JPH07160334A - Rough road control device for traveling robot - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide an uneven road surface traveling control device for a traveling robot, which controls the speed so that the traveling robot can safely travel below an endurance impact value on an uneven road surface. An uneven road surface traveling control device mounted on a traveling robot traveling on a road surface according to rotation of wheels, comprising: an uneven surface detecting means (1) for detecting an uneven surface height of a road surface ahead of the traveling robot in a traveling direction. A speed detecting means (2) for detecting a traveling speed of the traveling robot, a speed control means (3) for controlling a traveling speed of the traveling robot, and a direction control means (4) for controlling a traveling direction of the traveling robot. Then, it is determined whether or not the traveling speed detected by the speed detecting means exceeds a travelable speed set in advance for the uneven height detected by the unevenness detecting means. And an unevenness passage control means (5) for instructing the speed control means to reduce the traveling speed of the traveling robot to the travelable speed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an uneven road surface traveling control device including overcoming of unevenness of a traveling robot running on a road surface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A self-propelled traveling robot that travels on a road surface using wheels is used in hospitals, factories and the like. The initial traveling robot system is provided with a guiding guide such as a magnetic tape or a reflecting tape along a predetermined traveling route, and travels while detecting the guiding guide with a sensor on the robot side. Recently, in order to avoid the complexity of the installation and maintenance work of the guide guide, a guideless traveling robot that does not use the guide guide has been actively developed.

Usually, the road surface in the facility where the traveling robot travels is designed to be flat. However, when a telephone line or the like is attached after construction, a convex portion due to a cord cover or a concave portion caused by depression or the like is forward in the traveling direction. May appear in. The standard for conventional traveling robots is height (depth)
As a general rule, irregularities exceeding 5 mm should be avoided or stopped without passing.

However, even if the above-mentioned cord cover has a height of about 15 mm, if it is not possible to get over this, there is a restriction that even a telephone line cannot be attached in order to secure the traveling route of the robot. The conventional restriction on the road surface unevenness also has a meaning of preventing the robot from tipping over by overcoming a convex portion or falling by overcoming a concave portion such as stairs. However, if the height is such that there is no fear of falling or falling, even if the unevenness exceeds 5 mm, it should be possible to control over the unevenness.

[0005]

However, as the height of the uneven portion increases and the traveling speed of the robot increases, the impact received by the robot body cannot be ignored. This is because the impact generated at the time of collision with the uneven portion adversely affects the control mechanism, the electronic circuit, the transported object, etc. mounted on the robot.

According to the present invention, by controlling the speed so that the traveling robot can safely travel on an uneven road surface at a durability impact value or less, it is possible to remove restrictions on the traveling road surface of the robot as much as possible. An object is to provide a road surface traveling control device.

[0007]

The present invention relates to an uneven road surface traveling control device mounted on a traveling robot which travels on a road surface according to rotation of wheels, wherein the uneven height of the road surface ahead of the traveling robot in the traveling direction. Unevenness detecting means for detecting the traveling speed, speed detecting means for detecting the traveling speed of the traveling robot, speed control means for controlling the traveling speed of the traveling robot,
When it is determined that the direction control means for controlling the traveling direction of the traveling robot and the unevenness height detected by the unevenness detection means exceed a preset possible travel speed, the speed control means is instructed. An unevenness passage control unit that reduces the traveling speed of the traveling robot to the travelable speed.

In this case, when it is determined that the detected traveling speed is less than the travelable speed, the unevenness passage control means also carries out the present condition maintenance control of passing the unevenness while maintaining the traveling speed.

Further, when it is determined that the detected unevenness height exceeds the height at which the detected unevenness can be safely overridden, the unevenness passage control means instructs the direction control means to avoid the unevenness. And changing the traveling direction of the traveling robot or instructing the speed control means to stop the traveling robot together.

The travelable speed is the maximum speed at which the impact value received when the robot collides is within the durable impact value that does not affect the mounted equipment. This travelable speed is obtained in advance by actual measurement or calculation for various uneven heights to create a table of travelable speed-uneven road surface height, which is used during uneven road traveling control. In the calculation, the weight of the robot and the wheel diameter are also factors. The speed detected by the speed detecting means may be a target speed for speed control.

[0011]

Operation: The traveling robot always detects the height of the unevenness in the front in the traveling direction during traveling. When unevenness of a certain height is detected,
It is determined whether or not the current traveling speed exceeds the allowable traveling speed for the detected height of the unevenness, and if it is determined that the traveling speed exceeds the allowable traveling speed, the traveling speed is reduced to the traveling possible speed to reduce the unevenness. Get over. By doing so, it is possible to safely get over the unevenness of up to about 20 mm without stopping or avoiding it.

In this case, if a table of the travelable speed based on the actually measured data and the uneven road surface height is stored in the ROM or the like and used, the robot can be overcome accurately and in real time without stopping immediately before the unevenness. It becomes possible to judge whether or not.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments of the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the outer appearance of a traveling robot according to the present invention. In this figure, 10 is a traveling robot main body, 11 is its driving wheels, 12 is auxiliary wheels such as casters, 13 is an unevenness sensor such as a CCD camera mounted on the robot main body 10, 20 is a road surface on which the robot 10 travels, 21 Is an uneven portion existing on the road surface 20.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the uneven road surface traveling control device of the present invention. In this figure, 1
Is an unevenness detector that detects the height H of the unevenness 21 existing on the road surface 20 ahead of the traveling robot 10 in the traveling direction from the output of the unevenness detector 13. Reference numeral 2 is a speed detection unit that detects the current traveling speed V of the traveling robot 10, and 3 is the traveling robot 10.
The speed control unit 4 for controlling the traveling speed V of 4 is a direction control unit for controlling the traveling direction of the traveling robot 10.

The reference numeral 5 indicates a travelable speed V detected by the speed detecting unit 2 which is a travelable speed set in advance for the height H of the unevenness detected by the unevenness detecting unit 1 (V which will be described later).
It is a concave-convex passage control unit that determines whether or not i) is exceeded, and when it is determined that it is exceeded, the speed control unit 3 is instructed to reduce the traveling speed V of the traveling robot 10 to the travelable speed Vi. Reference numeral 6 denotes a travelable speed table that holds various uneven heights Hi and travelable speeds Vi corresponding thereto as table data. The unevenness passage control unit 5 controls the speed control unit 3 and the direction control unit 4 with reference to the travelable speed table 6.

The speed controller 3 controls the motor 14 for rotating the drive wheels 11 to feedback-control the traveling speed of the robot. The target of the feedback control is the target speed specified by the traveling program including the mapping data. The speed detection unit 2 detects the actual traveling speed V from the output of the encoder 15 that rotates in conjunction with the drive wheels 11. The unevenness passage control unit 5 can use the target speed used by the speed control unit 3 instead of the traveling speed. The direction control unit 4 controls a direction changing mechanism 16 that can change the direction of the drive wheels 11 within a plane parallel to the road surface 20.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram when the configuration of FIG. 2 is realized by using a CPU. In this figure, 3
1 is a CPU that controls the entire system, 32 is this CPU
ROM storing programs used in 31; 33 RAM for expanding data; 34 various output devices; 35 various input devices; 36 connection means such as RS232C; 37 timer for measuring time; 38 motor A driver for driving 14 and a bus 39 for connecting the entire system including the road surface data detector (unevenness detector) 13 and the encoder 15 described above.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the internal structure of the ROM 32. In addition to the OS and the basic program for command analysis, the ROM 32 stores table data of the possible traveling speed and the uneven road surface height necessary for the uneven running control of the present invention. This portion corresponds to the travelable speed table 6 described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the internal structure of the travelable speed table 6. This table 6 is for each of the uneven road surface heights Hi (where i = 1, 2,
, N), the maximum speed at which the impact value received by the robot 10 at the time of collision is less than the safe endurance impact value is described as the travelable speed Vi. In this example, H1 <H2 <...
<Hn, V1>V2>...> Vn,
Hmax is a height that cannot be safely overcome even if the speed V is reduced below Vn.

FIG. 6 shows that the running robot 10 having its own weight of about 70 kg and the wheel diameter of the driving wheel 11 of 200 mm is actually run while passing over the cord cover having a step H = about 15 mm. It is the actual measurement data showing the time change of the angular acceleration. Set the running speed V to 0.
When 3 m / s and 0.4 m / s were set and each measurement was performed 3 times, the maximum angular acceleration was + direction Rp and-direction R
The value of m was as shown in the following table.

[0021]

[Table 1]

[0022]

[Table 2]

Instead of the individual measurements shown in the table above,
Focusing on the average value, the speed is 0.3 m / s to 0.4 m
/ S about 33% increase, Rp increases by 24%, Rm
It turns out that it has increased by 32%. Since the angular acceleration is reflected on the magnitude of the impact, it can be easily understood that the impact value received by the robot 10 is reduced by reducing the traveling speed even if the height of the unevenness is the same.

In the uneven road surface traveling control device shown in FIG. 2, based on the above consideration, the unevenness detecting unit 1 always detects the unevenness height H in the front in the running direction, and the speed detecting unit 2 always runs the running speed V.
To detect. Then, the unevenness passage control unit 5 uses the unevenness detection unit 1
With reference to the runnable table 6 at the uneven height H input from, the corresponding runnable speed Vi is read out. On the other hand, the traveling speed V input from the speed detection unit 2 is compared with the travelable speed Vi, and the uneven traveling control as described below is performed.

That is, if (1) V ≦ Vi, the current speed V
The current state maintenance control is performed so that the uneven portion 21 is overcome while maintaining the above condition. (2) If V> Vi, the speed control unit 3 is instructed to perform the deceleration passage control for lowering V = Vi and overcoming the uneven portion 21. (3) When H ≧ Hmax,
The speed control unit 3 is given a stop instruction to set V = 0 or a direction control unit 4 is instructed to avoid the unevenness portion 21 so as to bypass the unevenness portion 21.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the speed can be controlled so that the traveling robot can safely travel on an uneven road surface at a durability impact value or less, so that restrictions on the road surface on which the robot travels can be reduced as much as possible. It is possible to provide an uneven road surface traveling control device for a traveling robot.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an appearance of a traveling robot according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram when the configuration of FIG. 2 is realized by using a CPU.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal configuration of a ROM.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal configuration of a travelable speed table.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing measured data of angular acceleration applied to a traveling robot when climbing over a step.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Unevenness detection part, 2 ... Speed detection part, 3 ... Speed control part, 4
... Direction control unit, 5 ... Concavo-convex passage control unit, 6 ... Travelable speed table, 10 ... Traveling robot, 11 ... Drive wheel, 13 ...
Concavity / convexity detector, 14 ... Motor, 15 ... Encoder, 16 ...
Traveling direction changing mechanism, 20 ... Road surface, 21 ... Uneven portion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An uneven road surface traveling control device mounted on a traveling robot traveling on a road surface according to rotation of wheels, comprising: an uneven surface detecting means for detecting an uneven surface height of a road surface in front of a traveling direction of the traveling robot; Speed detection means for detecting the traveling speed of the traveling robot, speed control means for controlling the traveling speed of the traveling robot, direction control means for controlling the traveling direction of the traveling robot, and speed detection means The traveling speed is
It is determined whether the unevenness height detected by the unevenness detection means exceeds a preset travelable speed,
When it is determined to exceed, the uneven road passage control of the traveling robot, comprising: unevenness passage control means for instructing the speed control means to reduce the traveling speed of the traveling robot to the travelable speed. apparatus.