Control Panel

Abstract

The objective is to obtain a central control panel (2) that allows for easy confirmation of the arrangement of installed items within the facility. [Solution] The control panel (2) comprises a display unit (20) and a control unit (25) which displays a floor map (20A) on the display unit (20) that shows the locations of disaster prevention equipment (200) within the facility with marks. The control unit (25) illustrates information on installations other than disaster prevention equipment (200) within the facility, along with marks for the disaster prevention equipment (200), on the floor map (20A) and displays it on the display unit (20).

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a comprehensive operation panel for centrally managing information on disaster prevention equipment related to disaster prevention.

Background Art

[0002] In large-scale factories, commercial facilities, etc., a large number of disaster prevention equipment related to disaster prevention, such as fire detectors, are installed. For this reason, a display system may be installed as a comprehensive operation panel for centrally managing information on disaster prevention equipment, together with a fire receiver for monitoring and managing each disaster prevention equipment.

[0003] The display system mainly serves as a user interface for disaster prevention personnel to manage disaster prevention equipment, displays a floor plan with the positions of each disaster prevention equipment marked, and activates the disaster prevention equipment selected by the disaster prevention personnel.

[0004] Also, conventionally, the following display system has been disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1). The display system according to Patent Document 1 is a display system for controlling a plurality of disaster prevention equipment including a plurality of fire detection devices and a plurality of interlocking devices, and controls the delay caused by the intervention of the interlocking devices so as to be a desired delay time.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0005]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0006] Conventional display systems create floor maps based on architectural drawings. Therefore, furniture and other fixtures installed in the rooms after completion are not reflected on the floor map. Consequently, it is impossible to determine from the display system's floor map whether or not there are any fixtures that could obstruct evacuation.

[0007] Furthermore, if there are objects such as tables or shelves directly below a fire detector, it becomes impossible to use a stepladder when replacing the fire detector. However, it is not possible to make such prior checks for replacement using the floor map of the display system.

[0008] The same problem is inherent in the aforementioned Patent Document 1.

[0009] This disclosure is made to solve the above-mentioned problems and aims to provide a comprehensive control panel that allows for easy confirmation of the arrangement of installed items within a facility. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] The integrated control panel relating to this disclosure comprises a display unit and a control unit that causes the display unit to display a floor map illustrating the locations of disaster prevention equipment within the facility using marks. The control unit then illustrates information on installations other than disaster prevention equipment within the facility, along with marks for disaster prevention equipment, on the floor map and displays it on the display unit. [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] According to this disclosure, it is possible to obtain a comprehensive control panel that allows for easy confirmation of the arrangement of installed items within a facility. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0012] [Figure 1] This figure shows an example of the overall system configuration in Embodiment 1 of this disclosure. [Figure 2] Figure 1 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of a display system. [Figure 3] This figure shows an example of a display using the display system shown in Figure 1. [Figure 4] Figure 3 shows an example of how the display looks when an object is overlaid on the display screen shown in Figure 3. [Figure 5] This figure illustrates one method of managing display data in the display system shown in Figure 1. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0013] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the display system as an integrated control panel of this disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. The display system according to Embodiment 1 of this disclosure is technically characterized by displaying a floor map illustrating marks indicating the locations of disaster prevention equipment, and also displaying furniture and other installed items such as chairs, tables, and shelves placed on the floor map.

[0014] Furthermore, the display system according to Embodiment 1 of this disclosure cooperates with an autonomous mobile robot that patrols the facility and acquires location data of installed objects detected by the autonomous mobile robot. The technical feature of the display system is that it places and displays the installed objects on a floor map based on the acquired location data.

[0015] Embodiment 1. Figure 1 shows an example of the overall system configuration in Embodiment 1 of this disclosure. The fire alarm system 100 shown in Figure 1 comprises a fire alarm receiver 1 and a display system 2. The fire alarm receiver 1 and the display system 2 are installed in a disaster prevention center within the same facility as the area to be monitored.

[0016] The fire alarm receiver 1 is a control device that receives signals from fire prevention equipment 200 installed at various locations within the monitored area and remotely controls the fire prevention equipment 200.

[0017] The display system 2 is a comprehensive operation panel that centrally aggregates and monitors the information of the disaster prevention devices 200 within the facility on the monitor 60. Further, the display system 2 receives operations from the disaster prevention personnel via the mouse 61 and transmits commands corresponding to the operations to each disaster prevention device 200 via the fire alarm receiver 1.

[0018] Thereby, the disaster prevention personnel can, through the display system 2, confirm the occurrence status of disasters within the monitored area and control the disaster prevention devices 200.

[0019] The disaster prevention devices 200 are devices or facilities related to disaster prevention. In FIG. 1, as the disaster prevention devices 200, a thermal detector 201, a smoke detector 202, an addressable transmitter 203, and a district sound device 204 are illustrated. In addition to these, fire doors, smoke exhaust facilities, emergency broadcast facilities, fire extinguishing facilities, etc. are included in the disaster prevention devices 200.

[0020] An address capable of uniquely identifying each disaster prevention device 200 is assigned to the disaster prevention devices 200. The fire alarm receiver 1 and the display system 2 identify the disaster prevention device 200 that has detected a fire or transmit a control signal to a specific disaster prevention device 200 based on this address.

[0021] The autonomous mobile robot 3 is a moving body that automatically patrols within the facility. The autonomous mobile robot 3 is equipped with various sensor units such as 3D-LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), cameras, and sonars, and can measure the positions and sizes of objects existing around the robot itself. Further, the autonomous mobile robot 3 is equipped with an inertial measurement unit to detect the direction in which the robot itself is facing and measure the moving distance.

[0022] The autonomous mobile robot 3 may be a dedicated mobile robot specialized for the purposes described in Embodiment 1, and may be a cleaning robot that moves around and cleans the floor of a facility, a delivery robot that delivers packages, a security robot that patrols, etc. Furthermore, the autonomous mobile robot 3 may be one that travels on the floor, or it may be one that flies in the air, such as a drone.

[0023] Figure 1 illustrates a configuration in which the fire alarm system 100 is equipped with one fire alarm receiver 1 and one display system 2, but it may also be equipped with multiple units of each. Alternatively, it may be equipped with multiple autonomous mobile robots 3.

[0024] Figure 2 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of the display system 2 shown in Figure 1.

[0025] In Figure 2, the display system 2 comprises a display unit 20, an operation unit 21, and a control unit 25.

[0026] The display unit 20 includes the monitor 60 shown in Figure 1 and is a high-resolution display capable of displaying characters, symbols, shapes, etc., using a GUI (Graphical User Interface). In Embodiment 1, the display system 2 can provide disaster prevention personnel with more information than the fire alarm receiver 1 through the display unit 20.

[0027] The control unit 21 includes a pointing device such as the mouse 61 shown in Figure 1 and accepts operations from disaster prevention personnel. The control unit 21 may also include a keyboard used during maintenance.

[0028] The control unit 25 comprises an arithmetic processing unit 22, a storage unit 23, and a communication unit 24, and comprehensively controls the internal hardware of the display system 2.

[0029] The arithmetic processing unit 22 includes a central arithmetic processing unit and main memory, and performs calculations on the software stored in the storage unit 23.

[0030] The memory unit 23 includes an auxiliary memory device and stores software that is calculated and executed by the arithmetic processing unit 22.

[0031] Furthermore, the memory unit 23 stores various display data, such as the floor map 20A, marks 31, and installed object 32, which will be described later.

[0032] The communication unit 24 transmits and receives data with the fire alarm receiver 1 via the disaster prevention LAN (Local Area Network). The communication unit 24 also transmits and receives data with the autonomous mobile robot 3 via wireless communication.

[0033] In the above configuration, the display unit 20 of the display system 2 changes the display content based on control commands from the control unit 25. The display modes of this display unit 20 will be described in detail below.

[0034] Figure 3 shows an example of a display using the display system 2 shown in Figure 1.

[0035] The display unit 20 of the display system 2 displays a floor map 20A, as shown in Figure 3. The floor map 20A illustrates the locations of disaster prevention equipment 200 within the facility using marks 31. In the example in Figure 3, the installation locations of the heat detector 201, smoke detector 202, addressable transmitter 203, and area sound device 204 within the facility can be identified.

[0036] Figure 4 shows an example of the display when an installed object is superimposed on the display screen shown in Figure 3. The disaster prevention officer can switch the display screen of the display system 2 from that shown in Figure 3 to that shown in Figure 4 by performing a predetermined operation using the operation unit 21.

[0037] As shown in Figure 4, the display system 2 draws furniture and other installed items as installed item objects 32 on the floor map 20A.

[0038] In Embodiment 1, the display system 2 acquires information from the autonomous mobile robot 3 that includes at least the position data and dimensions of each installed object. This information will hereafter be referred to as "mapping information".

[0039] In this embodiment, the input of mapping information from the autonomous mobile robot 3 to the display system 2 is performed using the communication means of the disaster prevention LAN, but it may also be done manually by a disaster prevention officer using a storage medium such as a memory card.

[0040] The display system 2 then converts the mapping information obtained from the autonomous mobile robot 3 into display data for the installed object 32, either automatically or manually by a disaster prevention officer. Alternatively, a PC (not shown) or similar device may be used to convert the mapping information into display data for the installed object 32.

[0041] The display system 2 places and displays the converted installation objects 32 on the floor map 20A. This allows disaster prevention personnel to easily understand the location of each installation by visually inspecting the floor map 20A.

[0042] In other words, disaster prevention personnel can confirm through the display system 2 whether evacuation routes are sufficiently secured without being obstructed by installed structures. Furthermore, when replacing disaster prevention equipment 200, disaster prevention personnel can confirm in advance whether it can be easily replaced without being obstructed by installed structures.

[0043] In Embodiment 1, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) is employed as the mapping technique using a mobile body such as an autonomous mobile robot 3, but other known techniques may also be used.

[0044] When autonomous mobile robot 3 patrols a facility, it may detect movable objects such as people moving around and temporarily placed luggage, in addition to installed fixtures and other objects. Since these are not permanently installed objects, this data needs to be excluded as noise data.

[0045] On the other hand, if the autonomous mobile robot 3 is a cleaning robot, delivery robot, security robot, etc., it will periodically patrol a predetermined route. Therefore, if an object detected during the previous patrol is not detected during the current patrol, it can be determined that the object is a moving person or a movable object.

[0046] Therefore, the display system 2 uses the mapping information obtained when the autonomous mobile robot 3 patrols the facility multiple times, and removes data other than objects detected multiple times at the same location, treating them as data for moving people or moving objects. In other words, the display system 2 uses only the information that is repeatedly detected at the same location in each mapping as display data for the installed object 32.

[0047] As a result, the display system 2 can remove moving people or moving objects as noise data.

[0048] As described above, the display system 2 acquires mapping information from the autonomous mobile robot 3 that moves around the facility and converts this mapping information into display data for the installed object 32. Since the autonomous mobile robot 3 periodically patrols the facility, the display system 2 can use this periodically updated mapping information to periodically update the display data for the installed object 32 as well.

[0049] In other words, the display system 2 can provide disaster prevention personnel with information on the placement of installed objects while maintaining a certain degree of real-time accuracy.

[0050] Figure 5 illustrates one aspect of data management for display in the display system 2 shown in Figure 1.

[0051] Display system 2 manages display data by dividing it into multiple layers. In Figure 5, display system 2 manages display data by dividing it into three layers: a map layer 41 that holds the basic floor map 20A, an installation layer 42 that holds the installation objects 32, and a disaster prevention equipment layer 43 that holds the marks 31 of the disaster prevention equipment 200.

[0052] Display system 2 is capable of displaying each layer on top of each other, and also allows for switching specific layers on or off.

[0053] For example, the display system 2 can be controlled to display the map layer 41 and the disaster prevention equipment layer 43, and to hide the installed objects layer 42, thereby achieving the display shown in Figure 3.

[0054] On the other hand, the display system 2 can display the map layer 41, the installed object layer 42, and the disaster prevention equipment layer 43 by controlling them to display all of them, as shown in Figure 4.

[0055] Furthermore, the display system 2 can switch the display order of which layer is the upper or lower layer according to the operation of the disaster prevention manager. The example in Figure 4 shows a display where the disaster prevention equipment layer 43 is the upper layer, the installed objects layer 42 is the middle layer, and the map layer 41 is the lower layer, but it is also possible to swap, for example, the disaster prevention equipment layer 43 and the installed objects layer 42.

[0056] In addition, the display system 2 can make the upper layers semi-transparent, allowing the middle and lower layers to be displayed transparently.

[0057] In this way, by managing each object to be displayed in a separate layer and controlling its display, when an object is rearranged, its display content can be updated without affecting objects managed in other layers.

[0058] To summarize the features of the display system 2 described above, it has the following configuration and can achieve the following effects.

[0059] The display system 2 comprises a display unit 20 and a control unit 25 that displays a floor map 20A on the display unit 20, which illustrates the locations of disaster prevention equipment 200 within the facility using marks 31.

[0060] The control unit 25 displays information about installations other than the disaster prevention equipment 200 located within the facility, along with the marks 31 for the disaster prevention equipment 200, on the floor map 20A and on the display unit 20.

[0061] This makes it possible to obtain a display system 2 that allows for easy confirmation of the arrangement of installed items within the facility.

[0062] The control unit 25 acquires position data collected by the autonomous mobile robot 3 that moves autonomously within the facility, and places information about the installed object on the floor map 20A at the position corresponding to the position data, thereby illustrating the information about the installed object on the floor map 20A.

[0063] This allows for the automatic identification of the placement locations of installed objects, eliminating the need for disaster prevention personnel to physically go to the site and measure the objects, thus reducing their workload.

[0064] Furthermore, the control unit 25 removes data other than that of objects detected multiple times at the same location by the autonomous mobile robot 3, treating it as data of moving people or moving objects, and uses the remaining data as location data for the installed object. In this way, the control unit 25 can use the data remaining after data about moving people or moving objects has been removed as location data for the installed object.

[0065] This allows only permanently installed fixtures to be displayed on floor map 20A.

[0066] Furthermore, the control unit 25 can determine that an object has been removed if, although it was initially recognized as an installed object 32 by the autonomous mobile robot 3 because it was detected multiple times at the same location in past position data, the object is not detected at the location recognized as an installed object 32 in the latest position data.

[0067] If the autonomous mobile robot 3 is, for example, a cleaning robot, a delivery robot, or a security robot, these robots are expected to periodically patrol a fixed route as part of their normal work routine. Therefore, the above process of removing data from moving people or moving objects can be easily performed in conjunction with the work routine of the autonomous mobile robot 3.

[0068] Furthermore, the control unit 25 manages information about the installed objects on a separate layer from the floor map 20A. This allows for updating the information without affecting the display content of the floor map 20A when the installed objects are rearranged. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0069] 1 Fire alarm receiver, 2 Display system, 3 Autonomous mobile robot, 20 Display unit, 20A Floor map, 21 Operation unit, 22 Processing unit, 23 Memory unit, 24 Communication unit, 25 Control unit, 31 Mark, 32 Installed object, 41 Map layer, 42 Installed object layer, 43 Disaster prevention equipment layer, 60 Monitor, 61 Mouse, 100 Fire alarm system, 200 Disaster prevention equipment, 201 Heat detector, 202 Smoke detector, 203 Addressable transmitter, 204 District sound device.

Claims

1. Display unit and A control unit that displays a floor map in which the locations of disaster prevention equipment within the facility are indicated by marks on the display unit, Equipped with, The control unit displays information about installations other than the disaster prevention equipment located within the facility, along with the marks for the disaster prevention equipment, on the floor map and on the display unit. Control panel.

2. The control unit acquires position data collected by an autonomous mobile robot moving autonomously within the facility, and places information about the installed object on the floor map corresponding to the position data, thereby illustrating the information about the installed object on the floor map. The integrated control panel according to claim 1.

3. The control unit uses the data after the data about moving people or moving objects has been removed as the position data of the installed object. The integrated control panel according to claim 2.

4. The control unit removes data other than that of an object detected multiple times at the same location by the autonomous mobile robot, treating it as data of a moving person or a moving object, and uses the remaining data as the position data of the installed object. The integrated control panel according to claim 3.

5. The control unit manages the information of the installed objects on a layer separate from the floor map. The integrated control panel according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

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