JP2000353015A - Method for controlling drive out of empty car in automatic carrier system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for controlling drive out of an empty car in an automatic carrier system to enhance carrier efficiency of the automatic carrier system by reducing waiting time of a carrier when the empty car merges. SOLUTION: The automatic carrier system has plural unmanned carriers 5 to run along a path, a main line 12 on which the path is constituted in the shape of a loop, a branch line 11 which is branched from the main line 12 and joined to the side of the main line 12 again and a station 17 arranged on the side of the branch line 11. In this case, a communication point 13 is arranged on the upstream sides of each branching point 14 of the main line 12 and a drive out instruction to drive out from the branch line 11 to the main line 12 is made to the empty carrier 5 to which no carrier instruction is allocated waiting at the branch line 11 of the next station 17 when destination of the carrier 5 is the next station 17 when the carrier 5 passes the communication point 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic transfer system installed in a clean room or the like of a semiconductor or liquid crystal manufacturing factory, and more particularly, to a method for controlling the empty conveyance of an automatic transfer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a clean room of a semiconductor or liquid crystal manufacturing factory, a loop-shaped travel path connecting a plurality of manufacturing apparatuses or a plurality of automatic warehouses is installed by being supported by a hanging tool from the floor or ceiling. In addition, a plurality of automatic guided vehicles are configured to carry along the traveling route. In the field of manufacturing semiconductors and liquid crystals, there is an increasing demand for transfer equipment to increase the number of transfers per unit time without increasing the area occupied by the equipment in order to reduce the manufacturing cost of semiconductor ICs or liquid crystals. .

When a large number of transfers is required, a branch line having a branch point and a junction is connected to a main line arranged in a loop, and a station is arranged on the branch line side. The transfer of the transferred object is performed. When a battery is installed in the carrier as a control power source or a driving power source, a stop for charging is performed at this station. further,
This station is a standby position for a transport vehicle that has not received a transport instruction.

[0004] By separating the branch line from the main line in this way, it is possible to prevent a transporting vehicle that transfers or stops charging a transported object from hindering the running of a following vehicle, thereby improving transporting efficiency. . When the transport instruction is assigned by the upper controller, the transport vehicle travels to the loading station to perform loading, travels to the unloading station to perform unloading, and completes the transport instruction. Then, the transport vehicle that has completed the transport instruction waits at the unloading station until the next transport instruction is given.

[0005] That is, each station is in a standby position for an empty vehicle in addition to loading, unloading, and charging.
When another transport vehicle having the destination at the station is generated, the transport controller issues a traveling instruction from the station to another available station to the waiting empty vehicle. This is called an ejection instruction. When the empty vehicle receives the ejection instruction from the transport controller, the empty vehicle starts traveling to another station capable of waiting.

[0006]

However, in the above-described conventional empty vehicle ejection control method, there are various timings at which the empty vehicle is ejected. According to this, when the empty vehicle merges with the main road, the empty vehicle travels on the main road. And another vehicle, causing a wait time for one of the vehicles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the problems of the conventional empty vehicle eviction control method, reduces the waiting time of the transport vehicle when the empty vehicles merge, and improves the transport efficiency of the automatic transport system. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling empty vehicle eviction of an automatic transfer system.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an empty-vehicle ejection control system according to the present invention comprises a plurality of automatic guided vehicles traveling along a track, a main line having a track formed in a loop, and In an automatic transport system having a branch line that branches off from the main line and merges the route to the main line side again, and a station arranged on the branch line side, a communication point is arranged upstream of each branch point of the main line, When a transport vehicle passes through a communication point, and the transport vehicle is the destination of the next station, if the transport instruction waiting on the branch line of the next station is not assigned to the empty vehicle, the branch line It is characterized by issuing an eviction instruction so as to appear on the main line from.

According to the empty vehicle eviction control method of the present invention, the empty vehicle waiting at the destination station is evacuated at the timing when the transport vehicle destined for the next station passes through the communication point on the upstream side of the branch point. When the empty vehicle to be expelled merges with the main line, there is no competition with other carriers.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an empty-vehicle ejection control system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partial configuration diagram of an automatic transport system and peripheral devices according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an automatic warehouse for storing articles to be transported, and 2 denotes an entrance and exit port provided in the automatic warehouse 1. is there. The traveling track is provided along a plurality of automatic warehouses 1, and a station 17 for transferring and transferring the transported object 30 is provided on a branch line 1 branched from the main line 12 of the traveling route.
1. And the main line 12 and the branch line 11
A plurality of carriers 5 travel on a traveling track constituted by.
The main line 12 is formed in a loop shape by a combination of a straight track and a curved track, and each automatic guided vehicle 5 can travel only in a single direction.

The automatic warehouse 1 is provided with a loading / unloading port 2, and a transferred object 30 is connected to a storage shelf (not shown) provided in the automatic warehouse 1 via the loading / unloading port 2 and a transport vehicle 5. Transfer between and is performed. The transfer of the transported object 30 between the loading / unloading port 2 and the transport vehicle 5 is performed by a stacker crane (not shown) or a transfer robot (not shown) provided in the automatic warehouse or a transfer robot (not shown) provided in the transport vehicle 5. This is performed by means such as a mounting device.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the transport system that implements the control method of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
A communication point 13 for transmitting and receiving signals between the transport vehicle 5 and the transport controller is arranged. The transport controller is, for example, a transport vehicle 5a whose destination is the next station 17a.
When the passage of the communication point 13 is detected,
If there is an idle vehicle 5b in standby at 7a, an emptying instruction is given to the empty vehicle 5b.

Next, a general transport flow will be described. A transport instruction is given to a transport controller (not shown) from a higher-level computer (not shown) that performs production management and the like so as to transport the transported object 30 from the specific automatic warehouse 1 to the specific automatic warehouse 1. When receiving the transfer instruction from the host computer, the transfer controller selects an available empty vehicle from the group of transfer vehicles and assigns the transfer instruction to the empty vehicle. When there are a plurality of empty vehicles, the transfer controller normally performs control to select an empty vehicle that is located at the shortest distance upstream from the loading station in the traveling direction. Carrier 5
First, when a transport instruction is given, the loading station 1
Drive to 7 However, the loading station 17
When the transfer instruction is given directly in the step (1), the traveling to the loading station 17 is not performed.

After loading the transported object 30, the transport vehicle 5 starts running toward the unloading station 17.
The transport vehicle 5 that has started traveling at the station 17 located on the branch line 11 joins the main line 12 side, and the unloading station 1
7, and after arriving at the unloading station 17, unloading of the transported object 30 is performed, and the transfer is completed. The transport vehicle 5 that has completed the transport, that is, the empty vehicle, waits at the unloading station 17 unless the next instruction is given from the transport controller.

Next, a method of controlling empty vehicle ejection according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, when the transport vehicle 5 a passes through the communication point 13 on the main line 12, a report is made to the transport controller, and when the transport controller receives the report, the empty vehicle eviction control process is started. Upon receiving the passing report, the transport controller specifies the passing vehicle, and in the case of the vehicles 5a and 5c having the transport instruction, confirms the destination of the passing vehicle (step 1). Here, the destination of the passing vehicle is the station 17 which is the next destination of the transport vehicles 5a and 5c.
a and 17b. In the case of the transport vehicle 5c heading to the loading station 17b, the loading station 1
7b, in the case of the transport vehicle 5a transporting the transported object 30,
The unloading station 17a corresponds to the destination of the transport vehicle 5a.

Next, it is determined whether the destination of the carrier 5a is the same as the station 17a next to the communication point 13 (step 2). If they are not the same, the control process ends. If they are the same, proceed to the next step. If it is determined in the above processing that the passing vehicle 5a is the destination of the next station 17a, it is next determined whether there is an empty vehicle 5b waiting at the station 17a corresponding to the destination (step 3). . If there is an empty vehicle 5b waiting at the station 17a corresponding to the destination, the transport controller gives an instruction to eject the empty vehicle 5b, and
To another station 17 (step 4).

As described above, according to the empty vehicle eviction control method of the present embodiment, the transporting vehicle 5a destined for the next station 17a passes through the communication point 13 on the upstream side of the branch point 14 at the target station 17a. Empty car 5b waiting
When the empty vehicle 5b to be expelled merges with the main line 12, there is no occurrence of competition with another transportation vehicle 5.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the structure of the carrier 5 or the track, and the main line 12 and the branch line 1
1 can be applied to a transport system that employs a transport path having the number 1 and 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the guide tape 3 is set on the floor, and a transport system that transports the tape along the guide tape 3, or as shown in FIGS. The present invention can also be applied to a tracked ceiling transfer system that performs branching and merging from the line 12. The automatic transport system shown in FIG. 4 is provided with a horizontal shift mechanism 4a for branching and a horizontal shift mechanism 4b for merging with respect to the branch line 11, and the automatic transport system shown in FIG. This is a configuration in which branching and merging are performed by the shift mechanism 4.

[0020]

According to the empty vehicle eviction control method of the present invention, an empty vehicle waiting at a destination station at a timing at which a transport vehicle receiving a transport instruction passes through a communication point located immediately upstream of the destination station. , It is possible to avoid competition with another transport vehicle when the empty vehicle joins from the branch line side to the main line side, thereby improving the transport efficiency of the automatic transport system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial configuration diagram illustrating an automatic transport system to which an empty vehicle eviction control method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing empty vehicle control of a transport controller according to the empty vehicle eviction control method of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a partial configuration diagram illustrating an example of an automatic transport system to which the empty vehicle eviction control method of the embodiment is applied.

FIG. 4 is a partial configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a partial configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Automatic warehouse 5 Carrier 11 Branch line 12 Main line 13 Communication point 14 Branch point 15 Merging point 17 Station

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of automatic guided vehicles that travel along a track, a main line having a track formed in a loop, a branch line that branches off from the main line, and joins the route to the main line side again, and the branch line side. In the automatic transport system having a station arranged in the, a communication point is arranged on the upstream side of each branch point of the main line, and when the transport vehicle passes through the communication point, the transport vehicle and the next station as the destination In this case, an empty carrier of the automatic transport system is characterized by issuing an ejection instruction to an empty carrier to which a transport instruction waiting on a branch line of the next station is not assigned so as to exit the main line from the branch line. Expulsion control method.