JPH0118311Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a traveling device that can travel on flat land, slopes, stairs, narrow spaces, etc., and can travel on an annular circumferential surface of a pipe or the like in the circumferential direction and axial direction.

In places where there is a risk of being exposed to large amounts of radiation, such as inside a nuclear power plant, or in places where the working environment is extremely poor, such as in chemical-related factories, it is desirable to have machines take over the work performed by humans. ,
To this end, a traveling device equipped with various work equipment and capable of being remotely controlled is required, and various types of such devices have been developed and are already being put into practical use. However, in the above-mentioned nuclear power plants, etc., due to space constraints, the width of the stairs and landings are narrow and steep, and there are many narrow and curved sections, making it impossible to put the conventional traveling device into practical use.

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the applicant installed two wheels that are driven and rotated independently on the underside of the device main body, and each of the four bendable and extensible legs has a second joint in the middle. developed a traveling device in which the end was connected to the main body of the device via a first joint (Japanese Patent Application No. 173109/1982);
It is now possible to run stably not only on flat ground, but also on slopes, going up and down stairs, and even in narrow spaces.

However, in the above-mentioned traveling device, when traveling in the circumferential direction on the curved surface of the outer peripheral surface of the pipe, etc. This makes it impossible to run smoothly in the circumferential direction, and since the drive shafts of both wheels attached to the bottom of the device body are arranged on the same axis, It has the disadvantage that it cannot run stably in the axial direction.

The present invention relates to an idea to solve the above-mentioned difficulties in the above-mentioned traveling device, and has two wheels that are driven and rotated independently attached to the lower side of the device main body, and a second joint in the middle that allows bending and stretching. The base ends of each of the possible four legs are connected to the main body of the device via a first joint, and a friction reduction mechanism is provided on the lower surface side of the arm of each leg, and the rotation axis of both wheels is It is characterized by a changeable configuration, and its purpose is to create a traveling device that not only retains the original running performance of the device, but also can run stably in the circumferential and axial directions on the annular circumferential surface. The point is that it provides

The present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, in which two independently driven wheels are mounted on the lower side of the device body, and each base end of four bendable and extensible legs has a second joint in the middle. The parts are connected to the device main body via the first joint, and a friction reduction mechanism is provided on the lower surface side of the arm of each leg, and the rotation axis of both wheels can be changed, so that the lower surface of the device body When both wheels are placed on the axis of the annular circumferential surface, and the four legs are arranged in a winding manner in the circumferential direction of the same circumferential surface to stabilize the traveling device on the annular circumferential surface, each leg The lower side of the arm contacts the annular circumferential surface with low friction via the friction reduction mechanism, and by driving and rotating the wheels in the same circumferential direction, the traveling device can run stably along the circumferential direction on the annular circumferential surface. Furthermore, by changing the rotation axes of both wheels, the traveling device can run stably in the axial direction on the annular circumferential surface or in the diagonal direction thereof.

Furthermore, in this case, the friction reduction mechanism provided on the lower surface side of the arm of each leg and the configuration that allows the rotational axis of both wheels to be changed can be used on flat lands, slopes, stairs, and narrow places (round circles). In addition to these stable running performances, the above-mentioned stable running performance on the annular circumferential surface is also obtained, and the running performance of the traveling device is significantly improved. .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1A, B, and C and FIG. Two wheels 2 and 3, which are driven and rotated independently, are attached to a rotating shaft (not shown) on the same axis, and four wheels are mounted on the left and right, front and rear sides of the device body a. Each leg b of the book has a first joint 11
It is connected by.

Both wheels 2 and 3 can be independently driven and rotated (forward and reverse rotation) by a drive motor (not shown) via a low reduction gear that can be driven by a small driving force. There is.

Each leg b has two arms 1 by a second joint 12.
3 and 14 are connected in a bendable and extensible manner, and a roller 15 is provided at the tip of the arm 14 side. It has parallel rotating shafts and is driven independently by a drive motor and a reducer (not shown) that are built in separately, and their driving force needs to be relatively large, so it is necessary to use a high reduction ratio. It is desirable to

Further, the roller 15 has a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the wheels 2 and 3 and is rotatable, and is provided with a rotation prevention mechanism (not shown).
A small-diameter spherical roller 1 that is projected from the lower side of the roller 15 and comes into contact with the running surface A by a pressing mechanism (not shown).
6 is attached to each roller 15 (see FIG. 1A).

Furthermore, in this embodiment, on the lower surface side of the arms 13 and 14 of each leg b in the traveling device,
A friction reduction mechanism 20 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the friction reduction mechanism 20 includes a bottom surface 21 having a large number of concave spherical surfaces formed long along the lower surface side of each arm 13, 14 of each leg b, and a side surface 22 forming a long groove. In the case 23, a large number of flexible balls 24 are supported by a large number of small balls 25, and are rotatably fitted and projected, and contact is made by rolling contact in all directions of each of the flexible balls 24. The frictional resistance against the surface is significantly reduced.

Note that it is possible to use various friction reduction mechanisms without being limited to the specific example described above.

In addition, in this embodiment, both rotating shafts of the two wheels 2 and 3 mounted on the lower side of the device body a are supported on the same axis by an appropriate mechanism not shown, and are supported on the same horizontal plane. The rotation axis can be changed in the configuration. The mechanism for changing the axis of rotation itself can be based on various known mechanisms, and specific examples will be omitted.

The illustrated embodiment has the above-described structure, and as shown in FIG. 3 are respectively placed on the axis of the annular circumferential surface d,
The four legs b are wound in the circumferential direction of the same peripheral surface b (third
(see figure), when the first joint 11 and the second joint 12 are operated and placed, the traveling device is stabilized on the annular circumferential surface B, and each arm 13, 14 is placed on the annular circumferential surface B to reduce friction. Since the wheels 2 and 3 are driven to rotate in the circumferential direction of the annular circumferential surface 20 because of the rolling contact made by the free ball 24 of the mechanism 20, the wheels 2 and 3 contact each other in a low-friction state. You can run smoothly and stably in any direction.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, a traveling device is arranged on the annular circumferential surface B, and both rotational axes of both wheels 2 and 3 are changed to the circumferential direction of the annular circumferential surface B, and both wheels 2 and 3 are When rotated in the axial direction of the annular circumferential surface B as shown by the arrow,
The traveling device can run smoothly and stably on the annular circumferential surface in substantially the same manner as described above.

Furthermore, if the rotation axes of both wheels 2 and 3 are made slightly oblique with respect to the axial direction of the annular circumferential surface B, the traveling device runs obliquely on the annular circumferential surface B, that is, turns are added.

In addition, the traveling device of the above embodiment can freely travel straight, change direction, turn, etc. on flat land, and
It is possible to travel in narrow spaces by bending or extending each leg and reducing the distance between the rollers 15 at the tip, and it is also possible to move the device body up and down, with both legs on one wheel 2 side and the other wheel 3 side. It is possible to run horizontally on slopes by creating a difference in height between the two legs of each end roll 15, and by extending each leg b horizontally, it is possible to run in narrow spaces above and below, and the left and right legs b
By alternately bending and stretching the legs, it is possible to walk on stairs or on raised surfaces, and by bending each leg b in an annular shape, it is also possible to walk inside a hole. Coupled with the ability to travel in both the direction and the circumferential direction, the traveling performance of this traveling device is significantly improved.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, a description has been given of running on an annular circumferential surface, but stable running can be similarly achieved on a curved surface having a large radius of curvature.

Further, the wheels 2, 3, first joint 11, and second joint 12 in the above embodiment are controlled in a related manner by a master slave or a sequence control method (not shown).

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1A is a front view of a traveling device showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 1B is a side view of Fig. 1A, Fig. 1C is a plan view of Fig. 1A, and Fig. 2 is a friction reduction FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view of the mechanism, FIG. 3 is a front view showing how the embodiment of the present invention is used, and FIGS. 4A and 4B are front and side views showing other modes of use of the embodiment of the present invention. a: Device body, b: Legs, 2, 3: Wheels, 11:
1st joint, 12: 2nd joint, 13, 14: arm, 20: friction reduction mechanism, 23: case, 24:
Free ball, 25: Small ball.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] Two wheels that are driven and rotated independently are attached to the lower side of the main body of the device, and the base ends of four bendable and extensible legs having a second joint in the middle are connected to the device through the first joint. What is claimed is: 1. A traveling device characterized in that a friction reducing mechanism is provided on the lower surface side of an arm of each of the legs and is connected to a main body, and the rotation axes of both wheels can be changed.