JPS624271B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a traveling device that is capable of not only traveling on general flat ground, but also stable horizontal traveling on sloped land and ascending and descending stairs.

Places where there is a risk of being exposed to large amounts of radiation inside a nuclear power plant, places with extremely poor working environments such as chemical plating factories, or places where it is necessary to frequently climb up and down or move along sloped surfaces. ,
There is a desire for machines to perform tasks that were traditionally performed by humans. For this purpose, it is necessary to remotely operate a traveling device equipped with various work equipment, and various types of such devices have already been put into practical use.

However, in the aforementioned nuclear power plants, etc., the width of the stairs and landings are narrow and steep due to space constraints, and there are narrow areas and uneven parts everywhere, so conventionally known traveling devices are not used. I can't do that at all.

From this point of view, an object of the present invention is to provide a traveling device that can freely run even in narrow spaces and on steep stairs.

The configuration of the traveling device of the present invention that achieves this objective is that two wheels that can be driven and rotated independently are coaxially mounted on the left and right sides of the lower part of the device body, and a driving device that has a pivot axis parallel to the axis of rotation of these wheels. The base ends of the legs, each consisting of a bendable leg joint and two arms connected to each other via the leg joint, are in total four legs, parallel to the axis of rotation of the wheel, on the left, right, front and back of the upper part of the device body, respectively. The legs are connected via drive-rotatable joints having a pivot axis, and the distance between the front and rear joints is set shorter than the length of the arm, and the tip of the leg has a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the wheel. The present invention is characterized in that the rollers are rotatably provided.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the traveling device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8. FIG. 1a shows the front appearance of this embodiment, and FIG. As shown in Figures 1b and 1c, on the left and right sides of the lower part of the device main body 11, various devices (not shown) corresponding to the purpose of driving are mounted.
Two wheels 1 each driven and rotated independently
2 and 13 are mounted on the same axis, and the output shafts of drive motors are connected to the rotating shafts of these wheels 12 and 13 through reduction gears (not shown) with low reduction ratios, since only a small driving force is required. There is. At the front and back of the main body 11 above the wheels 12, 13, there are a total of four legs each having a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the wheels 12, 13 at the joints 14, 15, 16, 17 at the base end. 18, 19, 20, and 21 are connected to each other via the joints 14 to 17, and the joint 1 is further connected to the middle part of each leg 18 to 21.
Second joints 22, 23, 24, 25 are provided with rotation axes parallel to the rotation axes 4 to 17. In other words, the legs 18 to 21 each include a first arm 26 and a second arm 27, and second joint leg joints 22 to 25 that connect them.
It can be bent and extended around 5 as an axis. Note that the distance between the joints 14, 16 and the joints 15, 17 that face each other in the front and rear is set narrower than the dimension of the shorter arm of the first arm 26 and the second arm 27,
Care has been taken to avoid interference with the device main body 11 when going up and down stairs. Further, the joints 14 to 17 and the second This is done by drive motors (not shown) built into the joints 22 to 25, respectively, via a reducer connected to the output shaft of the drive motors, but the driving forces of the first arm 26 and the second arm 27 are compared. Since the target is large, it is desirable to use a reducer with a high reduction ratio. Rollers 28 having rotation axes parallel to the rotation axes of the wheels 12 and 13 are rotatably attached to the tips of the second arms 27 of the legs 18 to 21, respectively, and a rotation prevention device (not shown) is attached thereto. When the main body 11 of the apparatus is running other than in a straight line, a pressing device (not shown) is applied to each roller 28 from directly below the roller 28 as shown in the figure.
As shown by the two-dot chain line, spherical rollers 30 that protrude and come into contact with the running floor surface 29 are housed.

When traveling this traveling device in a narrow place, all the legs 18 to 21 are bent as shown in FIG. 2a, and two wheels 12,
Controls the rotation speed of 13. That is, for simple linear forward or reverse movement, it is sufficient to equalize the rotational speeds of the wheels 12 and 13 and control their rotational direction.
In order to gently bend the direction of travel, wheels 12,
13 to lower the relative rotational speed of the wheels on the side that is about to turn, and when making a sudden turn, it is better to stop the rotation of the wheels on the side that are about to turn. In addition, in order to rotate the traveling device, by reversing the rotation direction of the wheels 12 and 13, the entire device can be rotated around an axis perpendicular to the traveling floor surface 29 between the wheels 12 and 13. . Note that when the traveling direction of the traveling device is bent or rotated, the spherical rollers 30 are made to protrude to reduce the frictional resistance between the rollers 28 and the traveling floor surface 29, thereby preventing the traveling device from bending or rotating. It can be done smoothly.

When lifting various devices mounted on the device main body 11, it is recommended to stop the rollers 28 from rotating and extend the legs 18 to 21 downward as shown in FIG. 2b. I can't do it.

When traveling horizontally along an inclined surface (along the contour line of the inclined surface), as shown in FIG. The legs 18 to 21 are brought into contact with each other, and the degree of bending and stretching of the legs 18 to 21 is adjusted so that all the rollers 28 are aligned with the inclined surface 3.
1 and then rotate one of the wheels, thereby making it possible to run the traveling device with good stability and without overturning.

If there is an obstacle above, extend the legs 18 to 21 almost along the running floor surface 29 as shown in FIG. Lower the height of legs 18-21.

When traveling in a narrow space or inside a pipe, especially when there is a movement component in the vertical direction, the wheels 12 and 1 are installed as shown in Fig. 5 to prevent the device from slipping down.
It is preferable to move the first arm 26 and the second arm 27 so that the rollers 28 of the legs 18 to 21 press against the wall surface 34 that is opposite to the wall surface 33 that is in contact with the first arm 26 and the second arm 27. Similarly, when rotating the traveling device inside the circular tube, the wheels 1 are placed in the radial direction of the circular tube 35 as shown in FIG.
2 and 13 and each roller 28 are preferably opposed to each other and pressed against the inner circumferential wall thereof.

When going up or down stairs, the rollers 28 are prevented from rotating and the steps 37a of the second and higher steps of the stairs 36 are moved as shown by the solid line in FIG. 7a.
Place the rollers 28 on the two side legs, and then move all the first arms 26 and second arms 2 to prevent the device main body 11 etc. from hitting the tip of the step 37b.
7 in relation to each other using a master/slave or sequence control system, etc., and move the main body 11 of the apparatus above the step 37b below the step 37a, as shown by the two-dot chain line in the figure. Then, by repeating the above-mentioned procedure, the roller 28 of the descending leg is placed on the step 37c as shown in FIG. 7b.
These movement steps are to first move the two legs on the ascending side to the upper step one by one, then move the two legs on the descending side one by one to the upper step, and then
Place the device main body 11 on the upper step. That is, from the state shown by the solid line in FIG. 7b, the main body 11 of the apparatus is lifted onto the step 37d as shown by the two-dot chain line, and the rollers 28 of the two legs on the rising side are moved to the step further above. The two lower leg rollers 28 are moved to the upper step and returned to the state shown by the solid line. Repeat this action until you reach the stairs 3.
6, the device body 11 is similarly lifted from the state shown by the solid line to the state shown by the two-dot chain line at the ascending end of the stairs 36 as shown in FIG. 7c, and the ascending operation of the stairs 36 is performed. finish. In addition,
Since the descending operation is preferably performed in the completely opposite procedure to the ascending operation, the explanation thereof will be omitted.

When climbing over a high obstacle, as shown in FIG. 8, from the state shown in FIG.
The rollers 28 on the two side legs are moved one by one to the obstacle 38.
Place the device body 11 on top of this obstacle 38.
After placing it on top of the obstacle 38, if the obstacle 38 is long in the running direction, all the rollers 28 of the legs 18-21 are moved onto the obstacle 38, the whole is moved on the obstacle 38, and the legs 18-21 are moved again. Perform the movement 21 and overcome the obstacle 38. If the obstacle 38 is short,
With the device main body 11 placed on the obstacle 38, lower the two legs on the front side in the direction of travel onto the running floor surface 29, then lower the two legs on the rear side in the direction of travel onto the obstacle 38. After moving the device body 11 to the top, the two legs on the obstacle 38 are sequentially moved to the running floor surface 29.
Overcome the obstacle 38 by lowering it upward.

In addition, in the case of movement accompanied by vertical movement of the device main body 11 as described above, the center of gravity of the traveling device is always located between the rollers 28 of the legs 18 to 21 facing in the moving direction, so that the device main body 11 does not fall. It is designed to prevent this from happening.

As described above, the traveling device of the present invention is very compact, and can be used not only on flat surfaces but also horizontally on sloped surfaces, ascending and descending stairs, etc. as desired.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1a is a front view of an embodiment of the traveling device according to the present invention, FIGS. 1b and 1c are respective right side views thereof,
The plan view and Figures 2 to 8 are diagrams showing the operating principles of the various working modes. Figure 2a is in the running state, Figure 2b is in the state where the main body of the device is lifted, and Figure 3 is on the inclined surface. Fig. 4 shows the flat running state of the machine, Fig. 5 shows the running state in a vertical pipe, etc., Fig. 6 a shows the rotating state in a circular pipe, and Fig. 6 b shows the state of running in a circular pipe. A sectional view taken along the line B-B in Figure a, Figures 7a to 7c show the process of running the stairs, and Figure 8 shows the state of overcoming an obstacle. Also, in the figures, 11 is the main body of the device, 12 and 13 are wheels, and 14 to 1.
7 is a joint, 18-21 is a leg, 22-25 is a second joint, 26 is a first arm, 27 is a second arm, 28
is a roller, 29 is a running floor surface, 31 is an inclined surface, 3
2 and 38 are obstacles, 33 and 34 are floors, 35 are circular pipes, 36 are stairs, 37a, 37b, 37c, 37
d is a step.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Two wheels that can be driven and rotated independently are installed coaxially on the left and right sides of the lower part of the main body of the device, and the two wheels are connected to each other via a driving bendable leg joint having a pivot axis parallel to the rotational axis of these wheels. A total of four legs, each consisting of two arms to be connected, are connected to the upper left and right sides of the upper part of the main body of the device through drive-rotatable joints each having a pivot parallel to the rotational axis of the wheel, and these legs are A traveling device characterized in that the interval between the joints of the legs is set shorter than the length of the arm, and rollers each having a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the wheel are rotatably provided at the tips of the legs.