JP2003112808A - Physical distribution control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a physical distribution control system capable of preventing a stop of line by smoothly carrying a processed material without increasing the number of an automated guided vehicle. SOLUTION: This physical distribution control system comprises a carrying demanding means giving a carrying demand from an automated warehouse to a line side or from the line side to the automated warehouse, a carrying demand receiving means receiving the sent carrying demand, a carrying demand storing means storing the received carrying demand, a carrying demand sending means sending a carrying order to the automated guided vehicle by the received carrying demand, an automated guided vehicle controlling means controlling an automated guided vehicle, an inquiring means inquiring a next carrying demand of the automated guided vehicle, an inquiry receiving means receiving the inquiry, a weighting means inputting weight to the demand from the line, a monitoring means monitoring an operating state of each line, and a carrying vehicle assigning means changing a queue of the carrying demand from weighting stored in the storing means and the line operating state from the monitoring means and assigning the carrying vehicle. A next carrying demand is decided from the contents stored in the carrying demand storing means and carrying inquiry from the inquiry receiving means.

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a distribution control system in a system for transferring an object to be processed by an automatic guided vehicle. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an automated production system, when an object to be processed is transported from an unmanned warehouse to a line or from a line to an unmanned warehouse by a cassette using an unmanned carrier,
The line issues a transport request to the distribution control device, and the distribution control device allocates which cassettes are transported from where to where on a first-in first-out basis, so the line stops due to cassettes not arriving, etc. Problem had arisen. To solve this problem, the number of automatic guided vehicles was increased to deal with this problem. [0003] However, increasing the number of automatic guided vehicles not only leads to an increase in capital investment, but also causes a problem such as a reduction in transport efficiency per vehicle. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to prevent a stop of a line by smoothly transferring an object to be processed without increasing the number of automatic guided vehicles. It is an object of the present invention to provide a physical distribution control system capable of performing the above. [0005] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an unmanned warehouse storing an object to be processed and an unmanned transport vehicle transporting the object from the unmanned warehouse to the line side. Or, in a logistics system for transporting an object to be processed by a cassette from a line side to an unmanned warehouse, a transport request unit that issues a transport request from the unmanned warehouse to the line side or a transport request from the line side to the unmanned warehouse, and receives the transmitted transport request. Transport request receiving means, transport request storing means for storing the received transport request, transport request transmitting means for transmitting a transport command to the unmanned transport vehicle based on the received transport request, and automatic guided vehicle control means for controlling the unmanned transport vehicle And an inquiry means for the automatic guided vehicle to inquire about the next transportation instruction, an inquiry receiving means for receiving the inquiry, and inputting a weight for the request from the line. Weighting input means, storage means for storing weights, monitoring means for monitoring the operation status of each line, and a queue of transport requests based on the weights stored in the storage means and the line operation status from the monitoring means. A transport vehicle allocating means for allocating a transport vehicle by changing the transport request is provided, and a next transport command is determined based on the content stored in the transport request storage device and the transport inquiry from the inquiry receiving device. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a physical distribution control system. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a network for exchanging information between lines constituting a production system, and 2 denotes a transport control for performing transport control in the present proposal. Device, 3 is a control device of a line or an unmanned warehouse, 4 is an unmanned transport vehicle, 5 is a transport control device, receiving means for exchanging information with a line controller and an unmanned transport vehicle via a network,
6 is a storage means, 7 is a transport vehicle allocating means, 8 is a transport request transmitting means for transmitting a transport request to the automatic guided vehicle, 9 is a monitoring means for monitoring the operation status of the line, and 10 is a weight for inputting the weight of the transport request. Input means, 11 is a transport request means for making a transport request, 12 is an inquiry means for making an inquiry,
Reference numeral 13 denotes an automatic guided vehicle control unit that controls the automatic guided vehicle. FIG. 2 is a model diagram of the production system.
Reference numeral 0 denotes an unmanned warehouse, reference numeral 21 denotes a manual station for an object to be processed, reference numeral 22 denotes a cleaning line, reference numerals 23, 24, and 25 denote film forming lines, reference numerals 26, 27, and 28 denote photolithography lines, and reference numerals 29 and 3.
Reference numerals 0, 31, and 32 denote color filter lines, 33 denotes a baking line, 34 denotes a bonding line, 40 denotes a traveling line of an automatic guided vehicle, and 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45 denote automatic guided vehicles. FIG. 3 is a network diagram connecting stations, lines, etc. in FIG.
, 34a are controllers of 10, 21, 22,..., 34, respectively. FIG. 4 shows a loader section installed for each line in FIG. 2, 140 is a conveyor, 141 is a robot for putting the processed material from a cassette into the line, 14
Reference numeral 2 denotes an actual cassette in which the objects to be loaded into the line are stored, and 143, an empty cassette after all the objects to be processed have been loaded into the line. When the position (1) is empty, the line controller requests the next cassette,
If there is an empty cassette at the position (3), a request to discharge the empty cassette is issued to the distribution control device. The actual cassette conveyed by the automatic guided vehicle is delivered to the loader at the position (1).
If there is no cassette at the position of the position (2), the line controller
The actual cassette is transferred to the position (2). With the actual cassette transferred to the position 2, the object to be processed in the cassette is put into the line by the robot 141. The cassette in which all the objects to be processed are put into the line by the robot 141 and thus emptied is placed in the position (3) by the line controller if the position of the position (3) is vacant.
Will be transferred to the location. The empty cassette is delivered to the automatic guided vehicle arriving at the line in response to the discharge request at the position (3). FIG. 5 is a view showing an unloader section installed for each line in FIG.
90 is a conveyor, 191 is a robot that stores the object to be processed into a cassette from above the conveyor 190, and 192 is the conveyor 1
Reference numeral 193 denotes a cassette in which the processing objects stored from above are stored, and 193 denotes a full cassette after all the processing objects are stored. The line controller has a position (1)
Is empty, the next empty cassette is requested, and if there is a full cassette at position (3), a full cassette discharge request is issued to the distribution control device. Then, the empty cassette transported by the automatic guided vehicle is moved to position (1).
Is handed over to the unloader side. The transferred empty cassette is transferred to the position (2) by the line controller when there is no cassette at the position (2). In the empty cassette transferred to the position (2), an object to be processed is stored in the cassette from the line by the robot 191. The cassette filled with the object to be processed from the line by the robot 191 is located at the position (3).
Is empty, it is transferred to the position (3) by the line controller. The actual cassette is delivered to the automatic guided vehicle arriving at the line in response to the discharge request at the position (3). In the above configuration, the object to be processed inputted from the line 22 is stored in a cassette by an unloader unit similar to that shown in FIG. When the cassette is full, the cassette is transferred from position (2) to position (3). Here, the controller 12a issues a transport request to the physical distribution control, and is transported to the unmanned warehouse 10 by an unmanned transport vehicle. The cassettes stored in the unmanned warehouse 10 are called from a line controller in accordance with a predetermined process order, and are conveyed to the line by an automatic guided vehicle. The actual cassette called on the line is carried to the loader section of the same line as shown in FIG. 4, and after being transferred to the loader, the object to be processed is put into the line. Then, the input workpiece is subjected to a predetermined process in the line, stored in a cassette of an unloader section, transported to an unmanned warehouse by an unmanned vehicle, and subjected to the predetermined process to be a finished product. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the automatic guided vehicle side. First, in step 1, it is checked whether the automatic guided vehicle is currently running, and if it is running, the flow proceeds to step 2.
If it has stopped, go to step 7. In step 2, it is checked whether the automatic guided vehicle has passed the loader or unloader of the line, and if it has passed, the process proceeds to step 3. Otherwise, return to step 1. In step 3, the identification number and the passing position of the automatic guided vehicle are transmitted. In step 4, it is checked whether a response has been received from the physical distribution control device. In step 5, it is checked whether the response has a change in the To address. If so, the process proceeds to step 6, otherwise returns to step 1. In Step 6, the To address is changed, and thereafter, it moves to a new To address (Step 11). In step 7, it is checked whether the delivery of the cassette from the automatic guided vehicle to the line or the unmanned warehouse or the receipt of the cassette of the automatic guided vehicle is completed. Upon completion, the identification number of the automatic guided vehicle and the stop position are transmitted to the physical distribution control device (step 8). In step 9, it is checked whether a response has been received from the physical distribution control device. In step 10, movement starts according to the received content. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation on the physical distribution control side. First, in step 21, it is checked whether a transport request has been received, and if it has been received, the process proceeds to step 22; In step 22,
The received transport request is written in the storage means, and the process proceeds to step S23. In step 23, it is checked whether the identification number of the automatic guided vehicle and the current position have been received, and if it has been received, the process returns to step 24, otherwise returns to step 21. In step 24, the operation state of the line is obtained from the operation monitoring means, and the flow advances to step 25. In step 25, the order of the transfer requests is switched based on the acquired operating state of the line and the weight of the transfer request. In step 26, it is determined whether or not the top task of the transfer request can be assigned to the transmitted automatic guided vehicle. If it is, the process proceeds to step 27; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 28. In step 27, the top task of the transport request is transmitted to the automatic guided vehicle, and in step 28, no change is transmitted to the automatic guided vehicle. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the data structure of a weighting table in a carrier message input from the weight input means 10 such as a keyboard and stored in the storage means 6 such as a RAM. The data structure shown is From data, T
o data, cassette type, work flag, and weight. In FIG. 8, the first data indicates that the weight of the request to load an empty cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 22 is 1. The second data indicates that the weight of the request to carry out the actual cassette from the line 22 to the unmanned warehouse 20 is one. The third data indicates that the weight of the request to load an empty cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 23 is 2. The fourth data indicates that the weight of the request for loading the actual cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 23 is 3. Here, a request with a large weight has priority. Therefore, weight 1
If a request with a weight of 2 is received after the request, the request with a weight of 2 is processed with priority. Hereinafter, similarly, each weight is stored for the transport request between the respective devices. FIG. 9 shows a storage means 6 for storing a request from the transfer request means in the production line system of the present embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data structure of FIG. This data structure is composed of From data, To data
It has data, cassette type, work flag, and carrier assignment. In FIG. 9, the first data shows a state in which an automatic guided vehicle 41 is allocated to a request for loading an actual cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 24. In addition, the second data indicates that the unmanned carrier 4
The third data indicates a state where the automatic guided vehicle 43 is allocated to the request for discharging the actual cassette from the line 27 to the unmanned warehouse 20. The fourth data indicates , The automatic guided vehicle 4 responds to a request to discharge empty cassettes from the line 32 to the unmanned warehouse 20.
4 indicates a state in which it is assigned. The fifth data represents a state in which the automatic guided vehicle 45 is allocated to a request for loading an actual cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 30. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a data structure of the storage means 6 for storing the state of the automatic guided vehicle in response to a request from the transfer request means in the production line system of the present embodiment. This data structure includes an automatic guided vehicle number, From data, To data, the presence or absence of a cassette, a cassette number, a work flag, a state flag, and position data. In FIG. 10, the first data indicates that the unmanned transport vehicle 41 has received the cassette number 13254 from the unmanned warehouse 20.
Indicates that the operation of transferring the actual cassette to the line 24 is being performed, and the position is past the position 21 and before the position 22. The second data also indicates that the automatic guided vehicle 42 is moving from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 28 to receive an empty cassette, and has passed the position 24 and is located before the position 25. And the third data indicates that the automatic guided vehicle 43 has the cassette number 14
The operation of receiving the actual cassette 112 and passing it to the unmanned warehouse 20 is being performed.
The fourth data indicates that the automatic guided vehicle 434 is in the process of receiving an empty cassette from the line 32 and transferring it to the unmanned warehouse 20 and the
, Indicating that the vehicle is at a position before the position 20. The fifth data is that the automatic guided vehicle 45 is executing the operation of transferring the actual cassette of the cassette number 13114 from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 30, and
, Indicating that the vehicle is at a position before the position 21. Next, this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. From FIG. 10, the automatic guided vehicle 42 is connected to the line 2
At the request of No. 8, the empty cassette is ejected and a transfer request to the unmanned warehouse 20 is received. The automatic guided vehicle arriving at the line 28 receives a cassette from the line according to the work flag (step 7). Next, the automatic guided vehicle 42, which has completed the work,
The next operation is inquired (step 8). At this time, the data structure of the storage means 6 for storing the state of the automatic guided vehicle is changing as shown in FIG. 11, and the state of the automatic guided vehicle is changing as shown in FIG. The transportation vehicle allocating means 7 of the physical distribution control device receiving the inquiry refers to the transportation request data stored in the storage means 6. Assuming that the current data remains as shown in FIG. 9, the automatic transfer instruction is assigned to the automatic guided vehicle 42. The data structure of the storage means 6 for storing the state of the automatic guided vehicle at this time is as shown in FIG. Here, the automatic guided vehicle 42 starts moving toward the unmanned warehouse 20 at the To position. Next, focusing on the automatic guided vehicle 42, steps 1 and 2 are looped, and when the vehicle has passed the position 29, the process proceeds to step 3 according to the judgment of step 2. At this time, the position is obtained by exchanging the line side and the automatic guided vehicle side by the photoelectric sensor to obtain the position. From the state shown in FIG. 9, the request for the line 22, the transfer of the empty cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 22, the request for the line 33, and the transfer of the empty cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 33 have been continued. In this case, due to the weight of the request, the order is switched from the state of FIG. 14 to that shown in FIG. 15 (step 22). Next, assuming that there is a request for the line 34 and a request for loading an empty cassette from the unmanned warehouse 20 to the line 34, the transfer request data stored in the storage means 6 is as shown in FIG.
It changes like Since the automatic guided vehicle 42 has passed the loader section of the line, the automatic guided vehicle 42 transmits the automatic guided vehicle identification number 42 and the current position 29 to the physical distribution control device (step 3). Upon receiving the inquiry (step 23), the transporter allocating means 7 of the distribution control device refers to the transport request data stored in the storage means 6 and the line status from the line monitoring means (step 24), Determine request allocation. First, the transportation vehicle allocating means 7 determines whether the line 2
It is checked whether there is a request for an empty cassette from a line downstream from line 9 and the requests from lines 33 and 34 are set as candidates.
Next, assuming that the status of the line is as shown in FIG. 16, since a trouble has occurred in the line 33, the request generation order is lower, but the request from the line 34 is changed to the top (step 25). Then, a transfer request is transmitted to the automatic guided vehicle 42 (step 28). The automatic guided vehicle 42 receives the reply from the physical distribution control device (step 4), and changes the To address (step 5), so that the To address is changed and the empty cassette is transported to the line 34. Continue moving on. The data structure of the storage means 6 is as shown in FIGS. 18 and 19, respectively. If there is no request to assign, no change is transmitted to the automatic guided vehicle (step 27). As described above, according to the embodiment, it is possible to give a superior difference from the state of the line to the request of the same weight, and it is possible to improve the transport efficiency. As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to smoothly transfer an object to be processed and prevent a line from stopping without increasing the number of automatic guided vehicles. Is obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a physical distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a model diagram of a production line system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a connection diagram of a network of the production line system according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a loader unit of the distribution control system according to the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an unloader unit of the distribution control system according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process of the distribution control system according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process of the distribution control system according to the present invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a data state in a storage unit of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a data state in a storage unit of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 12 is a model diagram of a production line system according to the present invention. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a data state in a storage unit of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a data state in storage means of the distribution control system according to the present embodiment. [Description of Signs] 1 Network 2 Transport control device 3 Control device 4 Unmanned transport vehicle 5 Receiving means 6 Storage means 7 Transport vehicle allocating means 8 Transport request transmitting means 9 Monitoring means 10 Weight input means 11 Transport request means 12 Inquiry means 13 Unmanned Car carrier control means 20 Unmanned warehouse 21 Manual station

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Claims (1)

Claims: 1. An unmanned warehouse storing an object to be processed, and a cassette transporting the object to be processed from an unmanned warehouse to a line side by an unmanned transport vehicle or a cassette from the line side to an unmanned warehouse. In a logistics system that transports by means of, a transport request unit that issues a transport request from an unmanned warehouse to a line or a transport request from a line to an unmanned warehouse, a transport request receiving unit that receives a transmitted transport request, and stores the received transport request. Transfer request storage means, a transfer request transmitting means for transmitting a transfer command to the automatic guided vehicle according to the received transfer request, an automatic guided vehicle control means for controlling the automatic guided vehicle, and the automatic guided vehicle inquiring about the next transfer command. Inquiry means, inquiry receiving means for receiving the inquiry, weight input means for inputting a weight for a request from the line, and storing the weight Storage means, monitoring means for monitoring the operation status of each line, and transfer vehicle assignment for allocating the transfer vehicle by changing the queue of the transfer request from the weight stored in the storage means and the line operation status from the monitoring means Means for determining a next transfer command from the contents stored in the transfer request storage means and a transfer inquiry from the inquiry receiving means.