JP2836172B2 - Automatic charging device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an automatic battery charging device for a vehicle using a battery as a power source.

[Conventional technology]

In a modernized factory, a plurality of mobile robots move around and take charge of transfer of products and semi-finished products at stations and transfer from station to station.

This type of mobile robot has a structure in which a working robot (handling robot) is installed on a self-running unmanned vehicle guided by a guide line such as a magnetic tape laid on the floor of a factory, for example. It has a battery as a power source.

For this reason, the battery is charged periodically, but when charging the battery, the mobile robot is usually sent to a charging station located off the work path of the mobile robot, where the battery is automatically charged with the battery installed Or replace with an already charged battery.

In a system that replaces an already charged battery,
After the battery replacement, the mobile robot can be operated, so you do not have to sacrifice the operating time so much, but you need to prepare a large number of spare batteries and the management is troublesome There is.

On the other hand, in a system that automatically charges at the charging station, this problem is eliminated, but the mobile robot must be stopped at the charging station until charging is completed, and the time required for charging is not short, so the operating rate is low. Another problem arises: Of course, if the quick charging is performed, the charging time can be shortened. However, if the distance between the charger and the coupler device cannot be shortened due to the layout of the factory, for example, the charging time is about several minutes. Attempting to perform quick charging, which completes the charging at a high current, causes a large current, which is affected by the voltage drop due to the resistance of the electric line, and cannot be ignored. Hereinafter, this will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a device layout diagram showing a conventional automatic charging system, in which 10 is a mobile robot, 101 is a bundling robot mounted on an automatic trolley of the mobile robot 11, 20 is a battery mounted on the mobile robot 10, and 30 is a battery. Automatic coupler device,
40 is a charging device.

A connector portion 12 having positive and negative fixed connectors 12P and 12N for charging is disposed on the vehicle body 11 of the mobile robot 10.
Positive and negative terminals 21P and 21N of a battery 20 are connected via leads 13P and 13N, and the battery 20 is an electric circuit (not shown) including a motor (not shown) for driving the wheels 14 and a travel control device / robot control device. ) To supply power. The automatic coupler device 30 has positive and negative movable connectors 31P and 31N.
The movable connectors 31P and 31N are fixed connectors of the mobile robot 10 stopped by a driving device (not shown).
It is driven forward and backward toward 12P and 12N.

The charger 41 of the charging device 40 has a power converter for converting the commercial power AC into a direct current and a controller (not shown) for controlling the output of the power converter in a feedback manner. Reference numeral 42 denotes a voltage detector for detecting the output voltage of the power converter, and feeds back the detection signal to the controller.
The output of the power converter is connected to the output terminals 43P and 43N through the feeder line 50.
P, 50N, and is fed to the movable connectors 31P, 31N of the automatic coupler device 30 through the feeder lines 50P, 50N.

In this configuration, when the mobile robot 10 enters the charging station and stops at a predetermined position, the automatic coupler device
The drive device 30 (not shown) operates to move the movable connectors 31P, 3P.
1N extends toward the connector section 12 of the mobile robot 10, and comes into contact with the fixed connectors 12P and 12N of the connector section 12 with a predetermined pressing force. Movable connector 31
A check is performed to determine whether or not the P, 31N and the fixed connectors 12P, 12N have sufficiently contacted electrically.If the electrical contact is confirmed, the charger 41 is activated, and the charging power is supplied to the power supply lines 50P, 50N. Through the movable connectors 31P and 31N through the fixed connector 12
Power is supplied from P and 12N to the positive and negative terminals 21P and 21N of the battery 20. When the charging of the battery 20 proceeds and the voltage of the battery 20 increases, and the voltage detection value of the voltage detector 42 increases to a set voltage (a voltage just before the gas generation voltage in the battery), the charger 41 stops the charging operation. When charging is completed, the driving device of the automatic coupler device 30 operates in the opposite direction to the above, the movable connectors 31P and 31N retract, and the mobile robot
10 can run. The charging sequence is performed by exchanging signals between the mobile robot 10 and the charging station by wireless communication such as optical communication.

As is apparent from this configuration, conventionally, the output voltage of the charger 41 is detected by the voltage detector 42 and the detected value is compared with the set voltage Es. Terminals 21 of battery 20 from wires 50P, 50N
The voltage is lower than the set voltage Es by the voltage drop ΔE between P and 21N. This voltage drop ΔE is equal to the feed lines 50P, 50N
Is proportional to the resistance value R and the charging current value I, the automatic coupler device 30 and the charging device 40 cannot be arranged close to each other on the factory layout. In a system that performs rapid charging, the voltage drop ΔE is large. That is, the charging voltage of the battery 20 fluctuates, and it is difficult to obtain an expected charging voltage.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic charging device that can always charge a battery to a desired voltage even when an automatic coupler device and a charging device cannot be arranged close to each other on a layout.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a configuration in which a signal line extending between the charging device and the automatic coupler device is provided, and voltage feedback is performed to a control device of the charging device through the signal line.

In claim 2, the voltage fed back through the signal line is the voltage between the connectors of the automatic coupler device,
According to the third aspect, the battery-equipped vehicle has a signal connector, and the automatic coupler device has a signal connector that can move toward and away from the signal connector in cooperation with the connector. The feedback is performed.

[Action]

In the present invention, in the charging device, the feedback voltage matched with the set voltage is the voltage between the connectors of the automatic cocoupler device or the terminal voltage of the battery,
Since this voltage is lower than the voltage between the output terminals of the charging device by the resistance of the power supply line, the battery can be stably charged to the set voltage.

〔Example〕

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

In FIG. 1, 60P and 60N are signal lines, extending between the automatic connector device 30 and the charging device 40,
One end is connected to the movable connectors 31P and 31N of the automatic connector device 30, and the other end is connected to the positive and negative input terminals of the voltage detector. Other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

Therefore, in this configuration, the voltage fed back to the control device of the charger 41 is lower than the movable connector 31P, 31N.
, And this voltage is compared with the set voltage Es.
Since the voltage drop in the path from the movable connectors 31P, 31N to the battery 20 is negligibly small, according to the present embodiment, the battery 20 can be stably charged to the set voltage Es.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which a voltage detector 42 is provided in the automatic coupler device 30 and the movable connector 31 is provided.
The voltage between P and 31N is detected, and the detection signal is sent to signal line 60.
Feedback is provided to the control device of the charger 41 through P and 60N.

FIG. 3 shows still another embodiment of the present invention, in which a voltage detector 42 is provided on the mobile robot 10 and a battery 20 is provided.
The voltage between terminals 21P and 21N is detected, and the signal is fed back through signal lines 60P and 60N. When this configuration is adopted, signal connectors 12p and 12n are added to the connector section 12 of the mobile robot 10 as shown in FIG. 4, and the automatic coupler device 30 cooperates with a set of movable connectors 31P and 31N. Signal connectors 31p and 31n are provided, and when the movable connectors 31 and 31N electrically contact the fixed connectors 12P and 12N,
31p and 31n are configured to be in electrical contact with the connectors 12p and 12n.

In each of the above embodiments, the case where the mobile robot 10 is sent to a charging station located outside the work path to perform automatic charging has been described. However, as shown in FIG. The coupler device 30 is provided, and the mobile robot 10
If the configuration is such that the battery 20 is automatically charged while the mounted work robot 101 is performing work, the moving efficiency of the mobile robot 10 is greatly improved as compared with the related art. be able to. When such a system is used, one space is required and one station 70 is required.
Since it is uneconomical to provide the charging device 40 on a one-to-one basis, one charging device 40 must be provided for a plurality of work stations 70, and the power supply lines 50P and 50N are necessarily lengthened,
Since quick charging (for example, charging time of about 5 to 6 minutes) is performed because charging is required to be completed within the working time of the working robot 101, the present invention is applied to such a novel system and extremely A great effect can be obtained.
Also in this case, if the mobile robot and the charging device exchange commands such as charging start and stop, and advance and retreat of the connector of the automatic coupler device by wireless communication, the problem of signal line wiring for this exchange will occur. Is gone.

In the above embodiments, the connector of the automatic coupler device is movable and the connector of the vehicle is fixed. However, the connector of the automatic coupler device may be fixed and the connector of the vehicle may be movable.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the signal line 60 is used.
Although P and 60N are provided, a configuration may be adopted in which the output of the voltage detector 42 is converted into a wireless signal, transmitted, demodulated by the charging device 40, and provided to the control device.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the present invention provides a channel connecting the automatic coupler device and the charging device, and feeds back the battery voltage detected by the automatic coupler device or the vehicle to the charger through this channel. The output voltage of the battery is fed back to the charger, and the battery can be quickly and accurately charged to the expected voltage in a stable and stable manner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 to 3 are circuit diagrams each showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a front view of a connector portion of the mobile robot in the embodiment of FIG. 3, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a layout diagram showing an example of a charging system, and FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of a conventional automatic charging device. 10 mobile robot, 12 connector, 12P, 12N
Connector, 20… Battery, 21P, 21N… Terminal, 30…
… Auto coupler device, 31P, 31N… Connector, 40… Charging device, 41… Charger, 42 …… Voltage detector, 43P, 43N…
… Terminal, 50P, 50N …… Power supply line, 60P, 60N …… Signal line, 70
... work station, 101 ... work robot.

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-62-262660 (JP, A) JP-A-61-240308 (JP, A) JP-A-62-191335 (JP, U) JP-A-62-191336 (JP, A) , U) Jikken 41-2648 (JP, Y1) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H02J 7/00 H01M 10/44 B60L 11/18

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automatic coupler device having a connector which is driven forward and backward relative to a charging connector of a vehicle equipped with a battery and which can be connected to and separated from the charging connector, and charges the connector of the automatic coupler device through a power supply line. An automatic charging device comprising a charging device for supplying power, wherein the charging device is controlled by voltage feedback, wherein the charging device has a signal line extending between the charging device and the automatic coupler device, and the voltage feedback is performed through the signal line. An automatic charging device, characterized in that: 2. The automatic charging device according to claim 1, wherein the voltage fed back through the signal line is a voltage between connectors of the automatic coupler device. 3. The battery-equipped vehicle has a signal connector, the automatic coupler device cooperates with the connector and has a signal connector that can be connected to and detached from the signal connector, and a voltage is applied through a signal line and the two connectors. The automatic charging device according to claim 1, wherein feedback is performed. 4. The automatic charging device according to claim 1, wherein a connector of the automatic coupler device is fixed, and a vehicle-mounted vehicle-side connector connected to and separated from each connector is movable.