Mini integrated control device

• US 9,802,321 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2013
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hanwha Aerospace Co., Ltd. (Hanwha Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hanwha Land Systems Co. Ltd. (Hanwha Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Jae Hyung, Kim, Dong Shin, Jung, Byung Chan
• Primary Examiner(s): Bendidi, Rachid
• Application Number:
  US14/770,509
• Publication Number:
  US 20160008985A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,435 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/003 by means of an audio-responsive input audible safety signals B25J19/061
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/006 by means of a wireless system for controlling one or several manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 19/022 using lasers
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 19/023 including video camera means
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 5/00 Manipulators mounted on wheels or on carriages B25J1/00 takes precedence; programme-controlled manipulators B25J9/00 ; vehicle aspects B60, B62, e.g. remote-controlled steering for motor vehicles B62D1/24; control of position of vehicles G05D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1676 Avoiding collision or forbidden zones
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/18 Packaging or power distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

Provided is a mini integrated control device including a first control unit for receiving large-scale sensor data generated while an autonomous driving robot is operated and performing large-scale calculations in parallel, a second control unit for performing the large-scale calculations in parallel together with the first control unit, a micro control unit for monitoring a state of power of the robot, monitoring obstacles located near the robot, controlling a motor of the robot, controlling a relay module of the robot, and communicating with the first control unit, and a power supply for controlling supply of power.

Claims

1. A mini integrated control device comprising at least one processor to implement:

a first control unit for receiving large-scale sensor data generated while an autonomous driving robot is operated, and performing a first portion of large-scale calculations of the large-scale sensor data, wherein the first control unit calculates a travel path for autonomous driving based on location data of the autonomous driving robot and data regarding obstacles located near the autonomous driving robot acquired from the large-scale sensor data to allow the autonomous driving robot to select the travel path and travel to a destination while avoiding obstacles;

a second control unit, which is connected to the first control unit, for performing, in parallel with the first portion of the large-scale calculations of the first control unit, a second portion of the large-scale calculations of the large-scale sensor data, by using the same clock as the first control unit, wherein the second control unit performs calculations of data acquired by sensors comprising a camera and a laser scanner; and

a micro control unit for monitoring a state of power of the autonomous driving robot, monitoring obstacles located near the autonomous driving robot, controlling a motor of the autonomous driving robot, controlling a relay module of the autonomous driving robot, and communicating with the first control unit,

wherein the mini integrated control device further comprises a power supply configured to supply power to sensors used by the autonomous driving robot, the first control unit, the second control unit, and the micro control unit.

2. The mini integrated control device of claim 1, wherein the first control unit receives the large-scale sensor data via a gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch.

3. The mini integrated control device of claim 1, wherein the micro control unit communicates with the first control unit over Ethernet and communicates with the first control unit over RS232 if the Ethernet is damaged.

4. The mini integrated control device of claim 1, wherein the micro control unit displays a state of the mini integrated control device comprising a monitored state of power of the autonomous driving robot, a monitored state of obstacles located near the autonomous driving robot, a control state of the motor of the autonomous driving robot, a control state of the relay module of the autonomous driving robot, and a communication state with the first control unit, on a liquid crystal display (LCD) display.

5. The mini integrated control device of claim 1, wherein the first control unit comprises 16 cores and is operated on 32 cores in total by hyper-threading.

6. The mini integrated control device of claim 1, wherein the first control unit is in the form of a board,

wherein peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) communication lines connecting the first control unit and the second control unit and serial and Ethernet communication lines connected to the micro control unit are disposed at a backplane side of the board, and

a power light emitting diode (LED), a reset button, a speaker connector, a microphone, a video graphics adapter (VGA) or high definition multimedia interface (HDMI), at least one universal serial bus (USB), at least one gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch, at least one FireWire, and at least one serial communication line are disposed at a front panel side of the board.

7. The mini integrated control device of claim 1, wherein the autonomous driving robot selects the travel path at a high speed and travels to the destination while avoiding obstacles.

8. A mini integrated control device comprising at least one processor to implement:

a first control unit for receiving large-scale sensor data generated while an autonomous driving robot is operated, and performing a first portion of large-scale calculations of the large-scale sensor data, wherein the first control unit calculates a travel path for autonomous driving based on location data of the autonomous driving robot and data regarding obstacles located near the autonomous driving robot acquired from the large-scale sensor data to allow the autonomous driving robot to select the travel path and travel to a destination while avoiding obstacles;

a second control unit, which is connected to the first control unit, for performing, in parallel with the first portion of the large-scale calculations of the first control unit, a second portion of the large-scale calculations of the large-scale sensor data, by using the same clock as the first control unit, wherein the second control unit performs calculations regarding environment recognition among the large-scale calculations, and the calculations regarding environment recognition comprise calculations of data acquired by sensors comprising a camera and a laser scanner;

a micro control unit for monitoring a state of power of the autonomous driving robot, monitoring obstacles located near the autonomous driving robot, controlling a motor of the autonomous driving robot, controlling a relay module of the autonomous driving robot, and communicating with the first control unit; and

wherein the mini integrated control device further comprises a power supply configured to supply power to sensors used by the autonomous driving robot, the first control unit, and the micro control unit.

9. The mini integrated control device of claim 8, wherein the first control unit receives the large-scale sensor data via a gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch.

10. The mini integrated control device of claim 9, wherein the autonomous driving robot selects the travel path and travels to the destination while avoiding obstacles while having a low velocity.