KR101069783B1 - Refuge Guidance Robot Apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a robot device capable of outputting an evacuation guidance signal to a rescued person in a disaster area, such as a fire, difficult to access.

The evacuation guidance robot device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a main body, a sensor module including at least one sensor for sensing environmental measurement information of a rescue area, a moving module for moving the robot, and an image around the rescue area. Sending and receiving data, video or audio signals to and from the camera module to be photographed, and external devices at remote locations. Lighting module for controlling, and a control module for controlling the operation of the module.

Using such an evacuation guided robot device, an external rescuer can quickly grasp the gas concentration information such as oxygen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, which have the greatest impact on human life at a disaster site, especially in a fire site. By outputting light and / or voice) to a safe area, the rescuer can be guided to a safe area to effectively carry out lifesaving.

Disaster, fire, robot, evacuation guidance, gas concentration

Description

Refuge Guidance Robot Apparatus}

The present invention relates to an evacuation guidance robot device.

More specifically, it is put into a disaster area that is inaccessible to humans such as a fire, and communicates with external devices to transmit information on disaster areas and rescued information to external devices, and to output a evacuation guidance signal to the rescued people. It is about.

Many unmanned devices, that is, robots, have been developed to be able to perform various functions in disaster-free areas such as fires.

Currently developed robots are able to approach fire areas by remote operation of external operators and then measure and transmit various status information of disaster areas to outside, or directly access disaster areas such as fire and perform direct operations such as firefighting. Most of them are.

For example, a fire detection sensor and a communication module are provided to detect a fire area and transmit it to the external rescue engine device of the caution image or environmental information, and to directly fire a fire extinguisher if necessary. Robots are being developed to do the evolution of

However, these disaster-related robots are used for simply reporting the disaster status to the outside, and furthermore, the main focus is on performing the task of directly eliminating the disaster situation (fire, etc.). There is no situation for having a function for.

In particular, when a conventional fire detection / suppression robot is put into an actual disaster environment, it is not the time of initial ignition but when the fire property exceeds the flashover, and in this case, several robots are not able to suppress the situation. It is preferable to carry out lifesaving tasks such as evaluating the situation of evacuation personnel or evacuating evacuation, which may be in the fire rather than extinguishing fire.

Nevertheless, there is no development of a robot that can measure special environmental information of a fire disaster area or perform an evacuation guidance function in such a disaster area.

In order to solve the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention, a sensor module including a main body, at least one sensor for sensing environmental measurement information of the rescue area, a mobile module responsible for the movement of the robot, rescue area Camera module for taking pictures of surroundings, transmitting and receiving data, video or audio signals to and from external devices in remote areas, moving direction sensor for detecting the moving direction of robot device, and evacuation-induced emission signal It is a main object to provide an evacuation guidance robot device including a lighting module for outputting to a rescuer, and a control module for controlling the operation of the modules.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the sensor module includes a gas concentration sensor including an oxygen concentration sensor and a carbon dioxide concentration sensor.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the lighting module is composed of one or more LEDs, and outputs a constant light emitting signal for evacuation induction under the control of the control module.

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail through exemplary drawings. In adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same reference numerals are assigned to the same components as much as possible even though they are shown in different drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

In addition, in describing the component of this invention, terms, such as 1st, 2nd, A, B, (a), (b), can be used. These terms are only for distinguishing the components from other components, and the nature, order or order of the components are not limited by the terms. If a component is described as being "connected", "coupled" or "connected" to another component, that component may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but there may be another configuration between each component. It is to be understood that the elements may be "connected", "coupled" or "connected".

1 is a functional block diagram of an evacuation guidance robot according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 shows an external perspective view of the evacuation guidance robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Looking at the evacuation guidance robot according to an embodiment of the present invention by function, the sensor module 110 including at least one sensor for detecting environmental measurement information, such as temperature, humidity, concentration of a particular gas in the rescue area, and Transmitting / receiving data, video or audio signals with an external device such as a mobile module 120 which is responsible for the movement of the robot, a camera module 130 which captures images around the rescue area, and a mobile terminal of a rescue worker at a remote location. Communication module 140, the movement direction sensor 150 for detecting the movement direction of the robot, the illumination module 160 for emitting the evacuation-induced light emitting signal to the outside, and the control module for controlling the operation of the module ( 170).

Some of the control module 170 and the sensor module 110 and the communication module 140 is preferably mounted on a predetermined circuit board (PCB) and installed inside the robot body 210 of FIG. 2.

The sensor module 110 is again a non-contact temperature sensor 111 to measure the temperature of the remote area, the temperature and humidity sensor 112 and the oxygen concentration sensor 113 and the carbon dioxide concentration sensor to measure the temperature and humidity around the robot device. A gas concentration sensor including a 114 may be included, but is not limited thereto, and may include other sensors for measuring various environmental information of a disaster area.

The non-contact temperature sensor 111 is a sensor that senses not only the temperature around the robot but also the temperature of the ceiling or the floor of the fire occurrence area, and is used to accurately identify the ignition point. Since the non-contact temperature sensor 111 has directivity, it is preferable that the non-contact temperature sensor has a structure in which the direction of the non-contact temperature sensor is variable, and the non-contact temperature sensor direction controller (not shown) capable of controlling the direction is provided. desirable.

Gas concentration sensor such as oxygen concentration sensor 113 and carbon dioxide concentration sensor 114 is to measure the gas concentration, such as O2 or CO2, which is the most important factor on the human life, in addition to the physical state of the fire area. .

Carbon dioxide concentration sensor 114 may be used a variety of sensors, such as planar thick film, non-dispersive infrared, solid electrolyte, electrochemical method.

Of course, if you want to know the carbon monoxide concentration as a gas that can affect the human life at the fire site, the carbon monoxide concentration sensor may be configured separately from or replace the carbon dioxide concentration sensor.

The gas concentration sensor may transmit the measured gas concentration information to the external device via the communication module 140 as well as transfer it to the control module 170. In addition, the gas concentration sensor and the control module 170 transmits the measured gas concentration information to the external device, the first method to automatically transmit every predetermined period, and only when there is a request for transmission from the external device The second method, the third method of transmitting only when the measured gas concentration is out of the preset gas concentration range, or the like may be used.

For example, when the measured oxygen concentration is lower than the oxygen concentration threshold (Th _{O 2} ), the measured oxygen concentration measurement can be automatically transmitted to an external device, and the measured carbon dioxide concentration is higher than the carbon dioxide concentration threshold (Th _{CO 2} ). If large, measured carbon dioxide concentration measurements can be automatically sent to an external device. Of course, the two measurements may be automatically transmitted to the external device only when both of the above conditions are satisfied at the same time. Both of the above gas concentration conditions indicate a situation where it is difficult for a person to breathe at a fire site, which helps rescue workers to understand the condition of the fire site.

In addition, it is desirable to allow the rescuer to change the oxygen concentration threshold and carbon dioxide concentration threshold by using an external device (PDA, etc.) owned by the robot or directly operating the robot before putting the robot into the fire site. . This is to optimize according to the type of fire and the concentration of harmful gases to human life depending on the material incinerated by the fire.

The sensor module 110 is not necessarily limited to the above-mentioned sensor, and the type of sensor constituting the sensor module may also vary according to the type of disaster. In addition, by being able to be replaced by a different type of sensor module according to the type of disaster, by replacing only the sensor module of the same evacuation guidance robot can be used in various disaster areas.

The camera module 130 is controlled by the control module 170 and acquires image data by capturing an image of the robot surroundings, and then transmits the image data to an external device (PDA, etc.) carried by the rescuer through the communication module 140. Do this.

In addition, the camera module 130 may further include a camera driving device for allowing the camera to be rotated up and down, which will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 3.

It is preferable that the driving of the camera module 130 is performed according to a control signal transmitted from an external device, and it is desirable to be able to transmit image data of 30 frames per second digitally at least. It is desirable to transmit to an external device in real time.

The communication module 140 transmits various environmental measurement data measured by the sensor module 110, movement direction data measured by the movement direction sensor 150, and image data photographed by the camera module 130 to an external device. A transmission function, a control signal reception function for receiving a control signal such as a movement control signal, a camera module control signal, and an environmental measurement request signal transmitted from an external device, and transmitting the received control signal to a corresponding module; And a voice transmission / reception function for transmitting and receiving.

The communication module 140 includes wireless local area communication and wireless multi-hop communication in a digital manner. The communication module 140 includes wireless data communication such as Bluetooth, WLAN, Zigbee, UWB, WiBro, and the like. You can use any communication method as long as you can. That is, there is no limitation in the way that the self-network can be configured while moving and data can be transmitted and received in real time by setting a communication path at any time.

In addition, the communication module 140 may include a microphone capable of receiving an external audio signal, a speaker for outputting an audio signal to the outside, and the like as a general mobile communication terminal. The microphone is used to receive the voice of an external rescuer or other audio signals generated from other disaster areas and transmit them to an external device, and the speaker is pre-stored in the rescue voice or robot device of the rescuer. The voice message is sent to the rescued person.

Firefighters put into the scene usually wears a gas mask, so there may be a problem in listening to the voice, so that a simple voice message previously stored in an external device may be transmitted to the communication module 140 to be output to the rescued person. .

The movement direction sensor 150 functions to measure the current movement direction of the robot device, and the measured movement direction information is preferably transmitted to an external device. It is preferable to use a geomagnetic field sensor (geomagnetic sensor) called a compass, and the geomagnetic sensor can detect the direction of movement of the robot device by measuring the earth's magnetic field direction in two or three axes. As a rule, all commercially available geomagnetic sensors will be available.

The external device receives and outputs the movement direction data from the movement direction sensor 150, and transmits a movement control signal for controlling the movement path of the robot through the movement module again to the robot device according to the input of the rescuer. Allow it to move in the desired direction.

The moving module 120 operates each wheel according to a pair of large-diameter wheels 221 (300 of FIG. 3) having a diameter larger than the size of the main body around the main body 210 and a control signal of the control module as shown in FIG. 2. And a pair of geared motors and a motor driving circuit (not shown) for driving the geared motors. The geared motor is mounted inside a geared motor box as shown in FIG. The control module may perform the forward or backward as desired by flowing a current to rotate the gear motor by a predetermined angle according to the movement control signal from the external device or according to its own movement algorithm.

In addition, the movement module 120 may include an auxiliary wheel assembly 320 mounted to the rear of the robot device main body to hold the center of the robot device, as shown in Figure 3, the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 One end may further include a leg portion 321 hingeably coupled to a rear portion of the main body or a housing of the servo motor, and an auxiliary wheel 322 mounted at the other end of the leg portion.

In addition, a servo motor 323 for driving the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 is included, and the servo motor 323 controls one end of the leg portion 321 to pivot in one direction.

The auxiliary wheel assembly 320 serves to support the three-point support by contacting the ground with the large-diameter wheel to serve as a center point while driving the robot device, and the large-diameter wheels 221 and 300 are caught by obstacles to allow driving. If this is impossible, the servomotor may turn the leg in the ground direction so that the robot device can be lifted up to overcome the obstacle.

That is, when it detects that the vehicle is stopped by an obstacle, the control module 170 drives the servo motor 323 to turn the leg of the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 downward to control the auxiliary wheel to lift the robot upward. .

In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 is connected to the camera 331 and the camera holder 332 of the camera module so that the front of the camera can be moved up and down by turning the legs of the auxiliary wheel assembly. have.

By adopting such a configuration, the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 may have a function of controlling the vertical movement of the camera module in addition to the function of centering and avoiding obstacles.

The lighting module 160 may be composed of one or more LEDs, and may output a light pattern having a specific pattern in order to induce evacuation of the rescued person according to the control of the control module or a control signal from an external device.

In FIG. 2, the lighting module 160 includes left and right LED modules 261 and 262, and each LED module includes a plurality of LEDs.

The lighting module 160 may output a light signal having a predetermined illuminance or higher in order to guide an emergency or evacuation route to a rescue person or notify a rescue situation even in a fire smoke, and if necessary, to the communication module 160 described above. Pre-stored evacuation guidance audio data may be output through the included speaker.

Rescuers, etc. control the robot device through an external device, so that the robot device moves to a safe area while continuously outputting a light emitting signal and / or an evacuation guidance audio signal through the lighting module 160 and / or a speaker. The rescuer can evacuate from the disaster area by following the robot device along with the light emission signal and the evacuation guidance audio signal.

The control module 170 controls all other modules in the present invention, such as the movement control of the robot device as described above, voice and data transmission and reception with the external device, the camera module control, the output of the evacuation guidance signal through the lighting module control Control all the required functions

Figure 2 is a front perspective view of the evacuation guidance robot according to an embodiment of the present invention, the main body 210 and both large-diameter wheel 221 which is part of the moving module, the camera 231 constituting the camera module, constituting the lighting module The left and right LED modules 261 and 262, the microphone 241 and the speaker 242 constituting the communication module, the non-contact temperature sensor 111 constituting the sensor module, and the like are displayed.

The remaining components are all placed invisible inside the body and are not shown in the drawings.

3 illustrates a configuration around the auxiliary wheel assembly included in the moving module, including a large-diameter wheel 300 and a gear motor box 310, a leg part 321, and an auxiliary wheel (included with a gear motor for driving the wheel). Auxiliary wheel assembly 320 consisting of 322 and the servomotor 323, the camera 331 and the camera holder 332 constituting the camera module is shown.

As described above, one end of the leg part 321 of the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 is coupled to the housing of the servo motor 323 so that the leg part can be pivoted according to the driving of the servo motor. 322 is provided. As the servo motor 323 is driven, the legs and the auxiliary wheels attached thereto are pivoted up and down to grasp the center during driving and lift the robot device upward so that the obstacle can be crossed when an obstacle occurs.

In addition, the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 is connected to the camera 331 and the camera holder 332 of the camera module to move the front of the camera up and down by turning the leg of the auxiliary wheel assembly. That is, the auxiliary wheel assembly 320 functions as the camera driving device described above.

4 is a diagram illustrating an entire rescue process using a robot device according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the entire rescue system includes an external device provided by a rescuer 410 and a robot device 430. And the rescued person 440.

Looking at the overall operation process, 1) the robot device 430 measures the various environmental measurement information (sensing information), such as the temperature / humidity of the fire site, the surrounding image and transmits it to the mobile terminal of the rescue workers, 2) the mobile terminal him Receives and displays, 3) Rescuers watch the display information and transmits various control signals input to the robot device to control the robot device, 4) Outputs evacuation guidance signal (light emitting signal or voice signal) to the rescued person , 5) If necessary, it receives a voice signal from the rescued person and transmits it to an external device.

5 illustrates an example of a control interface screen of an external device (mobile terminal) of a rescuer used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is assuming that a total of four robot devices are controlled at a time. The main interface screen 511 for outputting image data transmitted by the robot 1 is shown on the upper left of the control interface screen of the external device. In the figure, three sub-image screens 512 are shown which show images transmitted by the robots 2 to 4 on a small screen.

At the bottom right, there is a port setting section 520 that selects the data input port of the robot device and the frequency band of the channel, and on the right side the temperature, oxygen concentration, There is a sensing information output section 530 for outputting sensing information, such as carbon oxide concentration, next to the voice control section 540 for controlling voice transmission and reception with the robot device, the camera for controlling the camera There is an illumination mode section 560 for controlling the control section 550 and the illumination module. Next to it is shown a motion control section 570 for controlling the movement of the robot.

In the illustrated example, the lighting mode section 560 allows to control the light emission of the lighting module in three modes from Mode 1 to Mode 3, and the motion control section 570 controls the moving speed and direction of the robot. The buttons are displayed.

At least one of each module of the robot device is packaged with a waterproof material, the body of the robot device is preferably composed of a waterproof case.

The evacuation guidance robot as described above is a one-time consumption type (5-10 minutes survival), and it is preferable to be made of heat-resistant, impact-resistant, and waterproof materials to withstand fire, and then move the robot device to the closest accessible place for rescue workers. Control by throwing into the fire.

Using such a robotic device, the rescuer can quickly grasp the gas concentration information such as oxygen / carbon monoxide / carbon dioxide which has the greatest impact on human life in the disaster site, especially the fire site. It is possible to perform voice signal communication with, and to output the evacuation guidance signal (emission and / or voice) to the safe area to guide the rescued person to the safe area to efficiently carry out lifesaving.

In the above description, all elements constituting the embodiments of the present invention are described as being combined or operating in combination, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to the embodiments. In other words, within the scope of the present invention, all of the components may be selectively operated in combination with one or more. In addition, although all of the components may be implemented in one independent hardware, each or all of the components may be selectively combined to perform some or all functions combined in one or a plurality of hardware. It may be implemented as a computer program having a. Codes and code segments constituting the computer program may be easily inferred by those skilled in the art.

In addition, the terms "comprise", "comprise" or "having" described above mean that the corresponding component may be included, unless otherwise stated, and thus excludes other components. It should be construed that it may further include other components instead. All terms, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art unless otherwise defined. Terms commonly used, such as terms defined in a dictionary, should be interpreted to coincide with the contextual meaning of the related art, and shall not be construed in an ideal or excessively formal sense unless explicitly defined in the present invention.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are not intended to limit the technical idea of the present invention but to describe the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The protection scope of the present invention should be interpreted by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the equivalent scope should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram for each function of an evacuation guidance robot according to an embodiment of the present invention,

Figure 2 shows a front perspective view of the evacuation guidance robot according to an embodiment of the present invention,

3 is a view illustrating a peripheral configuration of an auxiliary wheel assembly included in a moving module of a robot apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 shows the overall structure of the process using a robot device according to an embodiment of the present invention,

5 illustrates an example of a control interface screen of an external device (mobile terminal) of a rescuer used in an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

110: sensor module 120: moving module

130: camera module 140: communication module

150: movement direction sensor 160: lighting module

170: control module 210: main body

221, 300: Large-diameter wheel 231, 331: Camera

320: auxiliary wheel assembly 261, 262: left / right LED module

113: oxygen concentration sensor 114: carbon dioxide concentration sensor

Claims (11)

As an evacuation guidance robot device, main body; A sensor module including one or more sensors for sensing environmental measurement information of the rescue area; A module responsible for the movement of a robot, comprising: a pair of large-diameter wheels provided on both sides of the main body, a geared motor for controlling the large-diameter wheel, and centering the robot device, avoiding obstacles, or a camera module. A moving module including an auxiliary wheel assembly mounted to the rear of the main body and a servo motor for driving the auxiliary wheel assembly to vertically drive the engine; A camera module for capturing images around the rescue area; A wireless communication module for transmitting and receiving data, video, or audio signals with an external device at a remote location; A moving direction detecting sensor for detecting a moving direction of the robot; An illumination module for outputting an evacuation guidance light emission signal to the rescued person; And, A control module for controlling the operation of the modules; Evacuation guidance robot device comprising a. The method of claim 1, The sensor module is an evacuation-induced robot device comprising a non-contact temperature sensor for measuring the temperature of the remote area, a temperature and humidity sensor for measuring the temperature and humidity around the robot device and a gas concentration sensor. The method of claim 2, The gas concentration sensor is an evacuation induction robot device comprising an oxygen concentration sensor and a carbon dioxide concentration sensor. The method of claim 1, The sensor module and the control module periodically measure the environmental measurement information automatically and transmit it to the external device, or automatically measure the environmental measurement information to the external device only when a control signal from the external device is received. Evacuation-induced robot device, characterized in that for transmitting or transmitting to the external device if the measured environmental measurement information is out of a predetermined threshold range. The method of claim 1, The camera module is an evacuation guidance robot device further comprises a camera driving device for enabling the camera to rotate up and down. The method of claim 1, The illumination module is composed of one or more LED, evacuation induction robot apparatus characterized in that for outputting a constant light emitting signal for evacuation induction under the control of the control module. delete The method of claim 1, The auxiliary wheel assembly includes a leg portion having one end hingeably coupled to a rear portion of the main body or a housing of the servo motor, and an auxiliary wheel mounted at the other end of the leg portion, wherein the servo motor has one end of the leg portion. Evacuation guidance robot device characterized in that to control the pivoting movement in one direction. The method of claim 1, At least one of each module of the robot device is packaged with a waterproof material, the main body is an evacuation guide robot device, characterized in that consisting of a waterproof case. The method of claim 1, The communication module has a microphone and a speaker, Receiving a voice signal of the rescued person and transmitting the received voice signal to the external device; Receiving a control signal and a voice signal transmitted from the external device and transmitting the received control signal to the control module; Evacuation guidance characterized in that it comprises a function for transmitting the image data taken by the camera module, the measurement data output from the sensor module and the direction data output from the movement direction sensor to the control module or the external device. Robotic device. The method of claim 10, The communication module is an evacuation-guided robot device, characterized in that using one of the wireless communication of Bluetooth, WLAN, Zigbee, UWB and WiBro.

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