KR101380598B1 - Meal assistance robot using a conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

A meal assistance robot using a conveyor is disclosed. A plurality of trays configured to accommodate foods cut into a predetermined size and shape for each food type and having discharge ports for discharging the foods; Discharge means for discharging said food from said tray; Delivery means for delivering the food discharged by the discharge means to a predetermined position; The handle of the spoon is coupled to one end, the robot arm for loading the food delivered by the delivery means to the food receiving portion of the spoon; And an arm control unit which controls the robot arm and loads the food delivered by the delivery means onto the food container of the spoon.

Description

Meal assistance robot using a conveyor}

The present invention relates to a robot, and more particularly to a meal aid robot using a conveyor.

As the electronics industry develops, robots are used to replace humans in various fields. For example, various robots have been developed and used in modern society, such as industrial robots for producing products, medical robots for operating the human body, and service robots for performing simple services. In addition, various mechanisms for assisting meals of the elderly, the patient, the disabled and the like are implemented and used by the robot.

Meal assistant robot is a robot that helps the user to eat easily by scooping food and delivering it to the user's mouth. The related art, as disclosed in US Patent Publication No. US2009 / 0104004, consists of a support, a food container, a cutlery capable of raising food, and a mechanism part capable of moving food near the mouth.

However, according to the related art, since a meal assistance robot is manufactured using a complex robot arm, the unit price is expensive and there is a problem in that the robot is not widely distributed to those who need the robot.

The above-described background technology is technical information that the inventor holds for the derivation of the present invention or acquired in the process of deriving the present invention, and can not necessarily be a known technology disclosed to the general public prior to the filing of the present invention.

The present invention provides a meal assistance robot using a conveyor that is simple to operate and inexpensively manufactured.

The technical problems other than the present invention can be easily understood from the following description.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a plurality of trays for receiving the food cut into a predetermined size and shape for each type of food and the discharge port for discharging the food; Discharge means for discharging said food from said tray; Delivery means for delivering the food discharged by the discharge means to a predetermined position; The handle of the spoon is coupled to one end, the robot arm for loading the food delivered by the delivery means to the food receiving portion of the spoon; And an arm controller for controlling the robot arm to load the food delivered by the delivery means to the food container of the spoon.

Here, the discharge means, the lower cover which is located at the lower end of the tray, opening and closing the lower end of the tray; And controlling the opening and closing operation of the lower cover to discharge the food, and may include a cover opening and closing part operated by a user.

In addition, the delivery means may be a slide shape that is located at one end of the discharge means so that one end receives the food discharged by the discharge means.

In addition, the transfer means may further include a conveyor belt for loading the food discharged by the slide shape, and conveyed to the food receiving portion of the spoon coupled to the robot arm.

Here, the cancer control unit may move the food receiving portion of the spoon on which the food is placed to the prestored position information corresponding to the mouth position of the food intake user.

In addition, the present embodiment is a feed shaft extending in a predetermined direction; A transport tray moving along the transport axis and accommodating the foods according to types; A conveyor for transferring the food moved from the transfer tray to the food container of the spoon; And a food transfer unit configured to transfer the food contained in the transfer tray to the conveyor.

Other aspects, features, and advantages will become apparent from the following drawings, claims, and detailed description of the invention.

Meal assistance robot using a conveyor according to the present invention has a simple operation and can be manufactured at low cost.

1 is a block diagram of a meal assistance robot using a conveyor according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 is a block diagram of the discharge means and delivery means of the meal assistance robot using a conveyor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 3 is a flow diagram of a meal assist robot operation method using a conveyor according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 4 is a block diagram of a meal assistance robot using a conveyor according to another embodiment of the present invention.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Terms including ordinals, such as first, second, etc., may be used to describe various elements, but the elements are not limited to these terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another component, it may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but it may be understood that other components may be present in between. Should be.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this specification, the terms "comprises" or "having" and the like refer to the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

The term " part, "" module," " means, "or the like, which is described in the specification, refers to a unit for processing at least one function or operation and may be implemented by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software .

In the following description of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals regardless of the reference numerals, and redundant explanations thereof will be omitted. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail.

1 is a block diagram of a meal assistance robot using a conveyor according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a meal assistance robot 100, a tray 110, a discharge means 120, a delivery means 130, a robot arm 140, an arm controller 150, and a controller 160 are illustrated.

In this embodiment, the size and shape of the food is constantly cut and placed in each tray in the same size tray, and then the food that the user wants to eat is discharged from the tray and placed on a spoon by using a slide and / or a conveyor belt. There are features to give to the child.

The tray 110 is a food container for accommodating food cut into a predetermined size and shape for each food type and having an outlet through which the food is discharged. The number of trays 110 may be plural in correspondence with the number of food types. The shape of the tray 110 may be variously implemented. For example, the tray 110 may be formed in various shapes such as a cylindrical shape, a polygonal shape, a spherical shape, and an oval shape.

The discharge means 120 discharges food from the tray 110. Discharge means 120 may operate by a physical or electrical signal to discharge the food in the tray 110 to the outside.

For example, as shown in Figure 2, the discharge means 120 is located at the bottom of the tray 110, the bottom cover 121 for opening and closing the bottom of the tray 110, and the bottom cover to discharge food ( It may control the opening and closing operation of 121, and may include a cover opening and closing portion 122 which is operated by the user.

The cover opening and closing portion 122 is implemented in a lever shape so that when the user pulls the lever, the lower cover 121 connected to the lever opens the lower end of the tray 110 to discharge food, and the lower cover 121 is elastic means coupled to one end. By having a structure that closes the lower end of the tray 110 again.

In addition, according to another embodiment, the cover opening and closing portion 122 is an electrical interface for generating an electrical signal that is an open signal, when the user operates the cover opening and closing portion 122, the motor coupled to the open signal to one end of the lower cover 121 By operating the lower cover 121 to discharge the food by opening the bottom of the tray 110, the lower cover 121 is to be implemented in a structure to close the bottom of the tray 110 again by the elastic means coupled to one end It may be.

The cover opening part 122 may be located at a specific location of the food intake user, for example, near the hand or the foot, so that the food intake user and / or the robot manager can easily operate the cover opener 122.

The delivery means 130 delivers the food discharged by the discharge means 120 to a predetermined position. The delivery means 130 may also be implemented in various shapes and structures. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the delivery means 130 may include a slide 131 and a conveyor belt 132.

The slide 131 may be formed in an inclined slide structure so that one end of the slide 131 may be located at a portion where the food is discharged from the discharge means 120 to receive the food discharged by the discharge means 120.

In addition, the conveyor belt 132 may directly receive food discharged by the discharge means 120 or load the food discharged by the slide 131, and may deliver the food to the food receiving portion of the spoon coupled to the robot arm 140. At one end of the side on which the food is placed, the upper end of the conveyor belt 132 may move, the food receiving portion of the spoon coupled to the robot arm 140.

The robot arm 140 may move the food to position information corresponding to the mouth position of the food intake user when the food is placed on the food container of the spoon.

Here, the method for calculating the location information corresponding to the mouth position of the food intake may be variously implemented. For example, the mouth position of the food intake person may be predetermined to be positioned at a specific coordinate of three-dimensional coordinates using a specific position of the arm support for supporting the robot arm 140 as an origin. In this case, the person receiving the food intake may always position the mouth in the same position. For this purpose, the present embodiment may further include a jaw supporting the jaw to fix the position of the mouth.

According to another embodiment, the camera unit and the image processing unit for specifying the mouth position may be further provided. The camera unit prepares a face image by capturing a face of a food intake user in real time, and the image processor generates a face boundary image by extracting a boundary region of the face image generated by the camera unit, and generates position information corresponding to the mouth position. can do. The image processor may recognize the boundary area positioned at the lower end of the face line as the mouth, and in this case, the arm controller 150 controls the robot arm 140 to move the food container of the spoon on which the food is placed to the corresponding location information. You can. The robot arm of the present embodiment can move not only a spoon but also various eating tools such as a fork and a cup corresponding to the mouth position of the food intake.

The image processor may extract a boundary area of the face image by using a difference between at least one of brightness, saturation, and color among pixel values of the face image. The difference may be determined using a predetermined threshold. In other words, the boundary area of the face image may have different properties of the pixel value than the non-boundary area. Therefore, if the pixel values of consecutive pixels differ by more than a threshold value by using this property, the corresponding pixel is divided into pixels of the boundary area. Can be determined by

The robot arm 140 is coupled to the handle of the spoon at one end, load the food delivered by the delivery means 130 to the food receiving portion of the spoon, and moves to the mouth position of the food intake. The robot arm 140 may include one or more joints that operate with a motor.

The arm controller 150 controls the robot arm 140 to load the food delivered by the delivery means 130 to the food container of the spoon to move to the mouth position of the food intake user.

The control unit 160 may include the respective functions such that the tray 110, the discharge unit 120, the delivery unit 130, the robot arm 140, and the arm control unit 150 perform their own functions while interworking with each other. To control.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a meal assisting robot operation method using a conveyor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Each step below may be performed by the meal assistant robot 100 as a subject.

In step S310, the food cut into a predetermined size and shape is contained in a plurality of trays 110, the discharge outlet through which the food is discharged. Before this step, the step of cutting food into a predetermined size and shape may be preceded. For example, various foods such as kimchi, diced radish, pickled radish, and rolled eggs can be cut according to a predetermined size and shape.

In operation S320, the food contained in the tray 110 may be discharged from the tray 110 by a user's manipulation. Here, the user may be a food intake or a robot manager.

The robot manager may monitor the robot near the food intake or remotely and operate the cover opening and closing portion 122 described above. In the latter case, the meal assisting robot 100 according to the present exemplary embodiment may include a camera for photographing food intake and its vicinity, and a display for receiving and outputting an image from the camera. In this case, the cover opening and closing unit 122 is located near the robot manager, and the robot manager may manipulate the cover opening and closing unit 122 to adjust the number of food discharges and discharge.

In step S330, the food discharged from the tray 110 is moved to the food container side of the spoon by the discharge means 120 and the delivery means 130, and in step S340, the delivered food is coupled to the robot arm 140. Put the spoon in the food container.

In step S350, the food container of the spoon on which the food is placed is moved to previously stored position information corresponding to the mouth position of the food intake user.

4 is a block diagram of a meal assistance robot using a conveyor according to another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, the spoon 410, the robot body 420, the transfer shaft 430, the transfer tray 440, the conveyor 450, and the food 460 are illustrated.

The present embodiment is characterized in that the food is identified according to the type and provided to the food intake user through the conveyor while moving the tray containing the plurality of foods along a predetermined axis.

The robot body 420 is coupled to one end of the transfer shaft 430 and moves the transfer tray 440 along the transfer shaft 430. The robot body 420 may include means for moving the transfer tray 440. Means for moving the transfer tray 440 may be implemented in various ways, for example, may be a chain coupled with the transfer tray 440 and rotated by the robot body 420.

Further, according to another embodiment, the transfer tray 440 is fixedly coupled to the transfer shaft 430 and the robot body 420 moves the transfer tray 440 to the transfer shaft 430 by moving the transfer shaft 430 itself. You can also move along. The robot body 420 may include a motor for moving the chain or the transfer shaft 430 described above.

The transfer tray 440 may move along the transfer shaft 430 to accommodate foods classified into predetermined sizes and shapes by type. The food and beverage may be arranged in the same type in units of rows in the transfer tray 440. For example, the foods may be arranged in the same kind according to the row, and the first row may be arranged in an array such as rice, the second row of side dishes, the third row of side dishes, and the fourth row of side dishes.

The conveyor 450 transfers the food moved from the transfer tray 440 to the food container of the spoon 410. The conveyor 450 may be fixed at a predetermined position, and the transfer tray 440 may move along the transfer shaft 430 to allow the preset food to be transferred to the conveyor 450.

In this case, the present embodiment may include a food transfer unit (not shown) for transferring the food contained in the transfer tray 440 to the conveyor 450. The food conveying unit is coupled to the robot body 420 and has one end formed in a planar shape, and the food conveying unit may push the food received in the conveying tray 440 to be transferred to the conveyor 450.

The robot body 420 may provide food to each food intake in order by using the above-described structure. For example, the robot body 420 controls the transfer tray 440, the conveyor 450, and the food feeder to move the transfer tray 440 to the transfer shaft 440 so that the first kind of food is in the position of the conveyor 450. After moving along the 430, the food is transferred to the conveyor 450 by using the food transporter, and then the conveyor 450 is driven to deliver the food to the food container of the spoon 410. Thereafter, other kinds of foods may be applied to the food receiving unit by applying the same mechanism, thereby providing various types of foods to the food intake user in a predetermined order.

In addition, according to another embodiment, in order to ensure various functions and added scalability in the future, the above-described communication protocols for each board of the robot may be commonly used. That is, the packet according to the present embodiment starts with two bytes of 0xff and 0xff, and may be composed of a transmission / reception ID address, an instruction, data, and a checksum for detecting a transmission error thereof.

For example, Table 1 is a packet received at the input device, and Table 2 is a packet to which the input device responds. Here, the input device may be an input device for controlling the above-described robot.

Packets received at input device 0 One 2 3 4 5 6 7 Header0 Header1 id Length command address Received bytes check sum 0xFF 0xFF 10 3 2 0 2 ed

As shown in Table 1, the packet received by the input device may be configured as follows.

checksum = buf [2] + buf [3] + buf [4] + buf [5] + buf [6];

checksum = (INT8U) (~ checksum &0x00ff);

Packets sent by the depositor 0 One 2 3 4 5 6 7 stx stx id len error switch sel value check sum 0xFF 0xFF 10 4 0 x x x

As shown in Table 2, a packet transmitted from an input device may be configured as follows.

checksum = buf [2] + buf [3] + buf [4] + buf [5] + buf [6];

checksum = (INT8U) (~ checksum &0x00ff);

In this case, only when the main board requests the corresponding input device, the current value of the input device (button, joystick, sensor, etc.) may be output as a packet.

In addition, a specific operation method for a meal assistance robot using a conveyor according to an embodiment of the present invention, a common platform technology such as embedded system, O / S, communication protocol, interface standardization technology such as I / O interface, actuator, battery, camera Details of parts standardization technology such as sensors and the like will be omitted since it is obvious to those skilled in the art.

The operating method of the meal assisting robot using the conveyor according to the present invention may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means and recorded in a computer readable medium. That is, the recording medium may be a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for causing a computer to execute the steps described above.

The computer readable medium may include a program command, a data file, a data structure, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include magnetic media such as a hard disk, a floppy disk and a magnetic tape, optical recording media such as CD-ROM and DVD, magnetic recording media such as a floppy disk Optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like.

The medium may be a transmission medium such as an optical or metal line, a wave guide, or the like, including a carrier wave for transmitting a signal designating a program command, a data structure, or the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention.

In addition, each of the above-described components may be embodied as one physically adjacent component or may be implemented as a different component. In the latter case, each component can be controlled to be located adjacent to or in a different zone. In this case, the present invention can include a separate control means or control room for controlling each component to control each component in a wired or wireless manner You may.

In the above description, the respective components and / or functions described in the embodiments may be combined and combined, and those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

100: meal assistant robot 110: tray
120 discharge means 121 bottom cover
122: cover opening and closing portion 130: transmission means
131: slide 132: conveyor belt
140: robot arm 150: arm control unit
160 control unit 410 spoon
420: robot body 430: feed axis
440 transfer tray 450 conveyor
460: food

Claims (6)

A plurality of trays configured to accommodate foods cut into a predetermined size and shape for each food type and having discharge ports for discharging the foods;
Discharge means for discharging said food from said tray;
Delivery means for delivering the food discharged by the discharge means to a predetermined position;
The handle of the spoon is coupled to one end, the robot arm for loading the food delivered by the delivery means to the food receiving portion of the spoon; And
And controlling an arm of the robot to load the food delivered by the delivery means onto the food container of the spoon.
The discharging means,
A lower cover positioned at a lower end of the tray to open and close a lower end of the tray; And
And a cover opening and closing portion controlled by a user to control the opening and closing operation of the lower cover to discharge the food.
delete The method according to claim 1,
And said delivery means is a sliding shape positioned at one end of said discharging means to receive food discharged by said discharging means.
The method of claim 3,
The delivery means is a meal aid robot further comprises a conveyor belt for loading the food discharged from the slide shape, and conveyed to the food receiving portion of the spoon coupled to the robot arm.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the cancer control unit meal aid robot, characterized in that for moving the food receiving portion of the spoon on which the food is placed in the pre-stored position information corresponding to the mouth position of the food intake.
The method according to claim 1,
A feed shaft extending in a predetermined direction;
A transport tray moving along the transport axis and accommodating the foods according to types;
A conveyor for transferring the food moved from the transfer tray to the food container of the spoon; And
Meal assistance robot further comprising a food transfer unit for transferring the food contained in the transfer tray to the conveyor.

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