JP2006198730A - Reception information system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To handle a plurality of visitors at the same time by sharing a work by a plurality of mobile robots and to be able to move between building tiers by using an elevator so that each mobile robot can take charge of each other's work. Provide a reception guidance system
SOLUTION: A speech recognition unit for recognizing human words, a speech unit that utters words understandable by humans through speech synthesis, a moving body that moves autonomously in space, a manipulator that handles objects, and an external server A mobile robot 1 having an external communication unit that communicates with the elevator, an elevator control server 6 that controls the elevator 4, a visitor detection device 2 that detects the entrance and exit of a visitor, and a visitor detection device 2 that is connected to the visitor detection device 2 The visitor detection server 3 is controlled.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for receiving and guiding visitors using a robot.

As a conventional reception guidance system, a patent document 1 and a patent that realize an agent for reception work by configuring a mobile robot and an external control device capable of operating its operation from the outside or detecting a visitor. Reference 2 and
Patent Document 3 that performs reception and guidance work by providing a visitor detection function to the robot body and enabling movement and guidance between building levels using stairs,
There has been Patent Document 4 that overcomes the problem of Patent Document 3 in that the visitor detection function is separated from the robot body so that it cannot handle a plurality of visitors.
There is also Patent Document 5 in which a robot can move between building levels by operating an elevator.

Japanese Patent No. 2802416 (page 10, FIG. 1 and FIG. 2) Japanese Patent No. 3236163 (pages 5 to 6, FIG. 1 and FIG. 2) JP 2004-114178 (15th page, FIG. 2) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-299026 (page 12, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3) Japanese Patent No. 2856504 (page 7, Fig. 2)

However, the conventional reception guidance system has the following problems.
In Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, since the robot is not configured to operate an elevator or move up and down stairs, it cannot move between floors in a building or the like, and there is a visitor Since one robot is guided to a designated place, the robot cannot respond to other visitors until the robot returns to a predetermined reception place.
In addition, since one external control device that remotely controls one robot is always required, when a plurality of robots are arranged, an external control device corresponding to the number of robots is required, resulting in an increase in operation cost. There was also a problem.

When the visitor detection function is built in the robot body as in Patent Document 3, a high-performance arithmetic device that performs advanced image processing is required, which increases the cost of the robot body. Similarly to Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2, in the case of a visitor, since one robot guides to a designated location, it was not possible to deal with other visitors until the robot returned to a predetermined reception location. .
In addition, since stairs are used to move between floors of buildings, there is a problem that operation in high-rise buildings is not realistic.

  In Patent Document 4, in order to overcome the problems of Patent Document 3, the visitor detection function is separated from the robot body so that it can handle a plurality of visitors. However, the robot guides the customer to a designated place. If there is another visitor during that time, it is possible to retain the presence of the visitor as information, but the problem that the robot that guides the visitor cannot respond to the other visitor until it returns to the predetermined reception location is It was not solved.

  In Patent Document 5, one robot controls a plurality of elevators so that the robot moves between the levels of the building. However, since only one robot moves between the levels, There was a problem that efficiency was bad.

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems as described above, and a plurality of mobile robots share the work so that a plurality of visitors can be handled simultaneously, and an elevator is used to move between building levels. An object of the present invention is to provide a reception guidance system in which each mobile robot can change the work in charge of each other.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention is configured as follows.
The invention according to claim 1 is a reception guidance system, a speech recognition unit for recognizing a human language, a speech unit for speaking a language that humans can understand by speech synthesis, and a movement that autonomously moves in space. A mobile robot including a mechanism unit, a manipulator for handling an object, an external communication unit for communicating with an external server, an elevator control server for controlling an elevator, a visitor detection device for detecting entrance / exit of a visitor, and the visitor detection It is comprised from the visitor detection server which connects to an apparatus and controls the said visitor detection apparatus.
The invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that a plurality of the mobile robots are arranged so that they can communicate with each other via each of the external communication units.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the plurality of mobile robots include a reception robot that performs a reception of a visitor based on visitor entry / exit information detected by the visitor detection device, and a baggage to the visitor according to an instruction from the reception robot. The delivery robot has a role classified into a delivery robot that guides a visitor to a place designated in advance by an instruction of the reception robot.
The invention described in claim 4 is characterized in that the plurality of mobile robots recognize each role or switch the role via the external communication unit.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, the mobile robot transmits a command to the elevator control server via the external communication unit to control the elevator, and rides on the elevator to move between floors. Features.
In the invention described in claim 6, the visitor detection server determines whether a temporary storage unit that temporarily stores information detected by the visitor detection device and whether a person has entered, exited, or just passed. And a visitor behavior determination unit that transmits only the entrance / exit information of the visitor to the mobile robot.
The invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that the elevator control server sets a priority for the request sent from the mobile robot, and operates the elevator according to the order of the priority.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the visitor detection device detects the visitor's entrance and exit, the visitor detection server notifies the mobile robot through the external communication unit, and responds to the visitor by the voice recognition unit and the speech unit of the mobile robot. be able to. Furthermore, an elevator can be controlled using an elevator control server, or an object can be conveyed using a moving body or a manipulator.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the mobile robot can communicate with other mobile robots via the external communication unit, even if a plurality of mobile robots are arranged at remote locations, they are physically Information can be exchanged without moving, improving work efficiency.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, since a plurality of mobile robots share the respective roles, a plurality of operations can be performed simultaneously, and the work efficiency is improved.
According to the invention described in claim 4, since a plurality of mobile robots can recognize their respective roles and switch roles to each other, the workload of the mobile robot can be smoothed, and the life of the entire system can be reduced. Can be extended.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the mobile robot can control the elevator via communication, the elevator calling time can be shortened, and the work efficiency is improved.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the visitor detection server notifies the mobile robot only of whether the visitor has entered or exited, malfunction of the mobile robot can be prevented.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when the elevator control server is called from a plurality of mobile robots at the same time, the priority can be set and the elevators can be controlled in descending order of priority. A system with high interpersonal affinity can be constructed by prioritizing.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a reception guidance system of the present invention.
In the figure, mobile robots 1 having manipulators are arranged on the 1F reception lobby, 2F general affairs section, and 3F reception floor, respectively, and share roles such as “reception”, “delivery”, and “guidance”. Each mobile robot has a built-in wireless LAN device.
In the 1F reception lobby, there are a visitor detection device 2, a visitor detection server 3 that controls the visitor detection device 2, an elevator control device 5 that controls the elevator 4, an elevator control server 6 that sends commands to the elevator control device 5, a reception robot and wireless A wireless LAN device 7 for communication is installed. Further, the visitor detection server 3, the elevator control server 6, and the wireless LAN device 7 are connected to a first network hub 8 that is a communication repeater.
The 2F General Affairs Division and 3F Reception Floor are also provided with a delivery robot and a guide robot, and a wireless LAN device 7 for wireless communication therewith. Further, the 2F and 3F wireless LAN devices are connected to the first network hub 8 via the second network hub 9. As a result, the mobile robot 1, customer detection server 3 and elevator control server 6 on each floor can communicate with each other.
The protocol used for such LAN communication is generally TCP / IP, and TCP / IP is also used in this embodiment, but each mobile robot 1, visitor detection server 3 and elevator control server 6 are used. Any protocol may be used as long as it can be uniquely identified and can communicate with each other, and is not particularly limited to TCP / IP.

  FIG. 1 is an example in which three mobile robots are arranged on the third floor of 1 to 3F, but the present invention is the same even when three or more mobile robots are arranged in a high-rise building having several tens of floors. It is applicable to.

Hereinafter, the configurations of the mobile robot, the visitor detection server, and the elevator control server will be described in detail.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram in the mobile robot.
The mobile robot 1 includes a human interface 11 for communicating with a human, a robot control device 12 for controlling the operation of the mobile robot, a robot mechanism unit 13 including a multi-joint manipulator and a moving mechanism having a plurality of wheels. And a sensor unit 14 including an angle detector disposed at each joint of the manipulator and a moving mechanism, an external sensor for detecting external information of the mobile robot, and the like.
The human interface 11 and the robot controller 12 are connected to a network hub 15 that is a communication repeater, and constitute a LAN in the mobile robot. Further, a wireless LAN device 16 for wireless communication with the outside is connected to the network hub 15.

  The human interface 11 includes a speech recognition unit 111 that recognizes words spoken by humans, an action determination unit 112 that determines the operation of the mobile robot based on the recognition result of the speech recognition unit 111, and a recognition result and movement of the speech recognition unit 111. An utterance unit 113 that utters after converting information related to the movement of the robot into words that can be understood by humans, and a display unit 114 that similarly displays the recognition result of the voice recognition unit 111 and information about the movement of the mobile robot as colored figures and characters, The action information determined by the action determination unit 112 is transmitted to the utterance unit 113, the display unit 114, and the robot control device 12. Conversely, the information transmitted from the robot control device 12 is transmitted to the action determination unit 112, the utterance unit 113, and the display unit. The communication unit 115 transmits the information to the communication unit 114.

  On the other hand, the robot control device 12 is acquired by the communication unit 121 that performs transmission and reception with the human interface 11 and the wireless LAN device 16, the sensor information acquisition unit 122 that acquires information of the sensor unit 14 in real time, and the sensor information acquisition unit 122. Based on the command information and the sensor information, the shared memory 123 for storing the received information, the operation status of the mobile robot, the information obtained from the sensor unit 14 and the command information sent by communication, and the command information and the sensor information. The operation generation unit 125 generates a time operation command, and the operation control unit 126 controls the robot mechanism unit 13 based on the real-time operation command and sensor information.

With this configuration, the mobile robot 1 can operate with words spoken by humans, communicate with humans by words and displays, and communicate with other robots and external devices via a wireless LAN. become able to.
In FIG. 2, the sensor information acquisition unit 122, the shared memory 123, the state management unit 124, the motion generation unit 125, and the motion control unit 126 are separated from the robot mechanism unit 13 and arranged in the robot control device 12. Even if at least one of them is arranged in the robot mechanism section 13, the same effect as in the present embodiment can be obtained.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the visitor detection server 3 and the elevator control server 6 installed in the 1F reception lobby.
In the figure, a visitor detection device 2 incorporates a sensor that reacts to the movement of a visitor and is connected to a visitor detection server 3.
The visitor detection server 3 includes a temporary storage unit 31 that temporarily stores information detected by the visitor detection device 2 and whether the visitor has entered or exited based on the information stored in the temporary storage unit 31. It is comprised from the visitor action judgment part 32 which judges whether it passed only before, and the communication part 33 which transmits the determination result of the visitor action judgment part 32 to the mobile robot 1 as a command.
The elevator control device 5 is connected to the elevator control server 6, and the elevator 4 is operated by the elevator control server 6.
In addition, the elevator control server 6 receives a command sent from the mobile robot 1 and communicates the operation state of the elevator 4 to the outside, and priority of commands requested from a plurality of mobile robots. A priority order determining unit 62 that determines the order is configured.

The visitor detection server 3 and the elevator control server 6 are connected to a network hub 8 that is a communication repeater to constitute a LAN. Further, a wireless LAN device 7 for performing wireless communication with the outside is connected to the network hub 8.
Since it is configured in this way, information when a visitor enters or leaves the building is transmitted to the mobile robot 1 via the wireless LAN device 7, or an elevator operation command transmitted from the mobile robot 1 is transmitted. The elevator can be operated by receiving at the communication unit 61.

Next, the processing flow of the mobile robot 1, the visitor detection server 3, and the elevator control server 6 will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the mobile robot 1.
In Step 401, the communication unit 121 waits for an external command, and when a command is received, the process proceeds to Step 402. In Step 402, the state management unit 124 determines whether the mobile robot is currently performing an operation or is waiting.
When the operation is being executed, a status (BUSY) indicating that the operation is being performed is returned to the transmission destination in Step 403. If it is determined in Step 402 that it is waiting, it is checked in Step 404 whether the command is a command related to speech.
If it is a command related to an utterance, the utterance content is transmitted to the utterance unit 113 in Step 405. If it is determined in Step 404 that the command is not an utterance command, the process proceeds to Step 406 to check whether the command is a command requesting the state of the mobile robot 1.
If it is a status request command of the mobile robot 1, the status information requested in Step 407 is transmitted. The state information includes an operating state such as whether the mobile robot 1 is operating normally or whether an abnormality has occurred, each sensor information, and the current position of the mobile robot 1 obtained by calculation based on the sensor information.

If it is determined in Step 406 that the command is not a status request command for the mobile robot 1, the process proceeds to Step 408 to check whether the command is for operating the elevator.
If it is an elevator operation command, in Step 409, a command for calling the elevator to the floor where the mobile robot 1 is located is transmitted to the elevator control server 6 (GO TO * F: the floor to be called by “* F” is designated). If it is determined in step 408 that the command is not an elevator operation command, it is checked in step 410 whether the command is an operation command. In the case of an operation command, the process proceeds to Step 411 and the operation generation unit 125 generates a basic operation pattern. In Step 412, it is determined whether or not there is an obstacle based on information recorded in the shared memory 123 while the basic operation pattern is being executed by the operation control unit 126. If there is no obstacle, the process proceeds to Step 413. If there is an object, the operation pattern is corrected in Step 314. This motion pattern correction is executed by the motion generation unit 125 in real time processing.

When the obstacle is removed, a preset time has elapsed, or the preset distance has been moved, it is checked in step 413 whether the execution of the operation command has been completed. If the operation has not been completed, the operation returns to Step 412 again until the operation is completed. Note that if the time has elapsed or the set distance has been moved in Step 412, the operation is considered complete in Step 413. When it is determined that the operation is completed in Step 413, or the utterance content is transmitted to the utterance unit 113 in Step 405, the state information is transmitted in Step 407, or the elevator call command (GO TO * F) is transmitted in Step 409. If so, in Step 415, a status (SUCCESS) indicating that the command has been normally executed is returned to the command transmission source.
In Step 410, it is confirmed whether or not it is an operation command. If it is not an operation command, it is confirmed in Step 416 whether or not it is a robot operation end command. After the motor output is turned off, the power of the entire mobile robot is turned off at Step 418 to end the operation.
If the command is not an end command in Step 416, the received command is discarded and the process returns to the command reception waiting state in Step 401.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process flow of the visitor behavior determination unit 32 in the visitor detection server 3. When the visitor detection apparatus 2 starts detection, the measurement time (T) and the detection flag (flag) are set to 0 in Step 40, respectively.
As described above, a plurality of sensors that react to the movement of visitors are arranged in the visitor detection device 2, and numbers are assigned to the sensors so that they can be identified. Furthermore, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, each sensor can be provided in a horizontal direction on each surface of a polygonal column-shaped visitor detection device, so that the detection direction can be widened, which is effective. If at least one of the sensors of the visitor detection device 2 detects a visitor in Step 502, the time is measured as a measurement time T while being detected.
In Step 503, it is confirmed whether the measurement time (T) is longer than a preset time (Tmax). If the measurement time (T) is smaller than the set time (Tmax), the sensor number (i in FIG. 5) in the visitor detection device 2 that detected the visitor in Step 505 is stored in the temporary storage unit 31 and in Step 506. While starting the time measurement, a detection flag (flag) is set to 1 to indicate that it has been detected.
If the sensor again detects a visitor in Step 502 and determines in Step 503 that the measurement time (T) is equal to or longer than the set time (Tmax), then in Step 504, a human has just passed between the sensors or stays between the sensors. Returning to Step 501, the measurement time (T) and the detection flag (flag) are set to 0. If any sensor does not detect a visitor in Step 502, the process proceeds to Step 507, and a detection flag (flag) indicating that it has been detected once is confirmed. If the detection flag (flag) is not 1 in Step 507, that is, if all the sensors have never detected a visitor, the process returns to Step 501 and waits for detection. If the detection flag (flag) is 1 in Step 507, it is determined in Step 508 whether the visitor has entered or exited. If it is determined in step 509 that the entrance is from the moving direction, in step 510, the communication unit 33 sends a command to the mobile robot to respond to the visitor. If it is not the entrance, it is confirmed in Step 511 whether it is leaving or not, and if it is leaving, the communication unit 33 transmits a command for executing a greeting to the mobile robot in Step 512. If it is not determined in step 511 to leave, it is determined in step 513 that it cannot be determined, and the process returns to step 501 without executing anything.

When determining the moving direction in Step 508, the temporary storage unit 31 that stores the detection sensor number is referred to. If the sensor number “in order from the entrance” is stored, “entrance”, “from the entrance” If the sensor number “distant order” is stored, it is determined as “exit”.
In addition, after transmitting a command to the mobile robot in Step 510 and Step 512, the process returns to Step 501 again to detect a visitor.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process flow of the elevator control server 6.
The elevator control server 6 waits for a command transmitted from the mobile robot 1 in Step 601, and when receiving the command, a command for transporting the customer in Step 602 (GO TO * F GUEST: destination to transport the customer in “* F”) Specify the floor).
If the command is to transport a visitor, the elevator is moved to the designated floor in Step 603, and the process returns to Step 601 and waits for reception of the command.
If it is determined in Step 602 that it is not a command to transport a visitor, it is determined in Step 604 whether the elevator carrying the visitor has arrived at the designated floor (transport completed). Call the elevator to move to the floor specified by the command. If the transportation is not completed in Step 604, the completion of transportation is waited in Step 605.

7 to 9 are diagrams for explaining a method in which three mobile robots share their respective responsibilities or change responsibilities.
7 to 9, the three mobile robots, the visitor detection server 3 and the elevator control server 6 declare object names “RB01”, “RB02”, “RB03”, “RCP”, and “ELV”, respectively. Each mobile robot, the visitor detection server 3 and the elevator control server 6 recognize the object names of each other.
In the state of FIG. 7, the role is assigned as the object name “RB01” is “reception robot”, the object name “RB02” is “delivery robot”, and the object name “RB03” is “guide robot”.
Further, in order to identify each object on the LAN, the IP address: xxx.yyy.zzz.101 is assigned to the robot with the object name “RB01”, and the IP address: xxx.yyy is assigned to the robot with the object name “RB02”. .zzz.102 is IP address: xxx.yyy.zzz.103 for the robot with the object name “RB03”, and IP address: xxx.yyy.zzz.220 for the visitor detection server 3 (object name “RCP”). However, IP address: xxx.yyy.zzz.240 is assigned to the elevator control server 6 (object name “ELV”).
With this configuration, each object can uniquely determine the command transmission destination by the IP address or the object name.
Further, in this embodiment, the “reception robot” grasps the state of the entire object and plays a central role of transmitting instructions.

As shown in FIG. 7, when the visitor detection device 2 detects a visitor, the visitor detection server 3 (object name “RCP”) transmits a visitor detection command to the robot with the object name “RB01” registered as the receiving robot. The “Reception Robot” that received the command responds to the visitor by voice or graphic / character display, and if the purpose of the visitor is to collect, the command including the visitor name is sent to the “Delivery Robot” with the object name “RB02” To do.
When the purpose of the visitor is a visit, the object name “RB01”, which is “reception robot”, sends an elevator call command (GO TO 1F) including the destination to the elevator control server 6 (object name “ELV”) and the object. A command for instructing guidance is also transmitted to the “guidance robot” with the name “RB03”. Furthermore, after receiving the notification of completion of movement from the elevator control server 6 to the designated floor (here, 1F), the “reception robot” moves to the elevator control server 6 so as to move to the 3F reception floor after a predetermined time has elapsed. Send the customer transport command (GO TO 3F GUEST).

Next, the flow of information when each mobile robot 1 changes roles will be described.
1F “Reception Robot” becomes 3F “Guidance Robot”, 2F “Delivery Robot” becomes 1F “Reception Robot”, 3F “Guidance Robot” becomes 2F “Delivery Robot” To do.
When changing roles, as shown in FIG. 8, first, the “reception robot” that controls the entire system sends a WAIT command so as not to send a visitor detection command to the visitor detection server 3 (object name: “RCP”). Send. At the same time, a command (CNG TO receipt) for changing the role is sent to the “delivery robot” (object name “RB02”), and a delivery charge is sent to the “guide robot” (object name “RB03”). Send a command (CNG TO deliv) to change roles.
The “delivery robot” (object name “RB02”) and “guide robot” (object name “RB03”) that have received the command are called to the elevator control server 6 (object name “ELV”) respectively (GO TO * F). And move to the designated floor.

The “Receiving robot” (object name “RB01”) that sent the instruction confirms that the other two mobile robots have moved to the designated location, calls the elevator, and the floor where the mobile robot does not exist, ie 3F reception Move to the floor.
When the movement is completed, as shown in FIG. 9, it instructs the visitor detection server 3 (object name “RCP”) to resume the visitor detection, and the destination of the visitor detection command becomes a new “reception robot”. That it is a mobile robot with the object name “RB02”. In addition, for the mobile robot with the object name “RB02” that has become “reception robot”, the object name “RB03” is “delivery robot” and the object name “RB01” is “guide robot”. Notification (self name "RB01") will stand by as a "guide robot".
In the standby state, each mobile robot may be charged by a built-in charger (not shown).

How each device operates in accordance with the block diagram and the processing flow described above will be specifically described with reference to FIG. 1 again.
In FIG. 1, when a visitor enters, the visitor detection apparatus 2 determines whether the visitor has entered, and transmits a visitor entry command to the reception robot. The reception robot that has received the command utters, for example, “Welcome. Welcome to XXX” in the utterance unit 113, and operates the robot mechanism unit 13 (manipulator or moving mechanism), or displays the display unit. By changing the display of 114, an operation of welcoming visitors is executed. After the operation is completed, the reception robot speaks, for example, “I will ask you for business” in order to collect visitor information, and the speech recognition unit 111 executes recognition processing for the words that the customer has received. . During the speech recognition, the action determining unit 112 specifies the action to be executed by the reception robot from the company name, name, purpose, etc. of the visitor while collating with a vocabulary registered in advance. At this time, if the behavior cannot be specified, for example, “I ’m very sorry, please call the extension number □□□□” to request that the customer contact the department in charge. To do.

If the behavior of the mobile robot can be identified from the pre-registered information, for example, if the courier has entered for the purpose of collection, a command including information (article name or person in charge) collected from the courier is shown in FIG. To the delivery robot standing by in the 2nd floor General Affairs Section of the company via the wireless LAN. The delivery robot that has received the command tells the person in charge of the 2nd floor pickup site by voice using the utterance section 113, and also operates the manipulator, “△△△ is coming to pick up ***. And carry out the attitude of holding the baggage. The person in charge of collection brings the parcel to the manipulator of the delivery robot and, for example, when saying “Let me do the rest”, the delivery robot operates the manipulator to pinch the parcel and fixes the parcel. At this time, the delivery robot detects the information of the force sensor arranged in the manipulator by the sensor information acquisition unit 122, and stops the pinching operation when a preset force is detected. The delivery robot with the parcel transmits a call command (GO TO 2F) to the elevator control server 6 via the wireless LAN, moves to the front door of the elevator on the 2nd floor, and waits until the elevator door opens. When recognizing that the door of the elevator is opened, a distance sensor included in the sensor unit 14 mounted on the mobile robot is used, and when the distance sensor information has changed, an operation of getting into the elevator is executed. This makes it possible to board an elevator.
When the elevator arrives at the 1F reception lobby after the delivery robot has boarded the elevator and the door is opened again by the distance sensor of the mobile robot, the delivery robot performs an action to get out of the elevator, and the 1F reception counter side Move up. When the movement is completed, the delivery robot utters “Sorry for waiting. Please take your luggage.” At the utterance unit 113 and executes an operation of delivering the luggage to the customer. When the customer receives the parcel, the delivery robot and the reception robot will say "I'm gonna go down".

When the visitor's purpose is a visit, the reception robot utters “Please come to the 3rd floor with that elevator” and sends a call command (GO TO 1F) to the elevator control server 6 to the guidance robot. Also send guidance commands. Further, after receiving the notification of movement completion from the elevator control server 6 to the designated floor (here, 1F), the reception robot transports visitors to the elevator control server 6 so as to move to the 3F reception floor after a predetermined time has elapsed. Send the command (GO TO 3F GUEST).
The guidance robot that has received the guidance command moves to the front of the elevator on the 3rd floor reception floor and waits until the elevator door opens. When the distance sensor installed on the robot detects that the elevator door has been opened, the guidance robot says "Let's come. I will guide you" along with a predetermined manipulator action. Then, the robot mechanism 13 is guided to a reception room that is not used by the moving body.
When the visitor leaves, the visitor detection server 3 determines that the visitor detection server 3 has exited from the information detected by the visitor detection device 2, and transmits an exit command to the reception robot. The reception robot that received the command utters the words "Thank you very much for your attention today. Please take care."

As described above, the present invention differs from Patent Documents 1 to 5 in that a plurality of mobile robots share the role, and each robot operates an elevator control server that operates a visitor detection server and an elevator installed separately from the robot. And a configuration in which a plurality of mobile robots can change roles with each other.

  Since the present invention can detect that a person is approaching and transmit the information to an information processing device (robot), the present invention can also be applied to a security manufacturing system or an industrial manufacturing apparatus that is dangerous when approaching during operation.

System configuration diagram of the reception guidance system of the present invention Block diagram of a single robot according to the present invention Block diagram of visitor detection server and elevator control server of the present invention The flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the robot of this invention. The flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the visitor server of this invention The flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the elevator control server of this invention. Explanatory drawing 1 when changing the charge of the robot of the present invention FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram when the charge of the robot according to the present invention is changed. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram when the charge of the robot according to the present invention is changed.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mobile robot 2 Visitor detection apparatus 3 Visitor detection server 4 Elevator 5 Elevator control apparatus 6 Elevator control server 7 Wireless LAN apparatus 8, 9 Network hub 13 Robot mechanism part 14 Sensor part 15 Network hub 16 Wireless LAN apparatus 31 Temporary storage part 32 Visitor Action determination unit 33 Communication unit 61 Communication unit 62 Priority order determination unit 111 Speech recognition unit 112 Action determination unit 113 Speech unit 114 Display unit 121 Communication unit 122 Sensor information acquisition unit 123 Shared memory 124 State management unit 125 Operation generation unit 126 Operation control Part

Claims (7)

Communicates with a speech recognition unit that recognizes human words, a speech unit that utters words that humans can understand by speech synthesis, a moving mechanism unit that moves autonomously in space, a manipulator that handles objects, and an external server A mobile robot equipped with an external communication unit;
An elevator control server for controlling the elevator;
A visitor detection device for detecting incoming and outgoing visitors,
A reception guidance system comprising a visitor detection server connected to the visitor detection device and controlling the visitor detection device.   The reception guidance system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the mobile robots are arranged and can communicate with each other via each of the external communication units. The plurality of mobile robots are:
A reception robot that performs the reception of the visitor based on the visitor entry / exit information detected by the visitor detection device;
A delivery robot for carrying luggage to a visitor at the direction of the reception robot;
3. The reception guidance system according to claim 2, wherein the reception guidance system has a role classified as a guidance robot for guiding a visitor to a place designated in advance by an instruction of the reception robot.   The reception guidance system according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of mobile robots recognize each role or switch the role via the external communication unit.   The said mobile robot transmits the instruction | command to the said elevator control server via the said external communication part, controls the said elevator, gets on the said elevator, and moves between floors, The Claim 1 thru | or 4 characterized by the above-mentioned. Reception guidance system.   The visitor detection server includes a temporary storage unit that temporarily stores information detected by the visitor detection device, and a visitor behavior determination unit that determines whether a human has entered, exited, or just passed. The reception guidance system according to claim 1, wherein only entrance / exit information of a visitor is transmitted to the mobile robot.   6. The reception guidance system according to claim 1, wherein the elevator control server sets a priority for the request sent from the mobile robot and operates the elevator according to the order of the priority.

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