JPH0329419B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a fire extinguishing robot that detects a fire source using an infrared sensor such as a pyroelectric element and extinguishes the fire by ejecting extinguishing agent from a water nozzle toward the detected fire source. .

The inventors of the present invention have proposed a fire extinguishing robot of this type, such as the one shown in FIG. 1, for example.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a pedestal, and a sensor rotary table 3 is attached to the rotating shaft of a horizontal scanning pulse motor 2 installed on the top of the pedestal 1, and a vertical scanning pulse motor 4 is attached to this sensor rotary table 3. The rotation of the pulse motor 4 is transmitted to the concave mirror 5 by a pulley, and a pyroelectric element 6 is installed on the opening side of the concave mirror 5 to detect infrared rays emitted from flames during a fire. 5 and vertical rotation scanning by the pulse motor 4, and when infrared rays from the fire source are detected by the pyroelectric element 6 during the monitoring scan, the horizontal scanning angle and vertical scanning angle indicating the direction of the fire source are detected. A fire extinguishing agent from a fire extinguishing agent tank 9 is ejected by activating a fire extinguishing pump 8 with the water nozzle 7 directed at the scanning angle.

By the way, in the detection of the vertical scanning direction in the event of a fire in such a fire extinguishing robot, as shown in FIG. 2, after detecting the horizontal scanning angle with respect to the fire source, the concave mirror 5 is also rotated upward from its lowest position, The running angle α ₁ when the fire source 10 is detected is detected, and the water spray nozzle 7 is set in this detection direction α ₁ .
Fire extinguishing agent is emitted from the water nozzle 7.

However, the fire outbreak occurred at fire source 10 in Figure 2.
As shown in Figure 2, the fire does not necessarily start near the floor, but if there are piles of materials, it is expected that the fire will burn up to a height h from the floor, as shown in fire source 11. be done. For such a fire source 11 having a height h from the floor, the fire extinguishing robot rotates the concave mirror 5 upward in the same way as for the fire source 10, so that the scanning angle α ₂ at which the fire source 11 was detected is the same as that of the fire source 11. However, since the height h of the fire source 11 cannot be detected, the fire extinguishing robot determines that the fire source 11' is on the floor as an extension of the scanning angle α ₂ passing through the fire source 11, and detects the fire source. The angle of the water nozzle 7 was determined so that the extinguishing agent would reach the area 11', and there was a risk that a fire occurring at a position higher than the floor surface could not be extinguished.

The present invention was made in view of these problems, and includes two sensors that detect fire by horizontal and vertical scanning, installed vertically a certain distance apart, and
At the time of fire detection, each sensor is scanned vertically to detect the fire source.The scanning angle sensor is calculated for each sensor to detect the fire source, and the horizontal distance to the fire source is calculated based on this detection angle. To provide a highly reliable fire extinguishing robot capable of surely extinguishing a fire even in a dangerous position.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention.

First, to explain the configuration, 12 is a control circuit section 1
3 and a fire extinguishing agent tank 15 equipped with a fire pump 14
A pedestal 16 is installed on the pedestal 12, a pulse motor 17 for horizontal rotation scanning is installed on the upper part of the pedestal 16, and a sensor rotating pedestal 18 is installed on the rotation axis of the pulse motor 17. ing.
A pulse motor 19 for vertical rotation and scanning is provided on the sensor rotation table 18, and the rotation of the pulse motor 19 is transmitted to a pulley 22 attached to the rotation shaft of a support arm 23 by rotation of a belt 21 by a pulley 20, Concave mirrors 24a and 24b are mounted on the arm 23 vertically at a fixed interval A and are rotatably mounted around a horizontal axis, and a pyroelectric element 25 for detecting infrared rays from a fire source is located at the center of the opening side of the concave mirrors 24a and 24b.
Furthermore, a water nozzle 26 is attached to the side end of the support arm 23, and a fire pump 14 built in the base 12 is connected to this water nozzle 26 by a hose 27. has been done.

Two concave mirrors 24 attached to support arms 23
a and 24b are rotated vertically around each horizontal mounting shaft as a rotation axis by the rotation of the pulse motor 19, and the water discharge nozzle 26 is also configured so that the tip of the nozzle can be rotated in the vertical direction by the pulse motor 19. ing.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the control circuit section 13 in the embodiment of FIG.

First, to explain the configuration, 28 is a microcomputer, which has a monitoring scanning program that rotates and scans the two concave mirrors 24a and 24b in the horizontal and vertical directions. A calculation program for calculating the horizontal distance to the fire source based on the scanning angle at the time of detection, a fire extinguishing program for starting the fire extinguishing pump and ejecting extinguishing agent from the water nozzle 26, etc. are stored in advance.

The outputs of the pyroelectric elements 25a and 25b are input to this microcomputer 28 via an input interface 29, and control outputs are given to scanning pulse motors 17 and 19 via an output interface 30. It is configured to provide a control output to the fire pump motor 32 via the output interface 31.

Next, the principle of detecting the distance to a fire source when detecting a fire according to the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

First, if a fire occurs at a distance x from the fire extinguishing robot as shown in FIG. 5, the horizontal scanning angle of the fire relative to the fire source 33 is detected by the horizontal rotation scanning of the concave mirrors 24a and 24b. Concave mirrors 24a, 24b in the detected horizontal direction
While holding the concave mirrors 24a and 24b, the concave mirrors 24a and 24b are rotated and scanned in the vertical direction. By the rotational scanning of the concave mirrors 24a and 24b in the vertical direction, the pyroelectric element 25a provided on the concave mirror 24a first detects the fire source 33, and the scanning angle at this time is set to α. Subsequently, the fire source 33 of the pyroelectric element 25b of the concave mirror 24b is detected, and the scanning angle at this time is set to β.

When the scanning angles α and β for detecting the fire source 33 are detected by vertical rotational scanning of the pyroelectric elements 25a and 25b provided on the two concave mirrors 24a and 24b, the trigonometric function shown in FIG. The horizontal distance x to the fire source 33 is calculated using the method described below.

That is, if the installation interval of the pyroelectric elements 25a, 25b is A, and the horizontal distance to the fire source 33 is x, then the distance of the pyroelectric elements 25a, 25b in the Y-axis direction is y ₁ = xtan (π/2-α ) ...(1) y ₂ = xtan (π/2-β) ...(2) It is given by.

Here, y ₁ - y ₂ = A...(3), so if we substitute the above equations (1) and (2) into equation (3) to find the horizontal distance x, we get x=A/ tan(π/2−α)−tan(π/2−β)……(4
), the horizontal distance x to the fire source 33 is calculated.
To calculate the horizontal distance x to such a fire source, the height h from the floor surface is
It is calculated in exactly the same way even when it has .

Note that the height h from the floor is calculated using the pyroelectric element 25.
It can be determined by subtracting y ₁ or y ₂ determined above from the vertical distance from the floor surface where a or 25b is attached.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be explained.

First, in the steady monitoring state, the pulse motors 17 and 19 are driven under program control by the microcomputer 28 of the control circuit section shown in FIG.
8 is rotated 360°, the vertical direction angle of the concave mirrors 24a and 24b is rotated by a predetermined angle downward from the horizontal direction in the initial state by driving the pulse motor 19, and then rotated 360° in the opposite direction by the pulse motor 17. In this state, the concave mirrors 24a and 24b are vertically rotated and scanned downward at a predetermined angle by the pulse motor 19 again, and by repeating such horizontal and vertical scanning, a 360° range centered on the fire extinguishing robot is monitored. scanning. When either of the pyroelectric elements 25a, 25b of the concave mirror 24a or 24b detects infrared rays from the fire source in such a monitoring scanning state, the pulse motor 17 rotates the sensor rotary table while maintaining the vertical scanning angle. 18
is returned to the reference position (initial position), horizontal rotation scanning is started from this initial position, and the angle of the fire source in the horizontal direction is detected based on the scanning angle when the fire source was detected.

Next, while holding the sensor rotating table 18 at the detection horizontal angle, the concave mirror 2 is driven by the pulse motor 19.
4a and 24b are vertically rotated to the most downward position, and from this position, downward rotation scanning is started, and as shown in FIG. Each of the detection scanning angles β of the fire source 33 is determined by .

Next, the horizontal distance x to the fire source is calculated based on the detected scanning angles α and β using equation (4).

As for the vertical scanning angle for emitting extinguishing agent from the water nozzle 26, a predetermined radiation angle may be determined based on the horizontal distance x to the fire source and the height h from the floor to the fire source. .

When the horizontal and vertical directions of the fire source and the horizontal distance to the fire source are calculated in this way, the water nozzle 26 is set toward the fire source by driving the pulse motors 17 and 19, and the fire pump 14 is activated. As a result, the extinguishing agent from the extinguishing agent tank 15 is emitted from the nozzle 26 toward the fire source.

The extinguishing agent is emitted by the water nozzle 26 for a certain period of time, and when the extinguishing agent stops emitting, it is checked whether the fire source has been extinguished by operating the concave mirrors 24a and 24b, and if a fire is detected again, it is extinguished again. The pump 14 is activated to eject extinguishing agent from the water nozzle 26, and when it is confirmed that the extinguishment has been extinguished, the process returns to horizontal and vertical monitoring scanning.

Furthermore, when setting the radial direction of the water nozzle 26, the fire extinguishing agent emitted from the water nozzle 26 reaches the fire source in a parabola, so the water nozzle 26 is set according to the horizontal distance x to the fire source. Correction is made to direct the fire extinguisher downward from the detection direction, so that extinguishing agent can be reliably emitted to the fire source even if the fire source is far from the fire extinguishing robot.

Furthermore, since it is expected that the detected fire source may be spreading, the water nozzle 26 is operated to swing up and down while the extinguishing agent is being emitted by the water nozzle 26, so as to widen the radiation range of the extinguishing agent. You may also do so.

As described above, according to the present invention, a fire detection sensor having a predetermined directivity angle is driven and scanned in the horizontal and vertical directions to detect a fire source, and extinguishing agent is emitted toward the detected fire source. In robots,
Two fire detection sensors are installed vertically a certain distance apart, and the horizontal distance to the fire source is calculated based on the fire source detection angle of each sensor obtained when each fire detection sensor is rotated and scanned in the vertical direction. As a result, it is possible to accurately detect the direction of the fire source and the horizontal distance to the fire source, and it is possible to accurately detect the direction of the fire source and the horizontal distance to the fire source. The effect is that the extinguishing agent can be emitted accurately.

In addition, although the above-mentioned embodiment took as an example a fire extinguishing robot that is fixedly installed in a warning area, the present invention is not limited to this, and can also be applied to a self-propelled fire extinguishing robot that has a traveling drive means. The same can be applied.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a fire extinguishing robot proposed by the inventors of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing problems caused by the fire extinguishing robot of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is an example of the fire extinguishing robot of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a control circuit used in the present invention; FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory diagrams showing the principle of detecting the horizontal distance to a fire source according to the present invention. It is. 12... Base, 13... Control circuit section, 14...
Fire pump, 15... Fire extinguishing agent tank, 16... Frame, 17, 19... Pulse motor, 18... Sensor rotary table, 20, 22... Pulley, 21... Belt, 23... Support arm, 24a, 24b...Concave mirror, 25a, 25b...Pyroelectric element, 26...Water nozzle, 27...Hose, 29...Input interface, 30, 31...Output interface,
28... Microcomputer, 32... Fire pump motor, 33... Fire source.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A fire extinguishing robot that detects a fire source by driving and scanning a fire detection sensor having a predetermined orientation angle in the horizontal and vertical directions, and emits a fire extinguishing agent toward the detected fire source, comprising: Two fire detection sensors are set up and down a certain distance apart, and the horizontal distance to the fire source is calculated based on the fire source detection angle of each sensor obtained when each fire detection sensor is rotated and scanned in the vertical direction. A fire extinguishing robot characterized by being equipped with a calculation means.