保線作業用ロボットによる異物検出方法に関する研究

抄録

In recent years, the number of workers engaged in railway maintenance has decreased. Line maintenance requires a high level of knowledge, extensive experience, and technical skills. Furthermore, oppressive working conditions and a declining birthrate and an aging population have contributed to the decline in workers. Solving these manpower shortages can be effectively achieved by the introduction of robots that automate and enhance the efficiency of maintenance tasks. The modular robot developed in this study is lightweight at 0.2kg per one module and portable, running on a single rail with six wheels in a straddle-top style. It can recognize objects three-dimensionally by combining 4x4 matrix distance data from an ToF sensor and images from a small camera mounted on the upper front of the body. Additionally, an encoder is used to determine the robot's position and inform the operator, aiming to enhance line maintenance work efficacy. A static measurement experiment was conducted by placing a plastic cube of 0.1 m per side at 0.1 m from the rail without moving the body. Afterwards, static experiments were conducted by gradually moving the cube away, up to a maximum distance of 0.7 m. As a result, obstacle detection was confirmed. On the other hand, during a same experiment with the robot moving, continuous data could not be obtained due to the data processing load. The experiment results indicate that data can be observed and processed by enhancing the processing capacity and speed while reducing the running speed of the robot. These findings are expected to reduce the burden of line maintenance work and facilitate safer, more efficient railway maintenance.