JP2007131442A - Autonomous six direction article conveyance device and article conveyance facility and article storage facility incorporating it - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To utilize a space effectively when storing articles, reduce or eliminate handling of articles between storage facility and transportation facility, and simplify remodeling and removal of the storage and transportation facilities. <P>SOLUTION: A method for arranging articles 15 in a cell of a floor surface 32 partitioned into matrices without causing a clearance therebetween, providing only one cell of cavity when carrying the specific article 15 out, and exchanging a cell buried from the article toward the direction of outlet with the cell of cavity to guide it is devised, and a conveyance block 09 incorporating a plurality of two-way conveyors in the vertical and horizontal directions to drive them in four directions and an elevating block 14 capable of moving the conveyance block 09 vertically are devised based on the idea of the method. They are combined to lay as a guide passage 33 and lay as the storage facility 32 on the floor surface to utilize the storage space effectively and eliminate handling of articles between the storage facility and the transportation facility. Since basic units constituting the facilities can be put in blocks, remodeling and removal of the storage and transportation facilities can be simplified. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

    The present invention relates to the conveyance and storage of articles.

  Conventionally, hand carriers, hand trolleys, power trolleys, self-propelled trolleys, belt conveyor systems, roller conveyors, lifter systems, etc. have been established for the transportation of goods on company premises or buildings. Wireless control, a method of detecting and controlling the direction of conveyance with a bar code or sensor has been established. For storage of goods, various storage shelves, racks, and the like are provided for practical use, and computer-controlled article search and automatic article storage / removal devices are provided.

  In transportation, the functions of the carriage system require loading of goods into the carriage, traveling operation in the target direction, loading and unloading of articles from the carriage, further driving force, and supply of human power, electric power, and internal combustion engine And In the case of traveling by electric power, since a power cable is necessary, it is difficult to take a permanent supply means. In order to realize self-running in traveling maneuvering, a means for giving a signal for guiding in the target direction is necessary. Currently, for example, a wireless induction method, a method of reading a signal such as a barcode, and a self-running method are put into practical use, but a complicated structure is required.

  Conveyors are not limited to belt conveyors, roller conveyors, and lift conveyors, as are cart systems. The functions of loading and unloading goods are necessary, and the drive can be a fixed device, so it can supply a permanent driving force. It is difficult to respond flexibly to changes or additions.

  For storage, there are the most primitive flooring, stacking of pallets or boxes, shelves on other floors, and automatic racking. In general, transportation and storage are under the concept of different things, and when moving an article from one place to another place via a transportation device, the article is moved from the storage facility to the transportation device and moved by the transportation device. Thus, a method of transferring the article to another storage facility is taken.

  For this reason, some action intervention is necessary from storage to transport and from the transport to storage operation, which is manual or a special loading and unloading device. Because it requires the intervention of a person or equipment in storage, it is not limited to floor placement, shelves, racks, etc., and a predetermined gap for them to be loaded, unloaded, loaded and moved to the transport path along the storage location of goods is required.

In addition, in the case of floor placement, shelves, and rack systems, a symbol for specifying a location is added to make it easier to specify stored items at the time of retrieval, and at the same time, the items stored in the location are stored as data. Sometimes we need a means to search for and identify the item. In addition, in a large-sized automatic storage device developed to realize these means, shelves, racks, lifting devices, etc. are fixed and installed, so it is difficult to flexibly cope with changes and additions of facilities.
JP 2005-289598 A JP 2005-263442 A JP 2005-213036 A Business Trend Analysts, Inc. TheMarket for Material Handling Equipment, 2003

  In the prior art, the problems described in the background art remain. Therefore, in the present invention, 1. 1. Simplification of destination control signal and power supply method in goods transportation. 2. Simplification of guidance method when transporting goods; 3. Reduction or elimination of handling procedures for goods between storage facilities and transport facilities. 4. Effective use of storage space 5. Easily supplement the location of items on the premises; The task is to simplify the renovation and storage of storage and transport equipment.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the first invention provides a drive signal from the outside, and the two vertical conveyors and the two horizontal conveyors as shown in FIG. It is a conveyance block as shown in FIG. 2 characterized by being able to drag the loaded article in four directions, front, rear, left and right.

  In addition, the second invention is characterized in that the conveyance block as shown in FIG. 3 is autonomously driven by a drive signal to move up and down in the space and can be aligned with the article contact surface of the conveyance block installed on the floor of an arbitrary floor. Elevating block.

  In the third aspect of the invention, a transport block and a lifting block are combined and laid as a guide path, and a reader using an RFID tag attached to an article placed on the guide path is read by the transport block and the drive direction is read by a microcomputer. 4 is an article conveyance path facility as shown in FIG. 4 that is capable of controlling and autonomously conveying articles in a desired conveyance direction.

  In the fourth aspect of the invention, the transport block can be laid on the matrix floor surface of any level without any gaps, and the articles placed at the entrance can be autonomously guided so as not to leave play gaps, and can be placed in empty spaces. If a specific article is designated from the outside, the article storage facility as shown in FIG. 5 can be autonomously guided to the exit.

  According to the first invention and the second invention, the transport block is provided with an independent control device, and a control signal and power are supplied to the adjacent transport block by providing a socket for supplying a control signal and power. Easy to do. Furthermore, according to the third aspect of the invention, guidance at the time of article conveyance is easily realized. Furthermore, in the third invention and the fourth invention, there is no distinction between storage and transportation, and handling of articles can be completely omitted, and no other transportation means is required. Further, since the storage place is configured by laying the transport block on the floor surface, it can be effectively used without creating a useless space. Further, since all the transport blocks are connected by signal cables and controlled by a computer, it is easy to supplement the location of the articles on the premises. In addition, since the elements constituting the entire facility, which is a feature of the first invention and the second invention, are made into blocks, they can be easily renovated.

An overall view of an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.
Equipment in which transportation and storage of articles are unified is realized by combining the transportation equipment and the storage equipment with the transportation block according to the first invention and the lifting block according to the second invention.
The form of the transportation equipment and storage equipment is not fixed, and the air transportation route is configured according to the situation of the route to be transported or considering the space utilization efficiency, and the use of the upper floors of the building is also considered. In combination with these situations, the conveying block and the lifting block are combined and laid.
In addition, a signal transmission socket provided in the transport block is connected with a LAN cable, etc., and the information control computer is accessed via the signal communication terminal to grasp the position of the article on the transport path and storage facility, and a specific article in the storage facility. Used to communicate the shipping instruction.

  The concept of the storage facility that is a component of the implementation plan is shown in FIG. Considering the effective use of floor space in storage facilities, the purpose of this study was to make it easy and accurate to store and retrieve stored items. From the viewpoint of effectively using the floor space, it can be realized by dividing the floor into a matrix and arranging the articles in each cell without gaps. When a specific item is delivered, only one void cell is provided in the matrix on the floor, and the cell buried in the direction of the outlet from the item and the void cell are exchanged and guided. it can. Here, the basic concept of designating a specific article and autonomously guiding to the exit is shown in FIG. The article can be guided to the exit by repeating the movement of the object article n times toward the exit starting from the initial state when the exit instruction is issued.

  The function required here is a function of moving the article by one cell in the four directions of front, rear, left and right. This is realized by the transport block of the first invention, and its external view is shown in FIG. The conveyance block is configured by arranging four belt conveyors of the basic unit shown in FIG. 1 in two vertical and two horizontal directions, and the direction of movement of articles on the conveyance block through an external signal reading antenna provided in the conveyance block. The microcomputer performs control to exclusively drive the belt conveyor in either the vertical or horizontal direction in the moving direction upon reading or receiving a signal in the moving direction through the signal communication terminal.

  FIG. 1 shows the belt conveyor of the basic unit. The moving direction is read through an external signal reading antenna provided in the transport block, or the moving direction signal is received through a signal communication terminal, and the servo motor of the belt conveyor of the microcomputer basic unit is driven to move the driving pulley to move the belt. Let At the same time, the roller up-and-down lifting mechanism is lifted up to bring the belt into contact with the bottom of the article.

A facility that transports articles to the entrance of the storage facility or transports articles from the exit of the storage facility to the target location is one of the components of the implementation plan, and the concept is shown in FIG. The conveyance path is configured such that a conveyance block is laid on a floor surface or a stand installed in the air along a conveyance destination path, and when there is a step, a lifting block shown in FIG. 3 is arranged.
"Other examples"

FIG. 2 shows a transport block configured by arranging four belt conveyors of the basic unit, two vertical and two horizontal, but the method of moving in four vertical and horizontal directions is based on the turntable moving direction conversion method shown in FIG. The same function can be realized in the transport block.
In the conveyance block of FIG. 8, the belt drive of the basic unit is arranged on the two turntables, and the driving direction of the article is determined by the output angle of the stepping motor that drives the turntable. At the same time, when the belt conveyor is driven, the belt is lifted upward so as to lift the bottom surface of the article.

  Although FIG. 3 shows an elevating device that autonomously moves in the vertical direction with the rack gear sandwiched between pinion gears, instead of the method of synchronously controlling the pinion gears with four independent rack gears in this method, FIG. As shown in the figure, one side of the transport block is suspended by a guide wire, the drive pinion gear is grouped together on one side of the transport block, and the pinion gear traces the rack gear in the vertical direction while winding the guide wire and winding it with a pulley. The structure is movable.

  In the present invention, the weight of the article when the article is moved is directly supported by the belt conveyor. In addition, since a plurality of transport blocks for carrying one article can be used, heavy objects can be transported and stored. For example, when the present invention is applied to a 1500 kg passenger car, if the size of the transport block is 1000 mm × 1000 mm, a total of 10 transport blocks will carry one passenger car, and the weight supported by the belt conveyor of one basic unit Is 75 kg, which is a sufficiently controllable range. Therefore, the present invention is effective when applied to a parking lot in a small land.

It is the front view and side view of the belt conveyor which autonomously drives which become the basic unit of 1st invention. It is an upper front view of the conveyance block autonomously driven in four directions. It is a side view of the raising / lowering block autonomously driven to an up-down direction. It is a perspective view of the conveyance path equipment which conveys articles | goods autonomously. It is a perspective view of an article storage facility that autonomously enters and exits an article. It is a perspective view showing one embodiment of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which guide | induces the articles | goods set | placed without the clearance gap on the conveyance block laid in matrix form to an exit. It is the front view and side view of the conveyance block of the turntable moving direction conversion system which are other Examples of a conveyance block. It is the front view and side view of the raising / lowering block which autonomously drives to the up-down direction which is another Example of an raising / lowering block.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Conveyance belt 2 Belt drive shaft 3 Servo motor 4 Roller up-and-down lifting mechanism 5 Belt conveyor of basic unit 6 External signal reading antenna 7 Driving direction of conveyor placed horizontally 8 Driving direction of conveyor placed vertically 9 Conveying block 10 Drive sprocket 11 Rack gear for vertical guidance 12 Transport block placed on the 1st floor 13 Transport block placed on the Nth floor 14 Lift block 15 Pallet (article)
Reference Signs List 16 Signal communication terminal 17 Information control computer 18 Article instructed to exit from storage location 19 Initial state when instructed to exit 20 State diagram of first movement of target article toward exit 21 Target article toward exit State diagram of n-th movement 22 State diagram of target article reaching outlet 23 Turntable 24 Roller bearing 25 Turntable drive stepping motor 26 Guide rack gear 27 Drive pinion gear 28 Interlocking pinion gear 29 Guide wire 30 Wire guide pulley 31 Wire Take-up pulley 32 Transport block on the floor divided into matrix 33 Taxiway with transport block laid

Claims (4)

  The surface that is in contact with the article when it is driven can move and the article can be moved, and a belt conveyor that is autonomously driven under the control of a microcomputer, etc., is combined in the vertical and horizontal directions, and a drive signal is given from the outside to provide the vertical and horizontal directions. This is an apparatus characterized in that it can be driven exclusively and the article placed on the upper part can be dragged in the four directions of front, rear, left and right, and this is called a transport block.   A structure in which a structure for driving the transport block according to claim 1 in a vertical direction is attached, and the rack is set up on a floor surface of an arbitrary floor by moving up and down autonomously by a drive signal from the outside on a vertical or arbitrary rack gear. This device is characterized in that it can be aligned with the article contact surface of the block, and this is called a lifting block.   The transport block according to claim 1 and the lifting block according to claim 2 are laid in an arbitrary direction in which an article is desired to be guided, and a tag using an RFID attached to the article placed on the guide path is embedded in the transport block. An article conveyance path facility characterized in that a reader reads the article, controls the driving direction with a microcomputer, and can autonomously convey the article in a desired conveyance direction.   The transport block according to claim 1 can be laid on a floor surface of any level without any gap, and the article placed at the entrance can be autonomously guided so that no play gap is left, and can be placed in an empty space. And the central computer can record data, record the location of the article in the central computer, and specify a specific article from the central computer, the article can be guided autonomously to the exit Goods storage facility characterized by.

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