JP2020192766A - Image formation system, control device and image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an image formation system configured so that even if a fractional page that a moving body cannot deliver occurs, page-order of a partial document that is delivered by the moving body is not changed.SOLUTION: A job dividing part 405 of a print controller divides document data relating to a print request by a user in a page unit in which a loading capacity by a moving body is set as a limit to obtain a plurality of partial job data. A printing instruction part 408 repeatedly issues an instruction for distributing the plurality of partial job data obtained by the division to each of a plurality of image formation devices to print the data. A delivery instructing part 407 repeatedly issues an instruction for making the moving body store printed matters that are outputted, every time the printed matters having the partial job data printed thereon are outputted from the image formation devices and delivering the matters to a destination, until all printed matters having the partial job data printed thereon are delivered.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming system that includes a plurality of image forming devices, divides the document content related to a printing request, and issues a printing instruction to each image forming device, and particularly, a printed matter obtained by document printing. Regarding the improvement of the system that makes the moving body deliver.

In the image forming system, a control device such as a printer server accepts printing of a document requested by a client terminal, and distributes and executes the printing to a plurality of image forming devices. However, when the printed matter is output by the image forming devices placed in different places, the user has to stop at the installation place of these multiple image forming devices and collect the printed matter, which is very troublesome. In recent years, as a measure to eliminate such troubles of collection, transportation of printed matter using an autonomously controllable moving body has been studied.

Prior arts relating to the transfer of printed matter using a mobile body include those described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 below.

Patent Document 1 discloses a printed matter transport system that stores and transports printed matter in a transport case mounted on a drone. In the printed matter transport system of Patent Document 1, a takeoff and landing platform is arranged adjacent to the side surface of the image forming apparatus on the paper ejection port side, and the drone lands on the upper surface of the takeoff and landing platform to eject the paper of the image forming apparatus. Receive the printed matter discharged from the sorting unit.

Patent Document 2 stores a loadable amount that can be delivered by a moving body, determines whether or not the weight of the printed matter produced by the print job exceeds the loadable amount, and if it exceeds, the loadable amount is equal to or less than the loadable amount. Disclose an image forming system that obtains a print job of.

JP-A-2017-087524 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-141036

By the way, in the conventional image forming system, when a printing request is made from a client terminal, the total number of pages of the document requested to be printed is divided by the number of available image forming devices, and the number of pages corresponding to the quotient of the division is calculated. Partial documents are assigned to individual image forming devices for printing.

The weight of the printed matter of the partial document thus allocated may exceed the loading capacity of the moving object. In this case, the moving body cannot carry out the output printed matter all at once, and the paper of the fractional pages remains without being conveyed. The presence of such fractional paper may change the order in which printed matter arrives at the user. For example, suppose that the client terminal 10 shown in FIG. 19 requests the image forming devices 1, 2, and 3 to perform distributed printing of a 90-page document. In this case, the conventional control device divides the number of pages of a document of 90 pages by the number of image forming devices of 3, and divides a partial document from 1 page to 30 pages into the image forming device 1 and pages 31 to 60. The partial document up to the page is assigned to the image forming apparatus 2, and the partial document from page 61 to 90 is assigned to the image forming apparatus 3. However, if the loading capacity of the moving bodies 4, 5 and 6 for delivering the partial document is about 20 pages, fractional pages (pages 21 to 30 and pages 51 to 60 and pages 81 to 90 in FIG. 19) are transported. It remains in the image forming apparatus. If the fractional pages are transported with a delay, the arrival order of the printed matter at the user's place of residence is changed. When the order is changed in this way, the user has to sort the pages of the partial document in the correct order by using the page number or the like as a clue, and the trouble of such sorting may be complicated.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming system in which the page order of a partial document delivered by a moving body is not changed even if a fractional page that the moving body cannot convey occurs.

The above object includes a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of autonomously controllable moving objects, and prints job data including document contents and delivers printed matter by using the image forming apparatus and the moving objects. A job data dividing means for obtaining a plurality of partial job data by dividing job data including a document requested to be printed by a user as content in a forming system in predetermined page units equal to or less than the loading capacity of a printed matter by a moving body. A printing execution instruction means that repeatedly issues an instruction to distribute and print a plurality of partial job data obtained by the division to each of the plurality of image forming devices until all the partial job data are printed, and a portion. Every time a printed matter of job data is output from the image forming apparatus, a delivery execution instruction means for repeatedly issuing an instruction to accommodate the printed matter in a moving body and deliver it to a destination until all the printed matter of partial job data is delivered. It is solved by an image forming system characterized by including.

Here, the predetermined page unit is the upper limit number of recording sheets that can be loaded by the moving body, and the job data dividing means constitutes the printed matter with a weight that is the upper limit of the loading capacity of each moving body. The predetermined page unit may be determined by dividing by the weight per unit number of recording sheets to be printed.

Here, the moving body includes a cabinet for accommodating printed matter and a status notification unit, and the state of the moving body includes whether or not a recording sheet is placed in the cabinet, whether or not the moving body has arrived, and whether or not the moving body has arrived. Expressed by the open / closed state of the door, when the moving body arrives at the image forming apparatus and the door of the cabinet is opened without mounting the recording sheet, the status notification unit wirelessly performs. Through the communication network, the moving object is notified that it has reached a status capable of accommodating new printed matter, and the print execution instruction means receives a notification from the status notification unit that the status has been reached, and the above-mentioned An instruction to start printing may be issued to the image forming apparatus to which the partial job data is distributed.

Here, when the recording sheet is placed in the cabinet of the moving body and the door of the cabinet is closed after the print execution instruction means instructs the start of printing, the status notification unit may perform the status notification unit. Notifying that the storage of the new printed matter in the moving body is completed, the delivery execution instruction means receives the notification that the storage of the printed matter by the moving body is completed, and starts delivery to the moving body. You may give instructions.

After the delivery execution instruction means issues an instruction to start delivery, the moving body arrives at the destination, the door of the cabinet is opened, the recording sheet is taken out by the user, and the recording sheet is not placed. When the state is reached, the status notification unit notifies the moving body of the completion of delivery of the printed matter, and the delivery execution instruction means receives the notification of the completion of delivery of the printed matter to the moving body. , You may issue an instruction to return to the image forming apparatus.

In addition, when the printed matter of a plurality of partial job data is output from each of the plurality of image forming devices, the delivery execution instruction means processes the following 1) in ascending order of the page number of each page corresponding to the partial job data. , And 2) are executed for each of the partial job data. 1) When instructing the delivery of the printed matter of 1 page unit output by the image forming apparatus of 1), it is the printed matter corresponding to the immediately preceding page unit. And monitor the condition of the moving object that contains the output from another image forming device.
2) Waiting for the state of the moving body that delivers the printed matter corresponding to the immediately preceding page unit to become a predetermined state that can secure the delivery interval of the printed matter, the delivery instruction is given to the moving body for the printed matter of the one page unit. It may be emitted to.

Here, the period spent moving the moving object from the home position to the takeoff and landing platform installed in the image forming apparatus, and / or the moving object from the takeoff and landing platform installed in the image forming apparatus to the destination of the user's residence. During the period spent moving the moving object back from the destination to the takeoff and landing platform, other job data without delivery of printed matter is stored in the memory of the image forming apparatus to which the partial job data is distributed. When the data is accumulated, printing of the other job data may be preferentially executed.

Further, the above-mentioned problem is used in an image forming system including a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of autonomously controllable moving bodies, and prints job data including document contents and delivers printed matter to the image forming device and moving. It is a control device that executes using the body, and job data including the document requested by the user as content is divided into predetermined page units equal to or less than the loading capacity of the printed matter by the moving body, and a plurality of partial job data. The job data dividing means for obtaining the data and the instruction to distribute and print the plurality of partial job data obtained by the division to each of the plurality of image forming devices are repeatedly issued until all the partial job data are printed. Each time the execution instruction means and the printed matter of the partial job data are output from the image forming apparatus, the instruction to accommodate the printed matter in the moving body and deliver it to the destination is given until all the printed matter of the partial job data is delivered. The problem is solved by a control device including a means for instructing delivery execution that is repeatedly issued.

Further, the above task includes a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of autonomously controllable moving objects, and prints job data including document contents and delivers printed matter by using the image forming apparatus and the moving objects. One image forming apparatus in an image forming system, which divides job data including a document requested to be printed by a user as content into predetermined page units equal to or less than the loading capacity of a printed matter by a moving body, and a plurality of partial jobs. The job data dividing means for obtaining data, the job executing means for executing a part of the plurality of partial job data obtained by the division, and the remaining partial job data are distributed to each of the remaining image forming apparatus. The print execution instruction means that repeatedly issues the instruction to be printed until all the remaining partial job data is printed, and each time the printed matter of the partial job data is output from each image forming apparatus, the printed matter is accommodated in the moving body. The image forming apparatus is provided with a delivery execution instruction means for repeatedly issuing an instruction to be delivered to the destination until the printed matter of all the partial job data is delivered.

The job data dividing means divides the job data including the document requested by the user as the content into predetermined page units equal to or less than the loading capacity of the printed matter by the moving body, and obtains a plurality of partial job data. Since the print instruction means distributes and prints the plurality of partial job data obtained by such division to each of the plurality of image forming devices, the fractional pages exceeding the loading capacity of the moving body are transferred to the image forming device. Transmission is postponed. In this way, the transmission of the fractional pages to the image forming apparatus is postponed, so that the printed matter of the fractional pages does not reach the user's hand first. The user can receive multiple printed matter delivered by the mobile without page swapping. Documents distributed and printed by a plurality of image forming devices can be used without worrying about the page order being changed.

The overall configuration of the image forming system according to the present invention is shown. The appearance of the moving body 101 with the door 116 opened is shown. It is a figure which shows the internal structure of the moving body 101. It is a figure which shows an example of HPF data. FIG. 5 (a) shows rotor control when the moving body 101 is advanced in the positive direction of the X-axis, and FIG. 5 (b) is rotor control when the moving body 101 is advanced in the positive direction of the Y-axis. ) Shows the rotor control when raising the moving body 101, and FIG. 5D shows the rotor control when turning the moving body 101 clockwise. It is a block diagram which shows the internal structure of a client terminal 200, image forming apparatus 301. It is a figure which shows the internal structure of the print controller 400. It is a sequence chart which shows the processing sequence between a client terminal 200, an image forming apparatus 301-303, and a moving body 101-303. It is a flowchart which shows the division procedure of the print job by the job division part 405. FIG. 10A shows a split job A1 / 5, a split job A2 / 5, a split job A3 / 5, a split job A4 / 5, and a split job A5 / 5 obtained by splitting the job split unit 405. FIG. 10B shows a process of distributing the PJL data from the division job A1 / 5 to the division job A3 / 5 to the image forming devices 301 to 303. FIG. 10C shows a process of distributing the PJL data from the division job A4 / 5 to the division job A5 / 5 to the image forming devices 301 to 302. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure of the job delivery instruction process 207D. 12 (a) to 12 (e) show a series of operations of the moving body 101 from the moving body to the completion of delivery. It is a flowchart which shows the transmission procedure of the status packet by the control unit 132 of the mobile body 101. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure of the job print instruction process 207P. It is a timing chart which shows the time relationship of the division job A1 / 5-5 division job A5 / 5. The routes of the moving bodies 101, 102, and 103 are shown. FIG. 17A shows a state in which a plurality of print jobs are waiting to be executed in each of the plurality of image forming devices. FIG. 17B shows a state in which print jobs E and F are preferentially executed and a state in which print jobs I and H are preferentially executed. FIG. 18A shows an example of the loading capacity of the moving bodies 101, 102, and 103. FIG. 18B shows the distribution of the number of pages according to the loading capacity of FIG. 18A. It is a figure for pointing out the problem in the case of delivering the printed matter output by the distributed printing of the conventional image formation system by a plurality of moving bodies 4, 5 and 6.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the image forming system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[1] Outline of Image Forming System FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of the image forming system according to the present invention. The image forming system 1000 of this figure is composed of mobile bodies 101, 102, 103, a client terminal 200, image forming devices 301, 302, 303, and a print controller 400. The image forming system 1000 is assumed to be used by a plurality of users, and a set of a client terminal 200 and a takeoff / landing platform 210 exists in a business space (referred to as a user's residence) occupied by each user. Although omitted in FIG. 1, it is assumed that similar sets of client terminals and takeoff and landing platforms 210 exist at a plurality of locations in the business establishment. The distance between the takeoff / landing platform 210 and the image forming apparatus 301, the distance between the takeoff / landing platform 210 and the image forming apparatus 302, and the distance between the takeoff / landing platform 210 and the image forming apparatus 303 are almost the same. It is assumed that the image forming devices 301 to 303 are installed in the business establishment so as to be.

(1-1) Mobile objects 101, 102, 103
The mobiles 101, 102, and 103 are quad drones, respectively, and have four rotors 111, 112, 113, 114 and a cabinet 115 for storing printing paper. The mobile bodies 101, 102, and 103 usually stand by at the home position 100 in FIG. 1, and the navigation is determined in advance in the office premises where the image forming devices 301, 302, and 303 are installed under the control of the print controller 400. Go back and forth on the designated route. It is assumed that the moving bodies 101 to 103 have the same performance (speed, altitude) and the same loading capacity.

(1-2) Image forming apparatus 301, 302, 303,
The image forming devices 301, 302, and 303 are Multifunction Peripheral (MFP), and receive job data issued by the client terminal 200 through the print controller 400 to execute printing. Further, as a component unique to the image forming system 1000, a discharge destination sorting unit 304 is included. The discharge destination sorting unit 304 is a unit arranged adjacent to the side surface of the image forming apparatus 301 on the paper discharge port side and for sorting the paper discharge destination according to the user's choice, and is not premised on delivery to the moving body 101. It has a discharge tray 301A and a discharge tray 301B for delivering paper to the cabinet 115 of the moving body 101. The discharge tray 301B includes a takeoff / landing platform 305 and a slope 309 connected to the discharge port (not shown) of the discharge destination sorting unit 304, and guides the paper discharged from the discharge destination sorting unit 304 to the takeoff / landing platform 305. The moving body 101 lands on the takeoff and landing platform 305 and opens the door 116 of the cabinet 115 to receive the printed matter discharged from the discharge destination sorting unit 304.

(1-3) Print controller 400
The print controller 400 is connected to the wired LAN 200N to which the client terminal 200 and the image forming devices 301 to 303 belong, and the print job issued by the client terminal 200 intervenes between the client terminal 200 and the image forming devices 301 to 303. The data is received, and the image forming apparatus 301, 302, 303 is made to execute the distributed processing of the job data. Then, the printed matter output by the image forming apparatus 301, 302, 303 is delivered to the moving bodies 101, 102, 103.

[2] Configuration of the moving body 101 (2-1) Appearance of the moving body 101 The moving bodies 101, 102, and 103 are flying bodies that fly by autonomous control. The autonomous control by the moving bodies 101 to 103 refers to the control of dynamically determining the course to be taken from the preset departure position to the destination and moving. For such autonomous control, the mobile bodies 101 to 103 receive a control command including map data from the print controller 400 and dynamically determine the course from the departure position shown in the map data to the destination. And sail.

FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the moving body 101 with the door 116 open. As shown in FIG. 2, one end surface of the cabinet 115 is provided with a door 116 that can be opened and closed according to an instruction from the control unit 132 (FIG. 3). When the takeoff and landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus arrives, the door 116 is opened by rotating a drive motor (not shown), and after accommodating the printed matter, the door 116 is closed by driving the drive motor. This prevents the printed matter from falling out of the cabinet 115 during delivery. A paper sensor 126 is provided at the bottom of the inner surface of the cabinet 115, and can detect the presence or absence of paper storage in the cabinet 115. Further, the leg portion 101L of the moving body 101 is provided with a grounding sensor 127, and can detect the presence or absence of grounding of the moving body 101.

(2-2) Internal configuration of the moving body 101 FIG. 3 shows the internal structure of the moving body 101. As shown in FIG. 3, the mobile body 101, which is a quad drone, has a wireless LAN slave unit 121, an HPF memory 122, a gyro sensor 123 for attitude measurement, and altitude measurement as components for autonomous control. Ultrasonic sensor 124, speed sensor 125, paper sensor 126, grounding sensor 127, HPF control circuit 128, NADF control circuit 129, clamping control circuit 130, motor drive circuit 131, and control unit 132. And.

(2-3) HPF memory 122
The HPF memory 122 shown in FIG. 3 stores HPF (Harmonic Potential Field) data indicating a route to be taken by the moving body 101. FIG. 4 shows an example of HPF data.

The HPF data is map data in which gradient vectors (indicated by using arrow symbols in FIG. 4) are plotted at a plurality of coordinate positions on a desired coordinate system plane as shown in this figure. The gradient data indicates the course to be taken at each coordinate position when reaching the target position (both the takeoff and landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus 301 and the takeoff and landing platform 210 of the client terminal 200) from each coordinate position. Each gradient data is calculated from the repulsive force from the environmental boundary such as a wall or an obstacle and the attractive force from an arbitrarily set target, and in the place corresponding to the coordinate position, which direction should be taken to avoid the obstacle. While indicating whether to reach the target position. As such HPF data, one corresponding to the XY coordinate system plane, one corresponding to the YY coordinate system plane, and one corresponding to the XX coordinate system plane are prepared.

(2-4) NADF control circuit 129
The NADF control circuit 129 shown in FIG. 3 executes NADF (Non Linear Anisotropic Damping Forces) control using the speeds in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction detected by the speed sensor. The NADF control performed by the NADF control circuit 129 is a function (unit step) that outputs a code that is the product of the gradient ∇ (x) at an arbitrary coordinate x and the velocity V (x) at an arbitrary coordinate x, which is shown in the HPF data. By using the function) to determine the match / mismatch between the gradient and the speed direction, and adjusting the driving force to be applied to the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M according to the judgment result, the force toward the current speed direction, Alternatively, a force that cancels the force in the current velocity direction is applied to the moving body 101. As a result, when the moving body 101 deviates from the gradient direction shown in the HPF data, the moving body 101 returns to the original gradient direction.

(2-5) Clamping control circuit 130
The clamping control circuit 130 realizes the clamping control by using the left and right images taken by the stereo-viewing cameras 130R and L. Clamping control is a non-linear input function when the velocity direction of the moving object is in the direction away from the target point within the radius σ from the target position (there is either the image forming device 301 or the client terminal 200). Is used to apply a force toward the target position to the moving body to minimize the distance between the moving body position and the target position (either the takeoff / landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus or the takeoff / landing platform 210 of the client terminal 200). It is a control to do. The nonlinear input function is a function that confirms that the moving object to be controlled is within the radius σ from the target position (unit step function) and a function that confirms whether the current velocity direction is toward the target position. Then, the route of the moving body 101 is adjusted by multiplying the difference between the target position and the moving body 101.

(2-6) Motor drive circuit 131
The motor drive circuit 131 shown in FIG. 3 drives the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M that apply a rotational driving force to the rotors 111, 112, 113, and 114, and also drives the door drive motor 116M for opening and closing the door 116. To do. Typical rotor control by the motor drive circuit 131 is shown in FIGS. 5A to 5D.

FIG. 5 (a) shows rotor control when the moving body 101 is advanced in the positive direction of the X-axis, and FIG. 5 (b) is rotor control when the moving body 101 is advanced in the positive direction of the Y-axis. ) Shows the rotor control when raising the moving body 101, and FIG. 5D shows the rotor control when turning the moving body 101 clockwise.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the motor drive circuit 131 drives the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M, and the thrusts f2 and f4 of the pair of rotors 112 and 114 located diagonally among the four rotors are constant. The thrusts f1 and f3 of the pair of rotors 111 and 113 on the other diagonal lines are provided with a height difference. By doing so, the movement in the positive direction of the X-axis is realized. Further, as shown in FIG. 5B, the motor drive circuit 131 keeps the thrusts f1 and f3 of the pair of rotors 111 and 113 located diagonally among the four rotors constant and is on the other diagonal line. By providing a height difference between the thrusts f2 and f4 of the pair of rotors 112 and 114, movement in the positive direction of the Y-axis is realized.

Further, in the motor drive circuit 131, as shown in FIG. 5C, when the thrusts f1, f2, f3, and f4 of the four rotors 111, 112, 113, and 114 are the same, the moving body 101 rises (Z-axis). Move in the direction).

In addition, as shown in FIG. 5D, by rotating the pair of rotors 112 and 114 on one diagonal line and the pair of rotors 111 and 113 on the other diagonal lines in opposite directions (rotors). 111 and 113 are clockwise, rotors 112 and 114 are counterclockwise), and the moving body is swiveled in the Ψ direction in the figure. By combining such ascending, horizontal movement, and turning, movement from the image forming apparatus to the client terminal is performed.

(2-7) Control unit 132
The control unit 132 shown in FIG. 3 transmits / receives data through the wireless LAN slave unit 121, and periodically transmits the status packet 101P. The status packet 101P includes the remaining battery level of the mobile body 101, the status of the mobile body 101, the presence / absence of trouble, the current position, and the target position, so that the current state of the mobile body 101 can be grasped. There is. The status of the moving body 101 indicated by the status packet 101P includes a status indicating that the vehicle is navigating without storing paper in the cabinet 115 (moving in FIG. 3) and a status in which new printed matter is ready to be stored (FIG. 3). (Ready in FIG. 3), open the door 116 and receive the paper (during storage in FIG. 3), complete the receipt of the paper (completion of storage in FIG. 3), and accommodate the printed matter in the cabinet 115 for navigation. In the status of doing (delivery in FIG. 3), the status that the moving object 101 arrives at the destination, the paper is taken out, and the delivery is completed (delivery completed in FIG. 3), and the home position is 100. There is a status (waiting in FIG. 3) waiting for an instruction to start navigation.

[3] Client terminal 200
FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing an internal configuration of the client terminal 200 and the image forming apparatus 301. Hereinafter, the internal configuration of the client terminal 200 and the image forming apparatus 301 will be described with reference to FIG.

The client terminal 200 includes a document creation application 201, an OS (operating system) 202, a hard disk on which a printer driver 203 is installed, a storage 204 which is a solid state disk, and a network I / F unit 205. The printer driver 203 converts the document data created by the document creation application 201 into the PJL (Printer Job Language) format when the document printing is instructed when the OS 202 and the document creation application 201 are started, and obtains the result by the conversion. The obtained data (PJL data 201J) is transmitted to the print controller 400 via the network I / F unit 205. The created PJL data 201J is composed of a plurality of pages P1, P2 ... P90, and each page represents an image to be formed by using a text character string, a figure, and a photograph. The PJL data 201J includes a tray selection command 304C. The tray selection command 304C specifies one of the discharge trays 301A and 301B according to the user setting on the setting screen of the client terminal 200.

[4] Image forming apparatus 301, 302, 303
The image forming devices 301, 302, and 303 include a queuing memory 310, a network I / F unit 311, a developing device 312, a paper feeding unit 313, a transfer unit 314, a fixing unit 315, a control unit 316, and a panel operation unit 317. The PJL data transmitted from the print controller 400 is received, sequentially stored in the queue memory 310, and used for printing by the developing unit 312, the paper feeding unit 313, the transfer unit 314, the fixing unit 315, and the control unit 316. Printing by the image forming apparatus 301 is performed by forming a toner image on a photoconductor by a developing device 312, feeding out paper from a paper feed cassette 301C (see FIG. 1) by a paper feeding unit 313, and paper from a photoconductor by a transfer unit 314. The transfer of the toner image to the image and the thermal fixing of the toner image by the fixing unit 315 are included.

The queuing memory 310 stores PJL data emitted from the client terminal 200, and the control unit 316 performs a series of processes from toner image formation to fixing for each PJL data stored in the queuing memory 310. Executes the processing of. At the same time, the status packet 301P and the execution waiting list 301W are periodically transmitted through the network I / F unit 311. The status packet 301P indicates whether the current status of the image forming apparatus 301, 302, 303 is printing waiting, printing, or printing completed. The execution waiting list 301W shows one or more print jobs currently waiting to be executed in the corresponding image forming apparatus.

[5] Configuration of Print Controller 400 The internal configuration of the print controller 400 will be described below. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the print controller 400. As shown in this figure, the print controller 400 includes a network I / F unit 401, a mobile object monitoring unit 402, an MFP monitoring unit 403, and a job analysis unit 404. , Job division unit 405, PJL data memory 406, delivery instruction unit 407, print instruction unit 408, job progress management unit 409, moving body type data 415, progress management table 419, loading capacity data 425, and paper weight table 435.

(5-1) Network interface unit 401
The network interface unit 401 executes data transmission / reception with the client terminal 200 or the image forming apparatus 301 as the other party. In this data transmission / reception, the data received from the client terminal 200 or the image forming apparatus 301 includes the PJL data 201J issued by the client terminal and the status packets 301P, 302P, 303P indicating the status of the print job executed by the image forming apparatus. , There is a status packet 101P indicating the state of the moving object.

(5-2) Mobile monitoring unit 402
The mobile monitoring unit 402 refers to the status packet 101P (FIG. 3) transmitted from the mobiles 101, 102, and 103, and displays a list (mobile list 412) indicating the currently waiting mobiles. create. The mobile list 412 shows a plurality of mobiles that can be used in the image forming system. Further, for the mobiles whose mobile status shown in the status packet 101P is moving, being accommodated, or being delivered, the progress in the progress management table 419 is used by using the status of the mobile shown in the status packet 101P. Update the status. In this way, it is clarified what kind of state each moving body existing in the image forming system is in.

(5-3) MFP monitoring unit 403
The MFP monitoring unit 403 monitors the contents of the status packets 301P, 302P, and 303P transmitted from the image forming devices 301, 302, and 303, respectively. If there are image forming devices waiting to be printed, a list (MFP list 413) consisting of IDs of the image forming devices waiting to be printed is created. The MFP list 413 shows a plurality of image forming devices that can be used in the image forming system.

(5-4) Job Analysis Unit 404
The job analysis unit 404 analyzes the PJL data received by the network interface unit 401. Specifically, the number of pages of the document included in the PJL data issued by the client terminal 200, the number of copies to be printed, and the ejection tray can be selected. Then, by multiplying the number of pages of the document by the number of copies to be printed, it is determined whether or not the number of pages to be printed exceeds the threshold value of the distributed processing. When the number of pages to be printed exceeds the threshold value of the distributed processing, the PJL data is passed to the job division unit 405, and the job division unit 405 is made to generate a plurality of PJL data corresponding to the plurality of division jobs.

(5-5) Job division unit 405
The job division unit 405 divides the document data to be printed based on the PJL data analyzed by the job analysis unit 404 with reference to the moving body type data 415, the loading capacity data 425, and the paper weight table 435. The moving body type data 415 shows the model numbers (Type A in the figure) of a plurality of moving bodies existing in the image forming system in association with the IDs of the moving bodies (IDs = 101, 102, 103 in the figure). Further, the loading capacity data 425 shows the model numbers (TypeA, TypeB, TypeC) of the plurality of moving bodies in association with the upper limit values (200g, 300g, 500g) of the loading capacity.

The paper weight table 435 shows the paper weight per unit number of sheets in association with the type of paper. The job division unit 405 acquires the weight that is the upper limit of the loading capacity of each moving body by referring to the moving body type data 415 and the loading capacity data 425. In addition, the weight of the PJL data according to the paper type is taken out from the paper weight table 435. If the weight per sheet of paper is m [g], the number of pages to be delivered to the moving body is calculated by dividing the loading capacity M [g] of the moving body by this paper weight m [g]. Then, among the documents requested to be printed by the job, the PJL data (PJL data A1 / 5, A2 / 5, in the figure) of a new job (hereinafter referred to as a split job) in which only the range of this number of pages is partially selected. A3 / 5 ...) Is generated.

(5-6) PJL data memory 406
The PJL data memory 406 stores the PJL data of the divided job generated by the job dividing unit 405.

(5-7) Delivery instruction unit 407
The delivery instruction unit 407 associates the individual moving objects shown in the moving object list 412 with each of the plurality of divided jobs obtained by the division of the job dividing unit 405. Then, the mobile bodies 101 to 103 are controlled by transmitting the control command 101I to which the map data (HPF data shown in FIG. 4) is attached to the mobile bodies 101 to 103 through the wireless LAN base unit 117 (FIG. 6).

(5-8) Print instruction unit 408
The print instruction unit 408 associates each of the plurality of division jobs obtained by the division by the job division unit 405 with each image forming apparatus shown in the MFP list 413, and outputs PJL data for each division job to each image. By distributing to the forming device, each image forming device is made to execute the division job.

(5-9) Job Progress Management Department 409
The job progress management unit 409 assigns the moving body to each divided job by the delivery instruction unit 407, assigns the image forming device to each divided job by the print instruction unit 408, and shows the progress status of each divided job. Create / update the table (progress management table 419). The progress management table 419 includes a plurality of job IDs (ID = A1 / 5, A2 / 5, A3 / 5 ...), an image forming device ID (ID = 301, 302, 303), and a moving body ID (ID = 301, 302, 303). ID = 101, 102, 103 ...) And progress status 429 are shown in association with each other. The progress status 429 includes the status of the image forming apparatus (waiting for printing, printing, printing completed) shown in the status packet 301P and the status of the moving body (moving, containing, delivering, waiting) shown in the status packet 101P. It is a combination of (middle) and. The job progress management unit 409 clearly indicates how much the divided job is progressing by combining the status of the image forming apparatus and the status of the moving body.

[6] Operation of the image forming system 1000 (6-1) Acceptance of PJL data from the client terminal 200 The operation of the image forming system 1000 configured as described above will be described. FIG. 8 is a sequence chart showing a processing sequence between the client terminal 200, the image forming devices 301 to 303, and the moving bodies 101 to 103. The sequence chart also shows the processing procedure to be performed by the client terminal 200 and the print controller 400. It is assumed that the user who has created the document using the document creation application 201 of the client terminal 200 has ordered the printing of the document created. In this case, the printer driver 203 converts the created document data into PJL data and transmits it to the print controller 400 (step S101 in FIG. 8).

The job analysis unit 404 of the print controller 400 analyzes the PJL data received by the network interface unit 401 (step S201). Then, it is determined whether the PJL data needs to be delivered by the mobile body 101 and is the PJL data for which distributed printing should be performed (step S202). If such a determination is affirmative, the mobile monitoring unit 402 detects an available mobile (step S203). It is assumed that three mobile bodies 101, 102, and 103 are detected by the mobile body monitoring unit 402 as the mobile bodies that can be used. When the MFP monitoring unit 403 detects the image forming devices 301, 302, 303 as the available image forming devices, the delivery instruction unit 407 and the detected moving bodies 101, 102, 103 and the image forming device 301, The association with 302 and 303 is performed (step S204). By this association, the moving body 101 is associated with the image forming apparatus 301, the moving body 102 is associated with the image forming apparatus 302, and the moving body 103 is associated with the image forming apparatus 303. Subsequently, the loading capacity of the moving bodies 101 to 103 is acquired (step S205), and the print job related to the PJL data issued by the client terminal 200 is divided based on the loading capacity (step S206).

(6-2) Details of Job Division Step S206 is a processing procedure to be performed by the job division unit 405, and can be expanded to the subroutine of FIG. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a printing job division procedure by the job division unit 405. In this flowchart, N is a variable indicating the number of mobiles that can be used, v indicates the number of the split job, and m is the mobile to which the split job (split job v) specified by the variable v is assigned. Indicates the number of. The variable u indicates the number of pages in the page range assigned to the divided job v, and the variable i indicates the first page number of the page range assigned to the divided job v.

The number of pages in this flowchart is the number of printing sheets for single-sided printing, and one page in the PJL data corresponds to one sheet of paper. In the case of double-sided printing, it is calculated that two pages of PJL data correspond to the front side and the back side of the paper and correspond to one page of the paper.

In the flowchart of FIG. 9, the number of moving objects that can be used is set to N (step S211), and 1 is assigned to each of the variable i, the variable m, and the variable v to initialize these variables (step S212). ..

Hereinafter, the loop of steps S213 to S219 is executed. In the loop of steps S213 to S219, the paper type and basis weight of the job are acquired from the job settings specified in the PJL data of the client terminal 200 (step S213). Then, the number of pages to be printed by the split job v is u by dividing the loading capacity (weight) of the moving body indicated by the variable m by the obtained paper type and the paper weight per sheet derived from the basis weight. Is calculated (step S214). Further, as the type of paper in the calculation in step S214, there are plain paper, thick paper, envelope, label paper, resin sheet, and the like, and the paper weight is changed according to these types.

Subsequently, the print job that targets the page range from the i-page to the (i + u-1) page of the print job document is set as the split job v (step S215). Step S216 is a continuation requirement of the loop consisting of steps S213 to S219, and determines whether or not the page (i + u-1), which is the last page of the page range, is equal to or less than the total number of pages of the document. When this continuation requirement is satisfied, the variable i is updated by adding the variable u to the variable i (step S217), and the job number v of the split job is incremented (step S218). Next, the job number v of the split job is divided by the number of available mobiles N, and the remainder is used as the mobile identification number m (the lower numerical value of the ID shown in FIG. 7) (step S219). Return to S213. Hereinafter, as long as the loop continuation requirement of step S216 is satisfied, the loop of steps S213 to S219 is repeated.

As available mobiles, the detected mobiles 101, 102, 103 shall be able to deliver about 20 pages of paper.

Further, assuming that the number of moving bodies that can be used is three and the image forming devices that can be used are the image forming devices 301, 302, and 303, the flowchart of FIG. 9 is processed.

When v = 1, i and m are also "1". At this time, the page range of the first divided job (hereinafter referred to as divided job A1 / 5) indicated by the variable v is from 1 page to 20 (= 1 + 20-1) pages (step S215). After that, by adding 20 to the variable i, it is updated to "i = 21" (step S217), and the variable v and the variable m are updated to be "2" (steps S218 and S219).

When v = 2, the page range of the second split job (hereinafter referred to as split job A2 / 5) is from 21 pages to 40 (= 21 + 20-1) pages.

When v = 3, i = 41 (= 40 + 1), and the page range of the third split job (hereinafter referred to as split job A3 / 5) is 41 to 60 (= 41 + 20-1) pages.

When v = 4, i = 61 (= 60 + 1), and the page range of the fourth split job (referred to as split job A4 / 5) is from page 61 to page 80 (= 61 + 20-1).

When v = 5, i = 81 (= 80 + 1), and the page range of the fifth split job (hereinafter referred to as split job A5 / 5) is 81 to 90 pages. By going through the above process, the split job A1 / 5, the split job A2 / 5, the split job A3 / 5, the split job A4 / 5, and the split job A5 / 5 shown in FIG. 10A are prepared. The job division unit 405 divides the five division jobs into three + two, associates the division job A1 / 5 and the division job A4 / 5 with the image forming apparatus 301, and divides the division job A2 / 5 and the division job A5 / 5. It is associated with the image forming apparatus 302, and the division job A5 / 5 is associated with the image forming apparatus 303. Further, the moving bodies 101 to 103 are associated with each of the divided jobs A1 / 5 to A5 / 5.

After such association, the job progress management unit 409 creates the progress management table 419 shown in FIG. 7. After generating the progress management table 419, the delivery instruction unit 407 and the print instruction unit 408 generate the job delivery instruction process 207D and the job print instruction process 207P for the division job A1 / 5 to the division job A5 / 5 (FIG. 8). Step S207). By invoking the job delivery instruction process 207D and the job print instruction process 207P, as shown in FIG. 10B, the PJL data from the split job A1 / 5 to the split job A3 / 5 is imaged in the first round. It is distributed to the forming devices 301 to 303 and executed by each image forming device. Further, as shown in FIG. 10 (c), in the second round, the PJL data of the divided job A4 / 5 and the divided job A5 / 5 are distributed to the image forming devices 301 and 302, respectively, and executed in each image forming device. Let me.

Then, based on these job delivery instruction process 207D and job print instruction process 207P, delivery preparation of the moving bodies 101, 102, 103 (steps S111, S112, S113 in FIG. 8), printing of the image forming devices 301, 302, 303. (Steps S221, S222, S223 in FIG. 8) and delivery of the mobile bodies 101, 102, 104 (steps S231, 232, S233 in FIG. 8) are executed.

(6-3) Details of Job Delivery Instruction Process 207D In the job delivery instruction process, control is performed on the moving body 101 according to the flowchart of FIG. 11, and a series as shown in FIGS. 12A to 12E. The moving body 101 is made to perform the operation of. The job delivery instruction process 207D is generated for each of the mobiles 101-103. In executing the individual job delivery instruction process 207D, the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 11 is performed for each moving body.

Further, while the control is performed by the job delivery instruction process 207D, the control unit of the mobile body 101 periodically issues a status packet according to the flowchart of FIG. 13, and the current stage is any of the above five stages. Notify the print controller 400 if there is any. Hereinafter, control by the delivery instruction unit 407 will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 to 13. The variable m in FIG. 11 is a variable indicating the order of the divided jobs according to the page range.

(6-3-1) Moving from Home Position to Takeoff / Landing Platform 305 In step S400 of the flowchart of FIG. 11, the split job corresponding to the page range immediately before the split job m (this split job is split job m-1). ) Is waiting to be determined whether or not printing has started. If printing is started, or if the previous split job does not exist in the first place, step S400 becomes Yes. In this case, the job delivery instruction process 207D of the print controller 400 sets the home position as the starting point and the route with the takeoff and landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus 301 as the destination in the moving body 101 (step S401), and sets the wireless LAN base unit. By issuing a control command accompanied by map data to the moving body 101 through 117, the moving body 101 is instructed to start navigation (step S402). The moving body monitoring unit 402 waits for the moving body 101 to reach the takeoff / landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus 301 (wait in step S403).

When the control unit 132 of the moving body 101 receives the control command issued from the print controller 400, the control unit 132 drives the door drive motor 116M to close the door 116 and starts the rotary drive of the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M. As a result, the moving body 101 starts sailing on the route from the starting point to the destination shown in the map data.

The flowchart of FIG. 13 has a loop structure in which a loop including the determination steps of steps S511, S513, S515, S517, S519, and S521 is repeated. Steps S511, S513, S515, S517, S519, and S521 move according to ON / OFF of the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M, ON / OFF of the paper sensor 126, ON / OFF of the grounding sensor 127, and opening / closing of the door 116. It is a content that determines the status of the body 101.

When the moving body 101 starts navigating and the grounding sensor 127 does not detect the grounding without the paper sensor 126 detecting the paper, the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M are turned on, the paper sensor 126 is turned off, and the grounding sensor 127 is turned on. OFF, the door 116 is closed, step S511 becomes Yes in the flowchart of FIG. 13, and a status packet indicating that the vehicle is moving is transmitted (step S512). As a result, the progress status of the progress management table 419 becomes a combination of "waiting for printing" and "moving".

(6-3-2) Preparation for Storage of Printed Matter It is assumed that the moving body 101 continues to navigate and reaches the takeoff and landing platform 305 without the paper sensor 126 detecting the paper. When the moving body 101 arrives at the takeoff / landing platform 305 (Yes in step S403 of FIG. 11), the door 116 opens and waits for paper output (wait in step S404). In the moving body 101, the grounding sensor 127 detects the grounding, stops the rotation of the motors 111M to 114M, and opens the door 116 of the moving body 101 as shown in 116P of FIG. 12A.

At this time, the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M are OFF, the paper sensor 126 is OFF, the ground sensor 127 is ON, the door 116 is open, and step S513 is Yes in the loop including the determination step of FIG. In this way, when step S513 becomes Yes, a status packet indicating completion is transmitted (step S514). Upon receiving the transmission of this status packet, the job progress management unit 409 sets the status of the divided job in the progress management table 419 to print waiting / ready. In this way, when the job status is ready, the print instruction unit 408 issues an instruction to start printing to the image forming apparatus 301 for the divided job. The printing start instruction will be described in detail in (6-4) below.

(6-3-3) Document printing and printed matter storage Since the door 116 of the cabinet 115 is open at the takeoff and landing platform 305, it is removed from the machine of the image forming apparatus 301 through processes such as transfer of the toner image and fixing of the toner image. The discharged printing paper 301S is housed in the cabinet 115 of the moving body 101 as shown in FIG. 12B.

When the paper sensor 126 of the moving body 101 detects the paper placement, the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M are OFF, the paper sensor 126 is ON, the ground sensor 127 is ON, the door 116 is open, and step S513 in FIG. 13 is No. , Step S515 becomes Yes, and a status packet indicating that the containment is in progress is transmitted (step S516).

Hereinafter, it waits for the paper ejection from the image forming apparatus 301 to be completed and the paper storage by the moving body 101 to be completed (wait in step S404 of FIG. 11).

(6-3-4) Delivery of printed matter When the paper ejection by the image forming apparatus 301 and the paper accommodating by the moving body 101 are completed (Yes in step S404), the door 116 is closed and the takeoff and landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus 301 is set according to the map data. The route with the departure place and the user's place of residence as the destination is set in the moving body 101 (step S405). After that, the delivery order of the printed matter is controlled with reference to the progress management table 419. Specifically, of the progress of each of the plurality of divided jobs shown in the progress management table 419, the progress status 429 (see FIG. 7) of the divided job (divided job m-1) corresponding to the immediately preceding page range is delivered. It is determined whether the delivery is medium or complete (step S407). When another image forming apparatus is still executing the division job corresponding to the immediately preceding page range, the progress status of the immediately preceding division job shown in the progress management table 419 of FIG. 7 is being printed. In this case, when the delivery of the printed matter of the split job m using the moving body is started, the printed matter of the split job m arrives at the takeoff and landing platform 210 before the printed matter of the split job m-1, and the printed matter arrives in the order of arrival. It will be replaced. Since there is such a possibility, in step S407, processing is waited until the progress status of the split job m-1 immediately before shown in the progress management table 419 of FIG. 7 is being delivered or the delivery is completed (wait in step S407). ).

If the split job m-1 does not exist, or if the split job m-1 exists and delivery is in progress / delivery is complete (Yes in step S407), the moving body 101 is instructed to start delivery (step). S409). When the moving body 101 is instructed to start delivery, the paper sensor 126 closes the door 116 while detecting the paper placement. At this time, the door 116 is closed, and in the loop of the determination step of FIG. 13, step S517 becomes Yes, and a status packet indicating that the containment is completed is transmitted (step S518). When the rotation of the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M is started, the grounding sensor 127 does not detect the grounding. In this case, the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M are turned on, and the grounding sensor 127 is turned off. In the loop of FIG. 13, step S519 becomes Yes, and a status packet indicating delivery is transmitted (step S520). By transmitting the status packet indicating "delivery", the progress management table 419 indicates that the status of the corresponding split job is printing waiting / delivery.

(6-3-5) Delivery of printed matter After that, the moving body 101 waits for arrival at the user's place (step S410 in FIG. 11). Upon arriving at the user's place of residence as shown by arrow 101D in FIG. 12D, it waits for the printed matter to be taken out from the moving body 101 (wait in step S411).

On the moving body 101, the rotation of the rotor drive motors 111M to 114M is stopped, the grounding sensor 127 detects the grounding, and the door 116 is opened. Then, when the user takes out the paper contained in the cabinet 115, the paper sensor 126 does not detect the paper placement. When the paper sensor 126 no longer detects the paper placement in this way, step S521 becomes Yes in the loop of FIG. 13, and a status packet indicating the completion of delivery is transmitted (step S522).
By transmitting the status packet indicating "delivery completed", the progress management table 419 of the print controller 400 indicates that the progress status of the corresponding split job is print waiting / delivery completed.

(6-3-6) Next-order split job As shown in FIG. 12 (e), when the printing paper 301S is taken out, the loop continuation requirement of step S412 is determined. Step S412 of FIG. 11 is a determination of whether or not the remaining division job exists, and when this continuation condition is satisfied, the user's residence is set as the departure point and the takeoff and landing platform 305 as the destination as the moving body 101. (Step S413), the process returns to step S401, and the navigation of the moving body 101 is started on the set route.

If the remaining split jobs do not exist (No in step S412), the route with the user's whereabouts as the departure point and the home position as the destination is set as the moving body 101 (step S414), and the moving body 101 is set with the set route. (Step S415). Hereinafter, waiting for the moving body 101 to arrive at the home position (wait in step S416), and if it arrives (Yes in step S416), the job delivery instruction process 207D is terminated.

(6-4) Job print instruction process 207P
FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the job print instruction process 207P. When executing the plurality of divided jobs, the flowchart of FIG. 14 is commonly executed. Hereinafter, the job print instruction process 207P of the split job will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Reference numeral 14 in FIG. 14 is a variable indicating the order of the divided jobs according to the page range. First, the variable m indicating the split job is initialized with 1 (step S300). Then, the PJL data corresponding to the divided job m is transmitted to the corresponding image forming apparatus (step S301), and by referring to the progress management table 419 of the print controller 400, the m-th divided job (divided job m) is assigned. In the corresponding image forming apparatus, it is determined whether or not the preparation for the paper storage by the moving body is completed (step S302). When the moving body corresponding to the division job m is in the middle of the moving path and the preparation for paper storage is not completed (No in step S302), the loops of steps S302 to S305 are executed.

In the loop of steps S302 to S305, after receiving the split job m, it is determined whether or not there is another print job in the image forming apparatus that is not conveyed by the moving body (step S303). When another print job exists (Yes in step S303), printing is instructed to print the print job having the shortest print time among the plurality of print jobs waiting to be executed (step S304). If there is no other print job (No in step S303), printing of the split job m is not started (step S305). In this way, the loop of steps S302 to S305 is repeated, and the moving body 101 waits for reaching the takeoff and landing platform 305.

When the preparation of the moving body is completed in the image forming apparatus corresponding to the division job m (Yes in step S302), the corresponding image forming apparatus is instructed to start printing of the division job m (step S307), and step S308. Move to. Step S308 is a loop continuation requirement and determines whether the variable m is less than the total number of split jobs. If it is less than that, the variable m is incremented (step S309), and the process returns to step S302. Hereinafter, the processes of steps S302 to S309 are repeated for all the divided jobs.

(6-5) Execution Process of Each Split Job With reference to FIGS. 15 and 16, the split job A1 / 5 to split job A5 / 5 is targeted by the above-mentioned job delivery instruction process 207D and job print instruction process 207P. The operation when it becomes is explained. FIG. 15 is a timing chart showing the time relationship of the split job A1 / 5 to the split job A5 / 5. FIG. 16 shows the routes of the moving bodies 101, 102, and 103 when the division job A1 / 5 to the division job A5 / 5 is executed.

(6-5-1) Operation when executing the divided job A1 / 5 The operation of the moving body 101 when executing the divided job A1 / 5 is as follows. In the progress management table 419 of FIG. 7, the moving body 101 and the image forming apparatus 301 are assigned the division job A1 / 5, which is the page range of the first order. Therefore, in the job print instruction process 207P of the print instruction unit 408, step S400 in FIG. 11 becomes Yes, and the movement of the moving body 101 from the home position 100 is executed without delay at the time point t1 in FIG. 15 (FIG. 11). Steps S401 to S404). Specifically, the moving body 101 is navigated with the home position 100 as the departure position and the takeoff and landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus 301 as the destination. During this time, since the status of the moving body 101 is moving, the moving body 101 departs from the home position 100 and heads for the takeoff and landing platform 305 as shown by the arrow 101A in FIG. During this time, the job print instruction process 207P of the print instruction unit 408 repeats the loop of steps S302 to S305 of FIG.

When the mobile 101 reaches the takeoff and landing platform 305 and opens the door 116 of the cabinet 115, the status of the mobile 101 is ready. As a result, the job progress management unit 409 sets the status of the split job A1 / 5 to unprinted / ready. When the status of the split job A1 / 5 is unprinted / ready, step S302 in FIG. 14 becomes Yes, and at time t2 in FIG. 15, the image forming apparatus 301 is instructed to start printing for the split job A1 / 5. (Step S307).

When printing is started in this way, the moving body 101 accommodates the paper discharged from the discharge tray 301B of the image forming apparatus 301 in the cabinet 115 of the moving body 101. After that, after waiting for the delivery instruction from the delivery instruction unit 407, the flight is started as shown by the arrow 101B in FIG. 16, and the paper stored in the cabinet 115 is delivered to the takeoff / landing platform 210 of the client terminal 201.

(6-5-2) Operation when executing the split job A2 / 5 The split job A2 / 5 will be described. Since the print job immediately before the split job A2 / 5 becomes the split job A1 / 5, the time point t2 when the image forming apparatus 301 starts printing the split job A1 / 5 and the moving body 101 starts accommodating the printed matter. The moving body 102 is not moved until (No in step S400 in FIG. 11). At the time point t2, the moving body 102 is started to navigate after waiting for the printing of the image forming apparatus 301 to start (Yes in step S400, steps S401 and S402).

As a result, the moving body 102 heads toward the takeoff and landing platform 306 of the image forming apparatus 302 as shown by the arrow 102A in FIG. 16 for accommodating the split job A2 / 5. Similar to the division job A1 / 5, when printing by the image forming apparatus 302 is started, the printed matter output from the image forming apparatus 302 is housed in the cabinet 115 and heads toward the takeoff and landing platform 210 as shown by arrow 102B. Deliver the printed matter of the split job A2 / 5.

(6-5-3) Operation when the split job A3 / 5 is executed The split job A3 / 5 will be described. Since the print job immediately before the split job A3 / 5 becomes the split job A2 / 5, the time point t3 at which the image forming apparatus 302 starts printing the split job A2 / 5 and the moving body 101 starts accommodating the printed matter. Until, the navigation of the moving body 103 is not started (No in step S400). At the time point t3, the navigation of the moving body 103 is started after waiting for the printing of the image forming apparatus 302 to start (Yes in step S400, steps S401 and S402). As a result, the moving body 103 heads for the takeoff / landing platform 307 of the image forming apparatus 303 for accommodating the split job A3 / 5 (arrow 103A in FIG. 16). Similar to the division job A1 / 5, when printing by the image forming apparatus 303 is started, the printed matter output from the image forming apparatus 303 is housed in the cabinet 115 and heads toward the takeoff and landing platform 210 as shown by arrow 103B. Deliver the printed matter of the split job A3 / 5.

(6-5-4) Operation when executing the split job A4 / 5 The split job A4 / 5 will be described. The print job immediately before the split job A4 / 5 is the split job A3 / 5. At the time t4 when the printed matter of the division job A1 / 5 is taken out from the moving body 101, the printing of the division job A3 / 5 by the image forming apparatus 303 has already started, so step S400 becomes Yes. Therefore, at the time point t4 in FIG. 15, the movement of the moving body 101 is started without waiting for the printing and paper storage of the image forming apparatus 303 to be started (steps S401 and S402 in FIG. 11). In the second round, the moving body 101 is navigated with the takeoff and landing platform 210 of the user's residence as the departure position and the takeoff and landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus 301 as the destination.

As a result, as shown by the arrow 101C in FIG. 16, the moving body 101 returns to the takeoff / landing platform 305 of the image forming apparatus 301 again with the takeoff / landing platform 210 as the starting position, and is discharged from the discharge tray 301B of the image forming apparatus 301. The paper is housed in cabinet 115. When the paper is stored in the cabinet 115, the paper heads to the takeoff / landing platform 210 again as shown by the arrow 101D in FIG. Since the division job allocation of the image forming apparatus 301 is the division job A1 / 5 and the division job A4 / 5, the moving body 101 returns to the home position 100 after the printed matter of the division job A4 / 5 is delivered.

(6-5-5) Operation when executing the split job A5 / 5 The split job A5 / 5 will be described. The print job immediately before the split job A5 / 5 is the split job A4 / 5. At the time t5 when the printed matter of the division job A2 / 5 is taken out from the moving body 102, the printing of the division job A4 / 5 by the image forming apparatus 301 is started, so step S400 becomes Yes. Therefore, at the time point t5, the movement of the moving body 102 is started without waiting for the printing and paper storage of the image forming apparatus 301 to be started (steps S401 and S402).

As a result, after delivering the printed matter of the split job A2 / 5 to the user, the moving body 102 changes the route to the image forming device 302 and changes the route to the image forming device 302 with the takeoff and landing platform 210 as the starting position as shown by the arrow 102C in FIG. Head to. When the storage of the paper discharged from the image forming apparatus 302 is completed, the moving body 102 is started as shown by the arrow 102D and heads for the takeoff and landing platform 210. After delivering the printing paper for the split job A5 / 5 to the takeoff and landing platform 210 in this way, the moving body 102 is returned to the home position 100.

(6-6) Priority Execution of Other Print Jobs Priority execution of another print job in step S304 of FIG. 14 will be described. During the execution of the first round of split jobs A1 / 5 to A3 / 5 described in (6-5-1) to (6-5-5) above, the takeoff and landing installed in the image forming apparatus from the home position. During the period in which the moving body moves to the platform, the loop consisting of steps S302 to S305 of FIG. 14 is waiting to be executed.

When executing the second round of split jobs A4 / 5 to A5 / 5, the moving object is moved from the takeoff and landing platform installed in the image forming apparatus to the destination of the user's residence, and the moving object is moved from the destination to the takeoff and landing platform. Is waiting for execution of the loop consisting of steps S302 to S305 of FIG.

Among the print jobs of PJL data stored in the queue memory 310 of the image forming devices 301, 302, and 303, the print time is short while waiting for the moving object to be prepared in the loop of steps S302 to S305 of FIG. Things are executed in sequence while waiting for the moving object to be accommodated. FIG. 17A shows a state in which a plurality of print jobs are waiting to be executed in each of the plurality of image forming devices. The image forming apparatus 302 has print jobs D, E, and F as print jobs waiting to be executed. Of these, the print time of print job E is the shortest (5 seconds), followed by The print time of print job F is short (10 seconds). Therefore, in step S304 of FIG. 14, these print jobs are sequentially executed with short print times. As a result, the print jobs E and F are preferentially executed as shown in FIG. 17B while the image forming apparatus 302 waits for the moving body 102 to be ready for accommodation.

The image forming apparatus 303 has print jobs G, H, and I as print jobs waiting to be executed. Of these, the print time of print job I is the shortest (3 seconds), followed by The print time of print job H is short (15 seconds). Similar to the image forming apparatus 302, among the three print jobs waiting to be executed, those with a short print time are sequentially executed. As a result, as shown in FIG. 17B, the print jobs I and H are preferentially executed while waiting for the processing progress of the split job A1 / 5.

The two print jobs (print jobs B and C) stored in the queue memory 310 of the image forming apparatus 301 are divided jobs A4 / 5 after the moving body 101 goes to deliver the printed matter of the divided job A1 / 5. It is executed in the period until it returns to the position of the image forming apparatus 301 for accommodating the printed matter.

The remaining print jobs (print job D) stored in the queue memory 310 of the image forming apparatus 302 are the printed matter of the split job A5 / 5 after the moving body 102 goes to deliver the printed matter of the split job A2 / 5. It is executed during the period until it returns to the position of the image forming apparatus 302 for containment.

The remaining print jobs (print jobs G) stored in the queue memory 310 of the image forming apparatus 303 are executed immediately after the printed matter of the division job A3 / 5 is output. The printed matter of the print jobs B to G shown in FIG. 17A is discharged to the outside of the machine from the discharge tray 301A of the discharge destination sorting unit 304 shown in FIG.

In this way, by preferentially executing the normal print job that is waiting to be executed, the waiting time until the start of printing of the split job is ranked in the queue of other print jobs that are not delivered by the moving object. Productivity can be improved because it is executed in advance.

[7] Summary The job division unit 405 of the print controller 400 divides the document data related to the print request by the user into page units limited to the loading capacity of the moving bodies 101, 102, and 103. Since the delivery instruction unit 407 distributes and prints the plurality of partial job data obtained by such division to each of the image forming devices 301, 302, and 303, the fractional pages exceeding the loading capacity of the moving body are image-formed. Transmission to devices 301, 302, 303 is postponed. In this way, the transmission of the fractional pages is postponed, so that the printed matter of the fractional pages (pages 61 to 80 and 81 to 90 in FIG. 16) reaches the user who operates the client terminal 200 first. There is no such thing. Since the user can use the document distributed and printed by a plurality of image forming devices without worrying about the page order being changed, the convenience for the user can be improved.

[8] Modified Examples Although the present invention has been described above based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the following modified examples can be considered.

(8-1) In the embodiment, the mobile bodies 101 to 103 are quad drones, but the present invention is not limited to this. It may be a traveling vehicle that drives and travels by autonomous control. Like the moving body 101, the traveling vehicle is provided with a cabinet for accommodating the paper, and the paper ejected from the discharge tray of the image forming apparatus 301 is accommodated in the cabinet. Then, with the paper stored in the cabinet, it travels on the premises of the office and delivers it to the user's residence. Further, the above-mentioned traveling vehicle may travel along the guide member on the floor surface of the business establishment.

(8-2) In the above embodiment, the document of the print job related to the print request is divided into page units (20 pages) based on the loading capacity of the moving bodies 101 to 103, but the present invention is not limited to this. The print job document may be divided with different loading capacities for each mover. For example, the loading capacities of the moving bodies 101, 102, and 103 are as shown in FIG. 18A, and are different for each moving body (200 g for the moving body 101, 300 g for the moving body 102, and 500 g for the moving body 103). , 20-page, 30-page, and 50-page printing paper can be delivered, according to the flowchart of FIG. 9, three split jobs targeting a 20-page page range, a 30-page page range, and a 50-page page range are performed. Generated and as shown in FIG. 18B, from page 1 to page 20 of the split job A1 / 3, page 21 to page 50 of the split job A2 / 3, page 51 to be printed. A divided job A3 / 3 for printing up to 90 pages is generated, and the image forming devices 301, 302, and 303 are made to execute these printings. In this way, by maximizing the loading capacity of the moving bodies 101 to 103, the printed matter can be delivered to the user without reciprocating the moving body. Further, when there is a difference in the loading capacity of the moving body, the document according to the request may be divided for each page on which the moving body having the smallest loading capacity can be loaded.

In the above embodiment, it is assumed that the moving bodies 101 to 103 have the same navigation performance (speed, altitude), and the distances between the image forming devices 301 to 303 and the takeoff and landing platform 210 are substantially the same, but this is limited to this. I can't. For each printed matter of each divided page, the print instruction unit 408 sets the print instruction unit 408 according to the performance and cruising distance of the moving objects 101 to 103 so that the printed matter arrives at the takeoff and landing platform 210 in the order of the smallest page number to the largest page number. The order in which print instructions are issued and the order in which the delivery instruction unit 407 issues delivery instructions may be controlled.

(8-3) Although it is assumed that the mobile monitoring unit 402, the MFP monitoring unit 403, the job analysis unit 404, the job division unit 405, and the job progress management unit 409 are provided in the print controller 400, the MFP monitoring unit 403 and the job analysis unit 404 , The job division unit 405 and the job progress management unit 409 may be provided in the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus (hereinafter, entry image forming apparatus) having the MFP monitoring unit 403, the job analysis unit 404, the job dividing unit 405, and the job progress management unit 409 may be any of the image forming apparatus 301 to 303. , It may exist separately from the image forming apparatus 301-303. When the job division unit 405 generates PJL data for the division job, the entry image forming apparatus executes a part of the plurality of partial job data obtained by the division.

The print instruction unit 408 distributes the PJL data of the remaining division jobs to each of the remaining image forming devices and prints them. Such processing is repeated until all the remaining PJL data is printed. The delivery instruction unit 407 divides all the instructions for accommodating the printed matter in the moving bodies 101 to 103 and delivering it to the destination each time the printed matter is output from the entry image forming apparatus and the other image forming apparatus. Repeat until the printed matter of the PJL data of the job is delivered.

(8-4) According to the analysis of PJL data by the job analysis unit 404, finishing such as punching and staples and poster printing may be executed for the divided job. If the document related to the PJL data involves printing multiple copies and some of the pages are less than the loading capacity of the moving body 101, punch and staple each number of pages that the moving body 101 can deliver. An instruction is issued to the image forming apparatus 301. By doing so, the printed matter of the split job may be delivered to the moving body 101 in a state where the staples and punches are applied.

(8-5) The print controller 400 delivers the PJL data of the division job to each image forming apparatus, but the present invention is not limited to this. Even if the print controller 400 is provided with an image conversion unit that converts PJL data to a bitmap, and the document data in PDL (page description language) format including the bitmap obtained by the conversion is delivered to each image forming apparatus. Good. Specifically, the image conversion unit of the print controller 400 performs binarization, halftone dot replacement, and gradation processing (including γ correction) for the document image for each page included in the PJL data generated by the client terminal 200. ), Color tone adjustment, color tint change, and then expand to a bitmap to obtain PDL format document data. The print controller 400 passes the bitmap of each divided job to the image forming devices 301, 302, 303, and causes the image forming devices 301, 302, 303 to print about these divided jobs.

(8-6) The image forming apparatus 301 is supposed to drop the paper through the slope of the discharge tray 301B and accommodate it in the cabinet 115 of the moving body 101, but the present invention is not limited to this. As described in Patent Document 2, the moving body 101 may suspend the printed matter holding portion via a wire or the like. This printed matter holding portion has an opening on the side surface. The moving body 101 is hovered near the discharge port side of the image forming apparatus 301, and the opening of the printed matter holding portion is communicated with the paper ejection port of the image forming apparatus, so that the moving body 101 is ejected from the ejection port of the image forming apparatus. The printed matter is accommodated in the printed matter holding portion. When the printed matter discharged from the image forming apparatus is accommodated in the printed matter holding portion in this way, the printed matter is delivered by the moving body 101 starting navigation while suspending the printed matter holding portion with a wire.

(8-7) In the above embodiment, the home position is provided separately from the takeoff and landing platforms 306, 307, 308 of the image forming apparatus 301, 302, 303, but the present invention is not limited to this. The takeoff and landing platforms 305, 306, and 307 may be used as home positions.

(8-8) In controlling the moving bodies 101, 102, 103, an appropriate moving amount may be calculated by a Kalman filter. The Kalman filter is an algorithm that appropriately determines the amount of movement by multiplying the value obtained by subtracting the estimated value from the observed value by the gain coefficient and adding it to the estimated value.

The mobile bodies 101, 102, and 103 may fly autonomously by positioning with GPS, or may navigate while creating a three-dimensional map in real time by SLAM (Simultaneous Localization Mapping). Further, model-based control including robust control, adaptive control, and nonlinear control, neural network, fuzzy theory, and artificial intelligence algorithm may be used for autonomous control of the moving body 101.

(8-9) It is assumed that wireless communication with the mobile body 101 is performed by wireless LAN, but the present invention is not limited to this. Other communication means such as BLE (Bluetooth® Low Energy), GPS, RFID, etc. may be used.

(8-10) In the above embodiment, the number of moving bodies is equal to the number of image forming devices, but the number is not limited to this. Assuming that the number of image forming devices is N, the number of image forming devices may be (N + α).

When N = 3 and α = 1, and 4 moving bodies are used for 3 image forming devices, 3 of the 4 moving bodies are initially used as 3 image forming devices. They approach each other, store printed matter, and take off toward their destination. The remaining one moving body is on standby during that time.

When the first of the three moving objects reaches the destination of the user's residence, the waiting moving object approaches the first image forming device that outputs the printed matter to be transported next, and the printed matter is output. And take off toward the destination. As a result, new printed matter can be transported without waiting for the first moving body to return to the image forming apparatus, as compared with the case where there are only three moving bodies, and the speed of transportation can be increased. You can plan.

When the first moving object reaches the destination, delivers the printed matter to the user, and returns, it approaches the second image forming apparatus. Then, the printed matter output from the second image forming apparatus is accommodated, and the navigation to the destination is started. Similarly, the moving body that delivered the printed matter to the user at the second destination returns to the third image forming apparatus, accommodates the printed matter printed by the image forming apparatus, and navigates toward the destination. To start. The moving body that has reached the third destination waits until the printed matter is output from the first image forming apparatus.

In this way, when the number of moving objects is 4 with respect to the three image forming devices, one is always in the standby state, but one of the other three reaches the destination first. Then, it is possible to approach the image forming apparatus, load the printed matter, and start the navigation, so that the cycle time for delivering the printed matter of the three image forming apparatus to the destination can be shortened. The number of moving bodies is not limited to four, and five can be used. In that case, two units will be on standby, but for both of the standby units, the printed matter to be transported next and the printed matter to be transported next will be returned by the moving body that took off first. It can be installed and started without waiting, which further contributes to higher speed.

Further, when the number of moving bodies is a multiple of the image forming apparatus, the number of moving bodies per unit becomes a plurality, and the plurality of moving bodies can convey the printed matter in a pipeline manner, further increasing the speed. Can be planned.

(8-11) In the above embodiment, it is determined that the delivery of the split job m-1 corresponding to the immediately preceding page range has been completed and that the split job m-1 is being delivered. The delivery interval of printed matter is set to a predetermined state, but the present invention is not limited to this. The fact that the moving body of the division job m-1 corresponding to the immediately preceding page range reaches the point 1 / n of the route may be set as a predetermined state in which the delivery interval of the printed matter can be secured. That is, when the moving body loaded with the printed matter of a certain page unit passes a predetermined point in the map data, the delivery of the printed matter by the moving body loaded with the next printed matter may be started. In addition, when a moving object loaded with printed matter in a certain page unit counts the elapsed time from the start of navigation with a timer and the timed value of the timer reaches a predetermined time, the movement loaded with the next printed matter is carried out. Delivery of printed matter by the body may be initiated.

(8-12) The image forming apparatus 301, 302, 303 is said to be a multifunctional multifunction device, but the present invention is not limited to this. It may be a single-function peripheral device (printer) of a personal computer. Further, it may be a label printing machine, a postcard printing machine, or a production printing machine.

The present invention is useful as a remote printing system for printing on a plurality of image forming devices arranged at remote locations, including the industrial fields of OA equipment and information equipment, as well as retailing, leasing, real estate, and publishing. It may be used in various industrial fields such as industry.

101-103 Mobile body 101-303 Mobile body 111M-114M Rotor drive motor 115 Cabinet 116 Door 117 Wireless LAN master unit 121 Wireless LAN slave unit 122 HPF memory 123 Gyro sensor 124 Ultrasonic sensor 125 Speed sensor 126 Paper sensor 127 Grounding sensor 128 HPF control circuit 129 NADF control circuit 130 Clamping control circuit 131 Motor drive circuit 200 Client terminal 200N Wired LAN
201 Document Creation Application 201J PJL Data 202 OS
203 Printer driver 204 Storage 210 Takeoff and landing platform 301 Image forming device 301-303 Image forming device 304 Discharge destination sorting unit 304C Tray selection command 305-307 Takeoff and landing platform 312 Developer 313 Paper feeding unit 314 Transfer unit 315 Fixing unit 316 Control unit 317 panel Operation unit 400 Print controller 401 Network interface unit 402 Mobile monitoring unit 403 MFP monitoring unit 404 Job analysis unit 405 Job division unit 407 Delivery instruction unit 408 Print instruction unit 409 Job progress management unit 415 Mobile model data 419 Progress management table 435 Paper Weight table 1000 image forming system

Claims (9)

It is an image forming system that includes a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of autonomously controllable moving objects, and executes printing of job data including document contents and delivery of printed matter by using the image forming apparatus and the moving objects. hand,
Job data division means for obtaining a plurality of partial job data by dividing job data including a document requested to be printed by a user as content in predetermined page units equal to or less than the loading capacity of printed matter by a moving body.
A print execution instruction means for repeatedly issuing an instruction to distribute and print a plurality of partial job data obtained by division to each of the plurality of image forming devices until all the partial job data are printed.
Every time the printed matter of the partial job data is output from the image forming apparatus, the instruction to accommodate the printed matter in the moving body and deliver it to the destination is repeatedly issued until the printed matter of all the partial job data is delivered. An image forming system characterized by comprising means. The predetermined page unit is the upper limit number of recording sheets that can be loaded by the moving body, and the job data dividing means records the weight that is the upper limit of the loading capacity of each moving body to form the printed matter. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined page unit is determined by dividing by the weight per unit number of sheets. The moving body includes a cabinet for accommodating printed matter and a status notification unit.
The state of the moving body is expressed by the presence / absence of a recording sheet in the cabinet, the presence / absence of the arrival of the moving body, and the open / closed state of the cabinet door.
When the moving body arrives at the image forming apparatus and the door of the cabinet is opened without using the recording sheet, the status notification unit sends a new moving body through the wireless communication network. Notify you that you have reached a status that can accommodate printed matter
The print execution instruction means receives a notification from the status notification unit that the status has been reached, and issues a print start instruction to the image forming apparatus that has distributed the partial job data. Or the image forming system according to 2. When the recording sheet is placed on the cabinet of the moving body and the door of the cabinet is closed after the printing execution instruction means instructs the start of printing, the status notification unit is the moving body. Notify that the new printed matter has been stored in
The image forming system according to claim 3, wherein the delivery execution instruction means issues an instruction to start delivery to the moving body upon receiving a notification that the printed matter has been stored by the moving body. .. After the delivery execution instruction means issues a delivery start instruction, the moving body arrives at the destination, the door of the cabinet is opened, the recording sheet is taken out by the user, and the recording sheet is placed. If there is no status, the status notification unit notifies that the status of the completion of delivery of the printed matter by the moving object has been reached.
The image forming system according to claim 4, wherein the delivery execution instruction means receives a notification of the completion of delivery of the printed matter and issues an instruction to the moving body to return to the image forming apparatus. When a plurality of printed matter of partial job data is output from each of the plurality of image forming devices, the delivery execution instruction means performs the processing of 1) below in ascending order of the page number of each page corresponding to the partial job data. 2. Execute the process of 2) for each of the partial job data. 1) When instructing the delivery of the printed matter of 1 page unit output by the image forming apparatus of 1), it is the printed matter corresponding to the immediately preceding page unit. Monitor the condition of the moving object containing what is output from another image forming device,
2) Waiting for the state of the moving body that delivers the printed matter corresponding to the immediately preceding page unit to become a predetermined state that can secure the delivery interval of the printed matter, the delivery instruction is given to the moving body for the printed matter of the one page unit. Emit to
The image forming system according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the image forming system is characterized. The period spent moving the moving object from the home position to the takeoff and landing platform installed in the image forming apparatus, and / or moving the moving object from the takeoff and landing platform installed in the image forming apparatus to the destination of the user's residence. During the period spent returning the moving object from the destination to the takeoff and landing platform, other job data without delivery of printed matter was accumulated in the memory of the image forming apparatus to which the partial job data was distributed. The image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the printing of the other job data is preferentially executed. It is used in an image forming system including a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of autonomously controllable moving objects, and prints job data including document contents and delivers printed matter by using the image forming apparatus and the moving objects. It is a control device that
Job data division means for obtaining a plurality of partial job data by dividing job data including a document requested to be printed by a user as content in predetermined page units equal to or less than the loading capacity of printed matter by a moving body.
A print execution instruction means for repeatedly issuing an instruction to distribute and print a plurality of partial job data obtained by division to each of the plurality of image forming devices until all the partial job data are printed.
Every time the printed matter of the partial job data is output from the image forming apparatus, the instruction to accommodate the printed matter in the moving body and deliver it to the destination is repeatedly issued until the printed matter of all the partial job data is delivered. A control device characterized by comprising means. 1 in an image forming system that includes a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of autonomously controllable moving objects, and executes printing of job data including document contents and delivery of printed matter by using the image forming apparatus and the moving objects. It is an image forming device of
Job data division means for obtaining a plurality of partial job data by dividing job data including a document requested to be printed by a user as content in predetermined page units equal to or less than the loading capacity of printed matter by a moving body.
A job execution means that executes a part of a plurality of partial job data obtained by division, and
A print execution instruction means that repeatedly issues an instruction to distribute and print the remaining partial job data to each of the remaining image forming devices until all the remaining partial job data is printed.
Every time the printed matter of the partial job data is output from each image forming apparatus, the instruction to accommodate the printed matter in the moving body and deliver it to the destination is repeatedly issued until the printed matter of all the partial job data is delivered. An image forming apparatus including an instruction means.

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