KR20220032857A - Courier delivery robot and method of providing courier delivery service using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A method in which a robot delivers goods in group facilities in conjunction with a management server includes receiving goods delivery information including a delivery destination and detailed information on a group facility from the management server, and generating a delivery route based on the received information. The method further includes: transmitting, when recognizing a display means in an entrance/exit area for entering the interior of the delivery destination while traveling on the delivery route in an outdoor traveling mode in which a first positioning method is employed for traveling, an entrance/exit door and/or elevator control request signal for entering the interior from the entrance/exit area to the management server, and changing the traveling mode from the outdoor traveling mode to an indoor driving mode. The method further includes using an entrance/exit door and/or elevator opened by control of the management server to move to the delivery destination in the interior, and delivering the goods to the delivery destination.

Description

A product delivery robot and a method for providing a product delivery service using the same

The present invention relates to a product delivery robot that provides a product delivery service using a robot in a collective facility based on untact, and a method for providing a product delivery service using the same.

Currently, when delivery drivers from a delivery company transport parcels or goods in collective facilities such as apartment houses (eg apartments, villas, etc.) and buildings, the delivery drivers press the call bell corresponding to the delivery destination at the common entrance and enter and exit. After that, the courier and goods are delivered directly to the delivery destination. At this time, if the delivery recipient is absent, delivery drivers place the items to be delivered in front of the door of the delivery address or store them in the security room, and notify the delivery recipient to receive them later.

Accordingly, there is an inconvenience in that delivery drivers have to move to the guard room and ask for storage of mail or parcels. And, when the guard office worker is away, the item recipient frequently cannot find his/her own parcel, and if the item is left in front of the door of the delivery destination, the risk of loss increases.

In addition, there are people who try to break into apartment houses by pretending to be delivery drivers, and in a situation where social distancing is required due to the spread of the virus, there is an increasing demand not to receive items directly from delivery drivers. Even in this situation, there is still a high risk of inconvenience and loss of goods because the delivery driver and the recipient must use the security room to store/receive the goods or use the unmanned delivery box of each building to store or receive the goods. am.

In addition, in the conventional product delivery robots, a robot dedicated only to outdoor driving and a robot dedicated only to indoor driving are separated. That is, an outdoor driving-only robot recognizes a location using GPS and drives, and an indoor driving-only robot recognizes tags, such as a location recognizer and a direction recognizer, to refer to the driving.

Therefore, when the outdoor traveling robot enters the room, it cannot use the GPS and thus falls into a driving impossible state. Therefore, there is a disadvantage in that goods can be delivered from the outside to the room only by using two robots.

Therefore, the present invention provides a product delivery robot that can deliver goods from the outdoors to indoors, to the destination of the recipient at the time requested by the recipient, using one robot capable of autonomous driving, and a method of providing a product delivery service using the same to provide.

As a method in which a robot, which is a feature of the present invention for achieving the technical problem of the present invention, delivers goods in a group facility in conjunction with a management server,

Receiving the goods delivery information including the goods delivery destination and the precise information of the group facility from the management server, and creating a goods delivery route based on the received information, in an outdoor driving mode driving in a first positioning method , driving the product delivery route, when recognizing a display means of an entry/exit zone that enters the interior of the product delivery destination from the outside while driving in the outdoor driving mode, enters the room from the entry/exit zone with the management server Transmitting a door and/or elevator control request signal to , moving from the indoor to the product delivery destination, and delivering the product to the product delivery destination.

The outdoor driving mode may be a mode of driving by determining a location from a GPS signal, and the indoor driving mode may be a mode of driving while photographing one side of the door and the display means attached to an arbitrary position in the room.

The control request signal may include a call control request signal for calling the elevator when the goods delivery destination is two or more floors.

While driving in the outdoor driving mode, an obstacle located in the front of the driving direction is recognized, the product delivery path is changed based on the recognized position information of the obstacle, and the obstacle can be recognized through a lidar sensor .

The precise information of the group facility includes location information and distance information between a plurality of buildings included in the group facility, and the product delivery information includes a product delivery request time to deliver the product to the product delivery destination. can

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a goods delivery service using one robot capable of running indoors and outdoors.

In addition, it is possible to efficiently control the access of various courier companies, and it is possible to reduce the difficulty of moving courier drivers in a group facility.

In addition, since the recipient can receive the product at a desired time, the risk of product loss can be reduced, and the management task of the security office can be reduced through automation of the product delivery.

In addition, it is possible to provide an additional service that can monitor intruders and dangerous situations using images recorded through a built-in camera for recognizing the robot's vision.

1 is an exemplary diagram of an environment to which a product delivery robot is applied according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a structural diagram of an article delivery robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a product delivery method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail so that those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains can easily implement them. However, the present invention may be embodied in several different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. And in order to clearly explain the present invention in the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted, and similar reference numerals are attached to similar parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part "includes" a certain element, it means that other elements may be further included, rather than excluding other elements, unless otherwise stated.

Hereinafter, a product delivery robot according to an embodiment of the present invention and a method for providing a product delivery service using the same will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In an embodiment of the present invention, for convenience of description, a collective facility is referred to as an apartment complex composed of a plurality of apartment buildings, but is not necessarily limited thereto.

1 is an exemplary diagram of an environment to which a product delivery robot is applied according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 1, the goods delivery robot (hereinafter, referred to as 'robot' for convenience of explanation) 100 is complex information from the management server 200 in order to drive the outside of the apartment complex and the inside of the apartment building. receive

The robot 100 receives a GPS signal from a satellite (not shown) to determine the current location of the robot 100 and drive, or while recognizing a plurality of location display means 300 installed inside an apartment complex or apartment building, deliver the goods to the destination.

Here, the position display means 300 may be any type of display means capable of providing position information so that the robot 100 can recognize the current position. Each location display means 300 is provided with identification information, and the information on each location display means 300 will be described as an example managed by the management server 200 .

In addition, the robot 100 may check the positions of obstacles sensed while driving outdoors or indoors, and transmit position information of the identified obstacles to the management server 200 . In this case, the robot 100 is described as an example of using a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensor as a sensor for sensing an obstacle, but is not necessarily limited thereto.

The robot 100 is based on the location of the recognized obstacles, and the complex information of the apartment complex managed by the management server 200 (for example, the location of each building, the interval of each building, etc.), the shortest driving path when traveling outdoors to the destination. Alternatively, a driving route such as a safe driving route is created. Here, the method for the robot 100 to sense the obstacle may be performed in various ways, and thus detailed description will be omitted in the embodiment of the present invention.

The robot 100 grasps the location of the entry/exit zone of the building through recognition of the location display means 300 and image analysis of the front of the driving direction (hereinafter, referred to as 'vision recognition' for convenience of description). And when it is determined that the robot 100 is in the entry/exit zone, the driving mode is changed from the indoor driving mode to the outdoor driving mode or from the outdoor driving mode to the indoor driving mode. Here, the entry/exit zone means an apartment common entrance through which the robot 100 enters the building from the outside or from the inside to the outside.

If the robot 100, which was traveling outdoors, confirms the location of the entry/exit zone through vision recognition, then immediately before or immediately after entering the apartment common entrance, changes the driving mode to the indoor driving mode and continues driving. Conversely, if the robot 100 was traveling indoors and the location of the entry/exit zone was confirmed through vision recognition, the driving mode is changed to the outdoor driving mode.

In addition, the robot 100 generates a request signal such as opening and closing a public entrance on the driving route to the destination or calling an elevator, and transmits it to the management server 200 interlocked with the robot 100 . The management server 200 controls the common entrance and the elevator based on a control signal such as opening and closing the public entrance or calling the elevator in advance according to the request of the robot 100 .

When the delivery driver stores the goods in the goods locker 400 mapped for each destination, and inputs the goods delivery request time requested by the goods recipient, the management server 200 interlocked with the goods locker 400 is the goods delivery destination , and transmits product delivery information such as delivery request time to the robot 100 . The robot 100 sets a route to a destination based on the product delivery information transmitted from the management server 200 and delivers the product at the delivery request time.

The location display means 300 to which the identification information is assigned are installed at a predetermined interval in the apartment complex. The management server 200 manages each identification information and location information in which the location display means 300 are installed.

Here, the structure of the robot 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 2 .

2 is a structural diagram of an autonomous driving robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the robot 100 includes a processor 110 , a memory 130 , a first information collection device 140 , a second information collection device 150 , and a second communication device through a bus 120 . 3 includes an information collection device 160 , an interface 170 , a storage device 180 , and a driving device 190 .

The processor 110 is a device for controlling the operation of the robot 100, and may be a processor of various types that processes instructions included in a program, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a micro processor unit (MPU) , a micro controller unit (MCU), a graphic processing unit (GPU), or the like. Alternatively, the processor 110 may be a semiconductor device that executes instructions stored in the memory 130 or the storage device 170 . The processor 110 may be configured to execute functions and methods of the robot 100 to be described later.

The processor 110 receives the goods delivery information and only precise information from the management server 200 through the interface 170 .

In addition, the processor 110 receives a GPS signal from a satellite through the first information collection device 140 to determine the current location of the robot 100 . In addition, the processor 110 identifies the position of the robot 100 by recognizing the position display unit 300 through the second information collection unit 150 . In addition, the processor 110 may determine whether there is an obstacle in front based on the laser transmitted by the third information collection device 160 .

Here, the first information collection device 140 may be a device capable of receiving a GPS signal from a satellite, and the second information collection means 150 may be implemented as a display means 300 or a camera for photographing the front. In addition, the third information collection means 160 is described using a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensor to determine whether an obstacle exists as an example, but is not necessarily limited thereto.

The processor 110 generates a route to the destination based on the information collected by each of the information collection devices 140 to 160 , the product delivery information received from the management server 200 , and only precise information.

Here, the product delivery information includes destination information and delivery request time, and may further include various information requested by the recipient. The complex information includes information such as a location for each apartment building based on a preset reference location (eg, a robot charging station location) and an interval for each building.

The processor 110 generates a driving control signal for controlling the driving unit 190 to deliver the product to the destination at the delivery request time included in the product delivery information.

The processor 110 generates a request signal to be transmitted to the management server 200 when the second information collection device 150 collects information on the entry/exit zone. The request signal includes at least one of a public entrance opening request signal and an elevator call request signal. To this end, in the embodiment of the present invention, a case in which display means including common entrance identification information is installed at each common entrance entrance will be described as an example.

Here, the public hall opening request signal includes identification information given to the public entrance for entering the destination through the second information collection device 150 . The elevator call request signal includes information on the disembarkation location of the robot 100 . The processor 110 determines whether the destination to which the goods will be delivered is the first floor or the second floor or higher based on the destination information, and if the second floor or higher, the elevator disembarkation position of the robot 100 as the number of floors of the destination and the disembarkation position information is generated.

When the entry/exit zone information is collected, the processor 110 changes the driving mode from the outdoor driving mode, which is the current driving mode, to the indoor driving mode.

Conventionally, when autonomous driving outdoors, a robot recognizes a location using ultra-precision GPS to drive, and when driving indoors, a robot recognizes a tag such as a recognizer and drives. In this case, when the robot enters the room from the outside, it is placed in a state of being unable to travel due to an error of the ultra-precision GPS. Conversely, even when moving from indoor to outdoor, an error occurs in tag recognition and driving is disabled.

Therefore, in the prior art, when delivering goods from outdoors to indoors, the outdoor driving robot brings the goods to the front of the common entrance, and the indoor driving robot receives the goods from the public entrance and delivers the goods to the destination. However, the robot 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention runs outdoors based on the GPS signal collected by the first information collection device 140 and uses the second information collection device 150 before entering the apartment building. By changing the driving mode so that the position display means 300 can be vision-recognized and driven indoors, one robot 100 can drive both outdoors and indoors.

Accordingly, in the outdoor driving mode, the processor 110 drives using not only the GPS but also the precision map, and changes the driving mode to the indoor driving mode just before entering the room. In addition, the processor 110 allows the robot 100, which has been changed to the indoor driving mode, to recognize the position indicating means, which is a recognizer, through the second information collection device 150 to drive indoors.

The memory 130 may include various types of volatile or non-volatile storage media. For example, the memory 130 loads a corresponding program so that instructions described to execute the operations of the present invention are processed by the processor 111 , and a read only memory (ROM) 131 and a random access memory (RAM) (132).

In an embodiment of the present invention, the memory 130 may be located inside or outside the processor 110 , and the memory 130 may be connected to the processor 110 through various known means.

The first information collecting means 140 receives a GPS signal from a satellite and provides it to the processor 110 .

The second information collection device 150 captures a background on a travel path while the robot 100 travels, and in the embodiment of the present invention, a camera will be used as an example. The background on the driving route is vision-recognized by the processor 110 and used to extract current location information of the robot 100 . In addition, the background on the driving path is also used to check whether the robot 100 is in the vicinity of an entry/exit area such as a public entrance.

In addition, the second information collection device 150 recognizes a recognizer (eg, QR code, etc.) installed on the floor, ceiling, or wall of the robot 100 that has entered the public entrance in advance, and the robot 100 ) to move from the common entrance to the elevator. Here, the type of camera of the second information collection device 150 is not limited to any one.

The third information collection device 160 includes various equipment (eg, lidar, depth camera, inertial measurement unit (IMU), etc.) from which the moving robot 100 collects information according to the operation of the present invention. ) correspond to

The third information collection device 160 will be described as an example of recognizing static obstacles such as a structure installed in an apartment complex or recognizing dynamic obstacles such as people moving in an apartment complex. The method for recognizing obstacles by the third information collection device 160 may be performed in various ways, and thus, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to any one method.

The interface 170 interworks with the management server 200 to transfer the delivery map generated by the processor 110 to the management server 200 . Also, the interface 170 receives product delivery information and apartment complex information from the management server 200 . And the interface 170 transfers the control signal generated by the processor 110 to the management server 200 .

The storage device 180 stores and manages the complex information of the apartment complex in which the robot 100 drives. In addition, the storage device 180 stores and manages the characteristic information of the obstacle collected through the third information collection device 160 . Here, the characteristic information of each obstacle may include the shape and size of the obstacle, and the characteristic information of the obstacle is not limited to any one.

The driving device 190 drives the robot 100 inside the workplace under the control of the processor 110 .

A method in which the robot 100 described above delivers goods from a preset reference position to a destination will be described with reference to FIG. 3 .

3 is a flowchart illustrating a product delivery method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 3, when the delivery driver stores the goods in the goods locker 400 mapped for each destination, and inputs the goods delivery request time requested by the goods recipient, the goods locker 400 interlocks The management server 200 receives product delivery information such as a delivery destination and a delivery request time (S100), and transmits the received product delivery information to the robot 100 (S101).

Here, the management server 200 may receive the product delivery information in step S100 and, at the same time, transmit a message indicating that the product has arrived to the terminal (not shown) of the product recipient. In addition, a message informing that the product will be delivered using the robot 100 may be transmitted at the product delivery request time input by the recipient.

And, in the embodiment of the present invention, when the goods recipient purchases the goods, it is described as an example of inputting the delivery request time. You can also ask the recipient to enter the delivery request time. In this case, the management server 200 may receive and store the product delivery information input from the recipient's terminal.

The robot 100 creates a product delivery route by using the product delivery destination included in the product delivery information, a pre-stored delivery map, and only precise information. And the robot 100 waits at a preset reference position (S102). Here, the reference position is described as an example of a charging position allowing the robot 100 to be charged, but is not necessarily limited thereto.

The robot 100 checks whether the current time is the goods delivery time requested by the recipient based on the goods delivery information (S103). If it is the delivery time of the goods, the robot 100 receives the GPS signal from the satellite to determine the current location, and mounts the goods to the destination in the outdoor driving mode and moves (S104). Here, the article may be mounted on the robot 100 by the article manager, and the article storage box 400 is implemented in a movable form so that the robot 100 can mount the article storage box 400 as a whole. not limited to the form.

While moving to the destination in the outdoor driving mode, the robot 100 recognizes the position display means 300 installed on the driving path, collects position information, and collects information on the backgrounds in front of the vehicle (S105). Based on the collected location information and travel route, the robot 100 continues to travel outdoors.

In addition, the robot 100 determines whether the robot 100 has collected an image of the current entry/exit area, that is, a common entrance from the collected background information (S106). If information on the entry/exit zone is not collected, the robot 100 continues to move according to the travel route.

For example, the robot 100, which has confirmed the current location based on the GPS signal, extracts the feature point of the common entrance from the image in front through vision recognition. Since the reference information on the feature points of the common entrance is stored inside the robot 100 in advance, the robot 100 compares the extracted feature points with the stored feature points to determine whether the common entrance, which is the entry/exit area, is located in front of the robot 100. can

If information on the entry/exit zone is collected, the robot 100 generates a control request signal for opening a common entrance and a control request signal for calling an elevator (S107). Here, the control request signal may include public entrance identification information mapped to the public entrance and destination floor information to be moved to the elevator. If the robot 100 is a delivery destination on the first floor, the elevator call control request signal may not be generated.

The robot 100 transmits the control request signal generated in step S107 to the management server 200 (S108). At the same time, the robot 100 changes the driving mode from the outdoor driving mode to the indoor driving mode (S109). According to the change of the driving mode, the robot 100 stops receiving the GPS signal from the satellite, recognizes the location display means through the camera, and extracts location information.

Meanwhile, the management server 200 receiving the control request signal from the robot 100 controls the corresponding common entrance to be opened based on the common entrance identification information included in the control request signal ( S110 ).

In addition, if the destination floor information is included in the control request signal, the management server 200 calls the elevator to move to the first floor and then controls to move to the destination floor (S111). Here, a method for controlling the management server 200 to call an elevator or open a public entrance is already known, and detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted in the embodiment of the present invention.

On the other hand, the robot 100, which has changed the driving mode to the indoor driving mode, enters the building and boards the elevator according to the destination information (S112). If the elevator is opened before the destination floor, the robot 100 can determine whether the destination floor by recognizing the floor display means in front.

When the elevator arrives at the destination floor, the robot 100 confirms that it is the destination floor and gets off the elevator (S113). And the goods are delivered based on the path created from the disembarkation point of the elevator to the destination (S114). When the delivery of goods to the destination is completed, the robot 100 reverses the above-described procedure to return to the reference position.

After arriving at the destination, the robot 100 that provides the goods delivery service through the procedure described above may transmit a destination arrival notification signal to the management server 200 . Through this, the management server 200 uses a robot arrival notification means (eg, a door chime, an in-house display, a recipient terminal, etc.) to recognize the arrival of the robot 100 so that the item recipient in the household can recognize the arrival of the robot 100 through the robot 100 ) can be announced.

In addition, by learning the management server 200 using the type and quantity of parcel delivery for each household, the presence of obstacles when moving outdoors or indoors, or delay statistics for each time period, the product delivery service is provided without prior input from the recipient of the goods. may provide.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. is within the scope of the right.

Claims (5)

A method for a robot to deliver goods in a group facility in conjunction with a management server, the method comprising:
receiving, from the management server, product delivery information including a product delivery destination and precise information of the group facility, and generating a product delivery route based on the received information;
driving the product delivery route in an outdoor driving mode driving in a first positioning method;
When the display means of the entry/exit zone that enters the interior of the goods delivery destination is recognized from the outside while driving in the outdoor driving mode, a door and/or elevator control request signal for entering the room from the entry/exit zone to the management server sending the step,
changing the driving mode from the outdoor driving mode to the indoor driving mode; and
Using the door and/or elevator opened under the control of the management server, moving from the indoor to the product delivery destination, and delivering the product to the product delivery destination
A method of delivering goods, comprising: According to claim 1,
The outdoor driving mode is a mode for driving by identifying a location from a GPS signal,
The indoor driving mode is a mode of driving while photographing one side of the door and the display means attached to an arbitrary position in the room. 3. The method of claim 2,
The control request signal is
If the goods delivery destination is more than the second floor, including a call control request signal to call the elevator, goods delivery method. 4. The method of claim 3,
While driving in the outdoor driving mode, recognize an obstacle located in the front of the driving direction, and change the product delivery route based on the recognized position information of the obstacle,
The obstacle is recognized through a lidar sensor, the goods delivery method. 5. The method of claim 4,
The precise information of the group facility includes location information of a plurality of buildings included in the group facility and distance information between buildings,
The product delivery information includes a product delivery request time to deliver the product to the product delivery destination.

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