Mobile robot and method for controlling mobile robot
First Claim
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1. A mobile robot comprising:
- a main body;
a drive unit that moves the main body;
a contact force detecting unit that measures a contact force between the mobile robot and an obstacle;
an input unit that inputs information indicating characteristics of the obstacle to the controller, the characteristics including a weight of a person or a hardness of a body surface of the person in a case in which the obstacle is the person;
a target position detecting unit that detects a target position that indicates a relative position of a target object from the main body;
a controller that controls the drive unit to move the main body toward the target position under a condition that the contact force measured by the contact force detecting unit is in a predetermined contact force range so as to keep the contact force, the controller changing the predetermined contact force range in accordance with the information input by the input unit,wherein the controller includes;
a velocity control unit that controls a velocity of movement of the main body to control a distance between the target position and a position of the main body to be in a predetermined distance range;
a velocity vector generating unit that generates a velocity vector based on an impedance model using the contact force as an input;
a moving velocity composing unit that composes an output of the velocity control unit for keeping the constant distance and the velocity vector generated by the velocity vector generating unit; and
a contact force attenuating unit that changes a spring constant of the impedance model to a value smaller than a current spring constant when the contact force measured by the contact force detecting unit exceeds a predetermined value,wherein the controller changes the predetermined contact force range in accordance with the information input by the input unit.
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Abstract
A mobile robot includes: a main body; a drive unit that moves the main body; a contact force detecting unit that detects a contact force acting against an obstacle; and a controller that controls the drive unit to move the main body toward a target object under a condition that the contact force detected by the contact force detecting unit is in a predetermined range.
23 Citations
7 Claims
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1. A mobile robot comprising:
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a main body; a drive unit that moves the main body; a contact force detecting unit that measures a contact force between the mobile robot and an obstacle; an input unit that inputs information indicating characteristics of the obstacle to the controller, the characteristics including a weight of a person or a hardness of a body surface of the person in a case in which the obstacle is the person; a target position detecting unit that detects a target position that indicates a relative position of a target object from the main body; a controller that controls the drive unit to move the main body toward the target position under a condition that the contact force measured by the contact force detecting unit is in a predetermined contact force range so as to keep the contact force, the controller changing the predetermined contact force range in accordance with the information input by the input unit, wherein the controller includes; a velocity control unit that controls a velocity of movement of the main body to control a distance between the target position and a position of the main body to be in a predetermined distance range; a velocity vector generating unit that generates a velocity vector based on an impedance model using the contact force as an input; a moving velocity composing unit that composes an output of the velocity control unit for keeping the constant distance and the velocity vector generated by the velocity vector generating unit; and a contact force attenuating unit that changes a spring constant of the impedance model to a value smaller than a current spring constant when the contact force measured by the contact force detecting unit exceeds a predetermined value, wherein the controller changes the predetermined contact force range in accordance with the information input by the input unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 7)
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6. A method for controlling a mobile robot,
wherein the mobile robot includes: -
a main body; a drive unit that moves the main body; and a contact force detecting unit that measures a contact force between the mobile robot and an obstacle; an input unit that inputs information indicating characteristics of the obstacle to the controller, the characteristics including a weight of a person or a hardness of a body surface of the person in a case in which the obstacle is the person; and a target position detecting unit that detects a target position that indicates a relative position of a target object from the main body, wherein the method comprises; receiving the measured contact force from the contact force detecting unit; controlling the drive unit to move the main body toward the target position under a condition that the measured contact force is in a predetermined range so as to keep the contact force; controlling a velocity of movement of the main body to control a distance between the target position and a position of the main body to be in a predetermined distance range; generating a velocity vector based on an impedance model using the contact force as an input; composing an output of the velocity control unit for keeping the constant distance and the velocity vector generated by the velocity vector generating unit; changing a spring constant of the impedance model to a value smaller than a current spring constant when the contact force measured by the contact force detecting unit exceeds a predetermined value; and changing the predetermined contact force range in accordance with the information input by the input unit.
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Specification