JP2000355402A - Control device and method for automatic guided vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To extend a travel distance without excessively enlarging a capacity of a battery. SOLUTION: An engine 14 driving a generator 15 for charging a battery 9 is mounted on this automatic guided vehicle and whether the vehicle itself is inside or outside a building is detected by a position detecting part 11 and a microcomputer 6 provided on the automatic guided vehicle. When the automatic guided vehicle is detected to be inside a building, only a motor 8 is driven, and when the automatic guided vehicle is detected to be outside a building, the engine 14 is also driven.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention drives a motor driven by a battery as a power source on the basis of entry / exit data indicating the location of an entry / exit destination of luggage in a building stored in a data storage unit. The present invention relates to a control device and a control method for an automatic guided vehicle that automatically moves along a path of a vehicle to enter and leave luggage.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when controlling an automatic guided vehicle that automatically performs loading and unloading of luggage in a building, it is necessary to previously store luggage in the building in a data storage unit including a memory provided in the automatic guided vehicle or a controller. Entry and exit data indicating the location of the exit destination is stored, and the entry / exit data is captured by the control microcomputer of the automatic guided vehicle,
The vehicle is driven by driving a motor, which is a power source of the automatic guided vehicle, to a predetermined entry / exit position based on the acquired entry / exit data, so as to enter / exit the load.

In this type of conventional automatic guided vehicle, a battery is mounted to drive a motor, and the battery is charged in a predetermined charging station, so that the battery needs to be charged. Sometimes, the automatic guided vehicle is driven to a charging station, and the battery is charged by a charger mounted on the automatic guided vehicle.

[0004] By the way, the charging station is usually provided in a place away from the building where the automatic guided vehicle enters and exits. Frequent traveling to the charging station for charging leads to wasteful power consumption, which is not preferable. In order to extend the traveling distance as much as possible, the capacity of the battery is increased.

[0005]

However, if the battery capacity is increased in order to increase the running distance, the battery charger is inevitably increased, and the battery equipment including the battery charger becomes very expensive and large. There's a problem.

An object of the present invention is to extend the traveling distance without increasing the capacity of a battery.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a control apparatus for an automatic guided vehicle according to the present invention includes a motor driven by a battery as a power source, and a building stored in a data storage unit. Based on the entry / exit data representing the location of the entry / exit destination of the luggage, the control device of the automatic guided vehicle that automatically travels along a predetermined path by driving the motor to enter / exit the luggage is provided in the automatic guided vehicle. An engine, a generator that operates by driving the engine to charge the battery, detection means for detecting whether the automatic guided vehicle is inside or outside a building, and the automatic guided vehicle by the detection means. Control means for driving only the motor when it is detected that the vehicle is inside the building, and for driving and controlling the engine when it is detected that the automatic guided vehicle is outside the building. It is characterized in that.

According to such a configuration, the detection means detects whether the automatic guided vehicle is inside or outside the building,
Based on the detection result, the motor or the engine is appropriately driven and controlled by the control means.

Therefore, particularly when the automatic guided vehicle is outside the building, the generator is driven by driving the engine, and the battery is charged by the power generated by the generator in parallel with the traveling by the motor. By appropriately charging the battery with the generator, it is possible to extend the traveling distance without increasing the battery capacity as in the related art.

Also, since the engine is dedicated to driving the generator, unlike the motive power, it does not require a very large output.
Only small ones are needed.

Further, in the automatic guided vehicle control device according to the present invention, the detecting means is mounted on the automatic guided vehicle and detects a current position of the own vehicle, and is detected by the position detecting unit. And a judgment unit for judging whether the own vehicle is inside or outside the building from the current position.

With this configuration, it is possible to easily and reliably determine whether the automatic guided vehicle is located inside or outside the building based on the current position detected by the position detecting unit.

Further, according to the automatic guided vehicle control method of the present invention, a motor driven by a battery as a power source is provided based on entry / exit data indicating a location of an entry / exit destination of luggage in a building stored in a data storage unit. A vehicle that automatically drives a predetermined route to enter and leave a luggage by carrying out a predetermined route, wherein the automatic guided vehicle includes an engine that drives a generator for charging the battery, Detecting whether the vehicle is inside or outside the building, driving only the motor when detecting that the automatic guided vehicle is inside the building, and detecting detecting that the automatic guided vehicle is outside the building The engine is also driven.

In this case, the detection means detects whether the automatic guided vehicle is inside or outside the building, and the control means appropriately controls the driving of the motor or the engine based on the detection result. In this case, the battery is charged by operating the generator by driving the engine, and by appropriately charging the battery with the generator, it is possible to extend the mileage without increasing the battery capacity too much. Become.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the entire configuration, and FIG. 2 is a partial block diagram.

As shown in FIG. 1, an automatic guided vehicle 1 automatically travels in a building 2 to enter and exit luggage at a predetermined entrance / exit position. When an engine is used as a power source, the exhaust gas is generated. Since the inside of the building 2 is filled and the working environment is deteriorated, the building 2 is usually powered by a motor having no exhaust gas as a power source.
It is designed to run inside.

As shown in FIG. 2, in order to automatically carry in and out of the luggage, the luggage of the luggage in the building 2 is stored in a data storage unit 5 such as a nonvolatile memory mounted on the automatic guided vehicle 1 in advance. Entry / exit data indicating the position of the entry / exit destination is stored, and necessary entry / exit data is read out from the data storage unit 5 by the control microcomputer (hereinafter, referred to as a microcomputer) 6 of the automatic guided vehicle 1 and read out. The motor control unit 7 is controlled by the microcomputer 6 to move to the loading / unloading position based on the data, and the motor 8 as a power source is driven. The motor 8 is powered by a battery 9.

At this time, the entry / exit data is stored in the form of a table in the form of a table in which the positions of entry / exit spaces provided at various places in the building 2 and individual package data such as code numbers pre-assigned to packages to be entered / exited. 5 is preferably stored. It should be noted that the entry / exit data is not limited to this.

The automatic guided vehicle 1 is provided with a position detecting section 11 so that the automatic guided vehicle 1 can detect the current position of the own vehicle. The microcomputer 6 determines where in the building 2 the vehicle has traveled and has arrived at a position at which luggage to be loaded and unloaded has to be loaded and unloaded. This microcomputer 6
Is equivalent to a determination unit, and the position detection unit 11 and the microcomputer 6 as the determination unit constitute a detection unit.

Here, the position detecting section 11 can be constituted by sensors for detecting a plurality of detected objects provided at a plurality of positions along the traveling route of the automatic guided vehicle 1, for example. Since the installation position is known in advance, the current position of the own vehicle can be known based on which detected object is detected by the sensor. Needless to say, the position detector 11 is not limited to this.

Also, the microcomputer 6 determines whether the vehicle is inside or outside the building 2 from the current position detected by the position detecting means 11, and determines that the vehicle is inside the building 2. When it is determined, the motor control unit 7 is controlled as described above, and the motor 8 is driven.

On the other hand, when the object to be detected as described above is not detected by the position detecting section 11, the own vehicle is determined to be outside the building 2, and thus the own vehicle is determined to be outside the building 2. Then, the engine control unit 13 is controlled to drive the engine 14 in addition to the motor 8, the generator 15 is operated by the driving of the engine 14, and the battery 9 is charged by the power generated by the generator 15 via the charging circuit 16. The current is supplied, and the battery 9 is charged in parallel with the traveling by the motor 8. Here, the drive control processing of the motor 8 and the engine 14 by the microcomputer 6 corresponds to control means.

At this time, if an object to be detected is also provided at the entrance of the building 2, the sensor detects this, and the automatic guided vehicle 1 exits the building 2, or the automatic guided vehicle 1 moves to the building 2. It can be easily detected that the vehicle has entered the inside.

Incidentally, the charging of the battery 9 is also performed by the power generated by the generator 15 as described above, but it is basically performed in a charging station installed outside the building 2 as in the prior art. At the time of charging, the battery 9 is charged via the charging circuit 16.

As described above, whether the automatic guided vehicle 1 is inside or outside the building 2 is detected, and the motor 8 or the engine 14 is appropriately controlled based on the detection result, and the automatic guided vehicle 1 is moved outside the building 2. , The engine 14 is driven in addition to the motor 8, and the generator 14 is driven by the driving of the engine 14.
5 is operated, and the battery 9 is
Is charged.

Therefore, according to the above-described embodiment, when the automatic guided vehicle 1 is outside the building 2, the engine 14 is also driven and the battery 9 is charged by the generator 15, so that the battery capacity is not increased. It is also possible to extend the traveling distance, and the battery 9 and the charging circuit 16 can be inexpensive and small in size as compared with the related art.

Further, since the engine 14 is dedicated to driving the generator 15, unlike the power engine, it does not require a very large output, and can be small.

Further, since the engine 14 is dedicated to driving the generator 15, there is no need for a switching means for switching the power transmission path between the motor 8 and the engine 14, unlike the case where the engine 14 is used as a power source. Simplification can be achieved.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the detecting means for detecting whether the own vehicle is inside or outside the building is constituted by the position detecting section 11 and the microcomputer 6 is described. A notification means provided near the entrance of the building 2 for notifying the inside and outside boundaries of the building 2 to the automatic guided vehicle 1, and receiving the notification of the notification means, the vehicle moves outside the boundary of the building 2 And a determination means for determining whether or not the vehicle has come out.

Further, a transmitter for transmitting a radio signal which can be transmitted and received only in the building 2 is provided in the building 2, and a receiver for receiving a signal from the transmitter is provided in the automatic guided vehicle 1. It is a matter of course that the detecting means may be constituted by the detector and the receiver. In this way, while the signal is being received from the transmitter by the receiver, it can be determined that the automatic guided vehicle 1 is inside the building 2, and when no signal is received, it is determined that the automatic guided vehicle 1 is outside the building 2. be able to.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the data storage unit 5 is provided in the automatic guided vehicle 1 to control the entry / exit of the vehicle is described. However, the data storage unit 5 is provided outside the automatic guided vehicle 1, Necessary entry / exit data may be provided to the transport vehicle 1 by communication.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various changes other than those described above can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0033]

As described above, according to the first and third aspects of the invention, when the automatic guided vehicle is outside the building, the engine is driven in addition to the motor, whereby the generator is operated and the battery is operated. Is charged, the battery is appropriately charged by the generator, so that the traveling distance can be extended without increasing the battery capacity, and an automatic guided vehicle with excellent functions can be provided.

Also, since the engine is dedicated to driving the generator, unlike the motive power, it does not require a very large output.
A small-sized unmanned carrier having a small and inexpensive configuration can be realized in combination with the downsizing of the battery.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to easily and reliably determine whether the automatic guided vehicle is inside or outside the building based on the current position detected by the position detecting unit. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Unmanned guided vehicle 2 Building 5 Data storage part 6 Microcomputer (control means, judgment part, detection means) 8 Motor 9 Battery 11 Position detection part (detection means) 14 Engine 15 Generator

Claims (3)

[Claims] A motor driven by a battery as a power source is provided, and a predetermined route is driven by the motor based on entry / exit data indicating a position of an entry / exit destination of luggage in a building stored in a data storage unit. An automatic guided vehicle control device that automatically travels to enter and exit a luggage, comprising: an engine provided in the automatic guided vehicle; a generator that operates by driving the engine to charge the battery; Detecting means for detecting whether the vehicle is inside or outside the building, and when the automatic guided vehicle is detected by the detecting means to be inside the building, only the motor is driven to drive the automatic guided vehicle outside the building. A control unit for controlling the driving of the engine when it is detected that there is a vehicle. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit is mounted on the automatic guided vehicle and detects a current position of the vehicle. The vehicle is located in the building based on a current position detected by the position detection unit. The control device for an automatic guided vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a determination unit configured to determine whether the vehicle is outside. 3. A motor driven by a battery as a power source is driven based on entry / exit data indicating a location of entry / exit of luggage in a building stored in a data storage unit to automatically travel on a predetermined route. A method of controlling an automatic guided vehicle that carries out loading and unloading of luggage, wherein an engine that drives a generator for charging the battery is mounted on the automatic guided vehicle, and whether the automatic guided vehicle is inside or outside a building is determined. Detecting, driving only the motor when detecting that the automatic guided vehicle is inside the building, and also driving the engine when detecting that the automatic guided vehicle is outside the building. Control method of automatic guided vehicle.