JPS62282307A - Automatic direction control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically direct a prescribed object to a remote moving body by providing a control means deducing the position of a mobile body based on an electrical signal obtained from a reflection beam reception means and generating a direction control signal to direct the object in the direction. CONSTITUTION:Light emitting elements 14, 16 are subjected to alternate pulse drive by a light emitting element drive circuit 24, a light receiving element 18 receives pulsive infrared ray reflecting light beams RQa', RQb' from a recursive reflecting member 22 of the mobile body 20 alternately and generate voltage signals Ea, Eb corresponding to respective light intensities La, Lb in time division. After the voltage signals Ea, Eb are sampled by a sampling circuit 26, converted into digital signals Da, Db by an A/D converter 28 and given to a position detection operation section 30, which calculates the position of the mobile body 20 based on the signals Da, Db. A value P obtained in this case is converted into an analog signal Sp and fed to a motor drive circuit 34 as an error signal.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention 3. Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention utilizes a directional wave beam such as light or sound waves to move a predetermined object toward a remote movable body. The present invention relates to an automatic direction control device that automatically directs the direction to the direction of the object.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, a device configuration is known in which a stationary device such as a display or a speaker is mounted on a rotary table and can be oriented in any direction.

Generally, such a rotating table is a manual type, and the user directly rotates the device from side to side and up and down with his/her hands to adjust the device to a desired orientation.

It has also been considered to remotely adjust the orientation of the device using a remote control. In such a device, the remote control transmitter is provided with keys for instructing left/right and up/down directions, and the device is provided with decoding and driving means for decoding remote control signals corresponding to these keys and rotating the rotary table. For example, if you press the ``left'' key on the remote control transmitter, the rotating platform will rotate to the left, and if you press the ``down'' key, the rotating platform will rotate downward.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) With the above-mentioned manual rotary table, the user must be near or go to the device each time an adjustment is made, and the user must be able to turn the device with his or her own hands. There is the inconvenience of having to do so.

In addition, devices that use a remote control can be operated remotely and the user does not need to use their own hands, but in order to point the device in the direction of the user's movement, the user must manually press a key each time the user moves. There is the inconvenience of
For example, it is not possible to follow the movement of a robot and automatically point the device in that direction.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic orientation control device that automatically orients a predetermined object toward a remote movable body.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The configuration of the present invention for solving the above object is to provide an automatic orientation control device that automatically orients a predetermined surface of a predetermined object toward a remote movable body. a support that rotatably supports; a wave beam emitting means that is attached in the same direction as a predetermined surface of the object and that emits a wave beam having a constant directivity; a wave beam emitting means that is attached to the movable body and that emits a wave beam with a constant directionality; a retroreflector that reflects the wave beam from the retroreflector toward the wave beam radiator; and a retroreflector that is disposed close to the reflected beam radiator and converts the intensity of the wave beam into an electrical signal when receiving the wave beam from the retroreflector. a wave beam receiving means for converting; a control means for determining the position of the movable body based on the electric signal obtained from the reflected beam receiving means and generating a direction control signal for directing the object toward the position; A drive means for rotating the support body in response to the drive means.

In the present invention, an object means not only a stationary device such as a display or a speaker, but also any object such as a fan or an ornament that requires control of the orientation of a predetermined surface.

Moreover, a movable body means a movable object such as a person, other animal, or robot.

(Operation) When the wave beam emitted from the wave beam emitting means on the side of the object whose direction is to be controlled hits the movable object, the wave beam is reflected toward the object by the retroreflection means attached thereto, and the wave beam is received. The signal enters the means and is converted into an electrical signal.

Since this wave beam has a certain directivity, the intensity when it enters the wave beam receiving means depends on the position (direction) of the movable body.
It changes depending on. Therefore, such a change also appears in the electric signal, and based on this change, the control means can determine the position of the movable body by performing appropriate calculations. However,
The drive means rotates the support body in response to an orientation control signal from the control means, and the object is positioned when a predetermined surface of the object faces the movable body.

In this way, the servo loop consisting of the wave beam emitting means, the recurring reflecting means, the wave beam receiving means, the control means, the driving means, and the support works to follow the object using the recurring reflecting means as a landmark. Control is performed so that the direction follows the position of the movable body.

(Embodiments) Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a display device to which an automatic orientation control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In this figure, the display 10 is an ordinary CRT display, but it is supported by a motor-driven rotary table 12 and can be moved from left to right, that is, by an arrow F.
It is rotatable in directions a and Fb.

Further, on the top surface of the display 10, two light emitting elements 14.16 made of, for example, infrared light emitting diodes are disposed close to each other in the same direction as the screen 10a, and at the center position between the light emitting elements 14.18, for example. A light receiving element 18 made of a photodiode is provided.

The light emitting elements 14 and 16 are alternately driven in pulses so as to repeatedly emit pulsed infrared rays RQa and RQb in a time-sharing manner. These infrared rays RQa and RQb each have directional characteristics as shown in FIG. In other words, the optical output is maximum at the optical axis, and decreases at a constant rate as it moves angularly away from there.

Referring again to FIG. 1, in front of the display 10 is a human being 20 as a movable object of this embodiment, and a retroreflective material 22 is placed in the front of the human being 20, for example in the chest pocket. This retroreflector 22 has a configuration in which, for example, glass beads are embedded in a plastic sheet, and has a retroreflection effect that returns incident light straight in the direction of the light source.

Therefore, when a person 20 uses the display 10 as shown in the figure,
Infrared rays RQa from light emitting elements 14.18
, RQb enters the retroreflector 22, and the reflected lights RQa' and RQb' from there are returned to the light emitting element 14.16 and enter the light receiving element 18, where they receive electricity corresponding to the intensity or output of the light. converted into a signal. As will be described later, the drive motor is activated by the functions of the signal processing system and control system to rotate the rotary table 12 so that the screen 10a of the display 10 faces the person 20.

FIG. 2 shows the system configuration of this automatic orientation control device.

The light emitting elements 14 and 16 are alternately pulse-driven by the light emitting element driving circuit 24, so that the light receiving element 18 receives pulsed infrared reflected light R from the retroreflector 22 of the movable body 20.
By receiving Qa' and RQb' alternately, the respective light intensities La
, Lb are generated in a time-division manner. These voltage signals Ea and Eb are sampled by a sampling circuit 28 and then sent to an A/D converter 28.
The signals are converted into digital signals Da and Db and provided to the position detection calculation section 30.

The position detection calculation section 30 may be composed of a digital calculation circuit or a microcomputer, and calculates the position of the movable body 20 from the following equation based on the digital signals D a and D b.

P= (Da − Db) / (Da + Db)
”...(1) This equation is equivalent to the following equation.

P= (La −Lb) / (La +Lb)
”- (2) That is, the movable body 20 is the light emitting element 16
When the movable body (person) 20 is closer to the light emitting element 14 than the display 10 in FIG. 1, the value P of equation (1) is positive and its absolute value is The closer the human) 20 is to the left, the larger it becomes. Conversely, when the movable body (human) 20 is closer to the right side when viewed from the display 10, the value P in equation (1) is negative, and its absolute value is The larger it becomes.

The value P obtained by the position detection calculation section 30 is transferred to the D/A converter 3.
2, the signal is converted into an analog signal Sp and then supplied to the motor drive circuit 34 as an error signal. The drive circuit 34 supplies the drive motor 36 with a drive signal MD that amplifies the input signal Sp and reduces the error signal.

As a result, when the movable body 20 is on the left side when viewed from the CRT display 10 as shown in FIG. 36 is adapted to rotate. Conversely, when the movable body 20 is closer to the right side as shown in FIG.
) The motor 36 is configured to rotate in a direction that causes the rotation to occur. Then, when the screen 10a of the display 10 directly faces the movable body 20 (more precisely, the retroreflector 22) as shown by the dotted line 10' in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(a), the motor 36 rotates. Therefore, the rotation of the rotary table 12 is stopped.

Note that if the orientation of the display 10 is fixed (in some cases, the retroreflective material 22 is removed from the movable body 20, or a non-reflective or diffuse reflective cover is placed over it, etc.), the automatic orientation control device cannot operate. In addition, although the rotary table 12 of the above-described embodiment was configured to be rotatable only in the left and right directions, it is also possible to configure it to rotate up and down. A light emitting element, a light receiving element, a signal processing system, and a drive system may be provided for detecting the position of the movable body in the vertical direction.

Further, the movable body 20 is not limited to a human being, but may also be another movable object such as a robot. The size and shape of the retroreflector 22 can also be selected arbitrarily, and for example, it may be attached over almost the entire surface of the movable body. Furthermore, in addition to infrared rays, wave beams with certain directivity, such as sound waves, can also be used.

Further, the object whose orientation is controlled according to the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned display, but may be various objects such as a speaker, a fan, an ornament, an exhibit, etc.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically direct a predetermined object toward the position of the movable body by following the position of the movable body to which the retroreflection means is attached. Because you can
It eliminates the need for human direction control, which was troublesome with conventional manual and remote control systems.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a display device to which an automatic orientation control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the stem configuration of the automatic orientation control gK. A schematic plan view for explaining the operation of the automatic orientation control device, and FIG. 4 are diagrams showing the directivity characteristics of infrared rays emitted from the light emitting elements used in the above embodiment. 10...CRT display, 10a...
Screen, 12... Turntable, 14. 16... Light emitting element, 18... Light receiving element, 20... Movable body (human), 22... Retroreflective material, 30・
. . . Movable body position calculation unit, 34 . . . Motor drive circuit, 36 . . . Drive motor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An automatic orientation control device that automatically orients a predetermined surface of a predetermined object toward a remote movable body, comprising: a support that rotatably supports the object; a wave beam emitting means that is attached in the same direction as the surface and emits a wave beam having a constant directivity; and a wave beam emitting means that is attached to the movable body and directs the wave beam from the wave beam emitting means toward the wave beam emitting means. a wave beam receiving means disposed close to the reflected beam emitting means and converting the intensity of the wave beam into an electrical signal when receiving the wave beam from the retroreflecting means; control means for determining the position of the movable body based on the electric signal obtained from the reflected beam receiving means and generating a direction control signal for directing a predetermined surface of the object toward the position; An automatic orientation control device comprising: a drive means for rotationally driving the support body in response.