KR20120080485A - Cleaning robot for bottom area of ship - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A cleaning robot for cleaning a bottom surface of a ship is provided to achieve full automation of a cleaning work for a bottom surface of a ship by driving even in curved parts at the bottom of the ship without the support of a diver. CONSTITUTION: A cleaning robot for cleaning a bottom surface of a ship comprises a robot body(110), a cleaning head part, a driving part(130), and a tilting connection part(140). The cleaning head part is installed at the bottom of the robot body and removes foreign materials attached on the bottom surface of a ship. The driving part moves along the bottom surface of the ship. The tilting connection part connects the robot body and the driving part so that the robot body can tilt from the driving part.

Description

CLEANING ROBOT FOR BOTTOM AREA OF SHIP}

The present invention relates to a bottom cleaning robot, and more particularly to a bottom cleaning robot used to remove foreign matter attached to the bottom surface.

Many types of debris are often attached to the bottom of a ship, especially under the light water line of the hull, which is always submerged in water. Such foreign matters may be mainly biofouling due to adherent organisms such as barnacles, sea squirts, and sponges. Such bioadhesion may increase the resistance between the hull and the water, and thus may cause problems such as deterioration of the ship's operating efficiency and reduction of the ship's top speed.

In order to solve the bioadhesion phenomenon, a method of removing the adherent organisms by moving the hull to drydock or by applying toxic antifouling paint to the bottom is used to prevent the adherence of adherent organisms. It has been.

However, the method of removing the adherents by moving the hull to the dry dock takes a lot of time and cost, there is a disadvantage that the ship can not be used while removing the attached organisms.

In addition, antifouling paints include antifoulants that interfere with bioadhesion, and tributyltin (TBT), which is widely used as an antifouling agent, has been found to cause destruction or disturbance of marine ecosystems. ) Is seeking ways to completely ban the use of tributyltin.

Therefore, research and development of a method of moving a cleaning device along the bottom surface of the cleaning apparatus that physically removes adherent organisms attached to the bottom surface has been conducted, and some of them have been commercialized.

However, curved surfaces having various curvatures may be formed on the bottom surface. This will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

Fig. 1 illustrates the hull of a ship, and Figs. 2 to 4 show cross sections of the hull along the II-II straight line, the III-III straight line and the IV-IV straight line shown in Fig. 1, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 1, the hull 10 of a ship may include shell plating 11 to form an outer shell thereof. The hull 10 may be roughly divided into an intermediate region, a bow portion and a stern portion. A bow portion (bulbous bow, 12) may be formed in the bow portion, and a stern tube portion 13 in which a stern tube (not shown, stern tube) is installed inside the stern portion may be formed.

As described above, the hull 11 of the hull 10 may have various curved shapes. This will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

Referring to FIG. 2, in the bow portion of the hull 10, the hull 11 may be gradually narrowed toward the lower direction, and may be widened again as it approaches the portion where the bulbous bow 12 is formed. That is, the hull 11 of the bow portion may be made of a substantial portion as shown in the curved surface.

Referring to FIG. 3, in the middle region of the hull 10, a substantial portion of the hull 11 may be flat as shown. However, even in this case, the hull 11 may form a curved surface toward the longitudinal direction of the hull 10.

Referring to FIG. 4, the stern portion of the hull 10 may have a shape in which the hull 11 is gradually narrowed toward the downward direction and then rapidly narrowed down to a portion where a stern tube (not shown) is installed therein. . That is, the hull 11 of the stern portion may be made of a curved surface having a smaller radius of curvature than the bow portion as shown.

As such, since the shape of the surface of the hull 10 may vary depending on the position, the apparatus for cleaning the bottom portion should be able to stably run even in a curved portion having various shapes.

However, currently commercially available bottom cleaning device may not be able to travel or maintain the direction of the curved portion as described above, the situation is that the diver needs to assist the movement of the cleaning device.

Embodiment of the present invention is to provide a bottom cleaning robot that can stably clean the curved surface portion of the bottom portion.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a bottom portion cleaning robot for cleaning the surface of the bottom portion, the robot body, a cleaning head portion which is installed on the lower side of the robot body and attached to the surface of the bottom portion, and the bottom The bottom cleaning robot may include a traveling part moving along the surface of the part, and a tilting connection part connecting the robot body and the running part so that the robot body can be tilted with respect to the running part.

The bottom cleaning robot may further include a photographing unit installed in front of the robot body and photographing a lower surface of the hull. The photographing unit may include a camera for photographing the lower surface of the hull and an illumination module for irradiating light to the lower surface of the hull.

The cleaning head unit, a brush drive motor installed in the robot body, one side is connected to the brush drive motor and the other side is a brush drive shaft protruding to the lower side of the robot body, the brush detachably coupled to the other side of the brush drive shaft And at least one support roller installed at the periphery of the brush among the bottom surfaces of the robot body and supporting the robot body so that a gap is maintained between the surface of the bottom portion and the bottom surface of the robot body.

The driving unit may include at least one pair of traveling module frames coupled to the tilting connection unit, at least one pair of caterpillars respectively installed on the pair of traveling module frames, and the at least one pair of traveling module frames, respectively. It may include at least a pair of magnets, each disposed to act on the surface of the wealth and the attraction force.

The magnet may be a permanent magnet or an electromagnet.

The tilting connection unit, at least one pair of hinge brackets coupled to the robot body, one side is rotatably connected to the at least one pair of hinge brackets, the other side is at least one coupled to the pair of travel module frame, respectively It may comprise a pair of support brackets.

The tilting connector may further include at least one pair of elastic modules which are installed between the robot body and the traveling module frame and are respectively compressed or extended when the robot body is tilted with respect to the traveling part.

The driving unit may include at least one pair of connecting frames having both ends coupled to the at least one pair of driving module frames, and the at least one pair of caterpillars respectively installed in the at least one pair of connecting frames in one direction or the other. It may further comprise at least a pair of driving drive motor for rotating.

The bottom cleaning robot as described above may further include a control unit installed in the robot body and controlling the operation of the driving unit and the cleaning head unit.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to stably run and clean the curved surface portion of the bottom portion, so that the diver does not need to assist the movement of the bottom portion cleaning robot, and the fully automated operation of the bottom portion cleaning operation becomes possible.

1 illustrates the hull of a ship;
2 is a cross-sectional view of the hull along the II-II straight line of FIG.
3 is a cross-sectional view of the hull along the III-III straight line of FIG.
4 is a cross-sectional view of the hull along the line IV-IV of FIG.
5 is an exploded perspective view of the bottom cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 6 is a perspective view of the running portion and the tilting connection portion of the bottom cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a side view of the bottom cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is capable of various modifications and various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the detailed description. 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. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

5 is an exploded perspective view of the bottom cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the bottom cleaning robot 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention cleans the surface of the bottom portion as described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4, and the bottom cleaning robot 100 includes a robot. The main body 110, the cleaning head part (see 150 of FIG. 7), the driving part 130, and the tilting connection part 140 may be included.

In the robot main body 110, a power supply device, a hydraulic or hydraulic device, and a controller, which are not shown, may be installed, which will be described again with reference to FIG. 7 below.

The cleaning head part 150 of FIG. 7 removes the foreign matter attached to the surface of the bottom portion, which is not shown, and may include a brush 151 and a support roller 157. The cleaning head part 150 of FIG. 7 will be described again with reference to FIG. 7 below.

For the tilting connection unit 140 connecting the robot body 110 and the running unit 130 so that the traveling unit 130 and the robot main body 110 moving along the surface of the ship bottom can be tilted with respect to the traveling unit 130. It demonstrates with reference to FIG.

Figure 6 shows the running portion and the tilting connection portion of the bottom cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the driving unit 130 of FIG. 5 may include a pair of driving modules, that is, a first driving module 131 and a second driving module 136. In addition, the tilting connector (140 of FIG. 5) may include a first tilting connector 141 and a second tilting connector 149.

The first travel module 131 may include a first travel module frame 132, a first caterpillar 134, and a magnet 135, and the second travel module 136 may include a second travel module frame ( 137, a second caterpillar 139, and a magnet (not shown).

The first caterpillar 134 and the second caterpillar 139 may be installed in the first travel module frame 132 and the second travel module frame 137, respectively. In addition, one side of the first driving module frame 132 and the second driving module frame 137 may be integrally coupled to both ends of the first connection frame 133 and the second connection frame 138.

Here, although not shown, a first driving drive for rotating the first caterpillar 134 and the second caterpillar 139 in one direction or the other direction in the first connection frame 133 and the second connection frame 138, respectively. A motor (not shown) and a second travel drive motor (not shown) may be installed.

The first travel drive motor (not shown) and the second drive motor (not shown) may be operated independently, which will be described again below.

The magnet 135 is attached to the first travel module frame 132. The magnet 135 is disposed to act on the surface of the bottom and the attraction force, so that the first travel module 131 and the second travel module 136 can be moved in a state attached to the surface of the bottom. Although not shown, a magnet may be installed in the second travel module frame 137.

As the magnet 135, a permanent magnet may be used, or an electromagnet may be used. When using a permanent magnet as the magnet 135 has the advantage that no separate power is required. In addition, when the electromagnet is used as the magnet 135, since the attraction force acting between the traveling part 130 and the bottom surface can be adjusted, the bottom cleaning robot (100 in FIG. 5) is separated from the bottom surface to a desired position. There is an advantage in that the work of attaching it again can be easily performed.

The first tilting connector 141 may be connected to the first driving module 131, and the second tilting connector 149 may be connected to the second driving module 136.

The first tilting connector 141 may include a coupling panel 142, a hinge bracket 143, a hinge pin 144, a support bracket 145, and elastic modules 146 and 147.

Coupling panel 142 is a part that is coupled to the robot body (110 of FIG. 5), the hinge panel 143 may be formed or installed on the coupling panel 142. That is, the hinge bracket 143 may be coupled to the robot body (110 of FIG. 5) by the coupling panel 142.

One side of the support bracket 145 may be rotatably connected to the hinge bracket 143 by the hinge pin 144. The other side of the support bracket 145 may be coupled to the first travel module frame 132. That is, the first travel module frame 132 may be rotatably connected to the robot main body (110 of FIG. 5) with the hinge pin 144 rotated about the rotation center.

Since the second tilting connecting portion 149 connected to the second driving module frame 136 has the same structure and operation as the above-described first tilting connecting portion 141, the description of the second tilting connecting portion 149 will be described as follows. The connection to the description of the portion 141 will be replaced.

Therefore, since the second travel module frame 137 is integrated with the first travel module frame 132, the travel unit 130 of FIG. 5 and the robot body 110 of FIG. 5 are relatively rotatable.

Meanwhile, elastic modules 146 and 147 may be installed between the coupling panel 142 and the first travel module frame 132. Here, the elastic modules 146 and 147 may be installed to be compressed or stretched when the robot body (110 of FIG. 5) and the driving unit (130 of FIG. 5) are relatively rotated. For example, as shown, when any one of the elastic modules 146 and 147 is compressed, the other 147 may be distributed so as to be extended.

Operation of the elastic modules 146 and 147 will be described again below.

For reference, although not shown, the hinge bracket 143 may be directly formed or installed on the robot body (110 of FIG. 5) without the coupling panel 142. The elastic modules 146 and 147 may also be installed between the robot body (110 of FIG. 5) and the travel module frames 132 and 137 without the coupling panel 142.

7 is a side view of the bottom cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, the driving unit 130 may be rotatably connected to the lower side of the robot body 110 by the tilting connecting unit 140. That is, as indicated by the arrow in the drawing, the driving unit 130 may be rotated relative to the robot body 110 using the hinge pin (144 of FIG. 6) as the rotation center.

On the other hand, the cleaning head portion 150 installed on the front lower side of the robot body 110 may include a brush 151, a brush drive motor 155, a brush drive shaft 156, a support roller 157.

The brush drive motor 155 may be installed in the housing 111 of the robot body 110. One side of the brush drive shaft 156 may be connected to the drive motor 155, and the other side may protrude to the lower side of the housing 111.

The brush 151 may be coupled to the other side of the brush drive shaft 156. Here, the brush 151 may be used interchangeably according to the nature of the foreign matter attached to the bottom surface, the brush 151 may be detachably coupled to the brush drive shaft 156.

For reference, as shown in FIG. 5, the brush 151 has a drive shaft coupling portion 153 coupled to the drive shaft 156, a disk 152 coupled to the drive shaft coupling portion 153 and supporting the wire 154. And the like. Since the brush 151 is well known, a detailed description of the brush 151 itself is omitted.

The support roller 157 may be installed on the bottom surface of the housing 111 of the robot body 110 in a shape of being distributed around the brush 151. The support roller 157 supports the robot body 110 to maintain a gap between the brush 151 and the surface of the bottom of the ship.

For reference, when the brush 151 is rotated by the brush driving motor 155, a negative pressure is generated between the brush 151 and the surface of the bottom portion so that the brush 151 may be moved in a direction that is closer to the surface of the bottom portion. Therefore, the support roller 157 can support the brush 151 so as not to be in close contact with the bottom surface by the negative pressure.

Therefore, the cleaning head part 150 is not separated from the surface of the bottom part by the negative pressure as described above while the brush 151 is rotated to remove the foreign matter on the bottom surface. At this time, the driving unit 130 is attached to the surface of the bottom portion by the magnet 135 to travel.

Therefore, when the bottom cleaning robot 100 travels a curved portion of the bottom surface of the bottom portion, the robot body (centering around the tilting connection part) by an attractive force acting on the cleaning head portion 150 and the traveling portion 130, respectively ( 110 and the driving unit 130 may be rotated.

That is, neither of the cleaning head portion 150 or the traveling portion 130 is separated from the bottom surface even in a curved portion of the bottom surface, so the bottom cleaning robot 100 stably maintains the surface of the bottom portion. It can move and remove foreign substances attached to the bottom surface.

This will be described with reference to FIG. 6 again. Referring to the coordinate axis shown in the drawing, it can be seen that the hinge pin 144 is arranged in parallel with the y-axis direction, the movement of the traveling portion (130 in Fig. 5) in the x-axis direction of the coordinate axis is called forward or backward. can do. Therefore, since the robot body 110 and the driving unit 130 are rotated relatively around the direction parallel to the y-axis, the rotation of the robot body 100 and the driving unit 130 may be referred to as tilting.

When the cleaning head part 150 is stopped for the change of direction of the bottom cleaning robot 100 during the cleaning operation, since the negative pressure by the brush 151 is not generated, the robot main body 110 faces the bottom surface. There is a possibility of being tilted arbitrarily in accordance with the movement of the driving unit 130 and colliding with the bottom surface according to the movement.

Therefore, by allowing the elastic modules 146 and 147 to support the tilting connection part 140 with appropriate elasticity, when the cleaning head part 150 is not operated, the robot body 110 has a constant angle with respect to the traveling part 130. You can keep it.

As described above, the first caterpillar 134 may be rotated by the first travel drive motor (not shown), and the second caterpillar 139 may be rotated by the second travel drive motor (not shown). Can be.

If the first caterpillar 134 and the second caterpillar 139 are rotated at the same speed and in the same direction, the driving unit 130 may move forward or backward. When the first caterpillar 134 and the second caterpillar 139 rotate in different directions or at different speeds, the driving unit 130 may switch directions.

In particular, when the first caterpillar 134 and the second caterpillar 139 are rotated in the opposite direction at the same speed, the driving unit 130 is rotated around a direction parallel to the z-axis. Accordingly, the driving unit 130 adjusts whether the first caterpillar 134 and the second caterpillar 139 rotate by each of the first driving driving motor and the second driving driving motor, which are not shown, and the rotation speed and the rotation direction. As a result, the driving unit 130 may be moved in all directions on the bottom surface.

Therefore, the bottom cleaning robot 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may move freely on the bottom surface and perform a cleaning operation, that is, a work of removing foreign matter attached to the bottom surface.

For reference, although not shown, at least one pair of caterpillars may be installed to smoothly change the direction of the driving unit 130, and the number may be changed as necessary. In addition, the number of driving module frames, magnets, and driving driving motors as described above may be changed according to the number of caterpillars.

Referring back to FIG. 7, the control unit 112 may be installed in the housing 111 of the robot body 110.

If the bottom cleaning robot 100 is to perform cleaning on the part of the bottom surface which has already been cleaned, waste of time and power may be caused. Accordingly, the driving unit 130 and the cleaning head unit 150 are inputted to the control unit 112 so that the bottom cleaning robot 100 cleans the bottom surface according to a previously input procedure. By controlling the operations such as), it is possible to improve the efficiency of the cleaning operation.

In the housing 111 of the robot main body 110, an actuator included in the bottom cleaning robot 100, that is, a first driving drive motor (not shown), a second driving drive motor (not shown), and a brush driving motor Power supply means for supplying the power necessary for the operation of the (155) and the like may be further installed.

For example, when the above-described actuator is a hydraulic motor or a hydraulic motor, a hydraulic pump or a hydraulic pump may be further installed, and when an electric motor is used, a large capacity battery or the like may be further installed.

Referring back to FIG. 5, the robot body 110 of the bottom cleaning robot 100 may further include a photographing unit 120. The photographing unit 120 photographs the lower surface of the hull so that the operator can check the result of the cleaning operation by the bottom cleaning robot 100 or the state of the bottom surface, and is installed in front of the robot body 110. Can be.

The photographing unit 120 may include a transparent window 121, a camera 122, and an illumination module 123. The camera 122 may photograph the surface of the bottom portion, and the illumination module 123 may irradiate light onto the surface of the bottom portion so that a sufficient amount of light may be supplied to the camera 122. The transparent window 121 may be installed in the housing 111 of the robot body 110 to protect the camera 122 and the lighting 123.

As described above, the bottom cleaning robot 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can move along the surface of the hull alone to remove foreign matter attached to the bottom surface, the direction is free to change the bottom surface The curved part of can also be cleaned continuously. Therefore, since the diver may not be used to clean the bottom and the automation of the cleaning operation is possible, the safety of the work may be improved and the work efficiency may be increased.

Although the bottom cleaning robot according to the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the spirit of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments presented herein, those skilled in the art to understand the spirit of the present invention within the scope of the same idea Other embodiments may be easily proposed by adding, changing, deleting, or adding components, but this will also fall within the spirit of the present invention.

100: bottom cleaning robot 110: robot body
111: housing 112: control unit
120: recording unit 121: transparent window
122: camera 123: lighting module
130: driving unit 131: the first driving module
132: first driving module frame 133: first connecting frame
134: first caterpillar 135: magnet
136: second driving module 137: second driving module frame
138: second connection frame 139: second caterpillar
140: tilting connection 141: first tilting connection
142: coupling panel 143: hinge bracket
144: hinge pin 145: support bracket
146 and 147: elastic module 149: second tilting connection
150: cleaning head portion 151: brush
155: brush drive motor 156: brush drive shaft
157: support roller

Claims (10)

As the bottom cleaning robot cleaning the surface of the bottom,
Robot body;
A cleaning head unit installed at a lower side of the robot body to remove foreign substances attached to the surface of the bottom portion;
A traveling part moving along the surface of the bottom portion; And
Bottom robot cleaning robot, characterized in that it comprises a tilting connecting portion for connecting the robot body and the running unit so that the robot body can be tilted with respect to the running unit.
The method of claim 1,
Installed on the front of the robot body, the bottom portion cleaning robot, characterized in that it further comprises a photographing unit for photographing the lower surface of the hull.
The method of claim 2,
Wherein,
A camera for photographing the lower surface of the hull; And
The bottom cleaning robot, characterized in that it comprises a lighting module for irradiating light on the lower surface of the hull.
The method of claim 1,
The cleaning head portion,
A brush drive motor installed in the robot body;
One side is connected to the brush drive motor, the other side is a brush drive shaft protruding to the lower side of the robot body;
A brush detachably coupled to the other side of the brush drive shaft; And
A bottom portion of the bottom surface of the robot body, the bottom portion including at least one support roller supporting the robot body so as to maintain a gap between the surface of the bottom portion and the bottom surface of the robot body. Cleaning robot.
The method of claim 1,
The driving unit,
At least one pair of travel module frames coupled to the tilting connector;
At least one pair of caterpillars respectively installed on the pair of travel module frames; And
And at least one pair of magnets attached to the at least one pair of traveling module frames, the at least one pair of magnets respectively arranged to act on the surface and the attraction force of the bottom portion.
The method of claim 5,
The magnet is a bottom cleaning robot, characterized in that the permanent magnet or electromagnet.
The method of claim 5,
The tilting connection portion,
At least a pair of hinge brackets coupled to the robot body; And
One side is rotatably connected to each of the at least one pair of hinge brackets, the other side is a bottom cleaning robot, characterized in that it comprises at least one pair of support brackets respectively coupled to the pair of travel module frame.
The method of claim 7, wherein
The tilting connection portion,
And at least one pair of elastic modules installed between the robot body and the traveling module frame such that the robot body is compressed or stretched when the robot body is tilted with respect to the traveling part.
9. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8,
The driving unit,
At least one pair of connecting frames having both ends coupled to the at least one pair of traveling module frames; And
And at least one pair of driving drive motors respectively installed in the at least one pair of connecting frames and rotating the at least one pair of caterpillars in one direction or the other direction, respectively.
The method of claim 1,
Installed in the robot body, the bottom portion cleaning robot, characterized in that it further comprises a control unit for controlling the operation of the running portion and the cleaning head portion.

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