JPH02146142A - Information medium inserting/ejecting method and automatic information medium preserving system using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten working time in inserting/ejecting a medium by forming the automatic/medium preserving system of a computer, which executively controls the whole system, a protective shelf to preserve the medium, and handling to take in/out the medium. CONSTITUTION:A processor 1 executively controls the whole system, and is formed of a medium taking-in/out executive control part 101, an inserted medium detecting part and identification parts 102 and 106, an extracted medium detecting part and deciding parts 104 and 103, and medium control information 105. Further, for a preserving shelf 2 to preserve the medium, a range to and from which the medium can be inserted and extracted is manually determined by a user, and the shelf 2 has a function to detect the insertion/ejection. Further, a handling rotor 3 which takes in/out the medium from the shelf can make access to the shelf at an arbitrary position by a controller 4, and has a function to identify the medium. By the automatic medium preserving system, the working time of the insertion/ejection of the medium can be shortened.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a medium loading/unloading method in an information medium automatic storage system, and is particularly effective when a large amount of media is frequently loaded/unloaded. Regarding the discharge method.

[Conventional technology]

Various companies in the distribution, finance, securities, and manufacturing industries are using computers to improve operational efficiency. As a result, large-capacity storage systems that can store large amounts of data necessary for business execution have become essential.

Against this background, the technology of automated warehouse systems developed in the fields of manufacturing and distribution has come to be applied to systems for storing computer storage media. In other words, it has multiple shelves capable of storing a large amount of information media, a handling device for loading and unloading media, and a management/control computer, and automatically loads and unloads media according to user requests. This is an information media automatic storage system.

Typically, how many media can be accommodated within a storage system?

It is small compared to the total number of media owned by the user.

For example, big users in fields such as finance and securities are said to own tens of thousands of media. In contrast, the number of media that can be stored within a storage system is typically on the order of several thousand. For this reason, an operating method is often adopted in which media that are particularly frequently used are selected from among the stored media and stored in the storage system. Incidentally, the frequency of use of a medium is influenced by what kind of data is recorded on the medium as well as when the recorded data was created.

For example, data from a bank's account database on the same day is often used for settlement of accounts on that day, but data from several days ago is rarely used.

In this way, the data within each medium becomes less frequently used over time. Therefore, frequently used media may be replaced with less frequently used media.

Conventionally, the work of inserting information media into a storage system, or the work of ejecting information media stored in a storage system, has been carried out as described in, for example, Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Communication Engineers, November 1984,
As in the magnetic tape mass storage system, it was done as follows.

When inserting a medium, the user inserts the information medium to be stored through the medium input port of the storage system. After determining the storage shelf for the medium, the storage system stores the information medium in the storage shelf using a handling device installed within the system. Furthermore, when ejecting a medium, the user specifies the identification number of the medium to be ejected, and the storage system uses the handling device to take out the medium from the shelf and exit from the storage system's media ejection port. Discharge.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Recently, in various fields such as finance and securities, the amount of data stored, including online data, has rapidly increased, and the information media on which data is recorded are being used in large quantities and frequently. Ta. Therefore, as described above, the frequency of use of each medium changes from moment to moment. Furthermore, the number of media being input into or discharged from the automatic media storage system is increasing to several hundred per day.

By the way, in the conventional input/discharge work, as mentioned above,
It was necessary to use a handling device to transport the media between the input/output port and the storage shelf. This transportation work is
Including the travel time between the shelf and the input/output port, the time for gripping and releasing the medium, etc., at least 10-odd seconds are required for each medium. Moreover, 2 storage systems usually have only one or two handling devices installed;
The transport of the media to be input or discharged takes place mostly sequentially. For this reason, hundreds of media inputs/
When draining, it takes several hours, which is a big problem in practical use of the system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a medium loading/unloading method that performs medium loading/unloading operations within a practical time, and an information medium automatic storage system based on this method.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above object is achieved by the following means.

(1) Inserted media detection means After the user manually stores the media on the shelf, it detects which shelf among the predetermined input-only shelves the new media has been inserted.6 For example, using a sensor, etc. This is done by providing a detection unit.

(2) Input media identification means A handling device for loading and unloading media is provided with a function to identify what kind of media is stored in the shelf. For example, a barcode reader is installed in the handling device. The handling device scans the shelves into which the media are placed and recognizes which shelves have which media. Thereafter, the media management information (information about which media is stored on which shelf) recorded in the control computer of the storage system is updated.

(3) Ejection medium determining means Counts how many times each medium stored in the storage system has been used within a predetermined period. Then, based on this data, a medium exhibiting a value tJs smaller than a predetermined limit frequency value is specified and notified to the user.

(3) Discharged medium detection means After a user manually discharges a medium, it is detected from which shelf the medium is discharged. For example, a detection unit using a sensor or the like is provided. Then, based on this, the medium management information in the computer is updated.

[Effect]

In order to achieve the above object, each of the above means operates as follows.

In order to reduce the transport time of the handling equipment, the shelves of the storage system are directly accessible to the user, allowing the user to store the media to be loaded in a field within the system with one manual operation. Also.

Make it possible to remove the medium to be discharged. At this time, the following two points become issues.

■ How can a user easily search for a shelf with a predicted number of media to be loaded into or a shelf with media to be discharged from?

■ After the user manually performs input/discharge operations,
How to match the media management information in the control computer (information on which shelf this media is stored on) with the actual product.

In order to solve these problems, we will take the following methods.

When loading media> When loading media, several hundred shelves for loading are secured in advance, and the user loads the media to be loaded onto the shelves. In the storage system, the "loaded media detection means" determines the shelf where the medium is loaded, the "loaded media identification means" determines what kind of media is loaded on the shelf and the identification number of the medium, and the computer Update media management information.

After recording data on the media stored in this input shelf or reading data recorded on the media,
Instead of returning the medium to the original shelf, return it to a shelf other than the other input shelf. This creates empty space on the loading shelf for the next loading.

At the time of ejection> The ejection medium determination means J records the frequency of use of each medium while the storage system is in operation.Then, it notifies the user of the storage shelf of the medium whose use frequency is lower than a certain threshold value. Based on this information, the user selects and takes out the medium to be ejected.

Thereafter, the storage system detects the shelf from which the medium was taken out using the "ejected medium detection means" and updates the management table in the computer.

【Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 12.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information medium automatic storage system using a medium loading/unloading method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The processing device 1 is a computer that performs execution management of the entire system, and includes a medium storage/output execution management section 101 and an input medium detection section 1.
02, an input medium identification section 106, an ejection medium determination section 103, an ejection medium detection section 104, and a medium management information file 105. Media storage m2 for storing media is
The range in which the user can manually insert the media is determined in advance, and after the user manually inserts the media within this range, it is detected which shelf the media was inserted into, and the user manually inserts the media into the shelf. After the medium is discharged, it has a function to detect from which shelf the medium was discharged.

The handling robot 3 for loading and unloading media from the shelves can access shelves at arbitrary positions by traveling vertically and horizontally along the shelves.

The handling robot 3 also has a medium identification function for identifying the type of medium stored on the shelf. The handling robot control device 4 controls the running operation of the handling robot 3, the gripping/releasing operation of the medium, the medium identifying operation, etc. in accordance with the commands from the processing device 1.

First, the media storage/retrieval management unit 101 in FIG.
The explanation will be given according to the flowchart shown in the figure.

Block 201: First, receive instructions from the user for loading and unloading media.
Choose one.

Block 202: Check the storage location of the designated medium by referring to the media management information file. FIG. 6 shows an example of the media storage information file.

Block 2o3: Using the above medium storage information, instruct the handling robot which medium should be carried from where to where.

Block 204: Receives a command completion signal from the handling robot controller.

Block 205: Determine whether or not there is still a medium storage/retrieval instruction from the user, and if YES, repeat steps 201 to 204 above.

Next, a procedure for manually inserting a medium in the input medium detecting section 102 and input medium identifying section 106 in FIG. 1 of the information medium storage system will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 3.

Block 301: The storage system detects which shelf the medium has been loaded into, using a function that detects loaded media provided on the shelf. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the shelf is equipped with a sensor or other function to detect the input medium.

The sensor emits light from the upper part 41, Light is received 42 at the bottom. media When it is turned on, it emits light from 41 above. The sensor is blocked by the medium Detects that the is inserted.

Block 302 The shelf detected by the nib block 301 is scanned by the handling robot 3 having a media recognition function to check what kind of media is stored in each column.

For example, as shown in Figure 5, the user If the medium is inserted, the arrow in the figure Run along the ledge as shown.

Block 303: Modify the medium management information file based on the above medium storage location investigation results. Figure 6 shows an example of a media management information file. ) Expressed in coordinates, it is (20, 10), indicating that the frequency of use of medium B is 22.

Next, a procedure for manually discharging a medium in the discharging medium determining unit 103 and discharging medium detecting unit 104 in FIG. 1 of the information medium storage system will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 7.

Block 701: From among the media stored in the storage system, determine which media should be ejected based on criteria (stored in the file 105) such as frequency of use and importance of data recorded in the media.

Block 702 Informs the user of the shelf containing the media determined in block 701 to be ejected. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, a lamp 82 or the like is attached to a shelf 81 to inform the user of the medium 83 to be discharged.

Block 703: The user is inside the shelf with the lamp on.
Manually eject the media you want to eject.

Block 704: The ejected medium detection function detects whether the user has ejected the medium. An example is shown in FIG.

Block 705: Refer to the media management information file and correct the shelf data recognized in block 704.

Next, a procedure for creating empty space in a predetermined range of input shelves in the information medium automatic storage system will be explained according to the flowchart of FIG.

Block 901: When a request for media stored in a predetermined range of input shelves is received, and after the use is finished, the input shelves are loaded by referring to a shelf management information file that indicates which shelves contain what media. Search for a shelf that does not contain any media. Figure 10 shows an example of a shelf management information file 1 For example, the first row 101 in the table in Figure 10 indicates that medium A is stored on the shelf number 101, and the shelf number 101 has coordinates (x, y). If there is no empty shelf, the medium is returned to the original shelf; if there is an empty shelf, the process goes to block 902.

Block 902 Checks the position of the shelf found in block 901 from the shelf management information file, and carries the medium used by the handling robot there and stores it there.

Block 903: Modify the media management information file 105 and shelf management information file based on the above data.

Next, an example will be described in which when deciding which media to eject, media that are used less frequently are ejected. Each time each medium is used, 1 is added to the value stored in the frequency of use in the medium management information file 105, and the initial value is 0. When you enter and exit the warehouse for a certain period of time and refer to this data, it is cleared because the results used in the past and the results used recently do not match.

Next, in this embodiment to explain a method for performing medium recognition,
We will introduce a method using barcodes.

FIG. 11 shows a part of the medium management machine. A bar code 112 indicating the type of medium, etc. is attached to the medium 111 stored on the shelf 113 in advance. FIG. 12 shows a handling robot. In addition to a handle 121 for gripping the medium, the robot body is provided with a barcode reader 122 for identifying the barcode attached to the medium. The barcode reader is stored in the robot body 123 so that it does not get in the way during handling.

〔Effect of the invention〕

(1) When loading/unloading a large amount of media, handling and
By transporting media to the shelf without using a robot, the time required for loading/unloading can be shortened.

(2) Since a barcode reader or the like is used to maintain the position data of the media, the position data of the media can be maintained accurately and quickly even when a large amount of media is inserted.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information medium automatic storage system that is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the procedure for loading and unloading media, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the procedure for inserting media into the storage system. Figure 4 is a diagram of a shelf equipped with an input/output media recognition function, Figure 5 is an example of the range of shelves into which media have been loaded and how to scan that range, and Figure 6 is an example of a media management information file. Fig. 7 is a flowchart showing the procedure for discharging media from the storage system, Fig. 8 is an example of a method of notifying the user ratio of the shelf for discharging media, Fig. 9 is a flowchart showing the procedure for creating empty space on the input shelf, and Fig. 10 The figure shows an example of a shelf management information file, FIG. 11 shows an example of a shelf in a storage system, and FIG. 12 shows an example of a handling robot having a media recognition function. 42 Zuko Zu No. 1 Setokomon No. No. Takuzu Yu/l ■ No./θ No.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A storage device comprising a plurality of shelves of an information medium storage, a handling device for loading and unloading media, and a management/control computer;
In an information media automatic storage system that automatically stores and retrieves media in response to requests from users, the process of determining the range of accessible shelves for loading media and the process of loading media into the determined range , a process for detecting a shelf into which a medium is placed by the handling device, a process for identifying characteristics of the medium placed on the shelf, and a process for automatically inputting the identification result into the control/management computer. An information medium input method characterized by: 2. Multiple shelves for information media storage, handling device for media loading and unloading,
And, in an information media automatic storage system that has a management/control computer and automatically stores and retrieves media in response to requests from users, records are stored in the media from among the media stored in the storage system. Processing to determine the shelf position of the media to be ejected based on the usage frequency criteria of the data, processing to detect which shelf the media was ejected from when the media was ejected from the determined shelf, An information medium ejecting method comprising the step of automatically inputting information that a medium has been ejected from a shelf into the computer. 3. Information that has multiple shelves for information media storage, a handling device for storing and retrieving media, and a computer for management and control, and automatically stores and retrieves media according to requests from users. The automatic media storage system includes a process of detecting a shelf where a medium is loaded from among a predetermined range of shelves that can be accessed for loading the medium, and a process where the medium is loaded into the shelf by the handling device. an information medium inputting method consisting of a process of identifying the characteristics of the information medium and a process of automatically inputting the identification results into the control/management computer; and the frequency of use recorded in the medium from among the media stored in the storage system. Based on the criteria of , the process of determining the shelf position of the medium to be ejected, the process of detecting which shelf the medium was ejected from when the medium was ejected from the determined shelf, and the process of detecting which shelf the medium was ejected from when the medium was ejected from the detected shelf. An information medium automatic storage system characterized by an information medium ejection method comprising a process of automatically inputting information into the computer. 4. The information medium loading method according to claim 1, wherein said identification process comprises a process of scanning each shelf in the storage system with said handling device to identify what kind of medium is contained therein. 5. Information that has multiple shelves for information media storage, a handling device for storing and retrieving media, and a computer for management and control, and automatically stores and retrieves media according to requests from users. In the automatic media storage system, the shelf has a means for recognizing which shelf a medium is loaded into and a means for recognizing which shelf the medium is discharged from. 6. The medium storage shelf according to claim 5, wherein said shelf includes means for indicating a shelf containing a medium determined to be ejected. 7. The information medium loading method according to claim 1, wherein the process of determining the range includes determining a range different from the original shelf to which the medium placed in the predetermined range is to be returned after use. 8. Information medium discharge according to claim 2, wherein the identifying process includes a process of collecting the frequency of use of each medium every time the medium is put in and taken out, and indicating a medium whose use frequency is lower than a certain threshold value. Method.