KR101941938B1 - Mini Integrated-control device - Google Patents

Abstract

The small integrated control device of the present invention comprises a first control unit for receiving large-capacity sensor data generated when an autonomous mobile robot is driven and parallelly processing a large-capacity operation; A second controller for processing the large-volume operation in parallel with the first controller; A microcontroller for monitoring the power state of the robot, monitoring obstacles in proximity to the robot, performing motor control, relay control, and communication with the first controller, and a power source for controlling supply of power.

Description

[0002] Mini Integrated-control device [0003]

The present invention relates to an integrated controller in the field of artificial intelligence, military equipment, factory automation, mobile server equipment, and autonomous mobile robot, and more particularly, to a small integrated controller that receives a large amount of sensor data and obtains rapid results by parallel processing .

Figure 1 shows an example of a conventional controller. In the conventional controller system, as shown in FIG. 1, a large number of CPU cores are required in order to process large capacity sensor data. In order to secure large capacity sensor data, a plurality of PCs 110, 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115 are connected to a gigabit switch (120).

In addition to a large number of PCs, external sensors and additional parts for controlling the system are connected to individual products, so that the controller system has considerable size and volume.

&Quot; Combining Multiple Robot Behaviors for Complex Off-Road Missions ", International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2011 "Towards Fully Autonomous Driving: Systems and Algorithms", 2011 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV) Baden-Baden, Germany, June 5-9, 2011

When the large capacity sensor data 100 shown in FIG. 1 is input to the PC1 110, the PC1 110 is connected to another PC such as PC2, PC3, PC4, PC5 and PC6 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115 And transmitted the large amount of sensor data received and shared. However, in the case of transmitting and sharing data, the Gigabit Ethernet switch is theoretically 1 Gb / s, but actually has a transmission speed of 50 MB / s, so that it is not possible to efficiently share a large amount of data among PCs.

In order to solve such a problem, the PC 1 110 selects and shares only a few important frames among the received large-capacity sensor data, so that the PCs 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115 other than the PC 1 110 There is a problem in that an accurate calculation result value can not be obtained because the calculation is performed based on the sensor data whose resolution is degraded.

In the present invention, the controller processes data processing and processing at high speed to handle the above problems and miniaturize the controller equipment.

As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the small integrated control device includes a first control unit for rapidly multiplying data of various large-capacity sensors received at the time of driving the autonomous mobile robot into a plurality of CPU cores; A second controller having a coprocessor supporting a repetitive parallel computation operation of the first controller; A microcontroller for monitoring the power state of the robot, monitoring an obstacle at a position close to the robot, controlling the motor of the robot, relaying the robot, and communicating with the first controller, and a sensor used by the robot And a power unit for controlling supply of power to the controller, the second controller, and the microcontroller.

Preferably, the first control unit receives the large capacity sensor data from the GbE switch as GbE.

Preferably, the microcontroller performs Ethernet communication with the first controller and performs a communication method (ex.RS232) different from that of the first controller when the Ethernet communication is damaged, thereby improving the stability by communication redundancy .

Preferably, the first controller selects data on the position data of the robot, which is acquired from the large-capacity sensor data, and the obstacle in a position close to the robot, To calculate a travel route for autonomous travel.

Preferably, the second control unit processes an operation related to the environment recognition during the operation of the large capacity, and the operation related to the environment recognition includes an operation of processing data of the sensor including the camera and the laser scanner .

Preferably, the first control unit is implemented in a board form,

The backplane of the board includes a PCIe GEN 2.0 x 16 (1212) high-speed communication line connecting the first control unit and the second control unit, and a serial and Ethernet communication line connected to the micro-control unit. At least one USB, at least one GbE switch, at least one Firewire, and at least one or more serial communication lines are disposed on the side of the display unit.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the small integrated controller includes a first controller for receiving large-capacity sensor data generated when an autonomous mobile robot is driven and parallelly processing a large-capacity operation; A microcontroller for monitoring the power state of the robot, monitoring an obstacle at a position close to the robot, controlling the motor of the robot, relaying the robot, and communicating with the first controller, and a sensor used by the robot And a power unit for controlling power supply to the microcontroller.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the small integrated controller includes a first controller for receiving large-capacity sensor data generated when an autonomous mobile robot is driven and parallelly processing a large-capacity operation; A microcontroller for monitoring the power state of the robot, monitoring an obstacle at a position close to the robot, controlling the motor of the robot, relaying the robot, and communicating with the first controller, and a sensor used by the robot And a power unit for controlling power supply to the microcontroller.

In the present invention, there is an advantage that the data processing can be speeded up through the small integrated controller and the accuracy of the calculation can be increased. In addition, the small integrated controller of the present invention has an advantage that the current system status can be confirmed through the LCD. Conventionally, a large number of PCs are connected to each other to increase the size of the controller. However, in an embodiment of the present invention, a compact integrated controller having a size of about 400 mm * 450 mm * 350 mm is disclosed to reduce the volume.

1 shows an example of a conventional controller.
Fig. 2 shows an example of a small integrated controller, which is a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a small integrated controller as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 shows an internal configuration diagram of the small integrated controller disclosed in Figs. 2 to 3 as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an internal structure of each layer supported by a small integrated controller according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an example of a small integrated control device used in a medium-sized robot according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 shows an example of using a layer shown in FIG. 5 in a small integrated control device used in a medium sized robot according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is another preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is an example of a small integrated control device used in a small robot.
FIG. 9 shows another example of using the layer shown in FIG. 5 in a small integrated control device used in a small robot according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 10 is another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, which is an example of a small integrated control device used in a small-sized line tracer.
Fig. 11 shows a configuration diagram of a front panel of a compact integrated controller used in the autonomous mobile robot shown in Fig. 2. Fig.
12 shows a detailed configuration diagram of the main processor board 1110 configured as a multicore CPU.
13 shows a detailed configuration diagram of the coprocessor board.
FIG. 14 is a detailed configuration diagram of a microcontroller (MCU) interface of a small integrated control device as one preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 15 is a detailed configuration diagram of a power board according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 16 shows a case configuration diagram of a small integrated control device as one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of illustrating embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. It is noted that the terms "comprises" and / or "comprising" used in the specification are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the components, steps, operations, and / Or additions.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein may be used in a sense commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Also, commonly used predefined terms are not ideally or excessively interpreted unless explicitly defined otherwise.

Fig. 2 shows an example of a small integrated controller used in an autonomous mobile robot according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the small integrated controller shown in Figs. 2 to 3 can be implemented in a large-sized robot controller for autonomous driving requiring a function of an autonomous driving level 6 or more. Self-driving level 7 means the ability to select a route yourself at high speed and to move to the destination avoiding obstacles.

The small integrated controller 200 includes a GbE switch 210, a first control unit 220, a second control unit 230, a microcontroller 240, and a power supply unit 250.

The GbE switch (Gigabit Ethernet Switch 210) receives various sensor signals through the GbE and transmits the signals to the first controller 220.

The first controller 220 receives the large-capacity sensor data and multiplexes a large-capacity operation on a plurality of CPU cores. For example, when the autonomous mobile robot selects a route by itself and moves to a destination by avoiding the obstacle, the first control unit 220 transmits the positional data of the robot obtained from the large-capacity sensor data and the data of the obstacle near the robot, A plurality of CPU cores are multiplexed with a large amount of computation to calculate a travel path for autonomous travel.

One example of the mass sensor data includes omni-directional LADAR sensor information, 2D and 3D LADAR distance information, and CAMERA image information generated when the autonomous mobile robot is driven.

The second controller 230 is a coprocessor of the first controller 220. The second controller 230 is connected to the first controller 220 through a high-speed communication bus and processes the large-capacity computations processed by the first controller 220 in parallel.

The second controller 230 may be configured to process the data of the sensor, which recognizes the surrounding environment such as a camera or a laser scanner, in parallel during a large-volume operation process performed by the first controller 220. In addition, the second control unit 230 can also parallelly perform operations of a portion capable of optimizing the parallel processing during the large-capacity operation processing performed by the first control unit 220. [

The microcontroller 240 monitors the power state of the robot, monitors obstacles in a position close to the robot, controls the motor of the robot, controls the relays of the robot, and communicates with the first controller 220. The microcontroller 240 first performs an Ethernet communication with the first controller 220. When a damage occurs in the Ethernet communication, the microcontroller 240 firstly communicates with the first controller 220 through another communication method such as RS232 communication, .

In addition, the microcontroller 240 monitors the state of the power supply state of the robot, the obstacle monitoring at a position close to the robot, the motor control of the robot, the relay control of the robot, and the state of the current small integrated controller including the communication state with the first control unit LCD. Refer to Fig. 14 for the interface of the microcontroller 240. Fig.

The power supply unit 250 controls power supply to the sensors used by the robot, the first control unit 220, the second control unit 230, and the microcontroller 240.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a small integrated controller as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The compact integrated controller 300 shown in FIG. 3 is an example of an autonomous mobile robot having a function of selecting a route by itself at a high speed and moving to a destination avoiding obstacles.

The small integrated controller 300 includes a GbE switch 310, a main processor 320, a coprocessor 330, a microcontroller 340, and a power supply unit 350.

In one embodiment, the Xeon (Processor) board is connected to the main processor 320, the Xeon Phi (Co-processor) is connected to the coprocessor 330, the MCU is connected to the microcontroller 340, Power is available.

The main processor 320 can constitute a total of 16 cores with two server-class Xeon CPUs (8 cores) as a host controller, and can operate a total of 32 cores when using Hyper-Threading. Therefore, since a conventional system composed of several PCs and a GbE switch can be composed of one board, it is possible to fundamentally prevent a large amount of sensor data loss through GbE.

The main processor 320 is connected to the coprocessor 330 through the PCIe GEN 2.0 x16 of the backplane. The coprocessor 330 is a co-processor having 61 1,053 GHz cores integrated therein, and has a function of processing a large amount of data in parallel. PCIe GEN2.0 x16 has a communication speed of 8GB / s, so even if the actual communication speed is assumed to be 80%, the communication with the existing system based on GbE (substantial communication speed: 50MB / s) The speed is improved about 164 times.

The microcontroller 340 is a lower controller that processes simple signals such as a robot driving unit, a proximity sensor, and a system fault. The microcontroller 340 can use Ethernet as the primary main communication means and RS232 as the secondary sub communication means from the main processor 320 as the host controller. Therefore, RS232 is used during initial development, and Ethernet can be implemented after OS is ported. If damage occurs to Ethernet during system operation, function substitution is done by RS232 which is a secondary communication means.

The microcontroller 340 is always configured to be coupled to the main processor 320 through the backplane of the Ethernet and RS232. In addition, the microcontroller 340 is connected to the Power Board 350 via CAN communication, and can be implemented to control the follow-up measures of the peripheral devices for the power state and the fault state.

The Power Board 350 is operated with a 24 V battery voltage. Capacity up to 2.5kW, supplying various board power, heater power, heat dissipation power, and external sensor power in the controller.

Fig. 4 shows an internal configuration diagram of the small integrated controller disclosed in Figs. 2 to 3 as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The main processor 320 supports a System Layer, an Interface Layer, a Core Layer, and an Application Layer. For each layer, refer to the description of FIG.

The coprocessor 330 can support the recognition of environmental obstacles such as dynamic obstacle detection and tracking and laser-based environment recognition among the core layers. It can also be implemented to handle parts that can optimize parallel processing. The planning SW can also be divided into individual grids and processed by the auxiliary processor 330 if parallelization is possible.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an internal structure of each layer supported by a small integrated controller according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the small integrated controller supports the System Layer 510, the Interface Layer 520, the Core Layer 530, and the Application Layer 540 shown in FIG.

The System Layer (510) supports the operating system and middleware. Currently, Linux-based operating system and ROS (Robot Operating System) middleware are installed on it.

The Interface Layer 520 supports MCUs, sensors, and communication interfaces. The Core Layer 530 is used for environment recognition such as positional estimation such as dynamic real-time grasping, visual tracking, laser scan matching, dynamic obstacle detection and tracking, and laser-based environment recognition, global path planning based on RRT sampling, Obstacle avoidance etc The same planning, Basic Waypoint following, and Fast Waypoint following, as well as other math and utility libraries.

FIG. 6 is an example of a small integrated control device used in a medium-sized robot according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention. That is, it is an example of a small integrated control device for a medium mobile robot having a function of moving to a destination while avoiding obstacles while selecting a route, although the traveling speed is slow (self-running level 6 or less).

Since the middle-sized robot does not need a large-capacity sensor such as an omnidirectional LADAR and is difficult to travel at high speed as a commercial vehicle, the second controller 230 and the backplane are removed in FIG.

FIG. 7 shows an example of using a layer shown in FIG. 5 in a small integrated control device used in a medium sized robot according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention. Since the structure disclosed in Fig. 7 has no co-processor, only basic environmental recognition is possible (autonomous driving level 6).

As a result, the environment recognition function performed in the co-processor of FIG. 4 is migrated to the main processor, and the speed of other software functions is lowered, so that the autonomous running of the middle-sized robot is possible.

FIG. 8 is another preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is an example of a small integrated control device used in a small robot. In FIG. 2, since the small robot has a small number of sensors, the second controller 230, the backplane, and the GbE switch are removed.

FIG. 9 shows another example of using the layer shown in FIG. 5 in a small integrated control device used in a small robot according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In the case shown in FIG. 9, the environment recognition SW may be removed so as not to perform the environment recognition.

In this case, the small robot moves to the destination using the designated route when the destination is given. That is, it is possible to estimate the position only with the environment map using the GPS, the IMU, or the laser scanner, and travel using the estimated position information and the designated route information (autonomous driving level 5)

FIG. 10 is another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, which is an example of a small integrated control device used in a small-sized line tracer.

Fig. 11 shows a configuration diagram of a front panel of a compact integrated controller used in the autonomous mobile robot shown in Fig. 2. Fig.

A main processor board 1110, a coprocessor 1120, and a solid state unit (SSD), which are configured as a multi-core CPU, are combined with a backplane equipped with a connector (e.g., CPCI Connector) A driver 1130, an MCU 1140, a GbE switch 1150, and a power board 1160.

12 shows a detailed configuration diagram of the processor board 1110 configured as a multicore CPU. On the backplane side, the communication line to be connected at all times is arranged, and the front panel side is arranged with the communication line which needs frequent change according to the combination of external sensors. If you look at the front panel and backplane configuration, there are 7 USB ports in total.

Power LED 1 (1201)

Reset Button (1202)

Speaker connect (1203)

Micophone 1 (1204)

VGA or HDMI (1205)

USB 1: Keyboard (1206)

USB 2: Mouse (1206)

USB 3: Tethering (1206)

USB 4: SPAN-CPT 1206

USB 5: Light-Bar 1 (1206)

USB 6: Light-Bar 2 (1206)

USB 7: Spare (1206)

GbE 1: Switch B (1207)

GbE 2: Switch C (1207)

GbE 3: Spare (3D LADAR) 1207

GbE 4: Spare (1207)

GbE 5: MCU (Cortex M4) 1208

Firewire 1: Front Stereo Camera R (1209)

Firewire 2: Front Stereo Camera L (1209)

Firewire 3: Rear Stereo Camera R (1209)

Firewire 4: Rear Stereo Camera L (1209)

Serial 1: Spare (RS232) 1210

Serial 2: Spare (RS232) 1210

Serial 3: MCU (Cortex M4) 1211

PCIe GEN2.0 x16 (1212)

On the backplane side, a PCIe GEN2.0 x16 (1212) is connected to the coprocessor, and Serial and Ethernet are connected to the MCU.

13 shows a detailed configuration diagram of the coprocessor board. One embodiment of the coprocessor board, Xeon Phi, is PCIe GEN2.0 x16, connected to the processor board composed of multicore CPU via backplane.

FIG. 14 is a detailed configuration diagram of a microcontroller (MCU) interface of a small integrated control device as one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The MCU Board (1410) can be implemented as a structure that reflects all the requirements of each controller in order to seriesize the controller as a large, medium, and small according to the size and application of the robot. It is connected to CAN through power board and backplane. It is composed of measures of power state, proximity obstacle detection, motor control, RC regulator input, wireless Wi-Fi communication, various relay control and protection circuit. To be validated.

Referring to FIG. 14, a configuration of the front panel 1400 of the MCU board 1410 will be described below.

SD Card (1401): Black Box logging / Firmware Update

Mode Button (1402): Change LCD screen mode

Select Button (1403): Enter LCD screen menu

Relay Out (1404): Relay Port of 4CH

RC PWM (1405): RC receiver input 8CH, 5V output

Proximity Sensor (1406): proximity sensor input

Encoder 4CH (1407): Motor Encoder Input

CAN1 (1408): Vehicle VCU connection

CAN2 (1409): OBD-II connection

RS485 (1410): Motor Control Reference

RS232 (1411): Debugging & Control

Mini-USB (1412): Debugging port

Wireless Wi-Fi Antenna (1413): Wireless internet access antenna

The configuration of the backplane side is as follows.

RS232 (1421): Connected to Main Processor Board

Ethernet (1422): Connected to Main Processor Board

FIG. 15 is a detailed configuration diagram of a power board according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The sensor power supply is 12V 9CH, 24V 6CH, 24V 6CH dedicated for LMS sensor, each channel can output 70W capacity. Each sensor power channel can be turned ON / OFF by hardware switch, and each channel can be turned on / off by software through MCU Board CAN communication.

And it is a structure that can check the ON / OFF state of each channel on the MCU side. In addition, I installed a heater and an internal fan, and added the function to drive the temperature by raising the temperature in the controller to room temperature under the sub-zero driving condition. You can check the status information of the power through the LCD screen. The configuration of each power channel is as follows.

12V Power 1: Driving camera power (1510)

12V Power 2: Driving camera power (1510)

12V Power 3: Driving camera power (1510)

12V Power 4: Driving camera power (1510)

12V Power 5: Driving Camera Server Power (1510)

12V Power 6: Stereo Camera Server Power (1510)

12V Power 7: SPAN-CPT power supply (1510)

12V Power 8: PTZ camera power (1510)

12V Power 9: Spare (1510)

24V Power 1: Front Stereo Camera R Power (1520)

24V Power 2: Front Stereo Camera L Power (1520)

24V Power 3: Rear Stereo Camera R Power (1520)

24V Power 4: Rear Stereo Camera L Power (1520)

24V Power 5: Spare (Monitor) (1520)

24V Power 6: Spare (1520)

LMS 24V Power 1: LMS151 Power (1530)

LMS 24V Power 2: LMS151 Power (1530)

LMS 24V Power 3: LMS151 Power (1530)

LMS 24V Power 4: LMS511 Power (1530)

LMS 24V Power 5: LD-MRS power (1530)

LMS 24V Power 6: Spare (1530)

Fig. 16 shows a case configuration diagram of a small integrated control device as one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The case 1600 of the small integrated control device is implemented in a structure capable of mitigating dust, vibration, and impact. The air conditioner (1610) is installed to completely shield the dust from the outside, and it is possible to control the overheating temperature in the controller. In the subzero environment condition, the temperature inside the controller can be elevated by the internal heater and fan This is possible.

In addition, a rubber damper is mounted on the corner of the inner chassis of the case 1600 of the compact integrated control device so as to alleviate vibration of the vehicle. The front side cover is equipped with reinforced acrylic as a door type so that the Front Pannel information of the compact integrated control device can be confirmed from outside the case.

Also, the power line and signal line connected to the front panel are protruded through the tube and the tube is tightened by the metal cable tie so that external dust and water can not enter into the controller, so it can be designed to be certified to IP65 Do.

The present invention can be embodied in computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. A computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording apparatuses in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like. In addition, the computer-readable recording medium may be distributed over network-connected computer systems so that computer readable codes can be stored and executed in a distributed manner. In addition, functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the present invention can be easily deduced by programmers skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs.

The present invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in various other forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Therefore, the above-described embodiments should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope of equivalents thereof should be construed as being included in the present invention.

Claims (10)

A main processor for receiving large-capacity sensor data generated when an autonomous mobile robot is driven and performing parallel processing of a large-capacity operation;
A microcontroller for monitoring the power state of the robot, monitoring an obstacle in a position close to the robot, controlling the motor of the robot, relaying the robot, and communicating with the main processor;
And a power unit for controlling supply of power to the sensor used by the robot, the main processor, and the microcontroller,
A system layer, an interface layer, a core layer, and an application layer. delete 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the main processor
Wherein the system layer supports a system layer, an interface layer, a core layer, and an application layer hierarchically. delete delete It is possible to receive the large capacity sensor data generated when the autonomous mobile robot is driven, multiply the large amount of computation, and perform the processing of the system layer, the interface layer, the core layer and the application layer A main processor configured as a multi-core CPU supporting hierarchically;
A main processor connected to the main processor via a high-speed communication bus to assist in an operation of parallel repetitive processing during the operation of the large-capacity sensor data; an environment recognition including a dynamic obstacle detection and tracking of the core layer, A coprocessor for processing an operation process of the large-capacity sensor data required to support in parallel with the main processor;
A microcontroller for monitoring the power state of the robot, monitoring an obstacle in a position close to the robot, controlling the motor of the robot, relaying the robot, and communicating with the main processor;
And a power unit for controlling supply of power to the sensor used by the robot, the main processor, the coprocessor, and the microcontroller. 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the main processor
(GbE) from the GbE switch. ◈ Claim 8 is abandoned due to the registration fee. 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the main processor
And a ROS (Robot Operating System) middleware is mounted using the system layer. delete delete

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