WO2023045760A1

WO2023045760A1 - Automatic train uncoupling robot and system

Info

Publication number: WO2023045760A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/117550
Authority: WO
Inventors: 杨国栋; 郭仁杰; 田雨农; 张延峰; 李志硕; 李恩; 景奉水; 梁自泽; 谭民
Original assignee: 中国科学院自动化研究所
Priority date: 2021-09-27
Filing date: 2022-09-07
Publication date: 2023-03-30
Also published as: CN113894765A

Abstract

The present application provides an automatic train uncoupling robot and system. The robot comprises a movable platform and an uncoupling platform, the movable platform is used for controlling movement of the movable platform, and an environment sensing module is used for acquiring relative position information between the movable platform and a train; the uncoupling platform is provided on the movable platform and is used for performing a train uncoupling operation, and a stereoscopic vision module is used for acquiring coupler information; a processor is connected to the movable platform and the uncoupling platform to acquire information of the environment sensing module and the stereoscopic vision module so as to control the movement of the movable platform and control the uncoupling operation of the uncoupling platform. In the present application, installment of the environment sensing module and the stereoscopic vision module improves the environmental sensing capability of the robot, and greatly improves the intelligent level of the uncoupling robot; the robot has the characteristics of good action completion effect, high stability and safety, small modification to a station and easy maintenance, workers can be freed from manual uncoupling operations having high risks, and the robot autonomously completes the uncoupling work.

Description

Automatic decoupling robot and system for trains

Cross References to Related Applications

This application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application filed on September 27, 2021 with application number 202111136599.8 and titled "Automatic Train Unhooking Robot and System", which is fully incorporated herein by reference.

technical field

The present application relates to the technical field of robots, in particular to a robot and system for automatic decoupling of trains.

Background technique

The railway marshalling station is a station that centrally handles the arrival, disassembly, marshalling and departure of a large number of freight trains on the railway network, through-through and other train operations, and has relatively complete shunting operations for this purpose. Its main task is to handle a large number of dismantling and marshalling operations of freight trains according to the requirements of the train marshalling plan. Among them, the dismantling operation completed on the hump is the link with the largest workload and the longest time consumption.

The train disintegration method currently used in the marshalling yard is still a traditional manual operation method, which has low work efficiency, high labor cost and high risk. It has become a development consensus in the industry to use robots to gradually replace manual decoupling tasks for trains. The currently disclosed unhooking robot mainly has two types of work on the top and side of the coupler: the gantry above the train is installed to unhook from top to bottom; Both of the above methods require large-scale reconstruction of the station. The walking mode of the movable unhooking robot is mostly track type and autonomous mobile type. Although the track-type walking method is stable, easy to control and has little impact on train operation, it also requires large-scale transformation of the station; autonomous mobile robots use wheeled, crawler-type and other moving chassis, and the terrain adapts It has strong capabilities and can operate without extensive modifications to the station, but it requires the robot itself to have strong environmental perception and autonomous movement capabilities, as well as remote monitoring operations.

Generally speaking, the existing automatic unhooking robot working schemes have defects, and cannot effectively perform autonomous unhooking operations. There is an urgent need for a robot that is easy to maintain, requires little modification to the station, and can safely and stably perform unhooking tasks for a long time. autonomous unhooking robot.

Contents of the invention

This application provides an automatic decoupling robot and system for trains, which are used to solve the defects in the prior art that the automatic decoupling robot has a large scale of station transformation, limited ability to perceive the environment, weak autonomous operation ability, and low intelligence. Realize stable, safe and intelligent automatic unhooking operation.

The application provides an automatic dehooking robot for trains, including:

The mobile platform includes a mobile chassis and a chassis motion controller for controlling the movement of the mobile platform, and also includes an environment perception module for obtaining relative position information between the mobile platform and the train;

The unhooking platform is set on the mobile platform and includes a mechanical arm, a gripper and an unhooking controller for train unhooking operations, and also includes a stereo vision module for obtaining coupler information;

A processor, connected to the mobile platform and the unhooking platform, acquires the information of the environment perception module and the stereo vision module, so as to control the movement of the mobile platform and control the unhooking operation of the unhooking platform.

According to the automatic train unhooking robot provided by the present application, the processor includes an edge computing unit;

The edge computing unit processes the information of the environmental perception module, and controls the mobile chassis to track the movement of the train through the chassis motion controller;

The edge computing unit processes the information of the stereo vision module, and controls the mechanical arm and the gripper to perform the hook removal operation through the hook removal controller.

According to the automatic train unhooking robot provided in the present application, the environmental perception module includes a laser radar, a camera, a GPS, an inertial sensor and an ultrasonic sensor, and is respectively installed on both sides of the mobile platform.

According to the automatic decoupling robot for trains provided by the present application, the stereo vision module includes a binocular camera and an image processing unit, the binocular camera is used to obtain coupler type and position information, and the image processing unit is used for the binocular camera The acquired information is processed and sent to the edge computing unit.

According to the automatic unhooking robot for trains provided by the present application, the mechanical arm is a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm arranged in series, and the gripper is arranged at a free end of the mechanical arm.

According to the automatic unhooking robot for trains provided in the present application, the mobile platform is further provided with an operation indication device, and the operation indication device includes indicator lights for displaying different motion states of the mobile platform.

According to the automatic train unhooking robot provided in the present application, a power supply is provided inside the mobile platform, and a charging interface is provided on the surface of the mobile platform.

The present application also provides an automatic decoupling system for trains, including:

The automatic decoupling robot for trains as described above;

The control terminal is connected with the automatic train unhooking robot, receives the processor information of the automatic train unhooking robot, and controls and monitors the status of the automatic train unhooking robot.

According to the automatic train unhooking system provided in the present application, it also includes a wireless communication module, and the control terminal is remotely connected with the automatic train unhooking robot through the wireless communication module.

According to the automatic train decoupling system provided in the present application, information exchange is performed between the control terminal and the automatic train decoupling robot based on a cloud server and a web client/server network.

The automatic train unhooking robot and system provided by this application can automatically obtain the relative position information of the mobile platform and the train carriage by setting the environment perception module on the mobile platform of the robot, and can effectively control the situation through the information processing of the environment perception module by the processor. The position of the robot is controlled to achieve precise tracking of the train carriages; by setting up an automatic decoupling platform and a stereo vision module, the type and position information of the train coupler can be automatically obtained, and the processor can automatically judge the coupler to realize The corresponding unhooking operation improves the accuracy and safety of the unhooking operation, thereby improving the efficiency of unhooking. This application combines the advantages of the traditional side unhooking method and the mobile robot. By installing the environment perception module and the stereo vision module, the environment perception ability of the robot is increased, and the intelligence level of the unhooking robot is greatly improved; it has good action completion effect , high stability and safety, small modification to the station, and easy maintenance can liberate the staff from the high-risk manual unhooking operation, and the robot can independently complete the unhooking work.

Description of drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present application or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the accompanying drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are the For some embodiments of the present invention, those of ordinary skill in the art can also obtain other drawings based on these drawings on the premise of not paying creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is the structural representation of the automatic unhooking robot of the train that the application provides;

Fig. 2 is the schematic diagram of the structure of the automatic unhooking robot mechanical arm of the train provided by the application;

Fig. 3 is the connection schematic diagram of the train automatic unhooking system provided by the present application;

Reference signs:

1: Mobile platform; 1-1: Mobile chassis; 1-2: Operation indicator light;

1-3: Environmental perception module; 1-3-1: LiDAR; 1-3-2: Camera pan/tilt;

1-3-3: GPS; 1-4: Power supply; 1-4-1: Charging interface;

2: Unhook platform; 2-1: Mechanical arm; 2-3: Stereo vision module;

2-3-1: Binocular camera; 3: Wireless communication module; 3-1: Communication antenna.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of this application clearer, the technical solutions in this application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in this application. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of this application , but not all examples. Based on the embodiments in this application, all other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts fall within the protection scope of this application.

As shown in FIGS. 1-2 , the embodiment of the present application provides an automatic decoupling robot for trains, which includes a mobile platform 1 and a decoupling platform 2 . The mobile platform 1 includes a mobile chassis 1-1 and a chassis motion controller. The mobile chassis 1-1 adopts a wheeled or crawler-type mobile chassis, and the chassis motion controller controls the mobile chassis 1-1 to realize the movement of the robot.

The unhooking platform 2 is set on the mobile platform 1. The unhooking platform 2 includes a mechanical arm 2-1, a gripper and a hook unloading controller. The mechanical arm 2-1 is a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm arranged in series, using a six-axis mechanical arm , the gripper is arranged on the free end of the mechanical arm 2-1 for grabbing the coupler. The unhooking controller drives and connects the mechanical arm 2-1 and the gripper, and can simultaneously control the mechanical arm 2-1 and the gripper to complete the unhooking operation. The mechanical arm 2-1 has a base, and the base is installed at the center of the upper surface of the mobile platform 1 to facilitate the movement of the mechanical arm 2-1.

It is worth mentioning that the mechanical arm 2-1 in the unhooking platform 2 has the functions of torque control and motion protection under the premise of smooth motion, and can take protection measures when the torque is too large.

In this embodiment, an environment sensing module 1-3 is also provided on the mobile platform 1, and the environment sensing module 1-3 can obtain the relative position information of the mobile platform 1 and the train carriage, thereby providing intelligence for the precise movement of the mobile platform 1. With the support of personalized data, it realizes the precise positioning of the train carriages and improves the accuracy of automatic decoupling.

Specifically, the environment perception module includes a laser radar 1-3-1, a camera pan/tilt 1-3-2, a GPS 1-3-3, an inertial sensor and an ultrasonic sensor. As shown in Figure 1, the lidar 1-3-1 is set at the center of the upper surface of one end of the mobile platform 1, and the two camera pan-tilts 1-3-2 are symmetrically set on both sides of the lidar 1-3-1 . The GPS1-3-3 positioning unit is arranged at the other end of the mobile platform 1 , and the inertial sensor and the ultrasonic sensor are installed on the surface or inside of the mobile platform 1 . Information exchange is performed between the sensors, real-time positioning and navigation of the robot, and safety monitoring of the current working environment are carried out to ensure operation safety.

In the present embodiment, unhooking platform 2 also has stereo vision module 2-3, and this stereo vision module 2-3 comprises binocular camera 2-3-1 and image processing unit, and binocular camera 2-3-1 is arranged on mobile At the center of the upper surface at one end of the platform 1, opposite to the laser radar 1-3-1, the binocular camera 2-3-1 can obtain the type and position information of the train coupler, and the binocular camera 2-3-1 can be detected by the image processing unit. The information obtained by -1 is processed, and then sent to the processor of the robot, so that the hook removal controller controls the mechanical arm 2-1 and the gripper to perform the corresponding hook removal action.

The processor in this embodiment uses an edge computing unit, and the edge computing unit is electrically connected to the environment perception module 1-3 and the chassis motion controller. After the environment perception module 1-3 collects relevant information of the train, it transmits the information to the edge The computing unit, the edge computing unit processes the information of the environmental perception module 1-3, controls the movement of the mobile chassis 1-1 through the chassis motion controller, realizes the tracking movement of the mobile chassis 1-1 to the train, and controls the mobile chassis 1-1 relative to the train.

At the same time, the edge computing unit is electrically connected with the stereo vision module 2-3, and the stereo vision module 2-3 generates the collected position information of the train coupler type to the edge computing unit, and the edge computing unit calculates and processes the information, and performs the decoupling platform 2. Carry out motion planning, and control the mechanical arm 2-1 and the gripper to perform the hook removal operation through the hook removal controller.

Further, the mobile platform 1 is also provided with an operation indication device, which includes operation indicator lights 1-2 for three different motion states of the mobile platform 1, forward, backward, and parking. The operation indicator lights 1-2 are arranged on the mobile platform Side of platform 1.

The mobile platform 1 is provided with a power supply 1-4 inside to provide power for the operation of the mobile platform 1 and the unhooking platform 2. The surface of the mobile platform 1 is provided with a charging interface 1-4-1. When the battery of the robot is insufficient, the robot can be returned to use Connect to the mains through the charging interface 1-4-1 for charging.

During work, after the processor of the robot receives the unhooking operation command, it uses the environmental perception module 1-3 to perform feature recognition and tracking on the moving freight train, determines the carriage to be operated, and realizes the robot and the carriage to be operated through the mobile platform 1. relatively static; through the stereo vision system 2-3 of the decoupling platform 2, identify and locate the coupler of the to-be-worked carriage, and carry out the motion planning of the mobile platform 1 and the decoupling platform 2 through the edge computing unit, and control the mechanical arm 2-1 at the same time And the mobile chassis 1-1 moves towards the coupler to be grasped, and finally grasps the coupler and completes the autonomous decoupling operation by shaking up and down, rotating and other actions. After the unhooking is completed, the compartment is separated, and the mechanical arm 2-1 is retracted to a safe distance to complete the unhooking operation and wait for the execution of the next task command.

The automatic train decoupling robot provided in the embodiment of the present application can automatically obtain the relative position information of the mobile platform 1 and the train carriage by setting the environment perception module 1-3 on the mobile platform 1 of the robot, and the environment perception module 1-3 can be controlled by the processor. The information processing of 3 can effectively control the position of the robot and realize the precise tracking of the train carriage; through the stereo vision module 2-3 of the decoupling platform 2, the type and position information of the train coupler can be automatically obtained, and the processor can Automatically judge the coupler, realize the corresponding decoupling operation, improve the accuracy and safety of the decoupling operation, thereby improving the decoupling efficiency. The robot has a high degree of automation, which can completely liberate manpower and avoid the safety hazards of manual work. At the same time, the transformation of the station is small and easy to maintain, so it is worth promoting.

As shown in Figures 1-3, the embodiment of the present application also provides an automatic train unhooking system. On the basis of the above-mentioned robot, the system adds a remote control terminal to control the robot and multiple robots to realize the control of the mobile Robot task distribution, formation management, remote control and status monitoring and other operations.

In this embodiment, a remote control center, that is, a control terminal is provided, and the control terminal includes a server host, a status monitor and a wireless communication device 3 . The chassis motion controller establishes communication with the remote control center and the edge computing unit, the remote control center issues tasks to the mobile robot, and the edge computing unit performs motion planning for the mobile chassis 1-1.

Specifically, the wireless communication module 3 has a data processing center and a communication antenna 3-1, and the mobile platform 1 is provided with a client of the wireless communication module 3, that is, the communication antenna 3-1, and the communication antenna 3-1 is installed on the mobile platform 1. ends on both sides. The remote control center is provided with a server of the wireless communication module 3 . The structure between the mobile robot and the remote control center is based on the cloud server and web client/server structure, and the information interaction between the remote control center and the unmanned vehicle terminal is realized through 4G or 5G or an ad hoc network.

The remote control center is also equipped with a remote control device. The robot is equipped with a receiver. In addition to controlling the movement through the built-in processor, the robot can also be controlled through the remote control center. The remote control center can directly control the movement of the robot. The calculation of the unit, the environment perception module 1-3 and the stereo vision module 2-3 cooperate to complete the unhooking operation.

The status monitor of the remote control center is connected with the environment perception module 1-3 and the stereo vision module 2-3. During the operation, the environment perception module 1-3 and the stereo vision module 2-3 send real-time information to the status monitor, The status monitor monitors the operation process in real time, and in case of an emergency, the unhooking operation can be suspended to ensure safe operation.

When carrying out the task of decoupling a freight train, the remote control center first issues task instructions to the mobile robot, and the laser radar 1-3-1, camera pan/tilt 1-3-2, satellite navigation system (GPS) 1-3-3. Inertial sensors and ultrasonic sensors collect external environmental information of the robot system, interact with the edge computing unit for data processing, perform real-time positioning and navigation of the robot, build a map of the working environment, and capture train feature points . The edge computing unit performs motion planning for the robot system, and sends control instructions through the chassis motion controller, so that the mobile platform 1 moves behind the coupler to be operated to achieve the ideal working condition that is relatively stationary with the train to be operated, and realizes the motion tracking of the train.

When the decoupling platform 2 starts to work, the binocular camera 2-3-1 is used to identify the coupler, and the binocular camera 2-3-1 is a binocular depth stereo camera. Then guide the mechanical arm 2-1 and the gripper to perform servo motion, move to the position of the identified coupler, finally grab the coupler and complete the autonomous decoupling operation by shaking up and down, rotating and other actions. At the same time, the laser radar 1-3-1, the camera pan tilt 1-3-2, the satellite navigation system (GPS) 1-3-3, the inertial sensor and the ultrasonic sensor in the environment perception module 1-3 are always on the working space of the robot. Carry out real-time monitoring to ensure the safety of the working space and the completion of the unhooking operation. After the operation is completed, the gripper will open and the mechanical arm 2-1 will be retracted to the initial working state to ensure a safe distance from the train carriage. At the same time, upload the operation data to the remote control center to complete the unhooking operation.

When the robot is working, the remote control center can forcibly stop the robot's operation behavior in the remote control center to avoid safety accidents when the environmental perception system detects an emergency in the work space according to the results of status monitoring.

When the robot is moving, the operation indicator light 1-2 always has different flashing modes according to the three different moving states of parking, forward and reverse; when the remaining power of the battery is insufficient, it can be connected to The charger is connected to the mains for wired charging, and the unhooking operation continues after the charging is completed.

This application combines the advantages of the traditional side unhooking method and the mobile robot. By installing the environment perception module and the stereo vision module, the environment perception ability of the robot is increased, and the intelligence level of the unhooking robot is greatly improved; it has good action completion effect , high stability and safety, small modification to the station, and easy maintenance can liberate the staff from the high-risk manual unhooking operation, and the robot can independently complete the unhooking work, which has a high degree of automation and effectively improves The accuracy and safety of decoupling operations for freight train carriages improves the efficiency of decoupling.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, rather than limiting them; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that: it can still Modifications are made to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent replacements are made to some of the technical features; and these modifications or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the various embodiments of the present application.

Claims

An automatic decoupling robot for trains, comprising:

The mobile platform (1) includes a mobile chassis (1-1) and a chassis motion controller for controlling the movement of the mobile platform (1), and also includes an environment perception module (1-3) for acquiring the mobile platform ( 1) Relative position information with the train;

The unhooking platform (2), which is located on the mobile platform (1), includes a mechanical arm (2-1), a gripper and an unhooking controller for train unhooking operations, and also includes a stereo vision module (2-1). 3), used to obtain coupler information;

A processor, connected to the mobile platform (1) and the unhooking platform (2), acquires the information of the environment perception module (1-3) and the stereo vision module (2-3), so as to control the The moving platform (1) moves and controls the unhooking operation of the unhooking platform (2).
The automatic dehooking robot for trains according to claim 1, wherein said processor comprises an edge computing unit;

The edge computing unit processes the information of the environmental perception module (1-3), and controls the mobile chassis (1-1) to track the movement of the train through the chassis motion controller;

The edge computing unit processes the information of the stereo vision module (2-3), and controls the mechanical arm (2-1) and the gripper to perform the hook removal operation through the hook removal controller.
The automatic unhooking robot for trains according to claim 2, wherein said environmental perception module includes laser radar (1-3-1), camera (1-3-2), GPS (1-3-3), inertial sensor and ultrasonic sensors, and are respectively installed on both sides of the mobile platform (1).
The automatic unhooking robot for trains according to claim 2, wherein said stereo vision module (2-3) comprises a binocular camera (2-3-1) and an image processing unit, said binocular camera (2-3-1) 1) It is used to acquire coupler type and position information, the image processing unit processes the information acquired by the binocular camera (2-3-1), and sends it to the edge computing unit.
The automatic dehooking robot for trains according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein said mechanical arm (2-1) is a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm arranged in series, and said gripper is located at said mechanical arm (2 -1) the free end.
According to the automatic decoupling robot for trains according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein said mobile platform (1) is also provided with an operation indicating device, and said operating indicating device includes operation instructions for displaying different motion states of said mobile platform. Indicator lights (1-2).
The automatic dehooking robot for trains according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the mobile platform (1) is provided with a power supply (1-4) inside, and the surface of the mobile platform (1) is provided with a charging interface ( 1-4-1).
An automatic decoupling system for trains, comprising:

The automatic decoupling robot for trains according to any one of claims 1-7;

The control terminal is connected with the automatic train unhooking robot, receives the processor information of the automatic train unhooking robot, and controls and monitors the status of the automatic train unhooking robot.
The automatic train unhooking system according to claim 8, further comprising a wireless communication module (3), and the control terminal is remotely connected with the automatic train unhooking robot through the wireless communication module (3).
The automatic train decoupling system according to claim 9, wherein the information interaction between the control terminal and the automatic train decoupling robot is based on a cloud server and a web client/server network.