JP4140350B2 - Goods transport equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an article provided with a control device for outputting a conveyance command via a communication means to a conveyance vehicle that is allowed to travel along a conveyance path and conveys an article between article delivery stations. It relates to transport equipment.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, as an article transport facility, a transport vehicle that travels on a travel rail and transports the articles between the article delivery stations arranged along the travel rail, a transport destination of the transport vehicle, and transfer of the articles As a communication device that has a ground-side controller that controls instructions, etc., and that communicates between each transport vehicle and the ground-side controller, feeder wires are laid along the rails for travel, and feeder wires are connected to the ground-side controller. In addition, there is known a facility in which a ground modem is provided and a wireless modem is provided on each carrier vehicle for transmitting and receiving radio waves to and from a feeder line (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
[0003]
The ground side controller determines the state of the transport vehicle device based on the state information of the transport vehicle device received from the transport vehicle by the communication device, and determines that the transport vehicle device is stopped. The device outputs a stop command to the transport vehicle to stop it.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-216023
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in the above article transport equipment, since radio waves, that is, signals are transmitted and received through the feeder line, the signal transmitted from the transport vehicle to the ground controller is disturbed due to a poor communication state, and the ground controller actually The data may be recognized as different data.
[0006]
For example, as a signal format, in order to reliably recognize the vehicle number of the transport vehicle, the data representing the vehicle number is transmitted continuously with two inspection codes (for example, inspection bits) indicating the order, Only when two identical vehicle numbers are received successively in order by the receiving ground controller, the controller is recognized as a transport vehicle of the vehicle number.
[0007]
By the way, when noise enters the head of the signal and the first data is not recognized as the vehicle number, the recognition operation is naturally stopped, but it is not noise, but depending on the reception state of the radio wave, the first vehicle Even when the part representing the number is received in duplicate, there is a problem that the waiting state of the transport vehicle increases because the operation of recognizing the vehicle number is not performed after two identical inspection codes. Even when the first duplicate vehicle number is garbled and different from the subsequent vehicle number, but only the inspection code is the same, the transport vehicle is in a standby state.
[0008]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an article transport facility that can reduce the standby state of the transport vehicle as much as possible when the transport vehicle is recognized.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an article transport facility according to claim 1 of the present invention is configured to be able to travel along a transport path disposed along a plurality of article delivery stations, and along the transport path. A transport vehicle that delivers articles between the article delivery stations, and a mobile communication means provided in the transport vehicle and a stationary communication means provided on the ground side, and the above-mentioned transport vehicle by radio waves. In an article transportation facility comprising a control device that performs transmission / reception of a signal composed of bit string data and recognition operation of the signal content and outputs an article transportation command,
The signal transmitted from the transport vehicle is composed of two pieces of identification information arranged continuously from the head and the actual data indicating the contents of the transport command arranged following the second identification information from the head. Each identification information is composed of a vehicle number that identifies the transport vehicle and an inspection code that indicates the order of arrangement from the head in the signal of the identification information,
On the control device side,
The inspection code included in the first identification information from the head of the received signal is the first vehicle number registered in advance, and the inspection code included in the second identification information from the head of the received signal is In the code determination of whether or not it represents the second, if the inspection code represents the second, the vehicle number included in the second identification information is further included in the first identification information determines whether or not to match, if the bit string following the person said second identification information when a match is performed the output of the carry command is regarded as representing the actual data, do not match, Abort the signal content recognition operation of bit string data ,
If the check codes in the code judgment does not represent a second, the beginning of the bit of the bit string data of the received signal, identification information indicating the same number as the number of bits the number of bits of the second to be shifted forward New bit string data having identification information as the first identification information is obtained, and the code determination for the new bit string data is repeated until the check code included in the second identification information represents the second,
In addition, the signal content recognition operation of the bit string data is discontinued even when the acquisition of the new bit string data and the repetition of the code determination are performed a predetermined number of times .
[0010]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the equipment according to the first aspect, after the signal content recognition operation is terminated, the transport vehicle is placed in a standby state.
[0011]
According to the above configuration, when communication is performed using radio waves between the transport vehicle and the ground control device, two identification information of the transport vehicle is continuously arranged in the signal, and the control device When recognizing this signal, if the first identification information includes vehicle number data registered in advance, the bit string of the identification information until the inspection codes in the second identification information are in the correct order. Since the first signal is not noise but the identification information is duplicated due to radio wave disturbance etc., the transport vehicle is immediately brought into a non-operating state. Compared to the above, the ratio of recognizing the vehicle number can be remarkably improved.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an article conveyance facility according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0013]
As shown in FIG. 1, the article conveying facility includes a traveling rail (configured by two rails) 1 arranged in a loop (annular), a position along the traveling rail 1 and a predetermined position. The article delivery stations 2 (2A to 2I) arranged at a plurality of places, for example, nine places, and the carriages 1 are allowed to run on the running rail 1 to convey the articles between the delivery stations 2 and 2 (the article An instruction for delivery of an article W between each of the article delivery stations 2 and each of the delivery vehicles 3 based on instructions from a plurality of delivery vehicles 3 and a central management device 4 that manages the entire facility; It is comprised from the control apparatus (it is also called a ground side controller) 5 for issuing the conveyance command which consists of the instruction | indication of the conveyance origin of each conveyance vehicle 3, a conveyance destination, etc.
[0014]
As shown in FIG. 2, each of the transport vehicles 3 includes a vehicle body 13 having a rectangular plan view and two driving wheels 11 and two driven wheels 12 arranged on the lower surface, and the driving wheels 11. An electric motor 14 to be rotated, a moving-side article delivery conveyor (an example of an article delivery device, specifically a roller conveyor or a chain conveyor) 15 disposed on the upper surface of the vehicle body 13, and the vehicle body 13 side And a mobile communication device (which is an example of mobile communication means, and includes a transmitter and a receiver) 16 for transmitting / receiving signals to / from the control device 5 wirelessly, that is, wirelessly. It is configured.
[0015]
A signal including identification information (data consisting of a vehicle number and an inspection code) for identifying the transport vehicle 3 and actual data indicating the operation state of the transport destination is moved from the transport vehicle 3 at a predetermined time interval. Called from the side communication device 16.
[0016]
In addition, each article delivery station 2 uses a fixed-side article delivery conveyor (an example of an article delivery device, specifically a roller conveyor or a chain conveyor) similar to the conveyor disposed in each conveyance vehicle 3. 17) is disposed, and goods are delivered by these conveyors 17 and 15.
[0017]
Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the control device 5 includes a fixed-side communication device (of course, a transmitter) for transmitting / receiving signals to / from the mobile-side communication device 16 via a feeder line 21 as an antenna. And a transport instruction unit 23 that outputs a transport command such as the transport destination of the transport vehicle 3 on the traveling rail 1 based on an instruction from the central management device 4, and the transport instruction unit 23. A signal generation unit 24 that inputs a transfer command, generates a predetermined signal and outputs the signal to the fixed-side communication device 22, and a signal analysis unit that inputs and analyzes a signal from the transfer vehicle 3 received by the fixed-side communication device 22 25.
[0018]
Here, the contents of the signals exchanged between the transport vehicle 3 and the control device 5 will be described with reference to FIG.
As described above, this signal is composed of a identification information and the actual data, among the, the identification information 31 and 32, the head (so-called top) from the order (sorted) are two arranged .
[0019]
That is, the identification information 31, 32 is a code indicating the inspection code (the order of the first byte or the second byte) in the vehicle number (data of the car) that can specify the transport vehicle 3, for example, "0" is 1 The first byte “1” represents the second byte, and is represented by a 1-byte bit string as a whole. Subsequent real data 33 is data in which data such as a transport destination (including the transport source) that is the article delivery station 2 to be transported is arranged.
[0020]
As a specific example of the signal, for example, the first byte is the first machine and the bit string [00000100] indicating that it is the first byte, and the second byte is the first machine and the second byte. A bit string [00000101] indicating this is arranged, and an actual data string is arranged after the third byte.
[0021]
By the way, the bit string [00000100] indicating that it is the first machine and the first byte and the bit string [00000101] indicating that it is the first machine and the second byte will be described. The least significant bit of each bit string is: It is a check code (check bit) for distinguishing the first byte from the second byte [when the data is an even number (check bit is 0), it is determined as the first byte, and the data is an odd number (check bit is 1). In this case, it is determined that the second byte. Of course, the first byte may be odd and the second byte may be even. ], The higher-order (front) bits are used as a bit string representing the vehicle number. In this example, the third and subsequent bits (the direction in which the digit is larger) represents the first machine [000001].
[0022]
Therefore, when analyzing the received signal, generally, first, the received signal is detected when the first byte data is an even number, and then the bit string of the data is shifted to the right by 2 bits ( The value of the vehicle number is obtained based on the bit string after the third bit (ignoring at least extra bits including the inspection bit).
[0023]
Next, it is detected whether or not the data of the second byte is an odd number. If the data is an odd number, similarly, the bit string of the data is shifted to the right by 2 bits, and then the bit data of the third bit and subsequent bits are converted. Based on this, the value of the vehicle number is obtained, and compared with the vehicle number obtained at the first byte, if it is the same, it is determined that the data is correct.
[0024]
Next, the processing contents in the signal analysis unit 25 that analyzes this signal will be described in detail.
For example, when a signal is transmitted from the mobile communication device 16 arranged in the first transport vehicle 3, the signal enters the fixed communication device 22 via the feeder line 21 and is input to the signal analysis unit 25. The transport vehicle 3 is recognized according to the flowchart shown in FIG.
[0025]
That is, when a signal is received (step 1), first, identification information of the first byte is extracted (step 2). The received signal is temporarily stored in the memory, and a necessary bit string is extracted upon request.
[0026]
Next, it is checked whether the data of the check code of the identification information is “0” or “1”, that is, whether the data of the first byte is an even number (step 3). Is determined to be the first byte (first data), the extra bits are removed (shifted to the right by 2 bits), and the vehicle number is extracted (step 4).
[0027]
Next, it is determined whether or not the vehicle number extracted in step 4 is registered in advance (whether or not the vehicle number exists) (step 5).
As described above, since the determination is made based on the inspection code and the registered vehicle number, even when the noise is erroneously recognized as being a vehicle number, the noise can be reliably determined (usually, The noise rarely matches the test code and the registered vehicle number). Conventionally, if the noise seems to be a vehicle number, the next 2 bytes of data are waited. If no data is received, the data is waited. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the data waiting state.
[0028]
The above Step 3 or Step 3 and Step 5, will be one byte of the signal is an original or merely a noise is data is determined, the data passing through the step 5, once the presence It can be seen that this is data of possible vehicle numbers.
[0029]
Then, in the subsequent steps, it is determined whether or not the data is garbled when the radio wave is received, although it is data of the vehicle number that may exist. For example, there is a case where data of the same vehicle number is continuously received as one of the garbled data, and it is possible to avoid a situation in which the transport vehicle enters a standby state due to this.
[0030]
That is, if it is determined that the identification information of the first byte is data of a vehicle number that can exist, the identification information of the second byte (second) is extracted (step 6), and the same as the first byte. Then, based on the data of the check code, it is checked whether or not the second byte data is an odd number (step 7). If it is an odd number, an extra bit is removed (shifted to the right by 2 bits) and the vehicle number. Are extracted (step 8).
[0031]
Next, it is determined whether or not the vehicle numbers extracted in the first byte and the second byte match each other. If they match, it is determined that the vehicle number is correct and the actual data is processed (step) 10). That is, actual data is input to the conveyance instruction unit 23, and a predetermined conveyance operation is executed.
[0032]
By the way, if the second byte is not an odd number in step 7, both the first byte and the second byte become even and data corruption occurs, and the same identification information is received redundantly. . This is a state in which two head data have been created.
[0033]
In this case, after increasing the number N of recognition failures by 1 (0 → 1) (step 11), it is determined whether or not the number N of failures is a predetermined number or less, for example, 5 or less (step 12).
[0034]
If the number of failures is 5 or less, the bit string of the signal is shifted by 1 byte (step 13). That is, after shifting the second byte to the first byte and the third byte to the second byte (which is the new shifted second byte), the process returns to step 6 and again the second byte (in the first stage) (The third byte) is extracted, and then the processing from step 7 onward is repeated. However, in this iterative process, the vehicle number included in the identification information that has been shifted to the second byte due to being shifted matches the vehicle number included in the identification information of the first byte of the signal before being shifted. It is determined whether or not.
[0035]
If it is determined in step 3 that the check code of the first byte is not an even number, and if the vehicle number extracted in step 5 is not registered, it is considered to be noise. Return to the signal reception waiting state (standby state). That is, the transport vehicle 3 is in a non-operating state.
[0036]
If the first and second byte vehicle numbers do not match in step 9 and if the number of recognition failures in step 12 is 5 or more, the process returns to step 1 and waits for signal reception. (Standby state), and the transport vehicle 3 enters a non-operating state.
[0037]
Hereinafter, the conveying operation in the article conveying facility will be briefly described.
For example, in FIG. 1, when an instruction to convey the article W at the first article delivery station 2A to the ninth article delivery station 2I is issued from the central management device 4, the content is indicated at the conveyance instruction unit 23 of the control device 5. Is analyzed.
[0038]
Based on the contents analyzed by the transport instruction unit 23, the transport vehicle 3A closest to the first article delivery station 2A and in a non-operating state is detected.
And when detecting this conveyance vehicle 3A, the recognition operation of a vehicle number is performed based on the flowchart shown in FIG.
[0039]
Of course, the current transfer status (information such as non-operation status, transfer status, transfer source, transfer destination, etc.) in each transfer vehicle 3 is transmitted to the control device 5 side via the respective communication devices 16 and 22 wirelessly. It is notified every predetermined time.
[0040]
When the non-operating transport vehicle 3 is not waiting nearby, for example, the transport vehicle 3 scheduled to drop the article at the nearest article delivery station 2 is selected. When the vehicle number of the transport vehicle 3A is recognized, for example, in response to a transport command from the transport instruction unit 23, the signal generation unit 25 generates a data sequence representing the transport source, the transport destination, and the actual data, and then the fixed side communication. The signal is transmitted wirelessly via the device 22 and the feeder line 21.
[0041]
The signal transmitted from the feeder line 21 is received by the mobile communication device 16 of the transport vehicle 3, and based on this signal, an instruction is given to the first article delivery station 2A.
[0042]
When an article is loaded at the first article delivery station 2A, after traveling to the ninth article delivery station 2I, the article W is delivered to the ninth article delivery station 2I. Note that the delivery operation of the article W is performed based on a signal exchanged between the article delivery station 2 and the transport vehicle 3.
[0043]
In the explanation after Step 6 above, the case where the data of the same vehicle number may be continuously entered at the head of the signal as one of garbled data has been explained. However, the data of the same vehicle number is continuous. If the first data is shifted by 1 and the first byte of (0404: Hexadecimal data) is shifted to the left by one digit, for example, (0804: Hexadecimal data) may be obtained. Even in such a case, since the check codes are continuously the same, it can be detected in step 7. That is, it can be avoided that the transport vehicle is in a standby state due to such a situation.
[0044]
As described above, when communication is performed between the transport vehicle 3 and the control device 5 on the ground side and via the feeder line 21 by radio waves (wireless), the identification information of the transport vehicle 3 is 2 in the signal. When the control device 5 recognizes this signal and the data of the vehicle number registered in advance is included in the signal of the first byte, the second byte is identified. Until the check code in the information becomes a correct value (an odd number indicating the second byte), the bit string of the identification information is shifted and detected one by one, so that the signal of the first byte is not noise but is a disturbance of radio waves In the conventional configuration, when the identification information is duplicated due to, etc. (when the same signal is received twice in succession, this state often occurs), the transport vehicle is immediately in a non-operating state in comparison with the vehicle. The rate at which numbers are recognized Therefore, it is possible to avoid the unrecognizable state of the transport vehicle based on duplication of identification information that is likely to occur at the time of transmission / reception of a signal using the feeder line, and to minimize the transport vehicle from being in a standby state. it can. That is, useless processing time can be avoided.
[0045]
In addition, since the number of operations for detecting two vehicle numbers in succession is limited, useless recognition operations can be avoided.
By the way, in the said embodiment, although demonstrated as what conveys on the rail for driving | running | working arrange | positioned on a floor surface as a conveyance vehicle, for example, although a driving | running | working wheel itself is not guided, it is laid (or embed | buried) on the floor surface. The present invention can also be applied to a conveyance vehicle guided along a predetermined traveling route by a guided tape (color tape, magnetic tape, etc.).
[0046]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the configuration of the article transporting facility of the present invention, when communication is performed between the transport vehicle and the ground-side control device by radio waves, two identification information of the transport vehicle is continuously included in the signal. When the control device recognizes this signal and the first identification information includes vehicle number data registered in advance, the inspection code in the second identification information is correct. Until the order is reached, the bit sequence of the identification information is shifted and detected one by one. Therefore, when the first signal is not noise but the identification information is duplicated due to disturbance of radio waves, Compared with the case where the transport vehicle immediately becomes non-operational, the rate at which the vehicle number is recognized is markedly improved. Therefore, the transport vehicle is recognized based on duplication of identification information that is likely to occur when signals are transmitted and received using radio waves. Impossible state Avoided by, it can be transported vehicle less become a standby state.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of an article conveying facility according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a main part of the article transport facility.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control device in the article transport facility.
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the contents of signals in the article transport facility.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a signal recognition operation in the article transport facility.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Traveling rail 2 Delivery station 3 Conveying vehicle 4 Central management apparatus 5 Control apparatus 16 Movement side communication apparatus 21 Feeder line 22 Fixed side communication apparatus 23 Conveyance instruction part 24 Signal preparation part 25 Signal analysis part 31 Vehicle number 32 Vehicle number

Claims (2)

A conveyance path disposed along a plurality of article delivery stations, a conveyance vehicle that is allowed to travel along the conveyance path and delivers articles between the article delivery stations, and provided in the conveyance vehicle The transfer of goods and the recognition of the contents of the signals are performed by transmitting and receiving signals consisting of bit string data to and from the transport vehicle by radio waves via the mobile side communication means and the fixed side communication means provided on the ground side. In an article conveyance facility comprising a control device that outputs a command,
The signal transmitted from the transport vehicle is composed of two pieces of identification information arranged continuously from the head and the actual data indicating the contents of the transport command arranged following the second identification information from the head. Each identification information is composed of a vehicle number that identifies the transport vehicle and an inspection code that indicates the order of arrangement from the head in the signal of the identification information,
On the control device side,
The inspection code included in the first identification information from the head of the received signal is the first vehicle number registered in advance, and the inspection code included in the second identification information from the head of the received signal is In the code determination of whether or not it represents the second, if the inspection code represents the second, the vehicle number included in the second identification information is further included in the first identification information determines whether or not to match, if the bit string following the person said second identification information when a match is performed the output of the carry command is regarded as representing the actual data, do not match, Abort the signal content recognition operation of bit string data ,
If the check codes in the code judgment does not represent a second, the beginning of the bit of the bit string data of the received signal, identification information indicating the same number as the number of bits the number of bits of the second to be shifted forward Obtain new bit string data with the identification information as the first identification information, repeat the above code determination for the new bit string data until the check code included in the second identification information represents the second,
In addition , the article conveying facility is characterized in that the signal content recognition operation of the bit string data is discontinued even when the acquisition of the new bit string data and the repetition of the code determination are performed a predetermined number of times . 2. The article conveying facility according to claim 1, wherein after the signal content recognition operation is terminated, the conveying vehicle is set in a standby state.

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