An inspection robot system

By combining wireless charging and magnetic positioning components, the problems of manual charging and inaccurate positioning of inspection robots have been solved, realizing automated charging and posture correction, and improving the operational reliability of inspection robots.

CN115133675BActive Publication Date: 2025-11-07ZHEJIANG EXPRESSWAY INFO ENG TECH CO LTD +2

Patent Information

Application Number
CN202210614945.7
Authority / Receiving Office
CN · China
Patent Type
Patents(China)
Current Assignee / Owner
Filing Date
2022-05-31
Publication Date
2025-11-07
Estimated Expiration
2042-05-31

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

Existing inspection robots require manual intervention for charging, and their charging efficiency is low, positioning is inaccurate, and they are prone to drifting under harsh working conditions.

Method used

The system employs wireless charging and magnetic positioning components. By installing a first positioning component and a second positioning component on the base station and the inspection robot body respectively, the wireless charging module is precisely docked using magnetic attraction. During the attitude correction process, the magnetic component and reinforcing plate are used to restore the preset running angle of the robot body.

Benefits of technology

It achieves automation and precise positioning of wireless charging, avoids human intervention, improves charging efficiency, and reduces wear and tear on robot components through posture correction.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

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  • Figure CN115133675B_ABST
    Figure CN115133675B_ABST
Patent Text Reader

Abstract

The present application relates to a kind of inspection robot systems, in the inspection robot system, base station has wireless charging transmitting module, inspection robot body has the wireless charging receiving module that can be electrically connected with wireless charging transmitting module, it is arranged in another side opposite with base station, and the inspection robot body can be transversely moved relative to base station, so that inspection robot body and base station are staggered or at least partially overlap, by the installation of first positioning member and second positioning member in positioning component respectively, so that first positioning member and second positioning member are magnetically attracted together when inspection robot body is moved to partially overlap with base station, so that the wireless charging transmitting module on base station and the wireless charging receiving module on inspection robot body can be accurately positioned together without special centering device, to meet the distance requirement of wireless charging module transmitting end and receiving end, can be automatically charged without manual intervention.
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Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of highway maintenance equipment, and particularly belongs to a kind of inspection equipment, more particularly to a kind of inspection robot system. BACKGROUND

[0002] Highway is an important infrastructure project, the construction of highway not only can greatly reduce the target between the two places travel time, let the people's traffic more convenient, also can greatly drive the economy along the line, promote the rapid prosperity of the tertiary industry, bring the "golden opportunity" of tourism development, thereby greatly enhance the city grade, increase the degree of openness. With the gradual popularization of highway, the inspection work of highway is becoming increasingly important. The traditional highway maintenance mode is manual inspection, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also prone to errors.

[0003] Therefore, the inspection robot that can replace manual inspection work is developed. The middle of the highway usually has a median strip separating the two-way lanes, and the existing inspection robot usually has a power source and can move along the guardrail in the median strip. With the help of various sensors, vision systems, sound acquisition systems and other integrated systems, the road surface conditions can be grasped in time, and even the accident information collection of the road section can be considered. It is very practical. However, the existing inspection robot usually uses a battery as the power source of the motor. After using the traditional inspection robot for a period of time, the battery needs to be charged by the power supply, which still needs manual intervention, so it cannot be popularized;

[0004] Therefore, some inspection robots add solar panels and other modules to expect to get rid of the dependence on fixed line positions. For example, the Chinese utility model patent with the patent number CN201920866132.0 discloses a "highway emergency lane inspection robot". In this inspection robot, the top of the shell one is provided with mounting groove one and mounting groove two, and the inner side wall of the mounting groove one is fixedly connected with a solar panel. Although the number of plug-in charging is reduced to a certain extent, the defect is obvious:

[0005] 1. The charging efficiency of the solar panel is low, and the limited charging time is difficult to meet the charging demand of the battery;

[0006] 2. In the harsh working conditions of the highway, the solar panel will accumulate a lot of dust, which will affect the collection of sunlight;

[0007] 3. Solar charging still needs the inspection robot to move to the fixed charging position, which requires high alignment accuracy. During the charging process, the inspection robot is easy to deviate from the preset charging position due to the strong wind interference caused by the rapid passing of vehicles. SUMMARY

[0008] The first technical problem to be solved by the present application is to provide a patrol robot system capable of automatically completing charging and accurately positioning a wireless charging position in view of the status quo of the prior art.

[0009] The second technical problem to be solved by the present application is to provide a patrol robot system capable of posture correction of a patrol robot body while positioning in view of the status quo of the prior art.

[0010] The technical solution adopted by the present application to solve the above first technical problem is a patrol robot system comprising:

[0011] a base station having a wireless charging transmitting module;

[0012] a patrol robot body having a wireless charging receiving module capable of electrical connection with the wireless charging transmitting module, arranged on the other side opposite to the base station, and capable of lateral movement relative to the base station so as to be misaligned or at least partially overlapped with the base station;

[0013] a positioning assembly comprising a first positioning member arranged on the base station and a second positioning member arranged on the patrol robot body, one of the first positioning member and the second positioning member being a magnetic member, and the other being a magnetic member or a magnetic conducting member, and in a state where the patrol robot body is moved to at least partially overlap with the base station, the first positioning member and the second positioning member are magnetically attracted to each other so as to make the wireless charging receiving module face and electrically connect with the wireless charging transmitting module.

[0014] In order to ensure the strength of magnetic attraction and the positioning speed, preferably, the first positioning member and the second positioning member are both magnetic members, and the mutually adjacent magnetic poles thereof are opposite magnetic poles.

[0015] The two positioning members can be directly arranged on the respective surfaces, but it can be difficult to approach due to the intervention of other components, and therefore, in order to ensure that the two positioning members can approach each other sufficiently to interact, preferably, the upper portion of the base station has a laterally extending connecting plate, the extending direction of the connecting plate intersects the moving direction of the patrol robot body, and the first positioning member is arranged on the connecting plate.

[0016] Specifically, the connecting plate is arranged on the top of the base station, and the free end thereof has a downwardly bent side plate, the first positioning member is arranged on the inner side adjacent to the base station and spaced from the side wall of the base station to form an action interval.

[0017] Preferably, the top of the patrol robot body has a vertically extending connecting seat, the second positioning member is arranged on the connecting seat, and in a state where the patrol robot body is moved to overlap with the base station, the connecting seat and the second positioning member are both located in the action interval.

[0018] In order to further solve the second technical problem, the first positioning member has a first acting surface on the inner side adjacent to the acting range, the second positioning member has a corresponding second acting surface, and the first acting surface and the second acting surface are parallel to each other in the state of magnetic attraction between the first positioning member and the second positioning member. The design of the two acting surfaces can correct the posture of the inspection robot body and restore it to the preset running angle, so as to avoid abnormal wear caused by the angle deviation of some elements, because the first positioning member is fixed on the base station and its position and angle are relatively fixed. When the inspection robot body slides to the base station, the two positioning members are instantaneously magnetically attracted, and the first positioning member can react on the second positioning member by the interaction of the first acting surface and the second acting surface, so as to correct the posture of the inspection robot body and restore it to the preset running angle, thereby avoiding abnormal wear caused by the angle deviation of some elements. Of course, in order to further ensure the positioning effect, the two positioning members are preferably circular magnets, so that the positioning effect is more ideal.

[0019] In order to facilitate the relative sliding of the two positioning members, preferably, along the sliding direction of the second positioning member, the first positioning member has a guide surface connected with the first acting surface upstream and downstream of the first acting surface.

[0020] In order to avoid the inclination of the inspection robot body, preferably, the top of the base station further has a reinforcing plate, and the cross section of the reinforcing plate is L-shaped, and the two straight edges of the L-shaped are connected to the outer sides of the connecting plate and the side plate respectively. The design of the reinforcing plate can reinforce the connecting plate and the side plate, and when the second positioning member on the inclined inspection robot body is magnetically attracted to the first positioning member, the entire inspection robot body can be restored to vertical by the magnetic attraction force and the inertia of movement.

[0021] Specifically, the thickness of the reinforcing plate at the connecting plate gradually increases from the fixed end to the free end of the connecting plate.

[0022] Preferably, the reinforcing plate has at least two, and each reinforcing plate is arranged in a spaced manner along the moving direction of the inspection robot body.

[0023] Compared with the prior art, the advantages of the present application are that in the inspection robot system, by installing the first positioning member and the second positioning member on the base station and the inspection robot body respectively, when the inspection robot body moves to partially overlap with the base station, the first positioning member and the second positioning member are magnetically attracted together, so that without a special centering device, the wireless charging transmitting module on the base station and the wireless charging receiving module on the inspection robot body can be accurately positioned together, thereby meeting the distance requirement between the transmitting end and the receiving end of the wireless charging module, and automatically charging without manual intervention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0024] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the inspection robot system in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the overall structure of the inspection robot body;

[0026] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the base station.

[0027] Figure 4 for Figure 3 Another overall view;

[0028] Figure 5 This is a side view of the overall structure of the inspection robot system in an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0029] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0030] like Figures 1 to 5 As shown, this is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the inspection robot system includes a base station 1, an inspection robot body 2, and a positioning component 3. Taking a highway as a specific application scenario as an example, the highway driving lanes have a median strip in the middle, and there are guardrails at the median strip to separate different driving lanes. The aforementioned base station 1 is usually located at the median strip, while the inspection robot body 2 is self-powered and is usually arranged on the opposite side from the base station 1, and can move along the guardrail to perform inspection work (that is, the inspection robot body 2 can move laterally relative to the base station 1).

[0031] Similar to conventional inspection robots, this embodiment requires centralized charging at base station 1. The difference lies in the use of wireless charging. A wireless charging transmitter module 10 is installed on base station 1, while a wireless charging receiver module 20, electrically connected to the transmitter module 10, is installed on the inspection robot body 2. Since the distance and position of the transmitter and receiver significantly affect charging efficiency and success rate during wireless charging, a pre-programmed sequence automatically moves the inspection robot body 2 to base station 1 when its battery is insufficient for the next inspection. This means the robot body 2 will move to base station 1 in two different positions: misaligned or at least partially overlapping. During inspection, it is misaligned with base station 1; during charging, it is at least partially overlapping (preferably side-by-side).

[0032] In the embodiment, the positioning assembly 3 can effectively avoid the situation that the wireless charging transmitting end and receiving end fail to be docked in place, resulting in charging failure. The positioning assembly 3 includes a first positioning member 31 arranged on the base station 1 and a second positioning member 32 arranged on the inspection robot body 2. One of the first positioning member 31 and the second positioning member 32 is a magnetic member, and the other is a magnetic member or a magnetic conductive member. When the inspection robot body 2 moves to a state of at least partially overlapping with the base station 1, the first positioning member 31 and the second positioning member 32 are magnetically attracted to each other, so that the wireless charging receiving module 20 is opposite to the wireless charging transmitting module 10 and electrically connected. In order to ensure the strength of magnetism and the positioning speed, the first positioning member 31 and the second positioning member 32 are both magnetic members, and the magnetic poles adjacent to each other are opposite magnetic poles.

[0033] There are various connection structures for realizing the magnetic attraction of the two positioning members. In the embodiment, the upper portion of the base station 1 has a laterally extending connecting plate 33, the extending direction of the connecting plate 33 intersects the moving direction of the inspection robot body 2, and the first positioning member 31 is arranged on the connecting plate 33. Specifically, the connecting plate 33 is arranged on the top of the base station 1, and the free end of the connecting plate 33 has a downwardly bent side plate 34. The first positioning member 31 is arranged on the inner side adjacent to the base station 1 and between the side wall of the base station 1 and the side plate 34, and a working area 30 is formed. In order to cooperate with the first positioning member 31, the top of the inspection robot body 2 has a vertically extending connecting seat 35, the second positioning member 32 is arranged on the connecting seat 35, and when the inspection robot body 2 moves to the state of overlapping with the base station 1, the connecting seat 35 and the second positioning member 32 are both located in the working area 30.

[0034] In addition to achieving accurate positioning of the wireless charging module transmitting end and receiving end, the magnetic attraction of the two positioning members can also effectively correct the running posture of the inspection robot body. The first positioning member 31 has a first action surface 3a on the inner side adjacent to the action interval 30, and the second positioning member 32 corresponds to have a second action surface 3b, and in the state of magnetic attraction of the first positioning member 31 and the second positioning member 32, the first action surface 3a and the second action surface 3b are parallel to each other. In order to ensure smooth sliding, along the sliding direction of the second positioning member 32, the first positioning member 31 has a guide surface 3c connected with the first action surface 3a upstream and downstream of the first action surface 3a. Of course, since the inspection robot body has a certain weight after being loaded, it is very likely to produce up and down deflection after running for a period of time, so that the first positioning member 31 is located on the moving path of the second positioning member 32. Therefore, another part of the above posture correction is to adjust the up and down inclination, and by the magnetic force and the inertia of the running of the inspection robot body, the end of the second positioning member 32 is twisted after colliding with the first positioning member 31. The deflection angle is vertical, so as to smoothly slide into the action interval 30, so that the two positioning members return to the side-by-side state. Of course, since the magnetic member itself is usually relatively fragile, the above-mentioned first positioning member 31 and the second positioning member 32 do not necessarily directly contact each other. In order to clearly understand the structural features of the magnetic attraction, a brief description is used for understanding, but in actual production process, a flexible sleeve or other form of spacing can be considered to be set outside the magnetic member.

[0035] In order to ensure the strength of the guide part, the base station 1 also has a reinforcing plate 36 on the top, and the cross section of the reinforcing plate 36 is L-shaped, and the two right angle edges of the L-shaped are connected to the outer side of the connecting plate 33 and the side plate 34 respectively. Specifically, the thickness of the reinforcing plate 36 at the connecting plate 33 gradually increases from the fixed end to the free end of the connecting plate 33. The reinforcing plate 36 in the embodiment has at least two, and each reinforcing plate 36 is arranged in a spaced manner along the moving direction of the inspection robot body 2.

[0036] In addition, in the specification and claims of the present application, terms indicating directions, such as "front", "back", "up", "down", "left", "right", "side", "top", "bottom", etc. are used to describe various example structural parts and elements of the present application, but these terms are used herein only for the purpose of convenience of description and are determined based on the example orientation shown in the drawings. Since the disclosed embodiments of the present application can be arranged in different directions, these terms indicating directions are only for illustration and should not be considered as limitation, such as "up" and "down" are not necessarily limited to the direction opposite or consistent with the direction of gravity.

Claims

1. A patrol robot system, comprising: a base station (1) having a wireless charging transmitting module (10); a patrol robot body (2) having a wireless charging receiving module (20) electrically connectable with the wireless charging transmitting module (10), arranged on the other side opposite to the base station (1), and the patrol robot body (2) is transversely movable relative to the base station (1) so as to be misaligned or at least partially overlapped with the base station (1); and when the patrol robot body (2) cannot meet the power requirement for the next patrol, a preset program automatically drives it to move to the base station (1); characterized in that further comprising: a positioning assembly (3) comprising a first positioning member (31) arranged on the base station (1) and a second positioning member (32) arranged on the patrol robot body (2), one of the first positioning member (31) and the second positioning member (32) is a magnetic member, and the other is a magnetic member or a magnetic conductive member, in the state that the patrol robot body (2) is at least partially overlapped with the base station (1), the first positioning member (31) and the second positioning member (32) are magnetically attracted to each other so that the wireless charging receiving module (20) is directly opposite to the wireless charging transmitting module (10) and electrically connected therewith; the upper portion of the base station (1) has a laterally extending connecting plate (33), the extending direction of the connecting plate (33) intersects the moving direction of the patrol robot body (2), and the first positioning member (31) is arranged on the connecting plate (33); the connecting plate (33) is arranged on the top of the base station (1), and the free end thereof has a downwardly bent side plate (34), the first positioning member (31) is arranged on the inner side of the side plate (34) adjacent to the base station (1) and spaced from the side wall of the base station (1) to form an action interval (30); the top of the patrol robot body (2) has a vertically extending connecting seat (35), the second positioning member (32) is arranged on the connecting seat (35), and in the state that the patrol robot body (2) is overlapped with the base station (1), the connecting seat (35) and the second positioning member (32) are both located in the action interval (30).

2. The patrol robot system of claim 1, wherein: Both the first positioning member (31) and the second positioning member (32) are magnetic members, and the magnetic poles adjacent to each other are opposite magnetic poles.

3. The patrol robot system of claim 2, wherein: The first positioning member (31) has a first action surface (3a) on the inner side adjacent to the action interval (30), and the second positioning member (32) correspondingly has a second action surface (3b), and in the state that the first positioning member (31) and the second positioning member (32) are magnetically attracted to each other, the first action surface (3a) and the second action surface (3b) are parallel to each other.

4. The patrol robot system of claim 3, wherein: Along the sliding direction of the second positioning member (32), the first positioning member (31) has a guide surface (3c) connected with the first action surface (3a) both upstream and downstream of the first action surface (3a).

5. The patrol robot system of claim 4, wherein: The top of the base station (1) further has a reinforcing plate (36), the cross section of the reinforcing plate (36) is L-shaped, and the two right angle edges of the L-shaped are connected to the outer sides of the connecting plate (33) and the side plate (34) respectively.

6. The patrol robot system of claim 5, wherein: The thickness of the reinforcing plate (36) gradually increases from the fixed end to the free end of the connecting plate (33) at the connecting plate (33).

7. The patrol robot system of claim 6, wherein: The reinforcing plate (36) is at least two, and each reinforcing plate (36) is arranged in the moving direction of the patrol robot body (2) in a spaced manner.

Citation Information

Patent Citations

  • Expressway emergency lane inspection robot

    CN210061154U

  • Inspection robot system

    CN217720844U

Cited By

  • A charging method of a patrol robot, the robot and a charging base station

    CN122626303A