Disaster relief robot and operation controller therefor
First Claim
1. A robot vehicle comprising:
- a robot body having a front end portion and a rear end portion, each of said front end portion and said rear end portion having a left side and a right side;
a pair of front crawlers;
a pair of rear crawlers;
pair of front pivot shafts;
a pair of rear pivot shafts;
each of said front crawlers and each of said rear crawlers having a track frame and a track wherein the track frame has a drive end and a distal end, with the drive end of each front crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the front pivot shafts to a respective of the left and right sides of said front end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective front crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one of front pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler, with the drive end of each rear crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the rear pivot shafts to a respective one of the left and right sides of said rear end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective rear crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one of the rear pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of the respective rear crawler;
the drive end of each of said front crawlers and said rear crawlers having a drive sprocket for driving the track of the respective crawler;
drive means for driving each drive sprocket independently of the other drive sprockets;
the distance between the front pivot shaft of the front crawler and the rear pivot shaft of the rear crawler on each respective side of said robot body being greater than a sum of a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler and a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective rear crawler so that the maximum pivoting locus of the front crawler located on the right side does not overlap the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the right side, and the maximum pivoting locus the front crawler located on the left side does not overlap the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the left side;
said robot body having a gravitational center which located at a position between (a) the maximum pivoting loci of the front crawlers and (b) the maximum pivoting loci of the rear crawlers so that the ground contact positions of the front crawlers and the ground contact positions of the rear crawlers are always. outside of the gravitational center of said robot body.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A disaster relief robot can be prevented from falling over a precipice or the like while safety for the operator can be ensured during outdoor field transportation of relief supplies such as rescue apparatus and materials, medicines or food stuffs in the case of a wide-area disaster caused by an earthquake, a heavy rainfall, a landslide or the like. Accordingly, track frames (16) for crawlers (12) are pivotably attached to a robot body (10), respectively, at its front and rear ends, the distance L between the pivot shafts of the front and rear crawlers (12F, 12R) is set so that maximum pivoting loci (CF, CR) of the crawlers do not interfere with each other, and further, the gravitational center (G) of the robot body is set at a position intermediate of the distance (L) between the pivot shafts of the front and rear crawlers. Several kinds of operation controllers are also provided.
103 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A robot vehicle comprising:
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a robot body having a front end portion and a rear end portion, each of said front end portion and said rear end portion having a left side and a right side; a pair of front crawlers; a pair of rear crawlers; pair of front pivot shafts; a pair of rear pivot shafts; each of said front crawlers and each of said rear crawlers having a track frame and a track wherein the track frame has a drive end and a distal end, with the drive end of each front crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the front pivot shafts to a respective of the left and right sides of said front end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective front crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one of front pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler, with the drive end of each rear crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the rear pivot shafts to a respective one of the left and right sides of said rear end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective rear crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one of the rear pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of the respective rear crawler; the drive end of each of said front crawlers and said rear crawlers having a drive sprocket for driving the track of the respective crawler; drive means for driving each drive sprocket independently of the other drive sprockets; the distance between the front pivot shaft of the front crawler and the rear pivot shaft of the rear crawler on each respective side of said robot body being greater than a sum of a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler and a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective rear crawler so that the maximum pivoting locus of the front crawler located on the right side does not overlap the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the right side, and the maximum pivoting locus the front crawler located on the left side does not overlap the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the left side; said robot body having a gravitational center which located at a position between (a) the maximum pivoting loci of the front crawlers and (b) the maximum pivoting loci of the rear crawlers so that the ground contact positions of the front crawlers and the ground contact positions of the rear crawlers are always. outside of the gravitational center of said robot body. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A robot vehicle system comprising a robot vehicle and an operation control system for remotely controlling said robot vehicle, said robot vehicle comprising:
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a robot body having a front end portion and a rear end portion, each of said front end portion and said rear end portion having a left side and a right side; a pair of front crawlers; a pair of rear crawlers; a pair of front pivot shafts; a pair of rear pivot shafts; each pivot shaft being independently rotated by a respective pivoting power transmission system which includes a pivoting motor, a torque limiter, and a pivoting angle sensor for detecting an actual pivoting angle of respective pivot shaft and providing a feed-back pivoting angle signal representative thereof, each of said pivoting motors being connected through a respective torque limiter and a respective pivot shaft to a respective track frame; each of said front crawlers and each of said rear crawlers having a track frame and a track wherein the track frame has a drive end and a distal end, with the drive end of each front crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the front pivot shafts to a respective one of the left and right sides of said front end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective front crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one of the front pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler, with the drive end of each rear crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the rear pivot shafts to a respective one of the left and right sides of said rear end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective rear crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one of the rear pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of the respective rear crawler; the drive end of each of said front crawlers and said rear crawlers having a drive sprocket for driving the track of the respective crawler; drive means for driving each drive sprocket independently of the other drive sprockets; the distance between the front pivot shaft of the front crawler and the rear pivot shaft of the rear crawler on each respective side of said robot body being greater than a of a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler and a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective rear crawler so that the maximum pivoting locus of the front crawler located on the right side does not overlap the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the right side, and the maximum pivoting locus of the front crawler located on the left side does not the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the left side; said robot body having a gravitational center which is located at a position between (a) the maximum pivoting loci of the front crawlers and (b) the maximum pivoting loci of the rear crawlers so that the ground contact positions of the front crawlers and of the rear crawlers are always outside of the gravitational center of said robot body; said operation control system comprising; a remote operation controller having four rotating angle detectors, each of said rotating angle detectors having a shaft and an associated knob for manipulation by an operator for providing a rotation angle signal for controlling the pivoting posture of a respective one of the track frames, the knobs being arranged three-dimensionally in said remote operation controller similar to the track frames of the crawlers on said robot body so that an operator using the remote operation controller to manually control the robot can directly observe the postures of the four crawlers from the rotating angles of the four knobs; and a plurality of control circuits for controlling the pivoting of the respective track frames, wherein each control circuit receives a respective rotation angle signal from the corresponding rotating angle detector as a desired pivoting angle signal, and wherein each control circuit produces a pivoting drive signal for controlling the pivoting motor of the respective crawler responsive to the difference between the respective desired pivoting angle signal and a feed-back pivoting angle signal from the pivoting angle sensor of the respective pivoting power transmission system. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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15. A method for operating a robot vehicle comprising:
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robot body having a front end portion and a rear end portion, each of said front end portion and said rear end portion having a left side and a right side; a pair of front crawlers; a pair of rear crawlers; a pair of front pivot shafts; a pair of rear pivot shafts; each of said front crawlers and each of said rear crawlers having a track frame and a track wherein the track frame has a drive end and a distal end, with the drive end of each front crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the front pivot shafts to a respective one of the left and right sides or said front end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective front crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one or the front pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler, with the drive end of each rear crawler being pivotally mounted by a respective one of the rear pivot shafts to a respective one of the left and right sides of said rear end portion of said robot body such that the distal end of the track frame of the respective rear crawler can be pivoted in a circle about the respective one of the rear pivot shafts to provide a maximum pivoting locus of respective rear crawler; the drive end of each of said front crawlers and said rear crawlers having a drive sprocket for driving the track of the respective crawler; drive means for driving each drive sprocket independently of the other drive sprockets; the distance between the front pivot shaft of the front crawler and the rear pivot shaft of the rear crawler on each respective side of said robot body being greater than a sum of a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective front crawler and a radius of the maximum pivoting locus of the respective rear crawler so that the maximum pivoting locus of the front crawler located on the right side does not overlap the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the right side, and the maximum pivoting locus of the front crawler located on the left side does not overlap the maximum pivoting locus of the rear crawler located on the left side; and said robot body having a gravitational center which is located at a position between (a) the maximum pivoting loci of the front crawlers and (b) the maximum pivoting loci of the rear crawlers so that the ground contact positions of the front crawlers and of the rear crawlers are always outside of the gravitational center of said robot body; said method comprising; driving at least two of said drive sprockets to cause said robot vehicle to travel; detecting a forward inclination angle of said robot body; comparing the thus detected inclination angle with a predetermined angle and providing a first control signal when the thus detected inclination angle becomes greater than said predetermined angle; detecting the load exerted on the front left crawler; comparing the thus detected load on the front left crawler with a predetermined load value and providing a second control signal when the load on the front left crawler becomes less than said predetermined load value; detecting the load exerted on the front right crawler; comparing the thus detected load on the front right crawler with the predetermined load value and providing a third control signal when the load on the front right crawler becomes less than said predetermined load value; controlling said drive sprockets and said pivot shafts responsive to said control signals. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A remote operation controller for a robot having a robot body with a front end portion and a rear end portion and a left side and a right side, a front pair of crawlers pivotally mounted to the left side and right side of the front end portion of the robot body, and a rear pair of crawlers pivotally mounted to the left side and right side of the rear end portion of the robot body, each crawler having a drive sprocket and a drive motor for driving a respective crawler independently from the other crawlers, each crawler having a pivoting motor for pivoting the respective crawler with respect to the robot body, each pivoting motor having a pivoting angle detector associated therewith for producing a feedback signal representing an actual pivoting position of the respective crawler;
said remote operation controller comprising; four rotating angle detectors, each of said rotating angle detectors having a shaft, each of said rotating angle detectors being adapted to produce a rotating angle signal to control the posture of the track frame of a respective one of the crawlers, four knobs for manipulation by an operator, each of said knobs being positioned on the shaft of a respective one of said rotating angle detectors, said four knobs being arranged three-dimensionally in said remote operation controller in a manner similar to the mounting of the crawlers on the robot body, and a first control circuit which receives a rotating angle signal from a respective one of said rotating angle detectors as a desired pivoting angle signal for the respective crawler, and which receives a feedback signal representing an actual pivoting position of the respective crawler, and which produces a pivoting drive signal for controlling the pivoting motor of the respective crawler, the respective pivoting drive signal being responsive to a difference between the respective desired pivoting angle signal and the feed-back signal representing the actual pivoting position of the respective crawler. - View Dependent Claims (22)
Specification