At step 24, the transmitted data is converted into an optical signal and sent to the robot.

If neither 25 nor 26.27 matches the contents of 22, both 60.61 are in the OFF state, and 23 does not output data to 62.63.

The contents of 26.2.7 are transmitted and updated from time to time from 1. The content change data of 26 and 27 is transmitted to S as the data shown in FIG. 5(b). In FIG. 5(b), A contains the address of S, C contains the instruction of the comparator (26 or 27) to be changed, and A' contains the address of the robot to be input to the comparator. Therefore, this data enters 29 as described above. The CPU 31 operates according to the control program stored in the memory 32, reads the contents of 29 via the bus 30, and selects 26 or 2 depending on the contents.
Change the contents of 7.

As mentioned above, 1 has previously stored the position of the repeater S in 16, and constantly receives reports of the robot's current position from robots R1 and R2. Therefore, 1 can inform S' of robots within communication range.

Data transmission from the robots R1 and R2 to the controller 1 will be explained next. Light emitted from the robot enters the light receiver 36, is converted into an electrical signal, and then enters the delay gate circuit 35. The address portion of the data is also entered in the reception register B34. Comparator B33 always contains the address of controller 1, and when the address of 1 and the contents of 34 match, the signal line 64 is turned ON, and
5 outputs the data to 41 via the transmission amplifier 21.

Regarding data transmission from the robot to the controller, see 3.
3.34.35 may be omitted.

Figure 1 explained above shows the system for synchronizing the circuits.
Although the clock is omitted, it goes without saying that the clock is input to each circuit to operate it.

If the present invention is implemented in this way, only the repeater at the location where the mobile robot is located can emit light, so it is possible to prevent optical S/N deterioration due to multipath failure.

In this embodiment, an optical wireless system has been described, but 24.
If 36 is changed to a wireless transmitter/receiver using radio waves, the same effect can be obtained using the radio wave wireless system.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, only the mobile communication repeater that can communicate with a mobile object can be operated.

This has the effect of preventing the occurrence of multipath failures and realizing a mobile communication repeater capable of high-quality transmission.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of an optical wireless system for a mobile object, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a controller, and Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a control circuit of a mobile robot. , FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of the transmitted data. S, SL, S2...Mobile communication repeater, 22...
Receive register, 23.35-Delay/gate circuit, 24.
... Light emitter, 25... Comparator A, 26... Comparator C127... Comparator D, 29...
Reception buffer, 31...CPU, 32...memory,
3°3...Comparator B, 34...Receiving register B, 36...Receiver, 1...Controller, R1,
R2...Mobile robot, 40.41...Transmission line.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a mobile communication repeater that is connected to a controller via a transmission path and that ignores and relays communication data between the controller and a mobile unit, the communication data transmitted from the controller to the mobile unit is Among them, selective relay means is provided which selectively relays only communication data to mobile bodies within the relayable range of the mobile communication repeater and does not relay communication data to mobile bodies outside the relayable range. Features of mobile communication repeater. 2. The selective relay means has a circuit that holds the destination address of a mobile object within the relayable range and transmits the data only when it matches the destination address in the transmission data from the controller, and a command from the controller. 2. The mobile communication repeater according to claim 1, further comprising a circuit for adding/changing the destination address held.