JPH09272430A - Unmanned conveyance robot and unmanned conveyance system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an unmanned conveyance robot and system of a low floor capable of making a small sharp turn and lessening storage space by providing the upper part of a body for cargo loading space, providing cargo handling lifters on the body, also providing a plurality of driving wheels and driven wheels which are tree to change their traveling directions and incorporating a drive unit and a brake inside the driving wheel. SOLUTION: A body 2 is equipped with a pair of cargo handling lifters 4 on its front and rear with elevator platforms 5 of the lifters constituting a part of the cargo loading space 3 and elevation thereof is carried out by a pantagraph shape elevator device 6, while the elevator platform 5 takes up much more height when it is expanded as compared with when it is stored. A driven wheel 7 is provided in the front and rear of the body 2 and a pair of driving wheels 8 is provided on one side of the body 2 in the front and rear, while the other side of the body 2 in provided with driven wheels 9 corresponding to the drive wheels 8, which is fitted with a speed reducer and a drive motor as a drive unit and a controller and an ecoder as a control device. Driven wheels 7, 9 being provided with an universal caster automatically follow the drive wheel 8 in accordance with the revolving direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an unmanned transfer robot having a low vehicle height (low floor) and a smaller turning radius than a forklift of the same class, and an object to be transferred to a predetermined location by using the unmanned transfer robot. The present invention relates to an unmanned transfer system for transferring.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a forklift has been widely used as a means for transporting materials, parts, or products.
However, the forklift cannot move laterally or turn in-situ even if it can move back and forth and turning. Therefore, when storing the transported object, it is necessary to store the transported object at an interval allowing the forklift to swivel. Because
Considerable space was required for turning and running the forklift.

Further, in the forklift, since a guide for raising and lowering the fork is erected on the front part of the vehicle body,
There was a problem that the vehicle height inevitably increased.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a low floor, a narrower turn than a forklift of the same class, and a storage space. It is an object of the present invention to provide an unmanned transfer robot and an unmanned transfer system that can reduce the amount.

[0005]

That is, an unmanned transfer robot according to the present invention is configured such that the entire upper part of a vehicle body is a planar object-carrying part mounting portion, and a lifter for loading and unloading is provided on the vehicle body in any direction. A structure is provided in which a plurality of drive wheels and driven wheels whose directions can be freely changed are provided, and a drive device and a control device are incorporated in the wheels of the drive wheels.

The unmanned transfer robot can replace the lifter unit including the lifter. On the other hand, the unmanned transfer system of the present invention includes a step of horizontally mounting an unmanned transfer robot in front of a gantry installed in a storage zone, a step of raising a lifter of the unmanned transfer robot to a predetermined height, and a lifter having a predetermined height. The horizontal movement of the unmanned transfer robot directly below the pedestal while still raised, the step of lowering the lifter to mount the object to be transferred on the pedestal, and the step of returning the unmanned transfer robot with the lifter to the initial position. Made of.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, 1 is an unmanned transfer robot, which has a very flat shape as a whole. By the way, its height is about 15-35% of the width,
It is about 7-18% of the length. In the unmanned transfer robot 1, the entire upper part of the vehicle body 2 is a planar object-to-be-transferred portion 3.

The vehicle body 2 includes a pair of front and rear lifters 4 for cargo handling.
It has. The lift plate 5 of the lifter 4 constitutes a part of the transported object mounting portion 3 of the vehicle body 2, and the lifting and lowering thereof is performed by a pandagraph type lifting device 6.
By using the panda graph type lifting device 6, the height when extended can be made larger than the height when stored.

As shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle body 2 has wheels at six locations. That is, driven wheels 7 are provided in front and rear of the vehicle body 2, a pair of front and rear drive wheels 8 is provided on one side of the vehicle body 2, and a driven wheel 9 is provided on the other side so as to correspond to the drive wheels 8. have. As shown in FIG. 4, the drive wheels 8 have a special structure in order to keep the vehicle height of the vehicle body 2 low.

That is, a cylindrical wheel 11 having a tire 10 mounted thereon is rotatably fitted to a cylindrical boss 13 via a bearing 12. Then, the side wall 1 of the boss 13
4, a speed reducer 15 and a drive motor 16 as drive devices,
Controller 17 and encoder 18 as a control device
Are integrally attached. The shaft 19 of the speed reducer 15 is
The tip portion thereof is fixed to the side wall 20 of the wheel 11, and when the drive motor 16 rotates in the normal and reverse directions, the wheel 11 and the tire 10 rotate in the normal and reverse directions as indicated by an arrow a.

The rotation speed and rotation direction of the tire 10 are controlled by the controller 17, and the running distance of the tire 10, that is, the rotation speed is measured by the encoder 18. The boss 13 has a support member 21.
It is fixed to an annular member 23 that is rotatably provided inside an annular fixed gear 22 that is fixed to the vehicle body 2 via. Further, the planetary gear 24 meshes with the outside of the fixed gear 22 and rolls around the fixed gear 22.
The rotation of the planetary gear 24 is performed by a turning motor 25 attached to the support member 21.

Therefore, when the planetary gear 24 rolls around the fixed gear 22, the wheel 10 rotates about the vertical axis Y passing through the center of the annular member 23 as shown by an arrow b. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, the rotation angle ± θ of the wheel 10 with respect to the reference line A, that is, the rotation speed of the turning motor 25 is measured by an encoder 26 attached to the turning motor 25. There is.

On the other hand, the driven wheels 7 and 9 are basically formed in the same manner as the driving wheel 8 without including a drive device and a control device. The unmanned transfer robot 1 can move back and forth, move left and right, turn on the spot, turn normally, and lift the lifter. As shown in FIG. 2, the forward / backward movement is performed by traveling with the wheels 7, 8, 9 oriented in the forward / backward direction of the vehicle body 2, and the left / right movement is performed by moving the wheels 7, 8, 9 laterally of the vehicle body 2. It is performed by running in the direction, and turning on the spot
It is performed by orienting the wheels 7 in the front and rear of the vehicle body in the lateral direction of the vehicle body and the four wheels 8, 9 at the center of the vehicle body in the direction of a circle B centered on the vehicle body center O.
This is performed by rotating the three wheels 7, 8, 9 on the front part of the vehicle body by a predetermined angle in a predetermined direction. It should be noted that at the time of backing, the three wheels 7, 8, 9 on the rear portion of the vehicle body are rotated by a predetermined angle in a predetermined direction.

The driven wheels 7 and 9 employ universal casters, and automatically follow the driving wheels 8 according to the turning direction. The unmanned transfer robot 1 adopts a magnetic induction method, an electromagnetic induction method, or the like as a guide method, and runs along a magnetic tape guide wire embedded in a running path. As a safety device, ODS (Obstacle detective)
system) A bumper 27 (see Fig. 3) is adopted to enable an emergency stop. In addition, a wireless or optical communication system is adopted as a communication system so that a worker on site can interactively give a work change instruction such as a route change.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the unmanned transfer robot 1 is provided with a control unit 28, and the control unit 28 causes the traveling direction, traveling speed, turning direction, turning speed, stop position, lifter up / down and emergency operation. It is designed to control stoppages. In FIG. 2, 29 is a battery and 30 is a guide sensor. On the other hand, FIG.
Indicates a storage zone D of the transported object C, and a magnetic tape or an electric wire 52 as a guide line loops along the traveling path 51 of the unmanned transfer robot 1 on the concrete floor surface 50 of the storage zone D. It is buried in the shape. In addition, the branch lines 52a are respectively attached to the branch lines 52a of the guide line.
A pedestal 54 including a pair of inverted L-shaped frame bodies 53 that face each other with the frame sandwiched therebetween is provided.

Next, a case will be described in which the unmanned transfer robot 1 is used to store the transferred object C on the pedestal 54 as shown by the two-dotted broken line. The unmanned transfer robot 1 having the transferred object C mounted thereon has an electric wire 5 of the main line buried in the floor surface 50.
2b, and a predetermined gantry 54 that has been input in advance
Stop in front of d.

Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the wheels 7, 8,
9 is rotated 90 degrees in the lateral direction and the lifter 4 is raised to a predetermined height, and then the unmanned transfer robot 1 is mounted on the mount 54.
Horizontally move to just below d '. Then, when the lifter 4 is lowered, the transported object C is placed on the pedestal 54d 'as shown by the chain double-dashed line. Thereafter, the empty unmanned transfer robot 1 is returned to the initial position via the same route or another route.

The object C to be conveyed on the gantry 54d 'is mounted on the truck 60 by a traveling crane (not shown), if desired. The method of transporting the transported object C is not limited to the above method, but can be changed according to the user's request. In the above description, the unmanned transfer robot incorporating the lifter has been described. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the lifter 4 is unitized and the lifter unit 4 is formed.
If 0 is replaced according to the width of the transported object, it becomes possible to diversify with one vehicle body.

Further, the conveyor can be unitized and incorporated instead of the lifter to further diversify, and a transport / transfer / storage system suitable for the yard condition can be realized.

[0020]

As described above, in the unmanned transfer robot of the present invention, the entire upper part of the vehicle body is formed as a planar object-carrying part mounting portion,
A structure is provided in which a lifter for cargo handling is provided on the vehicle body, a plurality of drive wheels and driven wheels that can change directions in arbitrary directions are provided, and a drive device and a control device are incorporated in the wheels of the drive wheels. Therefore, the working height can be lowered.
Therefore, large-scale works such as housing units and building materials can be safely delivered with a low center of gravity.

Further, since it is traversable, it can move freely even in a narrow place, and it can turn smaller than a forklift of the same class, the storage space can be greatly reduced compared to the case of using a forklift (about 50-60%).
Reduction). On the other hand, the unmanned transfer system of the present invention includes a step of horizontally mounting an unmanned transfer robot in front of a gantry installed in a storage zone, a step of raising a lifter of the unmanned transfer robot to a predetermined height, and a lifter having a predetermined height. And the process of laterally moving the unmanned transfer robot directly under the pedestal while raising it to
The same effect can be obtained because it includes the step of lowering the lifter to mount the object to be transferred on the gantry and the step of returning the unmanned transfer robot containing the lifter to the initial position.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an unmanned transfer robot according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of an unmanned transfer robot according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view of an unmanned transfer robot according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view including a partial side surface of a drive wheel.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an unmanned transportation system according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state where a conveyed object is lifted.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the unmanned transfer robot.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Unmanned transfer robot 2 Car body 3 Transported object mounting part 4 Lifter 8 Drive wheel 7,9 Driven wheel 11 Wheel 15,16 Drive device 17,18 Control device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An entire upper portion of a vehicle body is formed as a planar object-carrying portion, a lifter for loading and unloading is provided on the vehicle body, and a plurality of drive wheels and driven wheels which can change directions in arbitrary directions are provided. And, an unmanned transfer robot in which a drive unit and a control unit are incorporated in the drive wheels. 2. The unmanned transfer robot according to claim 1, wherein a lifter unit including a lifter is replaceable. 3. A step of horizontally mounting an unmanned transfer robot in front of a gantry installed in a storage zone, a step of raising a lifter of the unmanned transfer robot to a predetermined height, and a step of keeping the lifter raised to a predetermined height. An unmanned transfer system consisting of the steps of laterally moving the unmanned transfer robot directly below the gantry, lowering the lifter to mount the object to be transferred on the gantry, and returning the unmanned transfer robot containing the lifter to the initial position. .