JPH069588B2 - Nursing assistance robot - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a nursing assistance robot, and more specifically,
The present invention relates to a nursing assistance robot capable of accurately taking a bath at a designated bathing depth.

[Conventional technology]

Currently, bathing assistance for people with disabilities and patients is almost always dependent on manpower. For this reason, back pain often occurs among nurses who are nursing, which is an occupational disease.

As a means for solving such a situation, it is possible to make a robot take bathing assistance. As one of them, for example, a bather support plate for supporting a bather is provided on the arm of the robot, the bather is supported by this support plate, and the nurse manually pushes the operation button to manually operate the support plate to make the bath. A method of appropriately dropping the person into the bathtub can be considered.

However, in such a method, before and after dropping the bather into the hot water, the bather must be carefully operated so as not to accidentally drool, and the operation may be inconvenient and wasteful time may be required. Not only that, but in some cases there is a risk of accidentally drowning a bather. In addition, it is very troublesome to take care not to hit the bottom of the bathtub with the arm of the robot and the bather support plate which are difficult for the bather to see from the nurse.

In addition, as described above, it is possible to use a teaching playback method instead of the manual operation by the operator, but in such a method, the condition of the bathtub, the amount of hot water, and the patient's condition can be actually assisted. Since various conditions such as change, teaching must be performed every time assistance work,
In practice, it is very inconvenient.

[Object of the Invention]

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the technology, and allows a bather to bathe quickly and optimally without drowning the bather or hitting the bather support plate or the like on the bathtub. The purpose is to provide a nursing care robot that can do this.

[Outline of Invention]

In view of the conventional problems as described above, the present invention has a structure in which the tip portions of the left and right arms individually provided for up and down movement on a body portion erected on a movable leg portion are vertically moved via a plurality of joint shafts. It is provided so that it can be swung in the horizontal and left-right directions, a supporting plate for supporting the bather is provided at each of the above-mentioned tip ends, and a water surface detection sensor for detecting the water surface is provided on at least one of the supporting plates, and the bathing depth is designated. A designated switch is provided, and the position of each support plate is controlled by controlling the vertical movement of the left and right arms and the operation of each joint axis of each arm, and the bather on each support plate is designated by the designated switch. It is configured to bathe at the bath depth.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a nursing assistance robot for carrying out this embodiment, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of axes for positioning the robot arm at a desired position and posture, and FIG. 3 is each of the axes. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an electric control system for controlling the operation of FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of the present invention using the robot, and FIG. 5 is an operation explanation when bathing a bather according to the flowchart. It is a figure.

Referring to FIG. 1, the nursing assistance robot 1 has a configuration in which a body 5 is erected on a leg 3 and left and right arms 7 and 9 are provided on the body 5 so as to be vertically movable. . For example, appropriate wheels 11 are provided on the leg portion 3 so that the robot 1 can be moved in any of front, rear, left and right directions.

Since the left and right arms 7 and 9 have exactly the same structure, the left arm 7 will be described below. The left arm 7 has first, second, third, fourth and fifth joints 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d and 7e. And a bather support plate 7f for supporting the bather at the tip thereof (note that the corresponding constituent elements of the right arm 9 are, for example, 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d, 9 below).
Reference numbers such as e and 9f).

The drive mechanism of the left arm 7 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. The arm 7 is screwed onto the vertical shaft 7V provided on the body portion 5 at its nut portion, and the arm 7 is moved in the left-right direction of the vertical shaft 7V. As a whole, it is driven up and down by rotation. In addition, by appropriately rotating the first joint shaft 7H ₁ and the joint shaft 7H ₂ shown in FIG. 2 provided in the first joint 7a and the second joint 7b, the arm tip portion can be swung upward and downward. There is. Furthermore, by rotating the third joint shaft 7R ₁ and the fourth articulation shaft 7R ₂ provided on the third joint 7c and the fourth joint 7d, the arm tip portion, especially the bather support plate 7f is moved to the left and right. It is designed to swing or twist. Furthermore, by rotating the fifth joint shaft 7T of the fifth joint 7e, the bather support plate 7f is swiveled leftward and rightward.

Therefore, each of the shafts 7V, 7H ₁ , 7H ₂ , 7R ₁ , 7R
_The bather support plate 7f is positioned at a desired position and in a desired posture by appropriately driving and rotating the ₂ , 7T.

Next, an electric control system of the robot 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3, in which the body portion 5 of the robot 1 is
Bathing assistance start button 13, Upper body support plate designation button 15
And a bathing depth designation button 17 is provided. The bather assistance start button 13 is a button for starting the bathing assistance of the robot. Further, the upper body support plate designating button 15 is a button for designating a supporting plate supporting the upper body side of the left and right bather supporting plates 7f, 9f, and, for example, one of two push buttons is turned on. By doing so, the upper half body support plate is taught to the robot. Further, the bath depth designating button 17 is a button for designating to what depth the bather should bathe,
For example, the desired bathing depth is taught to the robot by turning on any one of the four buttons that have a one-to-one correspondence with the preset bathing depth.

Further, appropriate water surface detection sensors 19 are provided on the lower surfaces of the left and right bather support plates 7f and 9f. This water surface detection sensor is, for example, a float type person, and is a bather support plate 7
When f and 9f reach the water surface, an ON signal is output.

As shown in FIG. 3, the bathing assistance start button 1
3, the upper body support plate designating button 15, the bathing depth designating button 17, and the water surface detection sensor 19 output are, for example, a digital input (DI) 23 of a microcomputer 21.
Has been entered in.

This microcomputer 21 is well known, and in addition to the digital input 23, CPU 25, digital output (DO) 27, RAM 29, ROM 3
1 and serial I / O (SIO) 33 and the like.

The CPU 25 takes in necessary external data from the digital input 23 in accordance with a program written in the ROM 31, exchanges data with the RAM 29, performs arithmetic processing, and processes the processed data as necessary. It is output to the serial I / O 33.

The serial I / O 33 is provided with the shafts 7V, ...
Servo motors M for driving V, ..., 9R ₂ ,.
, And 39V ₂ , ... 39R ₂ ... are connected.

Therefore, when the serial I / O 33 receives the processing data from the CPU 25, the serial I / O 33 appropriately receives the processing data.
, 39V ... 37R ₂ ... The drive units 37V, ..., 39V ... 37R ₂ output drive signals to the servomotors M of the respective axes while receiving feedback from the tachogenerators TG and the encoder E, and the respective axes 7V, ...,
9V, ..., 9R ₂ , ... Are driven appropriately.

Therefore, this nursing assistance robot 1 is based on the input data from the bathing assistance start button 13, the upper half body support plate designation button 15, the bathing depth designation button 17, and the water surface detection sensor 19, and the respective axes 7V, 7H ₁ ... 7T, 9V, 9H ₁
... 9T is appropriately driven to operate the bather support plates 7f and 9f in a desired manner.

Next, one embodiment of the present invention using the nursing assistance robot will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the bathing assistance control is started, first, in step 401, the left and right bather support plates 7f and 9f.
Are horizontally aligned and the bathers are supported by the support plates 7f and 9f. At this time, in this embodiment, the support plate 9f of the right arm supports the upper half of the bather's body, and the left arm supports the support plate 7f of the lower half of the bather's body.

Support the bather in step 401, then step 40
In 2, specify whether the upper half of the bather's upper body is supported by the left or right support plate and which bathing depth the bather should take with the upper half support plate designating button 15 and the bathing depth designating button 17, respectively. To do. As described above, when the bather is supported by the support plate 9f of the right arm of the robot and the bather is allowed to bathe to the depth L, for example, the right button of the upper body support plate designating button 15 is turned on and the depth is increased. The input depth button 17 corresponding to L is selected.

When the input is finished, in step 403, the bathing assistance start button 13 is turned on.

When the bathing assistance start button 13 is turned on, step 40
At 4, the CPU 25 starts up, outputs appropriate drive signals to the left and right vertical axis drive units 37V and 39V via the serial I / O 33, and outputs left and right via each servo motor M and vertical axes 7V and 9V. The bather support plates 7f and 9f are lowered at high speed (state of FIG. 5 (a)).

In step 405, the signal from the water surface detection sensor 19 is read to determine whether or not the bather support plates 7f and 9f have reached the water surface. If the bather support plates 7f and 9f have not reached the surface of the water yet, a "NO" determination is made and step 4
Return to 04. When the operations of steps 404 and 405 are repeated, the support plates 7f and 9f reach the water surface, and the water surface detection sensor 19 outputs a detection signal.
In step 5, select "YES" and proceed to step 406 (fifth step).
The state of FIG.

In step 406, a stop signal is output to the right vertical axis drive unit 39V to stop the lowering of the right arm support plate 9f supporting the upper body side.

Next, in step 407, the left vertical axis drive unit 3 is operated to reduce the descending speed of the left arm support plate 7f that supports the lower body side.
Output deceleration drive signal to 7V. Further, at the same time, in step 408, an appropriate rotation drive signal is sent to the right fourth joint shaft drive unit 39R _{2 in order} to appropriately rotate the support plate 9f on the upper body side in accordance with the lowering of the support plate 7f on the lower body side. Output.

By the processing of steps 406, 407, and 408, the bather is raised from the supine posture to the sitting posture, and the support plate on the upper body side is controlled so as to contact the back of the bather in parallel, so that the bather is supported comfortably. Is.

In this way, the support plate 9f on the upper body side is held at a constant height,
Support plate 7f on the lower body side while keeping the bather sitting
When it is lowered at a low speed, it is determined in step 409 whether or not the support plate 7f on the lower body side has reached the predetermined depth L. If it has not yet reached the predetermined depth, "NO" is selected, and step Return to 407. Then, the following steps 407 and 40
When the operations of steps 8 and 409 are repeated, the supporting plate 7f on the lower body side reaches the predetermined water depth L, so that “YES” is selected in step 409, and the left vertical axis drive unit 37V is stopped in step 410. When a signal is output and the lowering of the bather support plate 7f on the lower body side is stopped, step 411
Then, the bathing assistance of this embodiment is completed (state of FIG. 5 (c)).

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the water surface detection sensor 19 provided on the bather support plates 7f and 9f controls the descending motion of the arm, so that the bather drowns or the robot arm is placed in the bathtub. It is possible to bathe the bather in an optimal posture without bumping.

Further, since the bather support plate on either the left or the right is lowered at a high speed until it reaches the surface of the water, it is possible to bathe quickly without wasting time.

In addition, bathing assistance can be controlled by using only one sensor, which simplifies the configuration and allows you to reach the surface of the water.
Since it is necessary to monitor only the height positions of the upper half body supporting plates 7f and 9f, and only the depth position of the lower half body supporting plate 7f after reaching the water surface, the position monitoring becomes easy, and therefore the control program can be executed. Can be simple.

In the above embodiment, the bathing water depth position was set in advance, and the lower half body side supporting plate 7f continued to descend until reaching this depth. However, when there is little hot water in the bathtub, For example, it is possible to provide a bath bottom detection sensor on the lower surface of the support plate 7f on the lower body side and stop the lowering of the support plate 7f on the lower body side by a detection signal from the sensor when the sensor operates. . If you do this,
The malfunction of the nursing assistance robot can be prevented more reliably.

〔The invention's effect〕

As will be understood from the above description of the embodiment, the present invention is, in short, the tip portions of the left and right arms 7 and 9 provided individually on the body portion 5 standing on the movable leg portion 3 so as to be vertically movable. To
A supporting plate 7 that is swingably driven in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction via a plurality of joint shafts and supports a bather at each of the above-mentioned tip portions.
f and 9f are provided, a water surface detection sensor 19 that detects the water surface is provided on at least one of the support plates 7f and 9f, and a designation switch 17 that designates the bathing depth is provided to move the left and right arms 7 and 9 up and down. And by controlling the operation of each joint axis of each arm 7 and 9, the position of each support plate 7f and 9f is controlled, and the bather on each support plate 7f and 9f is bathed by the designation switch 17. It is configured to take a bath at a depth.

As is apparent from the above configuration, in the present invention, the support plates 7f and 9 for supporting the bather in the nursing assistance robot are provided.
Since the water surface detection sensor 19 is provided at f and the designation switch 17 for designating the bathing depth is provided,
When the left and right arms 7 and 9 of the nursing assistance robot are controlled for bathing, the bath can be properly bathed at the depth designated by the designation switch 17.

That is, since the water surface detection sensor 19 is provided on the support plate and the designating switch 17 is provided, even when the amount of hot water is large and the depth is deep, the designated depth can be maintained regardless of the depth. You can take a bath.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a nursing assistance robot used for carrying out the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of joint axes of the nursing assistance robot, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an electric control system of the robot. FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention using the nursing assistance robot, and FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory diagram of a bather or the like based on the flow chart. 7,9 …… Left, right arm 7f, 9f …… Left, right Bather support plate 7V, 9V …… Left, right vertical axis 13 …… Bathing assistance start button 15 …… Upper body support plate designation button 17 …… Bathing depth Specified button 19 ... Water surface detection sensor 25 ... CPU, 31 ... ROM

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Left and right arms (7, 7) provided individually on a body (5) standing on a movable leg (3) so as to be vertically movable.
The tip end of 9) is provided so as to be swingable in the vertical and horizontal directions via a plurality of joint shafts, and each of the tip ends is provided with a support plate (7f, 9f) for supporting a bather and each support plate ( 7f, 9f) is provided with a water surface detection sensor (19) for detecting the water surface, and a designating switch (17) for designating the bathing depth is provided to move the left and right arms (7, 9) up and down. The position of each support plate (7f, 9f) is controlled by controlling the operation of each joint axis of the arm (7, 9), and the bather on each support plate (7f, 9f) is designated by the switch (17). ) A nursing care robot characterized in that it is configured to bathe at a bathing depth specified by (1).