JPS6154376A - Control for wall-surface walking machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To correct the posture change of a machine body by extending the leg by the attraction portion of the machine body to the joint-surface side through the deformation of adsorbing panels accompanied by adsorption. CONSTITUTION:An outside leg 2 is equipped with a slidable body 21 which slides on a slidable guide lever 13 on a machine body 1, and leg frames 25 which can be extended and contracted by a driving mechanism B are installed onto the right and left sides of the slidable body 21. Adsorbing panels 26 and 27 are installed at the front and rear parts of the leg frame 25 through the horizontal driving mechanisms Cf1 and Cr1 by the respective spherical joints 28. While, also an inside leg 3 has the same mechanism to the outside leg 2. When the release of the negative pressure is detected by a negative-pressure sensor installed onto the adsorbing panel, driving signals are sent into the driving mechanisms Bf1 and Br1 and the driving mechanisms Bf2 and Br2, and the posture of the machine body is corrected and the leg for which the adsorption is released can be shortened.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Field of Application The present invention relates to a wall walking machine based on the Δ method. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for controlling wall-walking machines for use in robots and the like that climb vertical or nearly vertical walls to perform cleaning, fire extinguishing, rescue, rust removal, painting, and other tasks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present inventors have previously proposed a wall-walking machine that employs a walking system that climbs up a wall by walking on legs equipped with suction cups (Japanese Patent Application No. 58-218899).

This wall-walking machine has suction cups attached to its legs that have the flexibility to make surface contact with the target wall surface. Even in times like this, you can overcome it and rise,
Furthermore, it also allows movement in the lateral direction.

However, when sequentially controlling the drive mechanism that drives such a wall walking machine to cause the wall walking machine to perform the desired walking, there are the following problems.

That is, for example, when a walking machine crosses a step, Q? When going up and down a surface, which leg should be used as a reference to maintain the attitude of the aircraft, or when bringing the legs into contact with a surface, the suction cup has some deflection, so how much pressure should be applied to the suction cup, etc. Furthermore, since the suction cup deforms as it suctions, it pulls the aircraft toward the joint surface, so there is also the problem of how to correct the resulting attitude change.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention The present invention is effective in controlling the walking motion of the above-mentioned wall-walking machine so that the machine maintains an appropriate posture while performing the walking motion, and can be easily controlled. This is an attempt to provide a method.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the control system of the present invention provides an outer leg and an inner leg on the aircraft body, attaches suction cups connected to a vacuum source to the front and rear of these legs, and attaches suction cups to the legs. On the other hand, in the walking control of a wall walking machine that performs reciprocating drive in the advancing direction by a drive mechanism and telescopic movement by a telescopic drive mechanism, the suction cup at the tip of each leg is brought into contact with the target surface as the leg moves. At this time, the suction cup is pressed against the joint surface with a predetermined preload force by the telescopic drive mechanism, and at the same time or after the suction, the body is drawn toward the joint surface due to the deformation of the suction cup due to suction. However, the leg is extended by the above-mentioned telescopic drive mechanism.

Operation According to the control method of the present invention, in the walking operation of the wall walking machine, when the suction cup is pressed against the target surface with a predetermined preload force, the suction cup is connected to a vacuum source and sucked to the target surface. , the deformation of the suction cup caused by the suction causes the aircraft to be drawn toward the target surface, which is corrected by stretching the surrounding frame.
Furthermore, the wall walking machine can be easily controlled.

Embodiment FIGS. 1 and 2 schematically show the basic configuration of a wall walking machine controlled by the present invention, in which inner and outer legs 2 and 3 are used to move forward and backward with respect to the machine. has been established.

The above-mentioned fuselage 1 includes an outer leg sliding guide rod 13 and an inner leg sliding guide rod 14 installed in the longitudinal direction between the rear support frames 11 and 12, and these guide rods are provided with the following details. The outer leg 2 and the inner leg 3 described above are slidably attached, and as will be described later with reference to FIG. 3, a drive mechanism A is provided for reciprocating the outer and inner legs 2.3 in the front-rear direction.

The outer leg 2 is connected to the sliding guide rod 13 in the fuselage 1 by m
It is provided with a sliding body 21 that moves, and is made extendable and retractable by a drive mechanism B on the left and right sides of this sliding body 21, and at the same time, joints 22
．． Enclosing frame 25, 2 which can be tilted in the front and back direction by 23
5 is installed.

That is, on the left and right sides of the sliding body 21 in the fuselage, there are at least two telescopic drive mechanisms Bf, which constitute the drive mechanism B.
The enclosing frames 25, 25 are installed with the telescopic drive mechanisms Bfl, Brl interposed, but the installation of the telescopic drive mechanisms Bfl, Brl requires rotation in the front-rear direction, that is, around an axis perpendicular to the plane of the paper in Fig. 1, except for one place. Possible, specifically, box 2
Only one end of the drive mechanism Bfl is fixedly attached to the drive mechanism Bfl, but the other parts are rotatably attached. These are intended to enable the surrounding frame 25 to tilt with respect to the machine body 1 according to differences in level, etc., and to maintain the posture of the machine body 1 arbitrarily with respect to the legs that are suction-fixed to the wall surface. In addition, suction cylinders 26 and 27 are attached to the front and rear of the surrounding frames 25, 25 via lateral drive mechanisms eft and Crl (generally referred to as drive mechanism C), respectively, by spherical joints 28.

On the other hand, the inner leg 3 can be driven without contacting the outer leg 2, or has substantially the same mechanism as the outer leg 2, that is, the inner leg 3 can slide on the sliding guide rod 14 at 5F3 on the fuselage 1. On the left and right sides of the moving sliding body 31, two telescopic drive mechanisms Bf2. A surrounding frame 35 with Br2 interposed therebetween is attached, and a lateral drive mechanism Cf2. C: absorption 53 mediated by r2
s and 37 are each attached by a spherical joint 38.

Further, the telescopic drive mechanism Bf2. To install Br2,
In Fig. 5S1, joints 32 and 33 that are rotatable around an axis perpendicular to the plane of the paper are used, but only one end of the drive mechanism Bf2 is fixedly attached to the surrounding frame 35.

The drive mechanism A illustrated in FIG. The sliding bodies 21, 3+ that slide on the guide rod 13 and the inner leg sliding guide rod 14 are configured to be driven by a motor 15 in the forward and backward directions. That is, the motor 15 is connected to the gear train 1
Sliding guide rod 13 partially carved with thread 17 through 6
．． 14, and screws into the sliding bodies 21, 31 on this sliding guide rod with the screw 17;
31a is provided so that the nuts 21a, 31a are moved in opposite directions by rotation of the sliding guide rod. Note that 21b and 31b indicate linear bearings.

Moreover, the telescopic drive mechanism B shown in FIG.
The threaded rod 43 is attached to a sliding member 45 that is allowed to slide only without rotating with respect to the cylindrical portion 44 of the base body 40.
A threaded portion 46 is provided to be screwed into the sliding member 45 so that the sliding member 45 expands and contracts as the motor 41 rotates.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, the lateral drive mechanism C in the outer leg includes a guide frame 51 provided in the surrounding frame 25 for guiding the lateral movement of the support 52 of the suction a 26 or 27, and driven by a motor 53. The screw rod 55 of this guide frame 5I is rotated via a gear train 54, and the support body 52, which is screwed into this screw rod 55, is fixed to the guide frame 51 and is movable. is rotated by the spherical joint 5B with respect to the support body 52 in the direction of a: ¥j ll,
It is installed easily. Note that the configuration of the lateral drive mechanism C for the inner leg is also similar to that described above.

The wall walking machine controlled by the present invention is not limited to the one driven by the above-mentioned mechanism, but can include various mechanisms configured to drive the two legs 2.3 independently or alternately back and forth. Can be adopted.

The above-mentioned suction cups 2B, 27 and suction a36.37 are
As shown in FIG. 6, the filter 61 and the solenoid valve 62 are connected to a vacuum source 63 such as a pump that supplies negative pressure to them at the required timing, and negative pressure is applied to the suction cups. A negative pressure sensor 64 is provided in the flow path to detect whether the water is being supplied.

FIGS. 7A to 7F schematically show the expansion and contraction of the surrounding frames 25 and 35 due to the deformation of the suction cups when the wall walking machine performs a walking motion. After the surrounding frame 25 of the outer leg 2 comes into contact with the ground as shown in the figure B with the B38 adsorbed to the target surface 5 as shown in FIG. When pressure is applied, the suction cup 26 deforms as shown in FIG.
While the surrounding frame 25 is kept at the length Ll of C in the same figure, the suction cup 28 is
is deformed to the state shown in the same figure, and the center of gravity of the aircraft is pulled toward the target surface 5 by seven sentences. However, at this point, the surrounding frame 35 of the medial leg 3 is protruding from the target surface in the state shown in A in the same figure, so the adsorption of the medial leg 3 is released and the telescopic drive mechanism moves the frame 36 in front of the eye. 1. When raised, the suction cup 2B of the outer leg 2 further deforms as shown in the figure E,
The shortening of the lateral leg is Δs.

Therefore, if this walking motion continues, the attitude of the aircraft will gradually become lower, so it is best to extend the aircraft's attitude by Δd as shown in Figure F, simultaneously with or less than the adsorption of one leg. Necessary for proper maintenance.

FIG. 8 shows a time chart of sequence control applied to the drive mechanism for driving the walking machine to cause the walking machine to perform the desired walking. The numbers 1 and 2 in the drive mechanism in the same figure mean forward rotation of the motor (forward movement of the aircraft or shortening of the legs) and reverse rotation (reverse movement of the aircraft or contact surface of 'ilJ). , respectively, show the adsorption of the suction cup by contact with a vacuum source and the release of adsorption by opening to the atmosphere.

In the time chart of FIG. 8, part a shows the 11th control for extending the third stage from the above-mentioned state 72E to the state F of the same figure. Further, part b indicates that the suction of the suction cup that was previously suctioned is released after the suction of the newly contacted suction cup is completed.

Further, part C shows the control to start lowering the next leg to be sucked while the drive mechanism A is raising the aircraft along the wall surface, and part d shows the control to start lowering the leg to be sucked next, and the part a shows the above-mentioned part a after releasing the suction of the leg. At the same time as correcting the attitude of the aircraft, it also shows control to start shortening the legs before the aircraft moves forward, thereby increasing the speed of wall elevation.

Instead of raising and lowering the wall surface by the tj control of the drive structure A described above, if the lateral drive mechanism C is used in the same way, the wall walking machine can be moved laterally on the wall surface.

Figures 9A-C and Figure 10 show time charts of the walking state and sequence control when the wall walking machine walks on a wall surface with steps 6, and the correspondence between the two figures is
The numbers in a) are used to match.

The problem here is that when the outer landing gear 2 is stepped onto the front step from the state shown by ■ in FIG. It is necessary to lift the vi aircraft to the tilted state shown by the dotted line, that is, the state shown in Fig.
There will be differences in operation at Brl. Furthermore, when transitioning from the state (*) in FIG. 9B to the state (2), the aircraft needs to be moved forward based on the outer landing gear 2, and then lowered to the position shown by the dotted line.

: Telescopic drive mechanism Bf from the state of ■ in the i'SIO diagram
2.

The reason why the leg 3 is controlled to be lifted (shortened) by Br2 is for the above-mentioned adjustment.

FIG. 11 is for explaining the control process according to the present invention. To explain the control process with reference to the figure, the drive mechanism A has a sliding body 2 driven by the rotation of the motor 15.
A position sensor for detecting the position of 1.31 is provided, and this position sensor outputs a signal for stopping the rotation of the motor 15 and a signal for driving and controlling the motor 41 in the telescopic drive mechanism B.

First, to explain the case of stepping on the outer leg 2 (on the right side of the figure), the suction cup is pressed against the target surface by the expansion of the surrounding frame by the motor 41 of the telescopic drive mechanism BFI, Brl, and the necessary preload force is applied. , a preload sensor attached to the suction cup detects this, stops the expansion of the surrounding frame, and at the same time operates the electromagnetic valve S7 communicating with the suction cup to start suction of the suction cup.

Each suction cup is equipped with a negative pressure sensor, and after these negative pressure sensors detect that the suction cup is sufficiently suctioned, the suction cup that has been suctioned to the wall in advance moves to the solenoid valve S.
, is released to the atmosphere by the operation of . Furthermore, when release of the negative pressure is detected by the negative pressure sensor attached to the suction cup, the drive mechanisms B)l, Brl and the drive mechanisms Bf2. B
A driving signal is sent to r2, and the above-described posture of the aircraft is corrected and the legs released from adsorption are shortened.

When the displacement sensor detects that the leg has been displaced to a predetermined distance by each drive mechanism, each drive mechanism Bfl, []rl, Bf2°Br2 is adjusted based on the detection output.
is stopped, and furthermore, when both displacement sensors detect the completion of the leg change, the motor 15 in the drive mechanism A is driven by the AND signal of the outputs of these displacement sensors.

When the stepping of the outer leg 2 is completed in this way, the stepping of the inner leg 3 is subsequently performed. (left half of the figure), but the mode of control is exactly the same as in the case of the lateral leg.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a walking machine controlled by the present invention, FIG. 2 is a rotational front view, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are sectional views of the drive mechanism in the above-mentioned walking machine. rffJG
The figure is an air system diagram for the suction JS in the above-mentioned walking machine, Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the movement of the legs in the above-mentioned walking machine, Fig. 8 is a time chart regarding the sequence control of the above-mentioned walking machine, and Fig. 9 is a diagram for explaining steps. FIG. 1O is a time chart for controlling the operation of FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the control process according to the present invention. l...Airframe, 2...Outer leg, 3...Inner leg,
2B, 27, 38. 37-・Sucker. A... Drive mechanism, Bfl, Brl, Br2. Br2 ・Fist telescopic drive mechanism. Figure 11 Procedural amendment (voluntary) 6゜September 21, 1981 Mr. Manabu Shiga, Commissioner of the Patent Office
7゜8゜2, Name of the invention: Control method for wall walking machine 3, IA related to the amendment person case Patent applicant address: 1-3-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (+14
) Name Director of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology Kawa 1) Bath Department (1 other person) 4. Designated agent address 1-2 Namiki, Sakuramura, Niiharu-gun, Ibaraki Prefecture Date of amendment order No. 8.10r:i of the drawing subject to voluntary amendment ! ! J Contents of amendment (1) Figure 8.10 of the drawings will be corrected as shown in the attached sheet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The aircraft body is provided with outer legs and inner legs, and suction cups connected to a vacuum source are attached to the front and rear of these legs, and the legs are caused to reciprocate in the direction of travel by a drive mechanism and extend and contract by a telescoping drive mechanism. In the walking control of the wall walking machine, when the suction cups at the tip of each leg are brought into contact with the target surface as the legs walk, the suction cups are pressed against the joint surface with a predetermined preload force by the telescopic drive mechanism. The wall walking machine is characterized in that, at the same time as or after the suction, the legs are extended by the telescopic drive mechanism to the extent that the body is drawn toward the joint surface due to the deformation of the suction cup due to the suction. control method.