JP2020003830A - Moving object control device and moving object control system - Google Patents

Abstract

To solve the problem of the generally-used method which uses radio waves as a communication means between a moving object and a control device for controlling the moving object, in which there is a risk that the moving object will be out of control if communication with the moving object is interrupted due to the surrounding radio wave environment or the obstruction of a third party.SOLUTION: To solve the problem, a moving object control device includes a camera and a light source, and irradiates a signal beam to the moving object within a field of view of the camera.EFFECT: Even when the moving object freely moves in the space, optical communication between the moving object and the control device becomes possible. As a result, even when the radio wave environment is poor, it is possible to control the moving object.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to control of a moving object, and more particularly to a control device and a control system of a moving object using light.

  As a communication means between a moving object and a control device for controlling the moving object, a method using radio waves is generally used. Then, in order to obtain position and orientation information of the moving body on the control device side, information obtained by an inertial device or a GPS (Global Positioning System) device possessed on the moving body side is transmitted to the control device side by radio waves. , Can control the moving body. However, if the communication with the mobile unit is interrupted due to the surrounding radio wave environment or the obstruction of a third party, the mobile unit may become uncontrollable.

  As a communication means between a moving object and a control device that controls the moving object, there is a method using light (hereinafter, optical communication). Patent Literatures 1 and 2 are examples of technologies related to optical communication. Patent Literature 1 discloses that a communication control device is provided on each of a truck traveling on a fixed track and a ground side, so that the beam directions of the two communication control devices always face each other based on a traveling pattern input in advance. Discloses a control technique. Patent Document 2 discloses an optical space communication device provided for communication between mobile objects such as artificial satellites and airplanes or communication between a ground station and a mobile object. A technique of capturing by a system and starting communication has been disclosed.

  On the other hand, Patent Literatures 3 and 4 disclose techniques for controlling a mobile body without using optical communication. Patent Literature 3 discloses a moving object control device that measures the position of a moving object that is wirelessly controlled via an antenna by using an optical distance meter and a camera provided on the moving object control device side. Patent Literature 4 discloses a tracking laser device in which a retroreflector is provided on a moving object connected by wire communication or wireless communication.

JP-A-2002-258945 JP 07-307703 A JP-A-07-140225 JP 2014-224790 A

  The technology disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is based on the premise that the bogie travels on a fixed track with the input running pattern, and is an effective technique when the running pattern is known in advance. However, the technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1 cannot cope with an arbitrary traveling pattern such as deviating from a track or a traveling pattern input in advance.

  In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, a mobile unit and a mobile unit, or a ground station and a mobile unit, respectively, capture a laser beam from a partner station by a fine and coarse cooperative control system. If the mobile object is a large mobile object such as an artificial satellite or an aircraft, it is possible to provide the mobile object with an optical space communication device having a fine and coarse cooperative control system as disclosed in Patent Document 2. It is desired that the equipment to be mounted be smaller and lighter. In addition, although it is possible to predict the trajectory of an artificial satellite or an aircraft, it is difficult to capture the laser beam from the partner station if the trajectory is not predicted.

  In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3, the means for transmitting a control signal to a moving object is based on wireless communication via an antenna, and Patent Document 3 does not disclose any problem related to wireless communication such as interference with wireless communication. . Patent Literature 4 also discloses only the advantage that the wireless communication has no restriction on the moving range of the mobile body as compared with the wired communication, and does not disclose any problem related to wireless communication such as interference with wireless communication.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and has an object to provide a technology that enables optical communication between a moving object and a control device even when the moving object freely moves in space. And

  A moving object control device and a moving object control system according to the present invention have a camera and a light source, and irradiate a signal beam to a moving object within a field of view of the camera to solve the above-described problem.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, even when a mobile body moves freely in space, optical communication between a mobile body and a control apparatus becomes possible. As a result, even when the radio wave environment is poor, it is possible to control the moving body.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the moving object control device and the moving object according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a controller according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a galvano angle command value generation unit according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating image data 13 obtained by the camera 110 according to the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a moving object according to a second embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a controller 270 according to a second embodiment. FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a moving object and a moving object control device according to a third embodiment. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a controller 370 according to a third embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a moving object control device and a moving object control system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between cameras and images captured by the cameras in a three-dimensional space. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a camera, a screen, and a moving body as viewed from a yz plane. It is a figure showing the evaluation result of the following error.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. In the following embodiments, when it is necessary for convenience, the description will be made by dividing into a plurality of embodiments, but they are not irrelevant to each other, and one is There is a relationship of a part or all of the modified examples, details, supplementary explanations, and the like. In all the drawings for describing the following embodiments, components having the same function are denoted by the same reference symbol in principle, and repeated description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 9 shows a moving object control system further including a moving object control device 901 which is an embodiment of the present invention and a flying object 902 which is a moving object. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the present embodiment. FIG. 1 shows the flying object 902 as viewed from the lower surface side. On the other hand, FIG. 9 shows the flying object 902 as viewed from the side.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 9, a moving object control device 901 according to the present embodiment includes a camera 110 and a laser light source 120 as a light source, and is a camera in an area between a broken line 906a and a broken line 906b. It is characterized by irradiating a signal beam 904 to a flying object 902 which is a moving object within a field of view of 110. In the present embodiment, the signal beam 904 is generated by intensity-modulating the laser light source 120.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a moving body control device 901 includes a camera 110, a laser light source 120, a laser light amount controller 130 for adjusting the amount of laser light from the laser light source 120, a splitter 140, a signal beam 904, and a camera. A two-dimensional galvano scanner 190 for deflecting the field of view 110 and a controller 202 are provided. The two-dimensional galvanometer scanner 190 serving as a deflector swings a deflection mirror 151a provided at the tip in a first direction, and swings a deflection mirror 151b provided at the tip in a second direction. It has a galvanometer scanner 150b, a galvanometer driving unit 160a that drives the galvanometer scanner 150a, and a galvanometer driving unit 160b that drives the galvanometer scanner 150b. Here, in the present embodiment, the first direction in which the deflecting mirror 151a swings is orthogonal to the second direction in which the deflecting mirror 151b swings. The mobile control device 901 further has a storage 180 connected to the controller 202. As the laser light source 120, for example, a semiconductor laser having a wavelength of 635 nm or a He-Ne laser can be used.

  As shown in FIG. 1, four markers 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d for calculating position information and attitude information of the flying object 902 by image processing performed by the controller 202 are drawn on the lower surface of the flying object 902. The photodiode 210 for detecting the signal beam 904 is provided at the center of the four markers 200a to 200d. The size of the light receiving surface of the photodiode 210 is, for example, 11 mm × 11 mm. In this embodiment, the distance between the marker 200a and the marker 200c is equal to the distance between the marker 200b and the marker 200d. The markers 200a to 200d are arranged so that the line connecting the marker 200a and the marker 200c and the line connecting the marker 200b and the marker 200d are orthogonal to each other at the center. As shown in FIG. 9, on the upper surface of the flying object 902, a propeller 903a is provided above the marker 200a, and a propeller 903b is provided above the marker 200b. Although not shown in FIG. 9, a propeller 903c is provided on the upper surface of the flying object 902 above the marker 200c, and a propeller 903d is provided above the marker 200d. The flying object 902 drives and drives the propellers 903a to 903d based on the control signal included in the signal beam 904 to fly. Information on the positional relationship between each of the markers 200a to 200d and the photodiode 210 is stored in the storage 180.

  In the moving body control device 901, as shown in FIG. 1, the optical axis of the camera 110 and the optical axis of the laser light source 120 are matched using the splitter 140. Therefore, the signal beam 904 is emitted to the center position of the image captured by the camera 110. By irradiating the signal beam 904 along the optical axis of the camera 110 in this manner, the interpolation calculation required when the respective optical axes are different from each other becomes unnecessary, and the galvano scanner in the controller 202 described later is used. The calculation of the generation of the angle command value to the camera can be simplified. The deflection means is not a general pan / tilt method (a camera pedestal rotates in a horizontal direction and an elevation direction), but the deflection angle is changed by driving a pair of reflection mirrors by a swing motor as described above. By using a galvano scanner, high-speed and high-precision deflection becomes possible.

  Next, a moving object tracking operation of the moving object control device 901 according to the present embodiment will be described. Image data 13 including an image of the flying object 902 obtained by the camera 110 is input to the controller 202. The controller 202 generates angle commands 16a and 16b to the respective galvano scanners by means described later, and transmits the angle command 16a to the galvano drive unit 160a and the angle command 16b to the galvano drive unit 160b. The galvano drive section 160a adjusts the applied voltage so that the current 17a corresponding to the angle command 16a flows to the galvano scanner 150a, and outputs the adjusted voltage. Further, the galvano drive unit 160b adjusts the applied voltage so that the current 17b corresponding to the angle command 16b flows to the galvano scanner 150b, and outputs the adjusted voltage. Accordingly, the moving object control device 901 directs the optical axis of the camera 110 to the photodiode 210 disposed at the center of the flying object 902 which is the moving object. At this time, since the signal beam 904 is applied along the optical axis of the camera 110, the signal beam 904 is applied to a position corresponding to the center of the image in the image data 13 obtained from the camera 110. . Therefore, the photodiode 210 is irradiated with the signal beam 904.

  Next, a communication operation of the mobile control device 901 according to the present embodiment will be described. When the controller 202 determines that the flying object 902 is being tracked, the controller 202 generates the communication pulse 14 based on the transmission data 10 transmitted from the host controller 181 to the flying object 902. The laser light amount adjuster 130 adjusts the voltage applied to the laser light source 120 so that the current 15 corresponding to the communication pulse 14 flows to the laser light source 120. As a result, a signal beam 904 that is a pulsed laser beam is emitted from the laser light source 120 toward the photodiode 210 of the flying object 902. On the flying object 902 side, the photodiode 210 outputs a voltage 40 corresponding to the received signal beam 904 to the moving object drive controller 220. The mobile body drive controller 220 decodes the transmission data 10 from the received pulsed voltage 40, thereby establishing communication between the mobile body control device 901 and the flying object 902. The transmission data 10 includes, for example, identification information of the flying object 902, identification information of the moving object control device 901, information of a command to move to the flying object 902, and information on a specific function (such as an onboard camera) of the flying object 902. Contains command information. In addition, the controller 202 moves based on a command value to the two-dimensional galvano scanner 190 and an image acquired by the camera 110, including information on the relative position of the flying object 902 with respect to the moving object control device 901 and information on the attitude of the flying object 902. The body position / posture information 30 is output to the host controller 181.

  Subsequently, a detailed configuration and operation of each unit of the mobile control device 901 will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the controller 202. The controller 202 has a galvano angle command value generation unit 170a, a tracking state determination unit 170b, a moving object position / posture calculation unit 170c, and a communication pulse train generation unit 170d.

  FIG. 3 shows a configuration diagram of the galvano angle command value generation unit 170a. The galvano angle command value generation unit 170a stores an optical axis shift amount calculation unit 171 that derives the shift amount of the optical axis from the image data 13 and an angle command value immediately before each axis deflected by the two-dimensional galvano scanner 190. And a servo compensator 173a and a servo compensator 173b for improving disturbance compression characteristics and stability of the servo system of each axis.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the image data 13 acquired by the camera 110. The scanning direction of the galvano scanner 150a is a direction in which the right and left sides of the paper are positive (hereinafter referred to as x-axis direction), and the scanning direction of the galvano scanner 150b is a direction in which the upper and lower sides of the paper are positive (hereinafter y direction). The image data 13 includes an image of the flying object 902, and the image data 13 is captured under the condition that the markers 200a to 200d are included in the image. Here, the tracking determination circle 401 provided on the image data 13 indicates a range in which the photodiode 210 can receive the signal light beam 904 at a predetermined level or more. The center of the tracking determination circle 401 is the origin S (0, 0) of a two-dimensional coordinate system (hereinafter, screen coordinate system) of the image data. By performing tracking so that the photodiode 210, which is the center of the flying object 902, is within the tracking determination circle 401, communication between the moving object control device 901 and the flying object 902 becomes possible. Further, from the images of the markers 200a to 200d in the image data 13, information on the position and attitude of the flying object 902, which is a moving object, can be obtained.

Here, a method of calculating the optical axis shift amount will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, in the acquired image, a movement which is an intersection of a line segment 201a connecting the marker 200a and the marker 200c indicated by a dashed line and a line segment 201b connecting the marker 200b and the marker 200d indicated by a two-dot chain line. the body center coordinates _{21 Q (q x, q y} ) When, of the axis and the optical axis from the origin O of the camera coordinate system connecting the mobile, the deviation amount of the image x-axis direction q _x, y-axis direction a _{q y} to. In the optical axis shift amount calculating unit 171 extracts each marker 200a~200d from the image data 13, a mobile center coordinates _{21 Q (q x, q y} ) to calculate the output to the tracking status determining unit 170b, An optical axis shift amount 31a on the x-axis and an optical axis shift amount 31b on the y-axis are calculated from the moving body center coordinates 21. The calculated optical axis shift amount 31a is added to the immediately preceding angle command value 32a stored in the memory 172a, and becomes the angle command value 16a via the servo compensator 173a. Similarly, the calculated optical axis shift amount 31b is added to the immediately preceding angle command value 32b stored in the memory 172b, and becomes the angle command value 16b via the servo compensator 173b. The servo compensators 173a and 173b output angle command values 16a and 16b by PID control. As described above, the angle command values 16a and 16b are calculated from the image data 13.

  Next, the tracking state determination unit 170b will be described. When the moving body center coordinates 21 transmitted from the galvano angle command value generating section 170a fall within the tracking determination circle 401 shown in FIG. 4, the tracking state determination section 170b sends the tracking state signal 22 It is sent to attitude calculation section 170c and communication pulse train generation section 170d.

  The moving body position / posture calculation unit 170c will be described. While receiving the tracking state signal 22, the moving body position / posture calculation unit 170c includes, from the image data 13 and the angle command values 16a and 16b, information on the position and attitude of the flying body 902 that is the moving body. The moving body position / posture information 30 is calculated and output. A method of calculating the moving body position / posture information 30 will be described below.

  The relationship between cameras in a three-dimensional space and images captured by the cameras can be expressed using a camera coordinate system expressed in three dimensions and a screen coordinate system expressed in two dimensions as shown in FIG. The x and y axes and directions of the camera coordinate system and the screen coordinate system are the same, and are defined as shown in FIG. The direction from the origin O of the camera coordinate system to the point S at the center of the screen coordinate system is defined as the positive direction of the z-axis. Here, the x and y coordinates of the point O and the point S in the camera coordinate system are the same, and the difference (= distance) between the z coordinate of the point O and the point S in the camera coordinate system is determined by the camera and lens used. It is a pre-given variable uniquely determined by the characteristic. Here, the difference between the z coordinate of the point O and the point S is f. Note that image distortion caused by camera and lens characteristics is ignored for simplicity.

  As shown in FIG. 10, the moving body coordinate system is given in three dimensions. Here, coordinates of the markers 200a to 200d in the moving body coordinate system are defined as Ma, Mb, Mc, and Md, and are projected on the screen coordinate system. Let the coordinates be Ma ', Mb', Mc ', Md'. As described above, in the present embodiment, the four markers 200a to 200d are separated by the same distance from the photodiode 210, which is the center of the moving object, and the distance between the markers 200a and 200b, and the distance between the markers 200b and 200c. Since the distance, the distance between the marker 200c and the marker 200d, and the distance between the marker 200d and the marker 200a are equal, the length of the line segment MaMb, the line segment MbMc, the line segment McMd, and the line segment MdMa Are equal, the line segment MaMb and the line segment McMd are parallel, and the line segment MbMc and the line segment MdMa are also parallel.

Here, a method of calculating the rotation matrix _RCM-MO from the camera coordinate system to the moving object coordinate system will be described. In this description, the z coordinate of each point in the screen coordinate system is given as a parameter f given in advance, and is extended to three-dimensional coordinates. First, a plane Ma'Mb'O passing through the point Ma ', the point Mb', and the origin O of the camera coordinate system is obtained. At this time, the line segment MaMb also exists in the plane Ma'Mb'O. Next, a normal vector 1 of the plane Ma'Mb'O is obtained. Similarly, the plane Mc′Md′O and the normal vector m of the plane Mc′Md′O are obtained for the line McMd parallel to the line MaMb. Here, since the line segment MaMb and the line segment McMd are parallel, their direction vectors are the same. In other words, the vector is calculated as the outer product of the normal vector l and the normal vector m, becomes the direction vector in the camera coordinate system of the segment MaMb and segment MCMD, the unit vectors eu _(eu x of the direction vector, eu _y , Eu _z ). The same calculation is performed for the other set of line segments MbMc and MdMa to obtain a unit vector ev (ev _x , ev _y , ev _z ) of the direction vector in the camera coordinate system of the line segments MbMc and MdMa. Ideally, the unit vector eu and the unit vector ev are orthogonal, and by calculating an outer product ew of the unit vector eu and the unit vector ev, three unit vectors eu (eu) representing the posture of the moving body viewed from the camera coordinate system are obtained. _{x, eu y, eu z)} , ev (ev x, ev y, ev z), ew (ew x, ew y, ew z) is obtained. Using these unit vectors, the rotation matrix R _CM-MO is represented by the following equation.

By multiplying the rotation matrix _RCM-MO by the coordinates of a point represented in the coordinate system of the moving object from the right, the coordinates can be converted to coordinates seen in the camera coordinate system.

  Next, a method of calculating the center Mo of the moving object in the camera coordinate system will be described. Here, a case where the moving body rotates around the x-axis with respect to the camera coordinate system will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a camera, a screen, and a moving body as viewed from the yz plane. It should be noted that there is no difference in the concept of rotation around the y axis, rotation around the z axis, or rotation around a plurality of axes.

In the moving object in the tracking state, the x coordinate and the y coordinate of the center Mo of the moving object viewed from the camera coordinate system are both 0, and the z coordinate is the distance do from the origin O of the camera coordinates to the center Mo of the moving object. Become. Since each marker position in the moving object coordinate system is known, the x coordinate of each marker coordinate in the camera coordinates is obtained by substituting each marker coordinate expressed in the moving object coordinate system into the rotation matrix R _CM-MO obtained above. And y coordinates are obtained. Note that the obtained z coordinate indicates a difference in the z direction from the position of the center Mo of the moving body in the camera coordinate system.

The point Ma in FIG. 11 represents the marker 200a in the camera coordinate system, and the point Mb similarly represents the marker 200b in the camera coordinate system. A point Ma ″ in FIG. 11 is a point where the point Ma is projected on a plane parallel to the screen coordinate system, and the x coordinate and the y coordinate of both are the same. Similarly, the x coordinate and the y coordinate of the point Mb ″ and the point Mb are the same. Therefore, the distance do from the origin O of the camera coordinate system to the center Mo of the moving body, the coordinates of the point _{Ma (a x, a y,} a z), ' coordinates (a _x' points Ma, _{a y} ', _{a z} '), the point Mb of coordinates _{(b x, b y, b} z), and the point Mb' coordinates _{(b x ', b y'} , b z ') using a can be calculated by the following equation.

The roll, pitch, and yaw components of the moving object can be calculated from the rotation matrix R _CM-MO obtained as described above, and the distance from the camera to the moving object from the distance do, that is, the distance from the moving object control device to the moving object. The distance can be calculated.

  In the present embodiment, the optical axis of the camera 110 is deflected by the two-dimensional galvano scanner 190, and the camera coordinate system changes according to the deflection angle. Therefore, in order to obtain position information and attitude information of the flying object 902 viewed from the world coordinate system of the moving object control device 901, the angle command value is converted from the moving object coordinate system to the camera coordinate system as described above. A transformation matrix from the camera coordinate system to the world coordinate system is calculated based on the angle command value 16a and the angle command value 16b, and another coordinate transformation is performed using the calculated transformation matrix.

Here, from the rotation matrix _RCM-MO and the distance, the coordinate transformation matrix from the moving body coordinate system to the camera coordinate system is as follows.

The coordinate transformation matrix _SCM-MO has rotation matrix components (first to third columns, first to third rows) and origin information (fourth column, first to third rows).

In the present embodiment, the optical axis of the camera 110 is deflected by the two-dimensional galvano scanner 190, and the camera coordinate system changes according to the deflection angle. Therefore, when the angle command value 16a is rotated by θ in the x-axis direction and the angle command value 16b is rotated by φ in the y-axis direction, a rotation matrix R _CM-GL from the global coordinate system to the camera coordinate system can be expressed by the following equation.

Here, since the origin of the global coordinate system and the origin of the camera coordinate system can be regarded as the same, the coordinate transformation matrix SCM _-GL from the global coordinate system to the camera coordinate system can be expressed by the following equation.

To summarize the above, the matrix _SGL-MO that converts the coordinate system of the moving object into the global coordinate system can be expressed by the following equation.

The center position Mo of the moving body viewed in the global coordinate system corresponds to the origin information of the _SGL-MO , and the posture of the moving body can be expressed as a rotation matrix of the _SGL-MO . As described above, the moving body position / posture calculation unit 170c calculates the moving body position / posture information 30 including the position information and the posture information of the flying body 902 that is the moving body.

  The communication pulse train generator 170d will be described. The communication pulse train generating unit 170d generates and outputs the communication pulse 14 based on the transmission data 10 while receiving the tracking state signal 22. In this embodiment, a signal beam 904 in which data is encoded is realized by converting transmission data into a binary format, replacing the data with binary notation, and periodically turning on / off the laser beam.

  Specifically, when transmitting the character string “A12”, first, according to the ASCII character code, it is converted to “0x41”, “0x31”, and “0x32”, and the respective binary representations “01000001”, “00110001”, and “00110010” And Then, by performing on / off intensity modulation of the laser beam in accordance with the code at a period of 0.1 ms, a signal beam 904 on which transmission data is superimposed is obtained. In the decoding by the flying object 902, the voltage value obtained from the photodiode 210, which is a laser light detecting element, is binarized by a set voltage, and the signal is transmitted in the reverse procedure to a pulse-like signal. The same received data as the data can be obtained.

  According to the present embodiment, optical communication between the moving object and the control device can be performed even when the flying object 902 that is the moving object freely moves in the space. As a result, even when the radio wave environment is poor, it is possible to control the moving body. For example, as in the case where the flying object 902 pursues the purpose of catching another flying object, it is difficult to predict the trajectory and the flying object 902 which is a moving object can be controlled even when jamming radio waves are assumed. .

  In the present embodiment, the procedure for calculating the information on the position and the attitude of the moving body after the tracking state is set is described. However, the calculation may be started before the tracking. In this embodiment, the optical axis of the camera and the laser light source are made the same by the splitter. Therefore, in the case of a splitter in which the ratio of reflection: transmission is 50:50, the splitter itself shines at the wavelength of the laser light due to the laser light, resulting in noise in the acquired image, which adversely affects the marker extraction accuracy. In order to avoid this phenomenon, it is effective to set the wavelength of the laser light source 120 outside the main sensitivity wavelength range of the camera 110. To set the wavelength of the laser light source 120 outside the main sensitivity wavelength range of the camera 110, a filter for preventing transmission of light having the oscillation wavelength of the laser light source 120 is inserted between the splitter 140 and an imaging device such as a CCD of the camera 110. Alternatively, the laser light source 120 may have an oscillation wavelength different from the sensitivity wavelength range of the imaging device such as the CCD of the camera 110. As a filter that prevents transmission of light having the oscillation wavelength of the laser light source 120, for example, a long-pass filter that absorbs light having the oscillation wavelength of the laser light source 120 can be used.

  In order to demonstrate optical communication by the mobile object control device and the mobile object control system of the present embodiment, a mobile object control device and a mobile object simulating the flying object 902 were prepared and tested. Four light emitting diodes (LEDs, Light Emitting Diodes) were arranged on the simulated moving object in correspondence with the markers 200a to 200d. The distance between the LED corresponding to the marker 200a and the marker 200c was about 30 cm. A 635-nm wavelength light source is used as the laser light source of the mobile control device. The intensity of the laser light is modulated into a signal beam, and the galvano unit transmits 89 bytes of character data while deflecting the signal beam and the optical axis of the camera. did. The simulated moving body was provided with a photodiode having a light receiving surface of 11 mm × 11 mm, and received a signal beam from the moving body control device. The distance between the simulated moving body and the moving body control device is 2.5 m, and the simulated moving body is reciprocated with a maximum speed of 75 mm / sec in a forward / backward, left / right and up / down direction with a stroke of 80 mm, and a signal on the simulated moving body The tracking error with respect to the movement of the simulated moving body of the moving body control device was evaluated using the displacement amount of the laser spot due to the light beam as the tracking error.

  FIG. 12 shows the evaluation result of the tracking error. The vertical axis of the evaluation result in FIG. 12 is the tracking error, and the horizontal axis is time. The solid line plot is the tracking error in the horizontal direction, and the dotted line plot is the tracking error in the vertical direction. The tracking error was at most 1.21 mm, and excellent tracking characteristics were obtained. Further, the communication rate between the mobile control device and the simulated mobile body was able to achieve 1 kbps.

  The moving body according to the present embodiment includes a light-emitting body, and the communication from the moving body to the moving body control device is possible by capturing the light emitting state of the moving body with the camera of the moving body control device. It is characterized by. Here, an example will be described in which a data receiving state at a moving body is notified to the moving body control device using one light emitting body.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a flying object 501 that is a moving object according to the present embodiment. The flying object 501 is different from the flying object 902 which is the moving object shown in FIG. 1 in further including a light emitter 240 and a light emitter controller 230. In this embodiment, a light emitting diode (LED, Light Emitting Diode) is used as a light emitting body included in the flying object 501. In the test of the first embodiment, an example is shown in which the markers 200a to 200d are LEDs. However, in the flying object 501 of the present embodiment, an LED is separately provided on a lower surface of the flying object 501 at a position different from the markers 200a to 200d. Then, the data reception state of the flying object 501 is transmitted to the mobile control device by blinking the separately provided LED.

  In the moving object 501 of the present embodiment, when the photodiode 210 receives a signal light beam 904 which is a pulsed laser beam emitted from the moving object control device, the voltage 40 is output according to the irradiated signal light beam 904, The signal is transmitted to the moving object drive controller 220 as a signal. The moving body drive controller 220 decodes the received pulse-like voltage as received data. At this time, a parity bit (a bit for detecting a data error of 1 when the number of “1” included in the unit data is even, and 0 when the number of “1” included in the unit data is odd) is added to the transmission data to be transmitted at every 2 bytes. And performs a parity check. If the parity check result is OK, the received data is determined to be true and used by the mobile unit, and the communication state signal 41 is sent to the light emitting unit control unit 230. When the communication state signal 41 can be received, the light emitter control unit 230 applies the voltage 42 to the light emitter 240 to cause the light emitter to emit light. On the other hand, when the communication state signal 41 cannot be received, that is, when the parity check result is NG, the light emitter control unit 230 turns off the light emitter 240.

  Next, the operation of the moving object control device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 illustrates a controller 270 provided in the moving object control device according to the present embodiment. An LED state detection unit that checks the LED state from the image data 13 compared with the controller 202 illustrated in FIG. 2 according to the first embodiment. 170e. Since the mobile object tracking operation is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description is omitted, and the communication operation of the controller 270 will be described below.

  The communication operation according to the present embodiment is characterized in that the reception state of the mobile unit is checked every two bytes in the transmission data, and in the case of reception NG, the same data is transmitted again. The LED state detection unit 170e detects the lighting state of the LED from the image data 13, and if the LED is on, transmits the normal reception signal 23 to the communication pulse train generation unit 170d. When receiving the tracking state signal 22 and the normal reception signal 23, the communication pulse train generation unit 270d generates the communication pulse 14 every two bytes based on the transmission data 10, but receives only the tracking state signal 22. In this case, the same 2-byte communication pulse 14 is continuously sent. The method of encoding the transmission data 10 is the same as that of the communication pulse generation unit 170d.

  According to the present embodiment, the next data can be transmitted after confirming the data reception at the mobile body, so that high-quality communication can be performed. Here, an example has been described in which the data reception state at the moving object is notified to the moving object control device using a single light emitter. However, data is transferred from the moving object to the mobile object control device using a plurality of light emitters. You can also. Since the amount of data that can be transmitted from the moving object to the moving object control device depends on the frame rate of the camera, in order to improve the data transfer speed, it is not necessary to increase the blinking speed of the light emitter, but to increase the number of light emitters. The method used is effective.

  The moving object control device according to the present embodiment is characterized in that a clear image of the moving object can be obtained by the zoom lens. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the moving object and the moving object control device according to the present embodiment.

  The moving object control device 701 according to the present embodiment is different from the moving object control device 901 according to the first embodiment in that the moving object control device 701 has the electric zoom lens 180 and the structure of the controller 370. Optical magnification command 18 is output from controller 370 to electric zoom lens 180.

  With a fixed-magnification camera, if the moving object is very distant, the moving object will only appear small in the captured image, and therefore the calculation accuracy of the position / posture information of the moving object will deteriorate, and the tracking performance of the moving object will also decrease. . Therefore, in the present embodiment, a zoom lens is placed between the camera 110 and the beam splitter, and the optical magnification of the electric zoom lens is changed according to the size of the moving object shown in the captured image, so that the moving object shown in the captured image is changed. Make the size more than a certain size. The information on the relationship between the optical magnification and the camera parameters required for tracking the moving object is stored in the storage 180 in advance.

  Next, a moving object tracking operation of the moving object control device 701 according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 8 illustrates a configuration of the controller 370 according to the present embodiment. The difference from the controller 202 of the first embodiment is that a galvano angle / optical magnification command generation unit 370a is used instead of the galvano angle command value generation unit 170a. The galvano angle / optical magnification command generation unit 370a generates a galvano angle command 16a, a galvano angle command 16b, and an optical magnification command 18 from the image data 13. Here, a method of generating the optical magnification command 18 will be described. A reference marker distance range on the image plane is set in advance (250 ± 50 pixels in this example). When the acquired image is the image shown in FIG. 4, first, the average value of the distance between the opposing markers (between 200a and 200c and between 200b and 200d) is calculated. Here, assuming that the current optical magnification command is 1.0 and the calculation result is 100, the optical magnification command 18 becomes 2.5 times according to the reference marker distance setting value. The reason why the width of the reference distance range is given is that the command followability of the zoom lens is poor with respect to the movement of the galvano scanner, and the frequent movement may reduce the tracking accuracy. Through the above steps, the optical magnification command 18 is created.

  The moving body position / posture calculation unit 370c receives the optical magnification command 18 from the galvano angle command value generation unit 170c, and calculates the position / posture information 30 of the moving body using camera parameters according to the optical magnification command 18. The points are different.

  According to the present embodiment, it is possible to reliably transmit data to the mobile unit even when the distance from the mobile unit control device increases. In this embodiment, the zoom lens is arranged between the splitter and the camera, but may be arranged between the deflecting means (galvano scanner) and the splitter.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and includes various modifications. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail in order to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the described configurations. For example, in this embodiment, the moving body is a flying body, but a traveling body or a floating body is also assumed.

Reference numeral 110 denotes a camera, 120 denotes a laser light source, 140 denotes a splitter, 190 denotes a two-dimensional galvano scanner, 901 denotes a moving object control device, 902 denotes a flying object, and 904 denotes a signal beam.

Claims (12)

Camera and
And a light source;
A moving object control device, wherein the moving object is irradiated with a signal beam within a field of view of the camera. The mobile object control device according to claim 1,
A moving object control device irradiating the signal beam along an optical axis of the camera. The mobile object control device according to claim 2,
Having an optical deflector,
A moving object control device, wherein the field of view and the signal light beam are swung by the optical deflector according to the position of the moving object in the field of view of the camera. The mobile object control device according to claim 3,
The moving object control device, wherein the optical deflector is a galvanometer mirror. The mobile object control device according to claim 1,
The moving body control device, wherein an emission wavelength of the light source is outside a main sensitivity wavelength range of the camera. The mobile object control device according to claim 1,
The light source is a laser light source, and the signal beam is generated by intensity modulation of the laser light source. Camera and
A light source,
And a moving body,
A moving object control system, wherein a signal beam is emitted to the moving object within a field of view of the camera. The mobile control system according to claim 7,
The moving object control system according to claim 1, wherein the moving object has a light emitting element, and causes the light emitting element to emit light according to a reception state of the signal beam. The mobile control system according to claim 7,
The moving body has a plurality of markers,
A moving object control system, wherein posture information of the moving object is calculated based on position information of the plurality of markers in a field of view of the camera. The mobile object control system according to claim 9,
Equipped with a zoom lens,
A moving object control system, wherein an optical magnification is changed based on position information of the plurality of markers in a field of view of the camera. The mobile object control system according to claim 9,
A moving object control system, wherein the signal beam is emitted along an optical axis of the camera. The mobile object control system according to claim 11,
An optical deflector for changing the direction of the optical axis of the camera and the signal light beam,
A moving object control system, wherein the optical deflector is controlled based on position information of the plurality of markers in a field of view of the camera.

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