JP3079460B2 - Automatic guided vehicle - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic guided vehicle for preventing a vehicle body from swinging when a vehicle turns.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG.
Is provided with a pair of drive wheels 3, 3 which are driven forward and reverse by a motor (not shown) at substantially the center of the vehicle body 2, and the caster wheels 4, 4 are distributed back and forth in order to maintain the front-rear balance of the vehicle body. It is arranged. The automatic guided vehicle 1 travels along a predetermined traveling course, and performs a direction change using a rotational speed difference or forward / reverse rotation of the left and right drive wheels 3, 3 at the time of direction change.

[0003]

However, in the conventional configuration, when the vehicle body changes direction, particularly when the vehicle is going to travel backward while rotating the drive wheels in reverse from the forward traveling of the vehicle body and keeping the direction of the vehicle body unchanged, However, since the vehicle rotates around the caster shaft, the vehicle body sometimes fluctuated at the start of traveling. This means that stable traveling of the automatic guided vehicle cannot be maintained satisfactorily, which is a problem that is feared in terms of safe traveling.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to prevent the vehicle body from swinging when the automatic guided vehicle changes direction.

[0005]

To solve the above problems, the present invention has the following technical means. That is, in an automatic guided vehicle provided with a drive wheel that is responsible for traveling and turning of the vehicle body and an auxiliary wheel that supports the vehicle body at the lower part of the vehicle body and follows and rotates in accordance with the traveling and direction change of the vehicle body, the auxiliary wheels are: Movement to the vehicle body is restrained and urged against the road surface,
Moreover, the automatic guided vehicle is a sphere that can rotate in all directions.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the automatic guided vehicle 1, and the same reference numerals are given to the same portions as in the related art.

[0007] As shown in the figure, the sphere 10 in this example is provided so as to be divided back and forth across the driving wheels 3.
The position of the sphere 10 is not limited to this, but may be arranged at each of the four corners of the vehicle body 2. The drive wheels 3, 3 are configured to be rotatable in forward and reverse directions. In addition, the drive wheels 3, 3 may be rotatable in normal and reverse directions independently of each other. Only one of the rotations may be enabled.

The sphere 10 is a constituent member of the vehicle body support device Q. As shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle body support device Q is inserted into the bracket 5 while being constantly urged downward into the bracket 5. And the housing 7.

The bracket 5 is a disk-shaped upper plate 5 in this embodiment.
A, a cylindrical portion 5B fixed to the upper plate 5A, and a flange 5C formed at a lower portion of the cylindrical portion 5B are exemplified. Is fixed to the frame 16. Note that the bracket 5 may be integrally formed by a press or the like.

A pressing piece 8 is elastically inserted into the bracket 5 via a plurality of disc springs 9 in this embodiment. The pushing piece 8 can slide on the inner surface of the cylindrical portion 5B of the bracket 5 at the outer peripheral edge 8A, and a spherical portion 8B substantially the same as a spherical body 10 described later is formed on the lower surface of the pushing piece 8.

The sphere 10 is constantly urged downward by the pressing piece spherical portion 8 B in the bracket 5, and is rotatably supported by the housing 7. The sphere 10
Is a metal material, a resin, a hard rubber, or the like, depending on the application.

The housing 7 has a cylindrical body 11 for vertically and rotatably guiding the spherical body 10, a holding part 13 located at the lowermost part and having a diameter smaller than the diameter of the spherical body 10, and a cylindrical body 11. 11 and a flange 12 formed around the periphery. The cylinder 11 has an inner diameter slightly larger than the diameter d1 of the sphere 10 and supports the sphere 10 vertically and rotatably. In addition, the holding unit 13 is provided with the sphere 1
It has a circular opening having an inner diameter d2 smaller than the diameter of 0. Therefore, when there is no reaction force from the road surface, the sphere 10 is held in the state shown by the chain line in FIG.

The flange 12 of the housing 7 is fastened together with the bracket 5 by the bolt 15 via a spacer 14. Therefore, the road surface pressing force of the sphere 10 can be adjusted by variously adjusting the height of the spacer 14.

Next, attention is paid to the operation of the automatic guided vehicle.
During traveling, the vehicle travels along a traveling course. At this time, the sphere 10 rotates according to the traveling of the automatic guided vehicle 1. Next, when the vehicle body 2 changes direction, especially when the drive wheels 3 are reversely rotated from the forward traveling of the vehicle body 2 and the backward traveling is started with the posture of the vehicle body 2 unchanged, the sphere 10 rotates around the center of the sphere, From the point where 10 stops, it immediately follows the turning direction. Then, the automatic guided vehicle re-runs stably. The automatic guided vehicle 1 includes a vehicle that transports luggage, a vehicle that cleans the floor, and other vehicles that travel unmanned.

[0015]

According to the present invention, a driving wheel capable of traveling and changing directions and an auxiliary wheel are provided, and a sphere is employed as the auxiliary wheel. It rotates and can rotate in the turning direction immediately from the point where the sphere stops. Thus, there is no fluctuation in the initial running immediately after the turning. As a result, stable traveling of the automatic guided vehicle is favorably maintained, and thus safe traveling can be realized. Also,
Since there is no caster shaft such as a caster wheel, a bearing or the like for supporting the caster shaft on the vehicle body side can be omitted, and the height can be reduced to contribute to lowering the floor of the automatic guided vehicle.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of an automatic guided vehicle showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the automatic guided vehicle according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing a conventional automatic guided vehicle.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Unmanned guided vehicle 2 Body 3 Drive wheel 5 Bracket 7 Housing 8 Push piece 9 Disc spring 10 Spherical body 11 Cylindrical body 13 Holding part Q Body support device

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automatic guided vehicle provided with: a drive wheel for driving the vehicle body and turning; and an auxiliary wheel that supports the vehicle body at a lower portion of the vehicle body and that rotates in accordance with the running and direction change of the vehicle body. An automatic guided vehicle characterized in that the wheels are spheres that are restricted from moving relative to the vehicle body, are urged against the road surface, and can rotate in all directions.