JPS6042673B2 - Mobile monitoring device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a remote monitoring system for working in environments where it is dangerous for humans to directly engage in work, such as radioactivity, high temperature and low humidity, dangerous gases, and underwater, and more specifically, This relates to monitoring equipment for mobile objects located on the ground.

If you think about it, the conventional way to remotely control this is
There is a master-slave method in which the manipulator is operated by operating an input device with a similar shape to the manipulator body, a method in which the actuators for driving each joint of the manipulator are individually moved using switches or joysticks, and a method in which coordinate conversion is performed using an electronic computer. There are several methods to drive the motor.

However, either method requires a television camera to monitor the working conditions. In the case of conventional manual operation, the work is still easy if the driver simply looks at the object to be monitored by adjusting the direction of the TV camera, but if the driver does not have to use a manipulator other than the TV camera When it becomes necessary to operate a vehicle, the work becomes intermittent, resulting in extremely poor operability and inefficiency.
An object of the present invention is to automate the monitoring work in such remote control work, eliminate the driver's work of adjusting the direction of the television camera, and enable the driver to concentrate on other main control work.

The present invention controls the direction of the television camera so that the optical axis of the television camera passes through the monitoring point of interest of the mobile object, based on the movement position coordinates of the mobile object and the position coordinates of the television camera with respect to the mobile object coordinate system. In addition, the distance between the point of view of the moving object and the television camera is determined, and the blurring of the image due to the movement of the moving object to be monitored is corrected by a focus adjustment mechanism. The present invention is characterized in that each time the monitoring target image of a moving body displayed on the screen exceeds a predetermined range within the television monitor, the target image is moved to the center of the television monitor screen. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a remotely controlled manipulator and its monitoring device. In the figure, 1 is the manipulator and 2 is a television camera for monitoring work.

As the manipulator 1, consider, for example, one having three degrees of freedom for positioning, three degrees of freedom for orientation, and one degree of freedom for gripping, as shown in FIG.

When the driver operates the input device to move the actuator for driving each joint, the position and direction of the hand portion 3 changes within the work space, allowing the necessary work to be performed. Now, the mounting part of manipulator 1 (the part corresponding to the shoulder part)
0M is considered to be the origin of the orthogonal coordinate system in the work section, and the coordinates of the gripping center 00 point of the hand portion 3 are (Xc, Yc, Zc). By detecting the rotation angles of the joints 4 to 6 of the wrist, the joints 7 of the elbow, and the joints 8 and 9 of the shoulder, and calculating the coordinate transformation of the rotational motion, the center of the hand 4 when operating the manipulator 1 can be determined. The coordinates (Xc, Yc, ZO) of position 00 can be known from calculations based on the rotation angles of the joints.
On the other hand, the swinging device 10 of the front end camera 2 includes a pan mechanism 11 that swings the television camera 2 in the left-right direction and a tilt mechanism 12 that swings the television camera 2 in the vertical direction. If the coordinates of the orthogonal point 0T (referred to as the center point of the rocking device 10 of the camera 2) of the two axes of the panning direction and the tilting direction of the television camera 2 are (XT, YT, ZT), then this center point 0T and the manipulator Distance 0c0 from the center point 00 of the hand portion 3 of 1
can be easily obtained from the values of (Xc, Yc, Zc) and XT, YT, ZT).
The rotation angle 0p of the pan mechanism 11 and the rotation angle 0T of the tilt mechanism 12 necessary for the optical axis of the manipulator 7 to intersect with the center 0c of the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 7 can also be determined by calculation. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the control circuit of the swinging device 10 of the television camera 2.
14 is a detector for detecting the rotation angle of each joint of the manipulator 1, and 14 is a coordinate of the center point 0c of the hand portion 3 based on the rotation angle of each joint of the manipulator 1 from the detector 13. , Zc). Further, 11 represents a pan mechanism, 12 represents a tilt mechanism, and 15 represents a focus adjustment mechanism for adjusting the focus of the television camera 2. 16 is a swing input circuit, and this circuit 16 inputs the output (XO, Yc, Zc) of the coordinate conversion calculation circuit 14 and the coordinates (XT,
YT, ZT), the optical axis of the television camera 2 is the center point 0 of the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1. It generates the rotation angles RP and rTl of the pan mechanism and tilt mechanism necessary for passing through the center, and the adjustment target signal R of the focus adjustment mechanism 15. The panning mechanism 11 is composed of an arithmetic amplifier 17, an actuator 18, and a rotation angle detector 19, and constitutes a servo system that moves the actuator 18 so that the input angle signal Rp matches the actual rotation angle 0p. are doing. Similarly to the pan mechanism 11, the tilt mechanism 12 also has an amplifier 20.
, the actuator 21 and the detector 22 control the vertical swing angle of the television camera 2 so that the input angle signal R and the rotation angle θ match. The focus adjustment mechanism 15 is
The actuator 23 and its output displacement θ, the detector 24 that detects the target focus adjustment value R, and the actual adjustment value output θ
, and an operational amplifier 25 that drives the actuator 20 to reduce the deviation. Next, the operation of the above-described apparatus of the present invention will be explained.

When the driver remotely controls the manipulator 1 while looking at the image of the vicinity of the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1 displayed on the TV monitor, when the driver changes the position and posture of the hand portion 3 according to the task, the angle of each joint changes. The signal is detected by detector 13. Then, the coordinate conversion calculation circuit 14 calculates the position of the center of the hand portion 3 based on the signal from the detector 13.
The coordinate signal X of the center point 0c of the hand portion 3 which is the result of this calculation
c, Yc, and Zc are transmitted to the swing input circuit 16, and are used to determine the target angle R at which the pan mechanism 11 and tilt mechanism 12 should operate.
Generate P, rT. The pan mechanism 11, tilt mechanism 12, and focus adjustment mechanism 15 operate in accordance with instructions from the swing input circuit 16 so that the optical axis of the television camera 2 always coincides with the center point 0c of the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1. controlled. As a result, even if the driver moves the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1 during work, the driver can observe the hand portion of the manipulator 1 even near the center of the television monitor 25, as shown in FIG. Remote work can be performed smoothly and safely. In the explanation so far, the swing device 10 of the television camera 2 has been operated to track the position of the center 00 of the hand portion 3, but depending on the content of the work, it may be possible to track an arbitrary point such as the tip of the hand. Needless to say, it can be done.

In the control system shown in FIG. 2, the television camera 2 always swings in response to the movement of the hand of the manipulator 1, but within the range 26 indicated by a broken line on the screen of the television monitor 25 in FIG. When the hand is moving, the viewing angle of the television camera 2 (the direction of the rocking device 10) does not change, and the television camera 2 is set so that it tracks the center 0c of the hand when the hand exceeds the area 26 indicated by the broken line. It is also possible to control the movement of the rocking device 10.

In this case, the displacements ΔX, ΔY, and Δz of the center 0c of the hand are converted into a coordinate system in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the television camera 2 (this plane corresponds to the screen of the television monitor 25),
If the displacements Δξ and Δη of the vertical axis ξ and horizontal axis η of the plane parallel to the screen of the television monitor 25 are within the range 26 shown by the broken line, for example, the servo device for tracking the television camera shown in FIG. First, tracking may be started when the specified range 26 is exceeded. Thinking on the TV monitor screen, area 26
It is possible that the tracking operation continues continuously at the time when the center 0c of the hand section crosses the area 26, but each time the area 26 is crossed,
It is also possible to move the center 0c of the hand to the center of the screen of the television monitor. An example of the image moving means for moving the above-mentioned target image to the center of the television monitor screen is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
The diagram will be explained.

First, to determine whether or not the image of the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1 is off the surface of the television monitor 25, the line connecting the swing center of the television camera 2 and the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1 is This can be done depending on whether or not the angle of view is within the range of the angle of view.

Therefore, when operating the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1 to grasp a target object, it is easier to perform the work by enlarging the target object as much as possible on the screen of the television monitor 25.

Therefore, the following description will be made assuming that the television camera 2 uses a zoom lens. The horizontal angle of view AH and the vertical angle of view Av of the television camera 2 having a zoom lens are the fourth
As shown in the figure, let η be a variable related to zooming.

However, AH is a proportional constant of the horizontal view angle, and Av is a proportional constant of the vertical view angle. And the rocking device 1 shown in FIG.
The target pan angle and tilt angle of the straight line connecting the center point 0c of the hand portion 3 of the manipulator 1 and the center 0T of the rocking device 10 in the zero coordinate system are respectively RP and rT, and the actual angle of the rocking device 10 is Pan angle, tilt angle (i.e. direction of optical axis)
Let θP and θd be respectively, then the condition for the hand portion 3 to be on the screen of the television monitor 25 is as follows.

That is, when this judgment condition is no longer satisfied, if the swinging device 10 is driven so that R9-θ, RT-θ1, the hand portion 3 moves to the center of the screen of the television monitor 25. It turns out. The configuration of an image movement circuit for performing the image movement described above will be described with reference to FIG.

Since the panning and tilting circuits of a television camera can be configured in exactly the same way, FIG. 5 will be explained based on the panning circuit.

In this figure, the same parts as in FIG. 2 are the same.
The target pan angle Rp calculated by the swing input circuit 16 is applied as an input to the hand pan angle input section 27.

This input is sent to a detector 19 that detects the pan angle of the rocking device 10.
The difference between the pan angle θ2 and the pan angle θ2 detected at In this dead band circuit 29, the conditional expression 1rp-θp1 shown earlier is
<It is determined whether or not AH is satisfied, and if it is satisfied, the output is 0, and if it is not satisfied, a certain signal is output to the fixed time timer 30. When the fixed time timer 30 receives an input signal, it outputs a signal to the relay 31 for a certain period of time, and is reset after the elapse of the certain period of time. The relay 31 is a normally open type, and the fixed timer 30
The clay circuit is closed in response to a signal from the oscillator, and the circuit for driving the swinging device 10 is closed, thereby forming a servo system. Therefore, an input is applied to the amplifier 32 until the actual pan angle θP of the rocking device 10 becomes equal to the target pan angle Rp. As a result, the panning actuator 18 is driven.
The output time of the fixed time timer 30 is determined by this servo system as Rp=
It is sufficient to set the time enough for it to become 0p. In order to make the dead band width determined by the dead band circuit 29 equal to the angle of view of the television camera 2, when the zooming number η is input to the terminal 33, the proportional constant value A is changed by the coefficient unit 34.
It is multiplied by H and adjusted to the dead band width of AH. With the above explanation, it is possible to perform control so that the image of the hand of the manipulator is always on the screen of the television monitor 25.

Although the above-mentioned embodiment has been described with respect to the case where there is one television camera, even in the case of a stereo television system using two television cameras, the hands of the manipulator can be monitored in exactly the same way.

As described in detail above, the present invention is configured so that the direction of the television camera can be controlled so that the optical axis of the television camera passes through the monitoring point of view of a moving object located in a remote location. It is no longer necessary to adjust the direction of the television gong mera. As a result, the driver's fatigue level can be reduced. Furthermore, according to the present invention, the driver can now concentrate on other main operation tasks by eliminating the task of adjusting the direction of the television camera, which the driver has been involved in up until now. Overall operability and work efficiency can be significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a mobile object monitoring device, Fig. 2 is a control circuit diagram of a swinging device of a television camera, and Fig. 3 is a portion of a television monitor. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating changes in the angle of view of the television camera.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an image moving circuit. 1... Manipulator, 2... TV camera, 10... Rocking device for TV camera 2,
11...Pan mechanism, 12...Tilt mechanism, 15...Focus adjustment mechanism, 25...
TV monitor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a remote control system that photographs the moving tip of a movable body to be monitored located in a remote location with a television camera and remotely moves the moving body based on this photographic information, the moving tip of the movable body is determined based on the amount of movement of the movable body. The optical axis of the television camera is always aligned with the moving body by a circuit for determining the position coordinates of the moving body, the position coordinates of the moving tip of the moving body from this circuit, and the center point position coordinates of the television camera with respect to the moving body coordinate system. a tracking means for servo-controlling the television camera to match the moving tip of the moving object; a focus adjusting means for adjusting the focus of the television camera by determining the distance between the television camera and the moving tip of the moving object; and a screen of the television monitor. A mobile object monitoring system comprising: image moving means for moving the target image of the mobile object projected onto the screen to the center of the television monitor screen each time the target image of the mobile object exceeds a predetermined range between the television cameras. Device.