JP2006271807A - Traveling work robot - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an autonomous travel work robot always setting a work time according to a size of a room to execute an autonomous travel work and flexibly managing an operation for each room different in a size. <P>SOLUTION: A manually-operated suction mechanism is fixed at manual cleaning. An automatically-operated suction mechanism is fixed at automatic cleaning. A robot body with wheels for moving is used. The robot body is manually operated for cleaning of a room for measurement and storage of the manual cleaning time. After that, at automatically cleaning of the room, an automatic cleaning time is obtained based on the manual cleaning time stored. The robot main body autonomously travels in the room to execute cleaning based on the autonomous cleaning time set. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a traveling work robot in which a robot body performs work by autonomous traveling or manual operation traveling.

Conventionally, a traveling work robot that cleans a room while autonomously traveling is known. However, as shown in FIG. 8, a conventional traveling work robot is provided with an operation unit 2 in a robot body 1 and this operation unit. 2 is provided with three buttons 3 of S, M, and L, and the user selects one of the three buttons 3 according to the size of the room and sets a working time, and autonomously moves to the robot body 1 according to the working time. The thing which performs cleaning by traveling is known (for example, refer nonpatent literature 1).
Internet homepage, [online], [Search August 20, 2004], Internet <URL: http://www.irobot.com/consumer/product_detail.cfm?prodid=8

  However, in the case of selecting one of the three buttons according to the size of the room and setting the working time, only three types of rooms can be supported, and four differently sized rooms are available. When there were more than one type, it was only possible to respond inadequately. Also, even when there was a room larger than the largest room assumed, the lack of work time could only provide an insufficient response. For this reason, it is conceivable to increase the number of selectable rooms and increase the number of selection buttons. However, this increases the size of the operation unit 2 and also increases the operability due to the large number of buttons.

  Accordingly, the present invention provides a traveling work robot that can always set a working time according to the size of a room and execute autonomous traveling work, and can flexibly cope with various rooms of different sizes.

  The present invention relates to a traveling means capable of autonomous traveling and manual operation traveling, a robot body that executes work by traveling of the traveling means, a traveling control means for autonomously controlling the traveling means, and traveling the traveling means by manual operation. Manual operation time measuring means for measuring the manual work time when the robot body is operated in the room, manual work time storage means for storing the manual work time measured by the manual work time measurement means, and traveling Autonomous travel control is performed by the travel control means, and when the robot body performs the same work as when the robot is manually operated on the same room, it is autonomous based on the manual work time stored in the manual work time storage means. An autonomous traveling work time setting means for setting the traveling work time is provided, and the robot body executes autonomous traveling work in the room based on the set autonomous traveling work time. In the door.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a traveling work robot that can always perform an autonomous traveling work by setting a working time according to the size of the room and can flexibly cope with various rooms of different sizes.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a traveling cleaning robot.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration when the robot body 11 is operated by manual operation. A manual operation suction mechanism 13 is attached to the attachment portion 12 of the robot body 11.

  The suction mechanism 13 includes a first extension pipe 15 that is detachably attached to a suction port 14 that slides on the floor surface and sucks dust at one end, and a second extension pipe 17 that has an operation portion 16 attached to one end. The hose 18 is slidably fitted and the hose 18 is extended from the operation portion 16, and the tip of the hose 18 is fitted to the mounting portion 12. A hand switch 19 is disposed on the operation unit 16.

  The robot body 11 incorporates a cleaner mechanism having a dust cup 20 that collects sucked dust, a filter 21, and a cleaner motor 22. The cleaner mechanism generates an air flow by driving the cleaner motor 22, sucks air from the suction port 14 of the suction mechanism 13, and the air is supplied to the first extension pipe 15, the second extension pipe 17, and the operation unit. 16 and the hose 18 in order, and further discharged from the mounting portion 12 through the dust cup 20, the filter 21 and the cleaner motor 22, and at that time, the dust is sucked together, and the dust is sucked into the dust cup. I'm trying to collect it at 20.

  The robot body 11 is provided with wheels 24 that run on the floor 23 as running means on the left and right of the center, and each wheel 24 is independently driven by a wheel motor 25 during autonomous running. In addition, as a traveling means, the thing of a structure like a caterpillar other than a wheel may be sufficient.

  Each wheel 24 is provided with an encoder 26 for detecting rotation as a straight-ahead distance measuring means so as to measure a straight-ahead distance from the number of rotations of the wheel. The robot body 11 also includes a circuit board 27 incorporating a control circuit, a power source for driving the cleaner motor 22 and the wheel motor 25, and a rechargeable battery 28 serving as a power source for driving the control circuit.

  An operation panel 29 is provided on the upper surface of the casing of the robot body 11 and an obstacle sensor 30 for detecting an obstacle during autonomous running is provided on the front side surface. As shown in FIG. 2, the operation panel 29 includes a 7-segment LED 31 for displaying a room number and a “forward” button 32a and a “return” button 32b that constitute a room number designation means 32 for selecting and designating the room number. In addition, a “start” button 33 for starting automatic cleaning for performing cleaning while autonomously traveling and a “stop” button 34 for stopping automatic cleaning are arranged.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control circuit. A CPU (central processing unit) 41 constituting the main body of the control unit is provided. (Only memory) 42, a RAM (random access memory) 43 provided with a memory for temporarily storing data, etc., and a timer 44 used for measuring work time are connected. Further, a cleaner motor control unit 45 that controls the cleaner motor 22 and a wheel motor control unit 46 that controls the left and right wheel motors 25 (25a, 25b) are connected to the CPU 41. The left and right wheel motors 25 (25a, 25b) and the wheel motor control unit 46 constitute a travel control means.

  A power circuit 47 is connected to the battery 28, and a predetermined voltage is supplied from the power circuit 47 to each part. The CPU 41, flash ROM 42, RAM 43, timer 44, cleaner motor control unit 45, wheel motor control unit 46 and power supply circuit 47 are incorporated in the circuit board 27. The CPU 41 takes in the rotational speed of the left wheel 24 from the left encoder 26a, takes in the rotational speed of the right wheel 24 from the right encoder 26b, and takes in an obstacle detection signal from the obstacle sensor 30.

  Further, the hand switch 19 and the operation panel 29 are connected to the CPU 41. The hand switch 19 has a standard button 48 for setting the suction force of the cleaner mechanism as standard when the power is turned on, a strong button 49 for setting the suction force of the cleaner mechanism as strong as the power is turned on, and a cut button 50 for turning on the power. Has been placed.

  In the traveling cleaning robot, when cleaning is carried out autonomously, the manual operation suction mechanism 13 is removed from the attachment portion 12 of the robot body 11, and instead, as shown in FIG. The attached automatic suction mechanism 52 is attached.

  When this traveling cleaning robot is cleaned manually, the user operates the room number selection means 32 on the operation panel 29 of the robot body 11, that is, operates the “forward” button 32a and the “return” button 32b to set the room number. Select and specify. As shown in FIG. 4, when the CPU 41 determines the operation of the room number selection buttons 32a and 32b in S1, the CPU 41 accepts the operation of the selection buttons 32a and 32b in S2, and displays the designated room number on the LED 31. Yes (room number designation means).

  Subsequently, the CPU 41 performs the control shown in FIG. That is, in S11, the operation of the hand switch 19 is determined. In S12, it is determined whether the button is the off button 50. In S13, it is determined whether the button is the standard button 48 or the strong button 49. At the start of cleaning, the user turns on the standard button 48 or the strong button 49 of the hand switch 19, so that when the standard button operation is determined in S13, the cleaner motor 22 is set to the “standard” strength in S14. To drive. If the strong button operation is determined in S13, the cleaner motor 22 is driven with "strong" strength in S15.

  In S16, it is determined whether a room number has been selected. If a room number has been selected, the timer 44 is operated in S17 to start measuring the manual work time, that is, the manual cleaning time. (Manual working time measuring means).

  Thereafter, when it is determined in S12 that the off button 50 has been operated, the cleaner motor 22 is stopped in S18. In S19, it is determined whether a room number is selected. If a room number is selected, the manual cleaning time measured by the timer 44 is stored in the RAM 43 with a room number in S20 (manual). Working time storage means).

  When the room is automatically cleaned, an automatic suction mechanism 52 is attached instead of the manual operation suction mechanism 13 as shown in FIG. Then, the room number selection means 32 on the operation panel 29 of the robot body 11 is operated to designate the room number. The designated room number is displayed on the LED 31. When the start button 33 is operated in this state, the robot body 11 starts cleaning while autonomously running.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 6, when the CPU 41 determines the operation of the start button 33 in S21, it determines whether a room number is designated in S22. When the user designates a room number, the manual cleaning time is set in advance for the room number. Therefore, when the designation of the room number is determined, in S23, the autonomous running work is performed based on the manual cleaning time corresponding to the room number. The automatic cleaning time which is time is set (first autonomous running work time setting means).

This setting is performed using a manual cleaning time model and an automatic cleaning time model.
In other words, the manual cleaning time model is a model related to “cleaning time relative to the size of a room when a person manually cleans”, and can be obtained by a user questionnaire or an experiment in which a standard floor plan is actually cleaned. . This model
(Standard manual cleaning time) = F (room size) (1)
If we take this inverse function,
(Room size) = F ⁻¹ (standard manual cleaning time) (2)
Therefore, if this equation (2) is used,
(Estimated room size) = F ⁻¹ (Measured manual cleaning time) (3)
Thus, the size of the room can be estimated from the manual cleaning time.

On the other hand, the automatic cleaning time model is a model related to “cleaning time relative to the size of the room when the robot automatically cleans”, and with some standard floor plans determined for the experiment, the robot is cleaned at random running, For example, the time required to reach a floor coverage ratio of 98% (showing a state where 98% of the room area has been cleaned) is obtained by computer simulation. This model
(Standard automatic cleaning time) = G (room size) (4)
Represent as By using the equation (3), it is possible to estimate the size of the room from the manual cleaning time, so by substituting the equation (3) into the equation (4),
(Automatic cleaning time) = G (F ⁻¹ (measured manual cleaning time)) (5)
Thus, the automatic cleaning time can be determined from the manual cleaning time by the equation (5).

  When the setting of the automatic cleaning time is thus completed, the cleaner motor 22 is activated to start cleaning in S24, and time counting by the timer 44 is started. Further, the left and right wheel motors 25a and 25b are rotationally driven to start random traveling. Thus, the robot body 11 starts automatic cleaning while performing random running. In the automatic cleaning, the robot body 11 detects an obstacle such as a wall by the obstacle sensor 30, and controls to run so as not to collide with the obstacle.

  In this state, when the count time of the timer 44 reaches the set automatic cleaning time, a time-out is determined, the random running of the robot body 11 is stopped in S25, and the cleaner motor 22 is stopped in S26. Thus, the automatic cleaning is finished.

  In this way, the automatic cleaning time is set based on the time when the user manually cleans the room in advance, and the corresponding room is automatically cleaned according to the automatic cleaning time, so the automatic cleaning time that matches the size of the room Can be set. Therefore, even if the sizes of the rooms are different, it is possible to always set an automatic cleaning time according to the size of the room, and it is possible to flexibly cope with various rooms having different sizes.

  If the user performs automatic cleaning without specifying a room number, the manual cleaning time is not set in advance in this room, so the CPU 41 determines in S22 that the room number has not been specified, and S27. Then, the cleaner motor 22 is started, and the left and right wheel motors 25a, 25b are rotationally driven in S28 to start cleaning while running at random, and the timer 44 starts counting time.

  In S29, the measurement of the straight distance is started for a predetermined time set in advance using the left and right encoders 26a and 26b. When the timer 44 counts a predetermined time, a timeout is determined, and in S30, the measurement of the straight-ahead distance is terminated (straight-ahead distance measuring means).

That is, the robot body 11 travels randomly in the room while traveling autonomously for a predetermined time, and when it approaches the wall, the obstacle sensor 30 detects it, changes its direction, and moves straight to another wall again. Repeat while cleaning. In this way, the straight travel is repeated several times between the walls, and the straight travel distance measured each time is stored in the RAM 43 (straight travel distance storage means).
In S31, the automatic cleaning time is set from the measured straight distance (second autonomous running work time setting means).

  In order to determine the automatic cleaning time based on the straight-ahead distance, a model of “the size of the room with respect to the straight-ahead distance during random driving” and an automatic cleaning time model are used. The model of “room size relative to straight distance during random driving” can be obtained by measuring the relationship between straight distance and room size by computer simulation in standard layout. In modeling, various methods such as a method using the “maximum value of the straight travel distance”, a method using the “average value of the straight travel distance”, and a method using the “median value of the straight travel distance” can be considered.

For example, if you model using the "maximum value of straight travel distance"
(Room size) = H (Maximum straight distance) (6)
It becomes. By substituting the maximum value of the straight distance obtained during random travel for a predetermined time from the start of automatic cleaning into equation (6), the size of the room can be estimated.

Substituting this estimated room size into the automatic cleaning time model in equation (4) above,
(Automatic cleaning time) = G (H (maximum value of straight travel distance)) (7)
Thus, the time required to automatically clean the room can be calculated from the maximum value of the straight-ahead distance obtained during the random travel for a predetermined time from the start of automatic cleaning.

  When the automatic cleaning time is set in S31, the robot main body 11 continues the automatic cleaning in accordance with the set automatic cleaning time in S24. Since the timer 44 has already counted the predetermined time, the timer 44 continues counting from the predetermined time.

  When the count time of the timer 44 reaches the set automatic cleaning time, a time-out is determined, and the random running of the robot body 11 is stopped in S25, and the cleaner motor 22 is stopped in S26. Thus, the automatic cleaning is finished.

Thus, when automatically cleaning a room for which manual cleaning time has not been set in advance, automatic cleaning is started by random running, and straight distance measurement is performed for the first predetermined time while performing automatic cleaning. Then, the size of the room is estimated from the maximum value of the straight distance measured in a predetermined time, and the automatic cleaning time necessary for automatically cleaning the room is obtained from the estimated room size, and the automatic cleaning is performed according to the automatic cleaning time. Therefore, automatic cleaning can be performed by setting a cleaning time corresponding to the size of the room even for a room for which manual cleaning time is not set in advance. Therefore, also in this case, the automatic cleaning time according to the size of the room can always be set, and various rooms with different sizes can be flexibly dealt with.
Further, when the automatic cleaning time is set by such a method, the configuration of the operation panel 29 does not increase in size and complexity.

In this embodiment, when automatically cleaning a room for which manual cleaning time has not been set in advance, the straight distance measurement is performed for the first predetermined time while performing automatic cleaning, and the automatic cleaning time obtained thereafter is determined. Although what continues automatic cleaning was described, it does not necessarily limit to this. That is, automatic cleaning may not be performed at the time of linear distance measurement, but automatic cleaning may be started according to the automatic cleaning time after measuring the linear distance and obtaining the automatic cleaning time.
In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a traveling cleaning robot. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a robot that performs work other than cleaning in a room.

The whole block diagram when operating the robot main body by manual operation which shows embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the structure of the operation panel of the robot main body in the embodiment. The block diagram which shows the structure of the control circuit of the embodiment. The flowchart which shows the process at the time of room number selection button operation of the robot main body in the embodiment. The flowchart which shows a process when operating and cleaning a robot main body manually in the embodiment. The flowchart which shows a process when autonomously driving and cleaning a robot main body in the embodiment. The whole block diagram when carrying out autonomous running operation | movement of the robot main body in the embodiment. The top view which shows a prior art example.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Robot main body, 13 ... Manual operation suction mechanism, 20 ... Dust cup, 22 ... Cleaner motor, 24 ... Wheel, 25 (25a, 25b) ... Wheel motor, 26 (26a, 26b) ... Encoder, 41 ... CPU ( Central processing unit), 43 ... RAM (random access memory), 44 ... timer, 52 ... automatic suction mechanism.

Claims (5)

Traveling means capable of autonomous traveling and manual operation traveling;
A robot body that performs work by running of the running means;
Traveling control means for autonomously controlling the traveling means;
Manual operation time measuring means for measuring the manual operation time when the robot body is operated in a room by running the traveling means by manual operation;
Manual work time storage means for storing the manual work time measured by the manual work time measurement means;
Manual work stored in the manual work time storage means when the travel means is autonomously controlled by the travel control means to cause the robot body to perform the same work as when the robot is manually operated on the same room. Autonomous traveling work time setting means for setting the autonomous traveling work time based on the time,
The robot main body performs an autonomous traveling task in a room based on a set autonomous traveling task time. Traveling means capable of autonomous traveling and manual operation traveling;
A robot body that performs work by running of the running means;
Traveling control means for autonomously controlling the traveling means;
A room number specifying means for specifying a room number;
Manual operation time measuring means for measuring the manual operation time when the robot body is operated in a room by running the traveling means by manual operation;
Manual work time storage means for discriminating and storing the manual work time measured by the manual work time measurement means by the room number when the running means is driven manually by specifying the room number with the room number specifying means. When,
When the traveling means is autonomously controlled by the traveling control means to cause the robot body to perform the same operation as when manually operating the room of the room number designated by the robot body, the manual operation time storage means stores An autonomous traveling work time setting means for setting the autonomous traveling work time based on the manual working time of the corresponding room number,
The robot main body performs an autonomous traveling task in a room based on a set autonomous traveling task time. Traveling means capable of autonomous traveling and manual operation traveling;
A robot body that performs work by running of the running means;
Traveling control means for autonomously controlling the traveling means;
The traveling means is a random traveling control from wall to wall in the room for a certain period of time, and a straight distance measuring means for measuring a straight distance between the plurality of times,
A straight distance storage means for storing a plurality of straight distances measured by the straight distance measurement means;
When the straight travel distance measurement by the straight travel distance measurement means is completed, the autonomous travel work time setting means for setting the autonomous travel work time based on the straight travel distance stored in the straight travel distance storage means,
The robot main body performs an autonomous traveling task in a room based on a set autonomous traveling task time. Traveling means capable of autonomous traveling and manual operation traveling;
A robot body that performs work by running of the running means;
Traveling control means for autonomously controlling the traveling means;
A room number specifying means for specifying a room number;
Manual operation time measuring means for measuring the manual operation time when the robot body is operated in a room by running the traveling means by manual operation;
Manual work time storage means for discriminating and storing the manual work time measured by the manual work time measurement means by the room number when the running means is driven manually by specifying the room number with the room number specifying means. When,
When the traveling means is autonomously controlled by the traveling control means to cause the robot body to perform the same operation as when manually operating the room of the room number designated by the robot body, the manual operation time storage means stores First autonomous traveling work time setting means for setting the autonomous traveling work time based on the manual working time of the corresponding room number,
When autonomously running a room with a room number for which no manual work time is stored in the manual work time storage means, the travel means is controlled to run randomly from wall to wall for a certain period of time, and the straight travel distance therebetween is determined multiple times. A straight distance measuring means for measuring,
A straight distance storage means for storing a plurality of straight distances measured by the straight distance measurement means;
A second autonomous traveling work time setting unit configured to set an autonomous traveling work time based on the straight traveling distance stored in the straight traveling distance storage unit when the straight traveling distance measurement by the straight traveling distance measuring unit is completed;
The robot main body performs an autonomous traveling task in a room based on a set autonomous traveling task time.   5. The traveling work robot according to claim 3, wherein the straight traveling distance measuring means measures a straight traveling distance while performing autonomous traveling work.

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