Patent abstracts

Citation

(2010), "Patent abstracts", Industrial Robot, Vol. 37 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2010.04937cad.004

Patent abstracts

Article Type: Patent abstracts From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 37, Issue 3

Title: Bridge inspection robot capable of climbing obstacle

Applicant: Korea Expressway Corp. (KR); Lee Byeong-Ju (KR); Nam Moon-Seok (KR); Park Chang-Ho (KR); Park Young-Ho (KR); Shin Jae-In (KR)

Patent number: WO2009131341 (A2)

Publication date: October 29, 2009

Abstract: Provided is a bridge inspection robot which is capable of climbing over an obstacle, the bridge inspection robot including: a climbing-over portion) which is extended to correspond to a gap distance between a flange of a first girder and a flange of a first girder which are provided at the upper side of a pier of a bridge in which a robot main body climbs up/down or avoids and climbs over an obstacle, when the robot main body moves on the flange, for example, along a bridge inspection path; an obstacle detection portion which detects the obstacle which exists on the flanges; a photographing altitude control portion which detects an altitude change of an image photographing portion according to height of the obstacle when the robot main body climbs up/down or avoids and climbs over the obstacle, and adjusts a photographing height of the image photographing portion so as to correspond to the altitude change, to thus have a z-axis coordinate of an identical height all the time; a position calculation portion which measures a mobile position of the robot main body which corresponds to a consecutive image photographed by the image photographing portion, to thus calculate x/y/z-axis coordinates; and an image processing portion which receives the consecutively photographed images and x/y/z-axis coordinates corresponding to the consecutively photographed images, to thus continuously confirms the actual crack elements corresponding to the images and to thus produce a recognizable image of an actual position coordinate of the corresponding image.

Title: Dual-purpose double-arm mobile robot for ground moving and space truss climbing

Applicant: Harbin Inst. of Technology (CN)

Patent number: CN101434268 (A)

Publication date: May 20, 2009

Abstract

A dual-purpose double-arm movable-hand robot used for both ground moving and space truss climbing relates to a movable robot and aims at solving the defects of the existing movable robot that the robot cannot adopts hands or feet to hold fixedly a truss and cannot move on a space truss. A convertor and a controller are arranged on a panel; two first visual sensors are symmetrically arranged on the upper end surface of the panel; a computer is arranged under the panel; a holding mechanism is arranged on the outer side face of a claw seat; a wheel-style moving mechanism is arranged on the upper part of the holding mechanism; a connecting flange on a left hand is connected through a torque sensor with the left end of a left arm; a connecting flange on a right hand is connected through a torque sensor with the right end of a right arm; and the left hand and right hand are symmetrically arranged. The invention adopts the holding mechanism and the wheel-style moving mechanism on both the left hand and right hand so as to lead the robot to move flexibly and hold the truss rods with different sections and sizes in the space truss and also to lead the robot to move on the ground with less energy consumption.

Title: Telecontrol rod/rope climbing robot

Applicant: Ronghua Su (CN)

Patent number: CN201217460 (Y)

Abstract

The utility model belongs to robots and particularly relates to a remote-control pole and rope climbing robot, which comprises an upstream drive motor (33), an upstream drive speed reducer (34), a downstream drive motor (5), a downstream drive speed reducer (6), a self-locking release motor (16), a self-locking release speed reducer (15) and the like; an upper body frame (36) and a lower body frame (17) are, respectively, arranged inside an upper outer shell (40) and a lower outer shell (28); the upper end of the upper body frame (36) is hinged with one end of an upper self-locking frame (4), while the other end of the upper self-locking frame (4) is movably provided with a downstream drive roller (7); an upper self-locking frame fixed shaft (39) is fixed in the middle of the upper self-locking frame (4); an upper self-locking short rod (10) is movably arranged on the upper self-locking frame fixed shaft (39); the robot can climb ropes or rods flexibly and rapidly, with good continuity; besides, the robot has simple structure, small size, easy installation, and low cost, which can ensure safe operation.

Title: Intelligent duct cleaning robot

Applicant: Univ. of Singapore

Patent number: SG157234 (A1)

Publication date: December 29, 2009

Abstract

A remote-controlled intelligent air-conduct cleaning mobile robot which can greatly improve cleaning efficiency, shorten cleaning time, and release an operator from tedious cleaning work, comprising: a main chassis with rotatable tracks or wheels on either side thereof that supports a central body of the vehicle; a deployable manipulator consists of multiple links; a rotary brush attached to the end of the last link of the manipulator; range sensors mounted on the robot base for measuring dimension of a duct cross section; a microprocessor that is used to generate manipulator cleaning path automatically; video camera and lights for duct monitoring and inspection; a remote-controlled console outside of the duct.

Title: Robotic vehicle

Applicant: iRobot Corp. (USA)

Patent number: US2009314554 (A1)

Publication date: December 24, 2009

Abstract

A mobile robot includes a chassis defining at least one chassis volume and first and second sets of right and left driven flippers associated with the chassis. Each flipper has a drive wheel and defines a flipper volume adjacent to the drive wheel. The first set of flippers is disposed between the second set of flippers and the chassis. Motive power elements are distributed among the chassis volume and the flipper volumes. The motive power elements include a battery assembly, a main drive motor assembly, and a load shifting motor assembly.

Title: A robotic based health care system

Applicant: InTouch Technologies, Inc. (USA)

Patent number: WO2009128997 (A1)

Publication date: October 22, 2009

Abstract

A robotic system that can be used to treat a patient. The robotic system includes a mobile robot that has a camera. The mobile robot is controlled by a remote station that has a monitor. A physician can use the remote station to move the mobile robot into view of a patient. An image of the patient is transmitted from the robot camera to the remote station monitor. A medical personnel at the robot site can enter patient information into the system through a user interface. The patient information can be stored in a server. The physician can access the information from the remote station. The remote station may provide graphical user interfaces that display the patient information and provide both a medical tool and a patient management plan.

Title: Dual tracked mobile robot for motion in rough terrain

Inventor: Shraga Shoval (IL); Shapiro Amir (IL)

Patent number: US2009211823 (A1)

Publication date: August 27, 2009

Abstract

The invention is an autonomous dual tracked mobile (10) robot system comprising two or more tracked driving units (12x) configured to travel in tandem and a separate mechanical linkage (16), which joins each of the mobile units to the unit immediately preceding and following it, and enables efficient power transmission between the two driving units. Each of the mechanical linkages comprises one connecting bar (14) and three revolute joints (18y) located on each of the adjacent units and a connecting beam that connects the connecting bar on one of the units with the connecting bar on the adjacent unit.

Title: 3-2-1 structure three-dimensional mobile industry robot

Applicant: Univ. of Yanshan (CN)

Patent number: CN101417423 (A)

Publication date: April 29, 2009

Abstract

The invention discloses a three-dimensional moving industrial robot with a 3-2-1 structure and is characterized in that six equal-length rigid support bars with spherical hinges at two ends are divided into three groups of the first group, the second group and the third group according to 3, 2, 1; the spherical hinges at one ends of the three rigid support bars of the first group are connected with a motion platform and the spherical hinges at the other ends are connected with a first connecting part; the spherical hinges at one ends of the two rigid support bars of the second group are connected with the motion platform and the spherical hinges at the other ends are connected with a second connecting part; the spherical hinge at one end of the rigid support bar of the third group is connected with the motion platform and the spherical hinge at the other end is connected with a third connecting part; and the first connecting part, the second connecting part and the third connecting part are, respectively, positioned on slipways of three rectilinearly moving driving units which are crosswise placed on a base plate. Driven by the three rectilinearly moving driving units, the three-dimensional motion of the motion platform can be realized. The invention has the advantages of simple structure, strong load-carrying capacity, and the like and can be applied to modern industrial fields of automobiles, electronics, nuclear industry, aerospace, and the like.

Title: Mobile robot path planning method based on binary quanta particle swarm optimization

Applicant: Univ. of Jiangnan (CN)

Patent number: CN101387888 (A)

Publication date: March 18, 2009

Abstract

The invention discloses a mobile robot path planning method based on the binary quantum particle swarm optimization, which is characterized by comprising steps of: (1) simplifying a robot into a point moving in a two-dimensional space, and then sensing the present position of the robot and the present positions of obstacles via the visual system; (2) processing all the obstacles sensed by the visual system of the robot into convex polygons; (3) discretizing the two-dimensional space into series grids, and performing binary encoding for eight probable motion directions of the robot at each grid; (4) defining the distance of the path between the starting point and the destination point as a target function required to be solved by the method; and (5) overall optimizing the target function in the Step 4 by utilizing the binary quantum particle swarm optimization aiming to the discrete characteristics of robot path planning problems to obtain the optimum mobile robot path. The invention has the advantages of simple process, easy realizing, good robustness, high solving efficiency, and the like.

Title: Cucumber picking robot system and picking method in greenhouse

Applicant: Univ. of China Agricultural (CN)

Patent number: CN101356877 (A)

Publication date: February 4, 2009

Abstract

The invention discloses a cucumber picking robot system in a greenhouse environment. The robot system comprises a binocular stereo vision system, a mechanical arm device and a robot mobile platform; the binocular stereo vision system is used for acquiring cucumber images, processing the images in real time and acquiring the position information of the acquired targets; the mechanical arm device is used for capturing and separating the acquired targets according to the position information of the acquired targets; and the robot mobile platform is used for independently moving in the greenhouse environment; wherein, the binocular stereo vision system comprises two black and white cameras, a dual-channel vision real-time processor, a lighting device and an optical filtering device; the mechanical arm device comprises an actuator, a motion control card and a joint actuator; and the robot mobile platform comprises a running mechanism, a motor actuator, a tripod head camera, a processor, and a motion controller. The invention also discloses a cucumber picking method in the greenhouse environment. The method of combining machine vision and agricultural machinery is adopted to construct the cucumber picking robot system which is suitable for the greenhouse environment, thus realizing automatic robot navigation and automatic cucumber reaping, and reducing the human labor intensity.