JP2008178959A - Mobile robot system and charge station - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically carry out failure diagnosis in charging a mobile monitoring robot. <P>SOLUTION: A robot main body 1 incorporating a battery 16 and carrying out self-traveling is returned to a charging station 101 by a homing means incorporated in the robot main body 1. In the charging station 101, the battery 16 is charged by a feeding means 110. Simultaneously, failure diagnosis is carried out by a distance detecting means 11 and an image check means 112 corresponding to various sensors 10-13 of the robot main body 1 and informed to an user by a communication terminal 6. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile robot system and a charging station that perform security management in a home or the like by a monitoring function.

  In recent years, security awareness has been raised not only in companies but also in general households, and many products and systems related to home security have been developed. In particular, there is an increasing demand for indoor monitoring such as absence homes, and an increasing number of households are taking security measures such as monitoring the state of their homes from remote locations and recording video. Therefore, in recent years, a mobile monitoring robot (mobile robot) equipped with a camera, a sensor, and the like has attracted attention (see Patent Document 1).

By installing a mobile robot, it is not necessary to install a plurality of cameras and sensors for each room, and it is also possible to monitor camera images captured by the robot from the outside.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-300950

  However, failure diagnosis and calibration of various sensors associated with the mobile robot are difficult to detect during operation of the mobile robot, and the method is also troublesome because it requires manual confirmation.

  When an imaging system such as a camera is abnormal, command communication with the camera can be performed as usual, but the input image becomes abnormal. In this case, the mobile robot's original monitoring function cannot be performed. Further, an apparatus that performs self-position identification by a method for calculating self-position from an input image of a camera has a problem that self-position identification cannot be performed.

  Furthermore, when an abnormality occurs in the communication part and communication is interrupted, it becomes impossible to send image or audio data.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described unsolved problems of the prior art, and a mobile robot system having a function of automatically performing a fault diagnosis and charging so that the monitoring function of the mobile robot can be performed stably. The purpose is to provide a station.

  The mobile robot system of the present invention includes a mobile robot that incorporates a battery and performs autonomous traveling, a charging station that charges the battery of the mobile robot, homing means that causes the mobile robot to return to the charging station, And a failure diagnosis means for performing a failure diagnosis of the mobile robot at the charging station when the mobile robot returns to the charging station.

  Fault diagnosis can be performed automatically when the battery of the mobile robot is charged. The mobile robot can perform stable and highly accurate autonomous traveling by automatic failure diagnosis at the charging station. In addition, by detecting a failure of the imaging means, it is possible to more reliably monitor and to notify the user of the failure of the mobile robot at an early stage. Furthermore, the monitoring function can be further enhanced by accumulating the recording information of the abnormal state of the monitoring area at the time of communication interruption in the charging station.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a mobile robot system according to an embodiment. FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing a configuration of a robot body 1 of a mobile monitoring robot (mobile robot), and FIG. 1B is a charging station. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of 101. FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing only the robot body 1 of FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the robot body 1 inputs a control means 2, an image input means (camera) 3 that is an image pickup means for picking up an image of a monitoring area (in the work area), and voice and sound. The voice input unit 4, the communication unit 5, and the communication terminal 6 are included. Furthermore, a data storage means 7 for storing imaging data, audio data and control data in the control means 2 and a tilt mechanism 8 for tilting the image input means 3 are provided.

  Also, a travel mechanism 9 for traveling the robot body 1, a distance sensor (obstacle detection means) 10 for detecting an obstacle in the traveling control of the moving robot, and a position detection means for detecting its own position It includes an acceleration sensor 11 and a direction sensor 12 that are configured, and a temperature sensor 13 that detects the ambient temperature. Furthermore, a warning sound output means (notification means) 15 that emits a warning sound when an abnormality in the monitoring area is detected, and a battery 16 for supplying power built in the robot body 1 are provided. Control of the robot body 1 is performed by the control means 2, and the communication terminal 6 connects the image data and the recording data captured by the robot body 1 via the communication means 5, and browses and records them.

  As shown in FIG. 1B, the charging station 101 for supplying power to the robot body 1 is a power supply means (charging terminal) 110 for charging the robot body 1 and control for controlling the charging station 101. Means 102. Furthermore, it has a turn mechanism 103 for rotating the robot body 1 and a turn encoder 104 for calculating a rotation angle.

  Further, the tilt mechanism 105 including the power feeding means 110 and accommodating the robot body 1, the tilt encoder 106 for calculating the tilt angle, and the data (information) stored in the data storage means 7 of the robot body 1 are recorded ( Storage means 107 for saving). Furthermore, a communication unit 108 for communicating with the communication terminal 6, a distance detection unit 111 for performing a failure diagnosis of the distance sensor 10, and an image check unit 112 for performing a failure diagnosis of the image input unit 3. Have. The turn mechanism 103, the turn encoder 104, the tilt mechanism 105, and the tilt encoder 106 constitute a failure diagnosis unit together with the distance detection unit 111 and the image check unit 112.

  When power is supplied to the robot body 1, each block such as the image input means 3 is initialized and a monitoring operation is started. The traveling control of the robot body 1 can be performed autonomously and remotely. The robot body 1 performs position management of the robot body 1 by calculating data from the acceleration sensor 11 and the direction sensor 12 during traveling. The acceleration sensor 11 is a triaxial acceleration sensor. As a result, acceleration such as forward movement, backward movement, turning, and vertical movement can be detected. The direction sensor 12 uses a three-axis gyro sensor. As a result, the moving direction, turning angle, uphill inclination angle, and horizontal inclination angle can be detected.

  In the remote operation, an operation command from the communication terminal 6 is received and the robot body 1 is moved and moved according to the command. At this time, when an obstacle is detected by the distance sensor 10, the vehicle automatically decelerates and stops. Further, the imaging range can be moved in the vertical direction by operating the tilt mechanism 8 by remote control. The tilt mechanism 8 can rotate a range (angle) in which the angle of view of the image input means (camera) 3 can be imaged in the vertical direction of ± 90 degrees vertically.

  The distance sensor 10 uses an ultrasonic sensor, and receives the ultrasonic wave emitted from the transmission means by the reception means, thereby measuring the time from the start of transmission to reception to calculate the distance.

  FIG. 3 shows a state of connection between the communication terminal 6 and the robot body 1. The robot body 1 and the communication terminal 6 are connected by a wireless LAN. By connecting the communication terminal 6 to the Internet 17, it is possible to view the state of the monitoring area from another communication terminal 18 such as another PDA or a mobile phone, or to remotely operate the robot body 1.

  Autonomous traveling travels along the route of the map information. The map information can be created arbitrarily, but can also be automatically created by a map creating means for searching the monitoring area and generating the map information. The map creation means searches and moves every corner of the monitoring area where the robot body 1 is placed, and accumulates the moved range as map information.

  When an obstacle is detected by the distance sensor 10 during autonomous traveling, the vehicle is controlled to travel while avoiding the obstacle.

  Furthermore, the robot body 1 detects an abnormal temperature rise due to a fire, detects an intruder from a captured image, and detects an abnormal sound from the sound data, for example, a sound of broken glass, thereby detecting an abnormality in the monitoring area. Various methods for detecting the abnormality are known as publicly known techniques, but the description thereof is omitted because they are not directly related to the present invention. Further, when these functions detect an abnormality, the abnormal state is notified. For this notification, a warning sound can be generated by the warning sound output means 15, and a notification by telephone or notification by e-mail can be performed. If communication between the robot 1 and the communication terminal 6 is interrupted for some reason, image data and audio data are stored in the data storage means 7 in the robot body 1. The data storage means 7 uses a replaceable nonvolatile semiconductor memory (memory card).

  The robot body 1 detects the remaining capacity of the built-in battery 16 and automatically returns to the charging station 101 automatically when the battery capacity is reduced and automatically returns to the charging station 101, and periodically at regular intervals. Periodic homing means for homing to the charging station 101 is provided. Various methods are known as automatic homing means, but in this embodiment, in addition to the homing means for homing to the charging station 101 based on the position management information, the charging station 101 is recognized by an image. It has multiple means. For example, when the various sensors 10 to 13 of the robot body 1 fail, the accuracy of position management is lowered. In that case, since it becomes impossible to return to the charging station 101, a plurality of methods are used in this way.

  The charging station 101 is controlled to a standby state by the control means 102 while the robot body 1 is in a monitoring operation. When the robot body 1 returns, the robot body 1 communicates with the robot body 1 via the communication means 108 to drive and control the power supply means 110, the turn mechanism 103, and the tilt mechanism 105. Further, when the robot body 1 cannot perform abnormality notification and data is stored in the data storage means 7 of the robot body 1, the stored data is read and stored in the storage means 107. The stored data can be browsed by the communication terminal 6.

  FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the charging station 101, and includes a power feeding means 110 on a turn mechanism 103 having a tilt mechanism 105. As described above, the base 101a is provided with the stand 101b that supports the distance detection unit 111 and the image check unit 112 that constitute the failure diagnosis unit.

  Hereinafter, the failure diagnosis function of the charging station 101 will be described in detail.

  As shown in FIG. 5, when the robot body 1 is accommodated in the charging station 101, it performs failure diagnosis of the various sensors 10 to 13 and the image input means 3 of the robot body 1 separately from charging. FIG. 5A shows a state in which the tilt mechanism 105 of the charging station 101 is driven. The tilt angle is controlled based on the output of the tilt encoder 106, and is controlled to be a predetermined tilt angle. FIG. 5B shows a state where the turn mechanism 103 of the charging station 101 is driven. The turn angle is controlled based on the output of the turn encoder 104, and is controlled to be a predetermined rotation angle.

  By driving the tilt mechanism 105 and the turn mechanism 103, a constant acceleration is output to the acceleration sensor 11 of the robot body 1. In addition, a certain angle is output to the direction sensor 12. Based on this output, failure diagnosis of the acceleration sensor 11 and the direction sensor 12 can be performed.

  The robot body 1 is provided with distance sensors 10 at six places in total, three places for confirming the distance ahead, one place on each of the left and right sides, and one place on the back. The failure diagnosis of the distance sensor 10 is performed by driving the turn mechanism 103 so that the distance sensor 10 and the distance detection unit 111 face each other. The distance to the distance detection unit 111 is a predetermined distance that is predetermined for each distance sensor 10 of the robot body 1. Besides the fault diagnosis, the offset correction amount is calculated by calculating the distance error, and the accuracy of the distance sensor 10 is increased.

  A predetermined pattern is affixed to the image check means 112 of the charging station 101. The image input unit 3 can perform failure diagnosis by capturing and comparing the patterns of the image check unit 112. In addition, by driving the tilt mechanism 8 of the robot body 1, failure diagnosis of the tilt mechanism 8 can be performed together.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a robot body, and FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a charging station. It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance of a robot main body. It is a figure for demonstrating the method of operating a robot main body remotely. It is a perspective view which shows a charging station. It is a figure for demonstrating failure diagnosis work.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Robot main body 2,102 Control means 3 Image input means 4 Voice input means 5 Communication means 6, 18 Communication terminal 7 Data storage means 8, 105 Tilt mechanism 9 Travel mechanism 10 Distance sensor 11 Acceleration sensor 12 Direction sensor 13 Temperature sensor 15 Warning Sound output means 16 Battery 17 Internet 101 Charging station 103 Turn mechanism 104 Turn encoder 106 Tilt encoder 107 Storage means 108 Communication means 110 Power supply means 111 Distance detection means 112 Image check means

Claims (8)

  A mobile robot that autonomously runs with a built-in battery, a charging station that charges the battery of the mobile robot, homing means for homing the mobile robot to the charging station, and the mobile robot homing to the charging station And a failure diagnosis means for performing failure diagnosis of the mobile robot at the charging station.   2. The mobile robot system according to claim 1, wherein the homing means causes the mobile robot to return to the charging station periodically or automatically.   In the charging station, the battery of the mobile robot is connected to a power supply means provided in the charging station to charge the battery, and the failure diagnosis means provides a distance sensor, an acceleration provided in the mobile robot. The mobile robot system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein failure diagnosis of the sensor, the direction sensor, and the imaging means is performed.   4. The mobile robot system according to claim 3, wherein the charging station is provided with storage means for storing information from the imaging means of the mobile robot.   5. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the obstacle detecting means for detecting the obstacle, the position detecting means for detecting the self position, and the voice are input. A mobile robot comprising voice input means and imaging means for imaging the work area.   6. The mobile robot according to claim 5, further comprising a distance sensor, an acceleration sensor, and a direction sensor for constituting the obstacle detection unit and the position detection unit.   The mobile robot according to claim 5 or 6, further comprising an informing means for informing that the mobile robot has failed.   A charging station to which the mobile robot returns regularly or automatically, a failure diagnosis means for diagnosing a failure of the mobile robot, a power supply means for supplying power to a battery provided in the mobile robot, and provided in the mobile robot And a storage means for storing information obtained by the imaging means.

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