JP2001130711A - Conveying system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the efficiency of conveyance and to enable determination whether the waiting is required or not even with an unmanned carrier vehicle. SOLUTION: A predicted time until a next article is delivered to a station 12, or an estimation are given to an unmanned carrier vehicle 18. Accordingly, the unmanned carrier vehicle 18 carries the next article in accordance with the predicted time or the estimation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transport system and, more particularly, to determination of whether or not a truck waits at a station or the like after waiting for the next article.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an article is carried out from an automatic warehouse or a station of a processing apparatus to a bogie such as an unmanned carrier or a tracked bogie, one article is conventionally based on a transport command from a host CPU (control processing unit) or the like. The goods were being carried out one by one. By the way, some carts can transport a plurality of articles at the same time, and it is useless to transport one article at a time.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A basic object of the present invention is to facilitate the simultaneous transfer of a plurality of articles and to improve the transfer efficiency. An additional object of the invention according to claims 2 and 3 is to make it possible to rationally determine whether to wait for the next article.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a transfer system for transferring and transferring articles from a station to a carriage having a plurality of articles transfer capability. Means are provided for obtaining data relating to the prospect of the arrival of the next article, and means for determining whether or not the cart waits for the next article based on the obtained data. The judgment means is the upper C
It may be provided in a PU or a station, but is preferably provided in a cart.

Preferably, the data includes data relating to the urgency of the first article and the predicted arrival of the next article, and the judging means determines whether the urgency of the first article and the arrival of the next article are present. With reference to the prediction, it is determined whether to wait for the next article.

[0006] Preferably, the data is obtained by tracking the state of transport of the next article to the station.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, whether or not to wait is determined on the basis of the prospect that the next article will arrive at the station. And transport efficiency is improved.

[0008] In the invention of claim 2, whether to wait for the next article is further determined by referring to at least two factors of the urgency of transport of the current article and the prediction until the next article arrives. Because you can make a judgment, you can make a reasonable judgment. Further, it is possible to reduce the need for delaying the transfer of an urgent article and waiting for the next article, or to avoid waiting for the next article that arrives immediately due to the non-emergency article, thereby further improving the transfer efficiency.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the state of transport of the next article to the station is tracked and obtained, so that the arrival time of the next article can be known accurately. Therefore, it is possible to determine whether to wait for the next article very accurately, and the transport efficiency is further improved.

[0010]

1 and 2 show a first embodiment. In FIG. 1, 2 is an automatic warehouse, 4 and 6 are shelves, and 8 is a stacker crane for transportation in the warehouse. Reference numeral 10 denotes a storage station, reference numeral 12 denotes a storage station, and reference numeral 14 denotes a presence sensor for detecting whether or not an article is present at the station. The stations 10 and 12 may be stations for the space of one article 16 or a station for both entry and exit, but here, a space capable of supporting a plurality of articles is provided.
It is a loading / unloading separation station for transporting to and from the transfer position. Instead of the automatic warehouse 2, a semiconductor processing device, a machining device, or the like may be used.

Reference numeral 18 denotes an unmanned guided vehicle that runs on land and is trackless.
Tracked trucks such as overhead traveling and floor traveling may be used. The unmanned carrier 18 has a transfer device 20 and a temporary placing table 22 for a plurality of articles.
Is provided so that a plurality of articles can be transported at the same time. Reference numeral 24 denotes a higher-level CPU that manages the entire transport system, transmits a transport command to the automatic guided vehicle 18, transmits an entry / exit command to the automatic warehouse 2, and receives a report on the progress of the transport command to check the transport status. Track.

The upper CPU 24 transmits data (From data) indicating a source (for example, the station 12) from which a conveyed article is carried out when transmitting a convey command to the automatic guided vehicle 18.
And data indicating the destination (To data), the I of the article 16
In addition to the data D, data representing a margin time related to the transportation of the article and data representing an estimated time until the next article is carried out to the same station 12 are transmitted. The margin time may be any data that indicates the urgency of transporting the article, and the estimated time may be one that indicates the degree of the estimated time until the next article arrives at the station 12. Whether or not to wait for the next article may be determined by the upper CPU 24 and instructed to the automatic guided vehicle 18, but it is necessary to determine whether or not there is room for mounting the next article on the automatic guided vehicle 18. Something,
The judgment is made by the automatic guided vehicle 18 in view of the robustness of the entire system.

Whether or not to wait for the next article is determined by comparing the spare time with the predicted time, for example, spare time ≧
Wait for the next item at predicted time, spare time <predicted time
And start without waiting. In this way, the determination as to whether to wait for the next item is reduced to the conflict between the urgency of transporting the current item and the estimated time until the next item arrives. This can be performed by the automatic guided vehicle 18.

FIG. 2 shows an algorithm for judging whether or not to wait for the next article. The transfer command from the upper CPU 24 is, as shown on the right side of FIG.
It is composed of an article ID, a margin time, and a predicted time. Then, the automatic guided vehicle 18 compares the margin time with the predicted time to determine whether to wait for the next article.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a second embodiment. Figure 1
In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the more important one is selected as the conflict between the urgency of the current article transportation and the waiting for the next article. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the time until the next article arrives at the station 12 is obtained based on the state of conveyance of the next article in the automatic warehouse 2 or the conveyance command. This is to track the transport status of the next article. In this way, the time until the arrival of the next article is accurately obtained so that a proper judgment can be made. Here, the determination as to whether or not to wait for the next article is made by the automatic guided vehicle 18, but may be made by the host CPU 24 or the like.

In FIG. 3, reference numerals 25 and 26 denote presence sensors added to the stations 10 and 12. In the case of the unloading station 10, it is determined from the presence sensor 26 that the next article has arrived at the station. The interface 28 on the warehouse side and the interface 3 on the automatic guided vehicle side
During the interlock process at 0, the next article is notified to the station 12, and the automatic guided vehicle 18 determines whether to wait for the next article based on this.

FIG. 4 shows a control system. Reference numeral 32 denotes an automatic guided vehicle control unit, reference numeral 34 denotes an automatic warehouse control unit, and whether or not to wait for the next article is determined by the automatic guided vehicle control unit 32. Although the signal of the presence sensor 16 is used here, the automatic warehouse control unit 34 tracks the transportation status of the next article, transmits this data to the interface 28, and transmits it to the automatic guided vehicle control unit 32. Is also good.

Although two embodiments are shown here, they can be used in combination. For example, the upper CPU 24 transmits a transfer command including a margin time, receives a signal of the presence sensor 26 from the interface 30, and controls the automatic guided vehicle controller 32.
Then, it may be determined whether to wait for the next article. Further, it is the temporary placing table 22 that determines whether or not the waiting is necessary in the automatic guided vehicle 18.
In order to take into account the availability of the unmanned transport vehicle 18 such as whether there is enough room, whether it has not been assigned to another transport command, etc., the unmanned transport vehicle 18 continues transport even if communication failure or other events occur. This is to prevent inconsistency in the data in the automatic guided vehicle 18.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating standby of an automatic guided vehicle in a transport system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating transmission of a transfer command and determination of standby according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing communication between a station and an automatic guided vehicle in a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a control system for standby determination in a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Automatic Warehouse 4,6 Shelf 8 Stacker Crane 10 Entry Station 12 Departure Station 14 Attendance Sensor 16 Article 18 Unmanned Transport Vehicle 20 Transfer Device 22 Temporary Placement Table 24 Upper CPU 25,26 Attendance Sensor 28,30 Interface 32 Unattended Transportation Car control unit 34 Automatic warehouse control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A system in which articles are transferred from a station to a carriage having a carrying ability for a plurality of articles and conveyed, wherein the next article arrives at a station for transferring the first article to the carriage. A transport system comprising: means for obtaining data relating to the prospect of the vehicle; and means for determining whether or not the cart waits for the next article based on the obtained data. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data includes data on the urgency of the first article and the predicted arrival of the next article. 2. The transport system according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not to wait for the next article by referring to. 3. The transport system according to claim 1, wherein said data is obtained by tracking a transport status of a next article to said station.