JP3213904B2 - Mobile robot with computer terminal - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an economical computer terminal united type mobile robot in which a CPU (Central Processing Unit) is not mounted on a robot main body but is united with a portable computer terminal equipped with a CPU. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is an infrared source tracking missile as a moving object for tracking a signal source that generates infrared rays or radio waves, and a mobile robot using signal processing is easily considered. Signal processing has been performed mainly by a CPU built in the main body.

[0003]

On the other hand, in recent years, a portable computer terminal called a PDA has become widespread (progress to the literature mobile information communication era, Nikkei Communication January 3, 1994, pp. 36-57). ), Since a battery occupying a large volume and weight cannot be loaded, it is difficult to use the portable computer terminal for a long time, and there is a problem that the battery needs to be replaced or recharged frequently.

[0004] Therefore, the portable computer terminal is moved in tasks such as picking of an article that requires the portable computer terminal and the mobile robot at the same time, blood collection and temperature measurement of a patient in a ward by a nurse, and cleaning of the patient. It is easily conceivable to supply power to a portable computer terminal from a large-capacity battery loaded on the robot by mounting it on a mobile robot, but it is not economical because both the mobile robot and the terminal require CPUs. was there.

Also, when the mobile robot is traveling, it is difficult for the user to perform operations such as inputting to the portable computer terminal, and during that time, the CPU of the portable computer terminal is idle. There was a problem that wasted and not economical.

Here, the main objects to be solved by the present invention are as follows. A first object of the present invention is to provide a computer terminal combined type mobile robot in which a portable computer terminal is detachably combined.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a mobile terminal-incorporated mobile robot which performs information processing for traveling of a mobile robot having no CPU mounted thereon, with a CPU built in the portable computer terminal. It is something you want to do.

A third object of the present invention is to provide an economical mobile robot with a combined computer terminal, which solves the problem that an expensive CPU is duplicately loaded and a CPU is played. is there.

A fourth object of the present invention is to remove the portable computer terminal from the mobile robot and perform an input operation separately, or to perform an input operation when the mobile robot is stopped when the movement operation is stopped. The company will not provide a robot for use.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a specification, drawings,
In particular, it will be obvious from the description of the appended claims.

[0011]

The above object can be attained by adopting the following novel characteristic constitution means of the present invention. That is, a first feature of the present invention is that in a mobile robot that tracks a tracking signal source, a tracking signal sensor that catches a tracking signal transmitted from the tracking signal source, and a robot housing equipped with wheels And a portable terminal housing equipped with a robot / terminal combined CPU and a computer terminal united type mobile robot which is separably united via a connection connector between a robot connector unit capable of exchanging signals and a terminal connector unit. .

A second feature of the present invention is the first feature of the present invention.
A tracking signal sensor that captures a tracking signal transmitted from a tracking signal source, converts the signal into a sensor signal, and outputs a detection signal obtained by preprocessing the sensor signal to a robot connector unit. And a large-capacity robot-equipped power supply that is supplied when a robot drive control command signal from the robot connector and a detection signal from the sensor information pre-processing unit are input simultaneously. There is provided a mobile robot combined with a computer terminal equipped with a motor drive amplification unit for amplifying a current and a wheel drive motor for driving a wheel when the amplified drive current is received.

A third feature of the present invention is the first feature of the present invention.
Alternatively, the portable terminal housing in the second aspect is a robot
There is a computer-terminal-integrated mobile robot having a terminal-shared CPU, a storage unit, an external storage unit, a display unit, an input unit, and a terminal-mounted power supply, which are organically connected to each other.

According to a fourth feature of the present invention, the terminal connector unit according to the first, second or third feature of the present invention receives a detection signal, performs arithmetic processing, and issues a robot drive control command signal. There is provided a mobile robot united with a computer terminal in which a shared CPU and a storage unit for storing the detection signal are connected.

According to a fifth feature of the present invention, the connector according to the first, second, third or fourth feature of the present invention connects a power supply mounted on a large-capacity robot and a power supply mounted on a terminal to each other. Computer terminal combined type mobile robot.

A sixth feature of the present invention is that the robot housing according to the first, second, third, fourth or fifth feature of the present invention accommodates a portable terminal having a top portion opened for input operation. This is a mobile robot united with a computer terminal provided with a mounting unit.

A seventh feature of the present invention is the sixth feature of the present invention.
The portable terminal housing and mounting section according to the above feature is a computer terminal united type mobile robot provided with an illumination lamp capable of input operation even in a dark place.

An eighth feature of the present invention is the tracking signal sensor according to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh feature of the present invention, wherein the tracking signal sensor is a front part of a robot housing. There is a mobile robot united with a computer terminal which is mounted in plural at equal intervals in the outer surface circumferential direction.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned novel measures are taken,
The mobile robot includes a tracking signal sensor, a sensor information preprocessing unit, a motor drive amplification unit, a large-capacity robot-equipped power supply, a wheel drive motor and wheels, and the portable terminal equipped with a CPU includes The processing of the sensor information at the time of traveling of the mobile robot can be combined with the mobile robot and can be detached.
A PU is used to track a tracking signal source. In addition, the portable computer terminal and the mobile robot are combined to not only cover the short battery consumption time of the portable computer terminal, but also eliminate redundant CPUs and measure the efficiency of CPU usage.

[0020]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the use state of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the system configuration.

In the figure, A is a mobile robot combined with a computer terminal of this embodiment, B is a mobile robot, C is a portable computer terminal, 1 is a robot housing, 2 is a mobile terminal housing, and 3a to 3e are robots. Tracking signal sensors arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the outer surface of the front of the body of the housing 1, 4 are wheels, 5 is a lid for a drawer for loading objects, and 6 is a portable computer terminal C used in a dark place. Fluorescent lamp for illumination at the time, 7 is a tracking signal transmitter, 8 is a tracking signal transmitter, 9 is a user P
Is a stop button, 11 is a move-on button, 1a is a portable terminal housing and mounting portion which is recessed on the front surface of the dome-shaped head and has a top portion opened for input operation.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a sensor information preprocessing unit, 13 denotes a motor drive amplification unit, 14a and 14b denote wheel drive motors, 15 denotes a battery mounted on a large-capacity robot, and 16 denotes a robot / terminal C
PU, 17 is a storage unit, 18 is an external storage unit such as an FD or a card memory, 19 is a display unit such as a liquid crystal, 20 is an input unit such as a keyboard or tablet, 21 is a battery mounted on a terminal, and 22 is a mobile robot B. Robot connector 22a and terminal connector 2 for electrically connecting portable computer terminal C
2b.

The robot housing 1 includes tracking signal sensors 3a to 3e that catch the tracking signal S1 transmitted from the tracking signal transmitter 8 as a tracking signal source, convert the signal into a sensor signal S2, and output the signals. A sensor information preprocessing unit 12 for transmitting a detection signal S3 obtained by preprocessing the signal S2 to the external robot connector unit 22a, a robot drive control command signal S4 transmitted through the connector 22, and a sensor information preprocessing unit The motor drive amplification unit 13 amplifies the drive current I1 supplied from the large-capacity robot battery 15 supplied in response to the simultaneous and parallel input of the detection signal S3 from the motor 12, and drives the wheels 4 when the amplified drive current I2 is received. And wheel drive motors 14a and 14b.

The portable terminal housing 2 includes a robot / terminal combined CPU 16, a storage unit 17, an external storage unit 18, and a display unit 19.
The input unit 20 and the terminal-mounted battery 21 are operatively connected to each other in a manner similar to a conventionally known commercially available portable computer terminal.

The detection signal S3 is received through the connector 22 and subjected to arithmetic processing, and the robot / terminal combined CPU 16 for transmitting the robot drive control command signal S4 to the motor drive amplification unit 13 via the connector 22 and is sent through the connector 22. The storage unit 17 for storing the detected signal S3 and the terminal-mounted battery 21 that can be charged from the large-capacity robot-mounted battery 15 are connected to the terminal connector unit 22b.

Since the specification of the present embodiment has the above-described specific mode, the mobile robot B and the portable computer terminal C can be electrically and mechanically combined and separated via the connector 22. Since the user P has only the portable computer terminal C, the user P can perform information processing such as inputting information, checking inventory, and checking a time-series graph of a patient's body temperature on a desk or anywhere. it can.

The stop button 10 of the mobile robot B
At the time of stopping by pressing, the same operation can be performed by combining the portable computer terminals C. The mobile robot B uses a tracking signal S1 from a transmitter 8 (such as an infrared or ultrasonic transmitter) of a tracking signal transmitter 7 attached to the waist of the user P with a belt 9.
Are captured by the tracking signal sensors 3a to 3e, and the converted and output sensor signal S2 is preprocessed by the sensor information preprocessing unit 12 including a filter and the like.

The information of the preprocessed detection signal S3 is as follows:
Robot / terminal combined CPU for portable computer terminal C
16, the motor drive amplifier 13 receives the processed robot drive control command signal S 4 through the connector 22, amplifies the drive current I 1 from the large-capacity robot mounted battery 15, For example, two right and left drive wheels 4 are driven by, for example, two wheel drive motors 14a and 14b mounted on the vehicle to track the user P.

When the user P wants to stop the tracking of the mobile robot B, he presses the stop button 10 to release the tracking mode. When the tracking is started, the movement ON button 11 is pressed to cause the mobile robot B to start the tracking. The goods required by the user P are the drawer lid 5 of the robot housing 1.
Can be opened for storage and transportation.

In the present embodiment, an example in which the tracking of the mobile robot B is turned on and off with the buttons 10 and 11 has been described. For example, the portable computer terminal C has a built-in microphone and voice recognition function, and If the portable computer terminal C recognizes that P utters “ON” or “OFF”, the buttons 10 and 11 do not need to be operated, and the user can use it more comfortably.

A large-capacity robot mounted battery 15 for driving the wheel drive motors 14a and 14b of the mobile robot B
When the drive voltage is different from the voltage of the terminal-mounted battery 21, a voltage converter is appropriately added to the terminal-mounted battery 21. The present invention may be used by nurses to load and use temperature measurement, blood sampling tools, and patient cleaning tools for care, or to pick up goods in a warehouse, etc. The present invention is not limited to those, and can be used for arbitrary ones.

[0032]

As described above, a portable computer terminal equipped with a CPU can be combined with a mobile robot not equipped with a CPU and can be detached, and the sensor information of the mobile robot when the mobile robot travels can be obtained. Since the processing is performed by the CPU of the portable computer terminal and the tracking signal source is tracked, not only the shortage of the time consumed by the battery mounted on the terminal is covered, but also the redundant CPU is omitted, so that it is economical. There is an advantage that.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a use state of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the above.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A: Computer terminal-integrated mobile robot B: Mobile robot C: Portable computer terminal 1: Robot housing 1a: Portable terminal housing / mounting unit 2: Portable terminal housing 3a to 3e: Tracking signal sensor 4: Wheel 5 Drawer lid 6 Fluorescent light for illumination 7 Tracking signal transmitter 8 Tracking signal transmitter 9 Belt 10 Stop button 11 Movement on button 12 Sensor information preprocessor 13 Motor drive amplifier 14a , 14b ... wheel drive motor 15 ... large capacity robot mounted battery 16 ... robot / terminal combined CPU 17 ... storage unit 18 ... external storage unit 19 ... display unit 20 ... input unit 21 ... terminal mounted battery 22 ... connector 22a ... robot connector Unit 22b Terminal connector unit S1 Tracking signal S2 Sensor signal S3 Detection signal S4 Robot drive control command signal I1 Driving current I2 ... amplifier drive current P ... user

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-97715 (JP, A) JP-A-4-218810 (JP, A) JP-A-5-126575 (JP, A) 100509 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G05D 1/00-1/12

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A mobile robot for tracking a tracking signal source, comprising: a tracking signal sensor for catching a tracking signal transmitted from the tracking signal source; a robot housing equipped with wheels; A mobile robot united with a computer terminal, wherein a portable terminal housing equipped with a CPU is separably combined with a robot connector unit capable of transmitting and receiving signals via a connector of the terminal connector unit. 2. A robot housing comprising: a tracking signal sensor for catching a tracking signal transmitted from a tracking signal source, converting the signal into a sensor signal, and outputting a detection signal obtained by preprocessing the sensor signal. A sensor information pre-processing unit to be transmitted to the connector unit, and a large-capacity robot-equipped power supply supplied at the same time as a simultaneous input of a robot drive control command signal from the robot connector unit and a detection signal from the sensor information pre-processing unit. 2. The mobile robot according to claim 1, further comprising: a motor drive amplification unit that amplifies the drive current of the above, and a wheel drive motor that drives a wheel when the amplified drive current is received. 3. The portable terminal housing comprises a robot / terminal combined CPU, a storage unit, an external storage unit, a display unit, an input unit, and a terminal mounted power supply, which are organically connected to each other. The mobile robot according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mobile robot is combined with a computer terminal. 4. The terminal connector section connects a robot / terminal combined CPU that receives a detection signal, performs arithmetic processing and issues a robot drive control command signal, and a storage section that stores the detection signal. 4. The mobile robot according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the mobile robot is combined with a computer terminal. 5. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the connector connects the power supply mounted on the large-capacity robot and the power supply mounted on the terminal to each other. 6. The computer terminal united type moving device according to claim 1, wherein the robot housing is provided with a portable terminal housing mounting portion having a top portion opened for input operation. For robots. 7. The mobile robot according to claim 6, wherein the portable terminal accommodating and mounting portion includes an illumination lamp that allows input operation even in a dark place. 8. The tracking signal sensor according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of tracking signal sensors are mounted at equal intervals in a circumferential direction of a front outer surface of the robot housing.
The mobile robot described in the above paragraph.