JPH07120197B2 - Work mobile vehicle traveling system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a traveling system of a work mobile vehicle.

(B) Conventional technology Conventionally, a work mobile vehicle that is self-propelled in a work area of a closed space is
Traveling based on one preset traveling pattern,
When the vehicle cannot travel due to the only traveling pattern, the situation is recognized by various sensors provided in the work mobile vehicle, and a traveling course according to the situation is found and dealt with.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the conventional traveling system, when the traveling cannot be performed due to only one traveling pattern, the sensor provided in the work mobile vehicle recognizes the situation where the traveling cannot be performed, and responds to the situation. As the situation becomes complicated, it becomes difficult to select a suitable traveling path according to the situation, and it is difficult to judge the traveling path early according to the situation. Has the drawback of being long.

The present invention has been made in view of the above point, and when the work mobile vehicle is in a stopped state, by selecting one traveling pattern suitable for traveling after the stop from a plurality of preset traveling patterns. An object of the present invention is to provide a traveling system in which the traveling pattern can be easily determined and the traveling time of the working vehicle and the operating time are short.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the problems, the present invention provides a work mobile vehicle that is self-propelled in a plurality of traveling patterns in the work area, and a current position of the work mobile vehicle in the work area. When the work moving vehicle is stopped because the front of the work moving vehicle is close to the wall surface or an obstacle, the means for recognizing the external environment, the means for recognizing the external environment, the map storage means for storing the shape map of the work area, A control means for controlling the travel of the work mobile vehicle based on information from the position recognition means, the external environment recognition means and the map storage means,
The wall traveling pattern that travels along the wall surface of the work area, and after turning 90 degrees toward the traveling path and moving laterally for a certain distance, further turning 90 degrees and the front of the work moving vehicle is a wall or an obstacle. A normal traveling pattern in which the work moving vehicle goes straight to a position close to the vehicle, a U-turn traveling pattern in which the work moving vehicle turns 180 degrees and returns to the previous traveling path, and the work moving vehicle moves backward to the laterally movable position, and then Store a back travel pattern in which the front of the work vehicle moves straight to a position near the wall or obstacle after turning 90 degrees toward the traveling path in the retreat position and moving in the lateral direction. And a storage means for storing the storage means, and the control means, based on the information from the position recognition means, the external environment recognition means and the map storage means, when the traveling path of the work mobile vehicle is in a position close to the wall surface. The wall surface travel pattern is extracted, the normal travel pattern is extracted when the work mobile vehicle is in the laterally movable position, and the U-turn travel pattern is extracted when the work mobile vehicle is in the laterally immovable position. After traveling through the U-turn traveling pattern, and when the work mobile vehicle is in the position in which the lateral movement is impossible, the back travel pattern is extracted, and the work traveling vehicle is extracted by the extracted travel pattern. It is characterized by controlling the traveling of the vehicle.

(E) Action When a work vehicle that runs on its own in a work area in a closed space stops near a wall or an obstacle that partitions the work area, the stop position is related to its surroundings. At, the work mobile vehicle recognizes the information based on the information from the position recognition means, the external environment recognition means, and the map storage means. Based on this recognition result, an appropriate traveling pattern after the stop is extracted from a plurality of traveling patterns, and the work mobile vehicle travels based on the extracted traveling patterns.

(F) Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a principle model view of a work mobile vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a mobile vehicle). FIG. 1A is a bottom view and FIG. 1B is a plan view. In this drawing, a mobile vehicle 1 is equipped with a pair of motors 4 and 5 for individually driving its drive wheels 2 and 3, a working means 6 and a control means for controlling these motors and the working means. The working means 6 is a cleaning device in this embodiment, and comprises a suction port, a dust collecting fan and its motor, and the suction port 7 is provided on the lower surface of the front end of the mobile vehicle 1.

The moving vehicle 1 has contact sensors 8, 9, 10 on the front end surface and the left and right side surfaces.
In addition, encoders 11 and 12 for detecting the number of rotations are attached to the drive wheels 2 and 3, respectively, and
An ultrasonic sensor 13 is provided on the upper surface of the moving vehicle 1 to detect the distance between the moving vehicle 1 and an object separated from the moving vehicle in three directions.

The control means 14 for controlling the motors 4, 5 and the working means 6 is
As shown in FIG. 2, means 15 for recognizing the current position of the moving vehicle 1 in the work area, means 16 for recognizing the external environment,
It includes a means 17 for storing the shape map of the work area and a storage means 18 for storing a plurality of preset traveling patterns.

The current position recognizing means 15 is based on the outputs of the contact sensors 8, 9 and 10, the outputs of the encoders 11 and 12, the outputs of the timing device 19 for the drive time of the drive wheels 2 and 3, and the output of the ultrasonic sensor 13. Recognize the current position. In addition, external photosensitive recognition means
Reference numeral 16 recognizes the external environment of the moving vehicle based on the outputs of the contact sensors 8, 9 and 10 and the output of the ultrasonic sensor 13. The shape map of the work area in the map storage means 17 is such that the moving vehicle 1 makes one round around the work area, and the outputs of the contact sensors 8, 9, 10 and outputs of the encoders 11, 12 and the time measuring device 19 during the orbit. And the output of the ultrasonic sensor 13 are created. In this case, the output of the ultrasonic sensor 13 is, for example, the encoders 11 and 12 due to the slip of the driving wheels 2 and 3.
Used to correct the output of.

The work area has four wall surfaces W1, W2, W as shown in Fig. 3.
Surrounded by 3 and W4, the four corners are indicated by X and Y coordinates,
Indicated by (0, 0), (Xr, o), (Xr, Yr), (O, Yr), there are obstacles P or Q on the inner surfaces of the wall surfaces W2 and W4, respectively, and they are surrounded by them. When the closed space is the work area 20, the moving vehicle 1 goes around the work area 1 as indicated by a broken line 21 to create a map, which is stored in the map storage means 17.

The plurality of traveling patterns stored in the storage unit 18 are based on a known shape map in the work area 20, for example, the third traveling pattern.
As indicated by solid line arrow 22 in the figure, go straight from wall surface W4 to W2,
In the vicinity of the wall surface W2, it rotates 90 degrees in-situ so that the traveling direction is parallel to the wall surface W2, and travels in the traveling direction by the width T,
Various traveling patterns are preset when the vehicle turns 90 degrees in-situ at the traveling point and proceeds from the wall surface W2 to W4. There are five types of various traveling patterns in this embodiment, which include a wall traveling pattern, a normal traveling pattern, a U-turn traveling pattern, a back traveling pattern, and an obstacle traveling pattern. Each of these patterns will be described with reference to FIG.

The wall traveling pattern is a pattern of traveling along the wall surfaces W1 and W3 of the work area 20, and in the case of counterclockwise movement, it moves in the direction toward the right and turns to the right every time the output of the contact sensor 10 is output. For correcting the meandering traveling pattern. The normal running pattern is that the moving vehicle 1 is in contact with the wall surfaces W2, W4 or the obstacles P, Q, and is retracted as much as possible in the spot, then rotated 90 degrees in the spot toward the next traveling path, and then, in the width. The driving pattern is to go straight for T, rotate 90 degrees on the spot at this straight position, and go straight. The U-turn traveling pattern shows that the moving vehicle 1 has wall surfaces W2 and W4.
Alternatively, when the lateral movement width in the next traveling direction from the point of contact with the obstacles P and Q is smaller than the width T, the traveling pattern is changed by 360 degrees and returns to the previous traveling path. There is no repetition of. The back traveling pattern is when the lateral movement is not possible when the wall surfaces W2, W4 or the obstacles P, Q are in direct contact with each other,
When passing through the U-turn traveling pattern, the moving vehicle 1 is retracted to a position where it can be moved laterally without changing direction, is rotated 90 degrees in situ at the retracted position, and is advanced straight by a width T. It is a running pattern that rotates 90 degrees in place and goes straight. When a part of the width TR of the moving vehicle 1 comes into contact with the obstacles P and Q by going straight in any one of the traveling patterns, the obstacle-side traveling pattern is retracted to a position where it can be rotated on the spot and the obstacle P or Q is moved. 90 degrees in-situ to the side surface of the moving vehicle 1 and goes straight by the contact width S with the obstacles P and Q of the moving vehicle 1. At this straight-ahead position, it turns 90 degrees in-situ to the side surface of the obstacle P or Q. This is a pattern of traveling along the side, and the side traveling is a meandering traveling like the above-mentioned traveling along the wall.

Each traveling pattern described above is selected when the contact sensor 8 on the front end face of the moving vehicle 1 produces an output. Since it is necessary to accurately recognize the position of the moving vehicle 1 when the traveling pattern is selected, the position correction is performed by the output of the ultrasonic sensor 13. The current position (Xn, Yn) of the moving vehicle is the center position of the moving vehicle.

Now, in FIG. 4, when the cleaning work is started from the position A, the cleaning work is started from a place along the wall W1 and travels along the wall. At the position B in contact with the wall surface W4, the next traveling pattern is selected. In this case, the absolute value (| Xr−Xn |) of the difference between the current position Xn of the moving vehicle 1 in the X direction and the area method Xr in the same direction is the lateral fixed amount movable value TE of the moving vehicle 1, that is, If it is smaller than the sum of the separation distance T between adjacent reciprocating traveling paths and the radius of gyration R of the in-situ rotation of the moving vehicle, the last wall traveling pattern is selected. In other cases, that is, when | Xr−Xn | ≧ TE, it is determined whether the front surface of the position B is the wall surfaces W2 and W4 as obstacles P and Q. This judgment is based on the dimensional position O of the work area 20 in the Y direction,
This is based on the relationship between the obstacle positions Yp1, Yq1 and the current position Yn with Yr. When the front surface is the wall surface W2, it is possible to select one of the traveling patterns ,. When the vehicle can be moved by a certain amount in the lateral direction (position B corresponds), the normal traveling pattern is selected, and the position B is passed through C, D, E, F, and G to the position H. At this position H, | Xp1−
Since Xn | <TE, the U-turn traveling pattern is selected and the position H to G is reached. Since | Xq1−Xn | <TE in relation to the obstacle Q at this position G, the U-turn traveling pattern may be repeated. Therefore, the back traveling pattern is selected for the second time, and the positions G to I and J are selected. Via position K
Leading to. At this position K, the front surface is the obstacle P, so | X
When p1−Xn | <T, the traveling pattern along the obstacle is selected, and the vehicle travels from position K to position N via L and M.
The amount of lateral movement S from position L to M is equal to Xn at position K
It is determined by the relationship of Xp1 and is not constant. | Xp1−X
When n | ≧ T, the normal traveling pattern is selected.

The flow chart of the above operation is shown in FIG.

If the separation distance T is set to be equal to or less than the width TR of the moving vehicle 1, the suction port 7 will pass through all the floor surfaces of the work area 20.
The mobile vehicle may be self-propelled by an on-board battery or by external power outside the vehicle.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, one traveling pattern suitable for traveling after the moving vehicle is stopped is selected from a plurality of preset traveling patterns, and the selected traveling pattern is selected. Since it travels accordingly, setting the traveling route after stopping becomes easier than in the case of the conventional example, the traveling time and working time of the moving vehicle can be shortened, and Work efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 1 (a) and (b) are a bottom view and a plan view of a moving vehicle, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control means, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a work area. 4 and 5 are partial plan views of the work area for explaining various traveling patterns, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the operation of the moving vehicle. 20 ... Work area, 1 ... Moving vehicle, 15 ... Position recognition means, 16 ... External environment recognition means, 17 ... Map storage means, 18
…… Storing means ,,,,… Driving pattern.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A work mobile vehicle that is self-propelled in a plurality of traveling patterns in a work area, a means for recognizing the current position of the work mobile vehicle in the work area, a means for recognizing an external environment, and a shape of the work area. The map storage means for storing a map and the information from the position recognition means, the external environment recognition means and the map storage means when the front surface of the work moving vehicle approaches the wall surface or an obstacle and the work moving vehicle is stopped. Based on the control means that controls the traveling of the work mobile vehicle based on the wall surface traveling pattern that travels along the wall surface of the work area, after turning 90 degrees toward the advancing road and moving laterally for a certain distance, further 90 degrees A normal traveling pattern in which the front surface of the work mobile vehicle goes straight to a position close to the wall surface or an obstacle, and a U-turn travel pattern in which the work mobile vehicle changes its direction by 180 degrees and returns to the previous traveling path. Move the car backward to the position where it can move in the lateral direction, turn 90 degrees toward the advancing path at the retracted position to move the vehicle in the lateral direction, and then turn 90 degrees further to make the front surface of the work moving vehicle a wall or an obstacle. Storage means for storing a back traveling pattern for proceeding straight to a position close to an object, and the control means, based on information from the position recognition means, the external environment recognition means and the map storage means, The wall traveling pattern is extracted when the traveling path is close to the wall surface, and the normal traveling pattern is extracted when the work moving vehicle is in the laterally movable position. When the position is possible, the U-turn traveling pattern is extracted, and after traveling through the U-turn traveling pattern, the working vehicle cannot move in the lateral direction. When the vehicle travels, the back traveling pattern is extracted, and the traveling of the working vehicle is controlled according to the extracted traveling pattern.