JP2003136930A - Method and device for horizontally controlling vehicle body of carrying truck - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a device for horizontally controlling a vehicle body of a carrying truck in which the vehicle body of the carrying truck can be horizontally controlled without causing any delay according to the inclination of a traveling path even in a case of the horizontal control without using any inclination sensor strong against the vibration or any actuator of high response frequency and large output. SOLUTION: In the method for horizontally controlling the vehicle body of the carrying truck having the actuator for controlling the attitude of the vehicle body, the inclination data at the forward movement position after the elapse of time required for the response of the actuator is read from the topographic information in a traveling path of the carrying truck. The drive of the actuator required for the horizontal control is calculated based on the inclination data, and the control and the drive of the actuator are started based on the calculated drive.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for horizontally controlling a vehicle body of a carrier having an actuator for controlling the attitude of the vehicle body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a carriage that is loaded with luggage and travels along a sloped or inclined route, it is necessary to keep the vehicle body horizontal in order to prevent the luggage from falling. In such a case, horizontal control of the vehicle body is performed by mounting an inclination sensor on the vehicle body and controlling an actuator such as a hydraulic cylinder provided on a drive unit or a cargo bed according to the inclination by feedback control (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. HEI11-95). 2001
-47834).

[0003]

In the above feedback control, the time from the tilt sensor detecting the tilt to the completion of the operation of the actuator must be short in order to accurately respond to the tilt. This requires highly responsive tilt sensors and actuators. Therefore, an acceleration sensor is used as a highly responsive inclination sensor. However, the acceleration sensor is easily affected by the vibration during traveling caused by a slight change in the road surface, and the measurement signal of the acceleration sensor which is not affected by the vibration is low-passed. Since it passes a filter, the response becomes low. In addition, when using a highly responsive hydraulic cylinder for the actuator to further improve responsiveness,
It is sufficient to reduce the cylinder diameter, but if the cylinder diameter is reduced, the output will decrease. In order to satisfy both the requirements of high responsiveness and high output, it is necessary to increase the oil flow rate, and the size of the hydraulic system generally increases, making it difficult to fit in the specified size. Become. As described above, the requirements for the tilt sensor and the actuator are in conflict with each other, and it is not easy to solve them.

The object of the present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and in horizontal control of a vehicle body of a carrier, an inclination sensor having high response and strong against vibration, and an actuator having high response and large output. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle body leveling control method and device for a transporting vehicle capable of performing horizontal control without causing a delay depending on the inclination of a route even in the case of horizontal control not using the.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a method of horizontally controlling a vehicle body of a carrier according to the present invention is a method of horizontally controlling a vehicle body of a carrier vehicle, which comprises an actuator for controlling a posture of the vehicle body. From the terrain information in the travel route of the carrier vehicle, the inclination data of the forward movement position after the time required for the response of the actuator is read, and the drive amount of the actuator required for horizontal control is calculated based on the inclination data, Based on the calculated drive amount, the control drive of the actuator is started to perform horizontal predictive control of the vehicle body at each moving position of the transport carriage.

Further, a vehicle body leveling control device for a carrier vehicle according to the present invention is a vehicle body leveling device for a carrier vehicle equipped with an actuator for controlling a posture of a vehicle body, and travel data measurement for detecting a traveling state of the carrier vehicle. Means, information storage means for storing topographical information of a traveling road surface on which the carriage is traveling, and arithmetic means for reading inclination data from the information storage means as topographical information, the arithmetic means comprising the traveling data measuring means. Based on the traveling state data, the forward tilt data is read for a time required for the actuator to respond, the driving amount of the actuator required for horizontal control is calculated based on the tilt data, and the transport carriage is calculated based on the calculated driving amount. A configuration including control means for controlling the actuator so as to perform horizontal prediction control of the vehicle body at each moving position of It was. The carrier vehicle may include a tilt sensor, and the tilt data may be corrected based on a horizontal error of the vehicle body measured by the tilt sensor.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing the basic configuration of a first carrier truck according to the present embodiment. Figure 1
As shown in FIG. 1, the carrier 10 has a configuration in which each part is attached to the chassis 12. An axle 20 is passed through the chassis 12 so as to project from the side of the chassis 12. The axle 20 is connected to the differential gear 18, and by driving the differential gear 18 with power from a drive source (not shown),
The axle 20 is rotated, and the tires 22 attached to both ends of the axle 20 are driven to travel. A loading platform 14 is rotatably supported on the chassis 12 via a ball bearing 16. A hydraulic cylinder 34, which is an actuator, is attached between the chassis 12 and the cargo bed 14 by connecting one end thereof to a support portion 32 provided on the chassis 12 and the cargo bed 14, respectively.
By expanding and contracting, the inclination of the vehicle body is adjusted. Further, the vehicle has a speed sensor 24 and a steering angle sensor 2
6. An inclination sensor 28 is provided so that the traveling speed and the steering angle of the transport vehicle 10 and the inclination of the vehicle body can be detected.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the basic structure of a second carrier truck according to this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a bottom view schematically showing the steering operation of the carrier truck, and FIG. 4 is its horizontal control operation. It is the front view which represented typically.

The transport vehicle 11 is provided with independent wheel units 15 at four corners of the loading platform 14. Wheel unit 15
Has a block 17 for fixing it to the luggage carrier 14, and is rotated about a vertical axis by a steering motor 19 attached to the bottom surface of the block 17 to rotate each wheel unit 15 as shown in FIG. Is carried out independently, and the carriage 11 is steered. The wheel unit 15 at the front or rear of the carriage is set as the drive side so that the vehicle can travel by itself.

The wheel unit 15 has a structure in which the traveling drive unit 31 is supported by a link mechanism 33. The traveling drive unit 31 has a configuration in which tires 22 are attached to both ends of an axle 23 provided with a differential gear 18. The differential gear 18 is connected to the traveling motor 25, and by driving the traveling motor 25, power is transmitted to the axle 23, the tire 22 is rotationally driven, and the carrier vehicle 11 is caused to travel. The link mechanism 33 includes a dogleg-shaped arm 27 attached to the center of the bottom of the block 17,
One end of the dogleg-shaped arm 27 is rotatably attached to the lower end, and the other end of the doglegged arm 27 through which the axle 23 is inserted and the upper side of the dogleg-shaped arm 27. One end of the hydraulic cylinder 34 is attached to the central part of the connecting arm 29, and the other end of the hydraulic cylinder 34 is connected to the central part of the connecting arm 29. In such a configuration, the hydraulic cylinder 34 included in each wheel unit 15 is expanded / contracted to rotate the connecting arm 29 with the connecting portion of the dogleg shaped arm 27 and the connecting arm 29 as a fulcrum, and the tire 2
By changing the distance between 2 and the bed 14, the bed 14 is inclined as shown in FIG.

Further, in the vehicle, like the first carrier truck,
A speed sensor 24, a rudder angle sensor 26, and an inclination sensor 28 are attached, and the traveling speed and the rudder angle of the carriage 11 and the inclination of the vehicle body can be detected.

The carrier vehicles 10, 1 configured as described above.
1 will be described as an example of the case where the vehicle 1 is run along a specific route as shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, the magnetic plate 38 installed along the reference line 36 on the floor or the like is used to convey the carriage 10.
By traveling while being detected by a magnetic sensor (not shown) mounted on the vehicle 11, the vehicle can travel along the reference line 36. Further, on the reference line 36, ID tags 39 having absolute position information within the driving site are installed at intervals, and absolute position detection means 50 for reading address information from the ID tags 39 is provided on the carrier vehicles 10 and 11. By installing it, the absolute traveling position can be detected. At this time, if there are slopes or slopes in the routes on which the transport vehicles 10 and 11 travel, it is necessary to keep the bodies of the transport vehicles 10 and 11 horizontal in order to prevent the load loaded on the loading platform 14 from falling. In the horizontal control in such a case, the inclination of the carrier 14 is conventionally detected by the inclination sensor 28 mounted on the carriages 10 and 11, and the hydraulic cylinder 34 required to maintain the horizontal position is detected based on the measured inclination. A method is used in which the amount of movement is calculated and the vehicle body is kept horizontal by controlling according to the calculation result.

In the vehicle body leveling control device for a carrier vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the vehicle body leveling control is performed by the configuration described below. The vehicle body horizontal control device for a carrier truck according to the present embodiment reads in advance the inclination data of the forward route for the time required for the response of the hydraulic cylinder 34, and controls the hydraulic cylinder 34 based on this, thereby controlling the carrier truck. The horizontal prediction control of the vehicle body at each of the moving positions 10 and 11 is performed to realize the leveling of the vehicle body at the time of approaching the sloping stroke. The configuration for this horizontal control is, as shown in the block diagram of FIG.
The traveling state monitoring unit 40 that monitors the traveling state of No. 1, the information storage device 44 that stores the map data 42 having the inclination data of the traveling route, the traveling state monitoring unit 40, and the map data 42. The hydraulic cylinder stroke amount calculation unit 46 (hereinafter, referred to as a stroke amount calculation unit) that obtains the traveling state and the inclination data of the traveling route and calculates the stroke amount of the hydraulic cylinder 34 required for horizontal control of the vehicle body. The hydraulic cylinder control unit 48 is a control unit that controls the hydraulic cylinder 34 based on the stroke amount calculated by the stroke amount calculation unit 46.

The traveling state monitoring unit 40 is connected to various sensors such as the absolute position detecting means 50, the speed sensor 24, and the steering angle sensor 26, and monitors the traveling position, traveling speed, and traveling direction of the carriages 10, 11. ing. As a result, it is possible to provide the stroke amount calculation unit 46 with data for specifying the position of the carriages 10 and 11 and the point where the tilt data needs to be read.

The information storage device 44 is a map data 4 having topographical information including height difference information (tilt data) of the traveling route.
I remember 2. From this map data 42, it is possible to read in advance the inclination data of the point where the horizontal prediction control is performed. In this embodiment, as described above, the carriage 1
Since 0 and 11 travel on a preset specific route shown in FIG. 5, the map data 42 need only be in the range of the traveling route.

The stroke amount calculation unit 46 acquires the traveling speed data from the traveling state monitoring unit 40 and calculates the traveling distance in the time required for the response of the hydraulic cylinder 34. From the calculated distance and the traveling position and traveling direction at that time obtained from the traveling state monitoring unit 40, the point for which the horizontal prediction control is performed is specified, and the inclination data at that point is stored in the information storage device 44.
Read from. Based on the read inclination data, the stroke amount of the hydraulic cylinder 34 required for horizontal control is calculated,
A signal is output to the hydraulic cylinder control unit 48 so as to control the hydraulic cylinder 34 according to the calculated stroke amount.

The hydraulic cylinder control unit 48 controls the flow rate of oil in the hydraulic cylinder based on the output signal from the stroke amount calculation unit 46 to adjust the stroke amount. As a result, horizontal control can be achieved at the same time as approaching an inclined stroke.

The map data 42 is used for the carriage 1.
The tilt sensor 28 mounted on each of 0 and 11 detects a horizontal error, and the existing data is corrected based on the correction amount calculated by the map correction amount calculation unit 52. As a result, even if the inclination of the route changes due to aging or the like, it is possible to deal with it without manually correcting the data.

Next, FIG. 7 shows an actual horizontal control procedure.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step 100, the carrier vehicles 10 and 11 start traveling along the reference line 36. Regarding the traveling state of the transporting carriages 10 and 11 during traveling, the traveling position, traveling speed and traveling direction are detected by the absolute position detecting means 50, the speed sensor 24 and the steering angle sensor 26,
It is monitored by the traveling state monitoring unit 40. Step 101
In the stroke amount calculation unit 46, the hydraulic cylinder 34
The traveling distance is calculated by acquiring traveling speed data from the traveling state monitoring unit 40 in the time required for the response. From the distance calculated here and the traveling position and traveling direction obtained from the traveling condition monitoring unit 40, in step 102, a point in front of the hydraulic cylinder 34 is identified by a time required for the response of the hydraulic cylinder 34. Next, in step 103, the inclination data of the specified point is acquired from the map data 42. In the process of step 104, when the acquired point has no inclination, the process returns to step 101 to continue the process. If there is inclination, in step 105, the stroke amount calculation unit 46 calculates the stroke amount of the hydraulic cylinder 34 required for horizontal control. Then, in step 106, the hydraulic cylinder 34 is controlled via the hydraulic cylinder control unit 48 based on the calculated stroke amount to perform horizontal control of the vehicle body. By repeating the above procedure, the leveling of the traveling carriages 10 and 11 can be realized without delay according to the inclination of the route.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a vehicle body horizontal control device for a carrier vehicle according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the transport carriage 54 travels on the road 56, and includes a hydraulic cylinder as an actuator for posture. In addition, a GPS (Global PositioningS) is used as a travel data measuring unit for measuring a travel position.
system) and monitors the running state by various sensors such as speed sensor and steering angle sensor,
It is possible to acquire the height difference data of the traveling route from the map data provided in the GPS. Conveyor vehicle 5 traveling on the road 56
4 reads height difference data of a front point from the GPS map data for the time required for the response of the hydraulic cylinder based on the traveling data measured by various sensors, and at the same time reaches the point based on the height difference data. The hydraulic cylinders are controlled so that horizontal control of the vehicle body is performed.
With such a configuration, the present invention can be applied not only when the transport vehicle travels on a specific travel route but also when it travels on an arbitrary road.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the horizontal control of the vehicle body of the transporting vehicle while traveling, even if the horizontal control using the actuator having a large dead time and a response delay, It is possible to perform horizontal control of the vehicle body without causing a delay depending on the inclination of the vehicle.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a first carrier truck according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a second carrier truck according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view schematically showing the steering operation in the second carrier truck according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view schematically showing a horizontal control operation in the second carrier truck according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration in which a carrier vehicle travels along a specific route.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a vehicle body horizontal control device for a carrier vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of horizontal control of the vehicle body according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a vehicle body horizontal control device for a carrier vehicle according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 11 ......... Conveyor cart, 12 ......... Chassis, 14
… Cargo, 15 ……… Wheel unit, 16 ……… Ball bearing, 18 ……… Differential gear, 20 ……… Axle, 22 ……… Tire, 23 ……… Axle, 24 ……… Speed sensor , 25 ... Travel motor, 26 ... Rudder angle sensor, 27 ... V-shaped arm, 28 ... Inclination sensor, 31 ... Drive section, 32 ... Support section, 33 ... …
Link mechanism, 34 ... Hydraulic cylinder, 36 ... Reference line, 38 ... Magnetic plate, 39 ... ID tag, 40 ...
… Running condition monitor, 42 ……… Map data, 44 ……
... information storage device, 46 ... hydraulic hydraulic cylinder stroke amount calculation part, 48 ... hydraulic hydraulic cylinder control part, 50 ... absolute position detection means, 52 ... map correction amount calculation part, 54
……… Conveyor cart, 56 ……… Roadway.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yoshio Oki             Mitsui Shipbuilding, 3-1-1 Tamama, Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture             Tamano Works Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kinya Ichimura             Mitsui Shipbuilding, 3-1-1 Tamama, Tamano City, Okayama Prefecture             Tamano Works Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 3D001 AA03 AA04 AA09 CA08 DA02                       DA16 DA17 EA08 EA22 EA42                       EB08 EB22 EC07 EC09 ED02                       ED04 ED11

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method for horizontally controlling a vehicle body of a carrier vehicle equipped with an actuator for controlling the attitude of a vehicle body, wherein, based on topographical information on a traveling route of the carrier vehicle, inclination of a forward movement position after a lapse of time required for response of the actuator has elapsed. The data is read, the drive amount of the actuator necessary for horizontal control is calculated based on the tilt data, and the control drive of the actuator is started based on the calculated drive amount. A method for horizontally controlling a vehicle body of a carrier, which comprises performing horizontal predictive control. 2. A vehicle body horizontal control device for a carrier vehicle equipped with an actuator for controlling the attitude of the vehicle body, wherein travel data measuring means for detecting a traveling state of the carrier vehicle, and topographical information of a traveling road surface on which the carrier vehicle travels. It has a stored information storage means and a calculation means for reading the inclination data from the information storage means as topographical information, and the calculation means forwards for a time required for the response of the actuator based on the running state data by the running data measuring means. Of the tilt data, calculates the drive amount of the actuator required for horizontal control based on the tilt data, and controls the actuator to horizontally predict and control the vehicle body at each moving position of the transport carriage based on the calculated drive amount. A vehicle body horizontal control device for a carrier, comprising a control means for controlling. 3. A vehicle body horizontal control device for a carrier vehicle, wherein the carrier vehicle has an inclination sensor, and corrects the inclination data based on a horizontal error of the vehicle body measured by the inclination sensor.