JP4246325B2 - Automated transfer device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an unmanned conveyance device, and more particularly to an unmanned conveyance device having a self-propelled vehicle that delivers a conveyed product at a loading place or an unloading place and a control unit that assigns a conveyance request to the self-propelled vehicle.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The unmanned transport device has a self-propelled vehicle that travels along a taxiway laid on the floor surface of a factory or warehouse, etc., and the parts supplied at the loading place by autonomously traveling the self-propelled vehicle, Transport materials, finished products or semi-finished products to an unloading place.
[0003]
Such an automatic transfer device is used in various places in various industries including the manufacturing field, and contributes to automation and labor saving of various processes. In the following description, items to be transported such as parts, materials, finished products or semi-finished products are collectively referred to as “conveyed products”.
[0004]
As a conventional unmanned conveyance device, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-110709 discloses an unmanned conveyance device that creates a travel map by manually traveling a self-propelled vehicle in advance and autonomously travels the self-propelled vehicle based on the travel map. Are listed. That is, in this unmanned conveyance device, the self-propelled vehicle is caused to travel in the manual travel mode before actually transporting the conveyed object, and the position of the wall or obstacle in the region where the self-propelled vehicle travels is measured and traveled. Create a map. And based on this travel map, a self-propelled vehicle is made to autonomously travel, and a conveyed product is conveyed.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, the unmanned conveyance device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-110709 requires the operator to travel the self-propelled vehicle in the manual travel mode when creating a travel map for autonomously traveling the self-propelled vehicle. There is. For this reason, a device for controlling the self-propelled vehicle from the outside of the self-propelled vehicle in real time, for example, a remote control device composed of a monitor camera, a joystick or the like is necessary, and the configuration of the unmanned conveyance device is complicated.
[0006]
In addition, it is extremely difficult for an operator unfamiliar with the operation of remote control to control the self-propelled vehicle with a joystick while monitoring the surrounding situation with a monitor camera. It took a lot of time to create a travel map.
[0007]
In addition, in order to create an accurate travel map, it is necessary to acquire position data of walls and obstacles with a sampling period of about 10 ms, and a very large storage capacity is required to store the acquired position data. A storage medium is required. On the other hand, the stored position data of walls and obstacles is easy to accumulate errors when creating a travel map in a wide range or when the travel surface is uneven, etc. It was difficult.
[0008]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an unmanned transport device that can easily generate information necessary for transporting a transported object when a new guideway is installed or when the layout of the guideway is changed. It is in.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, one self-propelled vehicle autonomously travels on all taxiways and sequentially acquires information on signs provided on the taxiways. At that time, the connection between the two signs is also acquired, and the movement time or distance between the signs is measured. And the index information required for the determination of the allocation of the route information which is the travel route and the transport request is constructed based on the information obtained by the autonomous travel. Furthermore, the constructed route information and index information are supplied to other self-propelled vehicles to share information.
[0010]
ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, when installing a guideway newly or when changing the layout of a guideway, the information required for conveyance of a conveyed product can be produced | generated easily.
[0011]
In order to achieve the above object, another aspect of the present invention provides a plurality of stations connected by a taxiway having a branch point, and one or more self-propelled vehicles that deliver a transported object at the stations. When the guideway is newly installed or the layout of the guideway is changed, a sign is installed at the station and the branch point, and the sign is at least the station or the branch. with identifying the point, has a data specifying as the label adjacent the self-propelled vehicle, before performing the conveyance of the conveyed object, based on said label data, autonomous said guideway A travel map is created, and based on the travel map, route information indicating the travel route from one station to another station and from one station to another station Index information indicating the travel time or travel distance is generated, and the transported object is transported based on the generated route information and the index information.
[0012]
According to the present invention, a travel route and index information can be generated by installing a sign along the taxiway and causing the self-propelled vehicle to travel autonomously. Therefore, there is no need to create a travel map while the self-propelled vehicle is traveling in the manual travel mode as in the prior art, and even when a new taxiway is installed and when the layout of the taxiway is changed, Information necessary for transportation can be easily generated.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, such an embodiment does not limit the technical scope of the present invention.
[0014]
FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram showing a layout when the automatic transfer device according to the embodiment of the present invention is installed in a factory or the like. The automatic guided device according to the present embodiment communicates with the stations 21, 22, 23, and 24 through the communication unit 41, and communicates with the self-propelled vehicle 31 through the communication unit 42 to control the traveling of the self-propelled vehicle 31. And control means 12 that communicates with the stations 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 by the communication means 43 and communicates with the self-propelled vehicle 32 by the communication means 44 to control the traveling of the self-propelled vehicle 32. The control means 11 and the control means 12 can exchange control data with the communication means 46, and the self-propelled vehicle 31 and the self-propelled vehicle 32 can exchange travel data with the communication means 45 or the communication means 42, 46, 44. It can be performed.
[0015]
In this case, the group to which the stations 21, 22, 23, 24 and the control means 11 belong is referred to as a first group 51, and the group to which the stations 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and the control means 12 belong is referred to as a second group 52. This is because the control areas are grouped to easily change or improve the system and to flexibly cope with abnormalities and troubles.
[0016]
The control area can be further divided into more groups, and conversely, it can be integrated into one group. Further, FIG. 1 shows a case where there are two self-propelled vehicles and control means, but the number of self-propelled vehicles and control means is not limited thereto.
[0017]
The self-propelled vehicles 31 and 32 travel along the guide paths 4, 5, and 6, which are installed so as to be able to deliver the transported goods at the stations 21 to 29. Signs 101 to 110, 201, and 301 are installed at positions such as branch points and corners.
[0018]
Here, for the convenience of creating a travel map, the taxiway in which signs are arranged in order of signs from sign 101 to sign 110 is referred to as first taxiway 4, and the taxiway branched from sign 106 is the second taxiway. The taxiway that branches off from the sign 109 is referred to as a third taxiway 6. Further, the stations 21 to 29 are distinguished in advance as, for example, a loading place, an unloading place, or a charging place for charging the battery of the self-propelled vehicles 31, 32. Let's wait at the station that is the charging place.
[0019]
The guide paths 4, 5, and 6 are configured, for example, by sticking a magnetic tape to the floor surface, and the self-propelled vehicles 31 and 32 travel along the magnetic tape while detecting the magnetism of the magnetic tape. In addition, for the signs 101 to 110, 201, 301, for example, a magnetic disk in which position information or the like is magnetically written is used, and on the floors such as stations, branch points, corners, etc. on the guide paths 4, 5, 6 It is pasted. When the self-propelled vehicles 31 and 32 pass over the signs 101 to 110, 201, and 301, they can read the position information and the like written on the signs 101 to 110, 201, and 301 and move to the respective stations. .
[0020]
FIG. 2 is an example of data written in the signs 101 to 110, 201, and 301 used in the automatic transport device of the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, as data written in the signs 101 to 110, 201, 301, for example, a sign ID that uniquely identifies the sign, a loading place, an unloading place, a charging place, a branching point, a turning angle, etc. If the location is a loading location, an unloading location or a charging location, the corresponding station identifier, the ID and direction of the street adjacent to the taxiway on the taxiway, and the like are included.
[0021]
For example, in the sign 101, data indicating that the sign ID is 101, data indicating that the place where the sign 101 is installed is a loading place, and the identifier of the corresponding station is ST21, When the self-propelled vehicle travels upward in the drawing, the station number is traveling in the ascending order of the 100th series, and when traveling down the drawing, data indicating that there is no passage, that is, a dead end is written. .
[0022]
The sign 102 includes data indicating that the sign ID is 102, data indicating that the place where the sign 102 is installed is an unloading place, and the identifier of the corresponding station is ST22, Data indicating that the station number is traveling in the ascending order of the 100th station when the traveling vehicle travels upward in the drawing, and that the station number is traveling in the descending order of the 100th station when traveling down the drawing. Is written.
[0023]
In addition, the sign 103 has data indicating that this sign is installed at a corner, and if the self-propelled vehicle turns to the right, the station number will be traveling in the ascending order of the 100th street, and if it is reverse, the station number will be Data indicating that the vehicle is traveling in the descending order of the 100th street is written.
[0024]
Similar data is written in other signs, but the sign 106 has data indicating that this sign is installed at the branch point, and the station number is in the 100s if the self-propelled vehicle travels to the right in the drawing. Traveling in the ascending direction of the street, traveling in the ascending order of the station number 200 series if traveling downward in the drawing, traveling in the descending order of station number 100 traveling in the left direction of the drawing Data indicating that is to be written.
[0025]
FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of various information generation that is performed before actually transporting a transported object in the unmanned transport apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. Based on this flowchart, a travel map is created by advance traveling of the self-propelled vehicle, then route information to be a travel route is generated, and when there are multiple self-propelled vehicles, a request for transportation is requested to which self-propelled vehicle A procedure for generating index information as an index for determining whether or not to perform will be described.
[0026]
In the automatic guided device of this embodiment, first, a magnetic tape is attached to the floor of a factory or the like where the self-propelled vehicle is run to configure a taxiway, and then a sign is placed on a place such as a station, a branch point, or a corner on the taxiway. Is installed (S1).
[0027]
Next, one self-propelled vehicle is caused to travel in advance along the taxiway (S2). This is because the self-propelled vehicle reads the data written on the sign before actually transporting the transported object, and creates a travel map necessary for the self-propelled vehicle to transport the transported object. In this preliminary travel, the self-propelled vehicle travels autonomously on the taxiway according to a flowchart described later, and acquires data on travel time or travel distance between adjacent signs together with data written on the signs.
[0028]
Next, the self-propelled vehicle is based on the created travel map, the route information indicating the route from the loading location to the unloading location, the unloading location to the loading location, the charging location to the loading location, etc. Index information indicating time or distance when traveling a route from the loading place to the unloading place or the like is generated (S3). As described above, when there are a plurality of self-propelled vehicles, this index information is an index for determining which self-propelled vehicle can request the conveyance request earliest.
[0029]
Next, the self-propelled vehicle that has generated the route information and the index information determines whether or not there is another self-propelled vehicle in the automatic transfer device (S4), and other route information and index information that has not been generated. When there is a self-propelled vehicle (Yes), route information and index information are transmitted to the self-propelled vehicle (S5).
[0030]
In this way, the automatic guided device of the present embodiment can generate a travel map, a travel route, and index information by installing a sign along the taxiway and causing the self-propelled vehicle to travel autonomously. Can be shared with self-propelled vehicles. Therefore, there is no need to create a travel map while the self-propelled vehicle is traveling in the manual travel mode as in the prior art, and even when a new taxiway is installed and when the layout of the taxiway is changed, Information necessary for transportation can be easily generated.
[0031]
FIG. 4 is a detailed flowchart in advance traveling of the self-propelled vehicle shown in step S2 of FIG. A flow chart of the pre-travel of the self-propelled vehicle in FIG. 4 will be described according to the layout of the taxiway shown in FIG.
[0032]
One of the plurality of self-propelled vehicles, for example, the self-propelled vehicle 31 is programmed to autonomously travel along the taxiway in advance traveling, and for example, when placed at the position of the sign 101 in FIG. It autonomously travels on one guideway 4 in the order of the number of the sign (S11). The self-propelled vehicle 31 detects all the signs 101 to 110 installed on the first taxiway 4 during autonomous running (S12), reads the data written in these signs 101 to 110 (S13), and reads The data is stored in the storage device in the self-propelled vehicle 31 (S14).
[0033]
Next, it is determined whether or not all the routes on the first taxiway 4 have been traveled (S15). If all the routes have been traveled (Yes), the vehicle travels on the first taxiway 4 and travels. It is determined whether there is a branch point connected to another taxiway that has not been reached (S16).
[0034]
In the case of the layout of FIG. 1, since the first taxiway 4 has a branch point 106 connected to the second taxiway 5 that is not traveling (Yes), the self-propelled vehicle 31 moves to the branch point 106 ( S17). Then, the self-propelled vehicle 31 enters the second taxiway 5 (S18), and reads data written on all the signs 201 installed on the second taxiway 5 in steps S11 to S15.
[0035]
Similarly, when the travel of the second taxiway 5 is completed in step S15 (Yes), the vehicle enters the third taxiway 6 in steps S16 to S18, and all the signs 301 installed on the third taxiway 6 Read the written data.
[0036]
As described above, the automatic guided vehicle 31 according to the present embodiment autonomously travels all over the guide paths 4, 5, and 6 in advance travel before actually transporting the transported object, and all the signs. The data written in 101-110, 201, 301, the data of the time required for the connection between adjacent signs and the movement between the adjacent signs are acquired. Of course, you may acquire the data of the distance between adjacent signs. Therefore, it is possible to save the trouble of manually driving the self-propelled vehicle and creating a travel map as in the prior art, and when installing a new taxiway and changing the layout of the taxiway, Information necessary for transportation can be easily generated.
[0037]
FIG. 5 is an example of the data of the connection between the signs and the travel time acquired by the advance traveling of the self-propelled vehicle in the taxiway layout shown in FIG. Here, a route between adjacent signs is called a “line segment”, and an identifier is attached to the line segment. For example, a line segment 401 is a route between the sign 101 and the sign 102, and indicates that the time required for the self-propelled vehicle to move on the line segment 401 is 20 seconds.
[0038]
Next, the self-propelled vehicle that has acquired the data of the sign and the line segment generates route information from one station to another station. FIG. 6 is a detailed flowchart when the route information is generated from the data of the sign and the line segment, and corresponds to step S3 of FIG. The flowchart of FIG. 6 will be described according to the layout of the taxiway shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that there is no closed route in the taxiway.
[0039]
There are combinations of routes from one station to another, such as a route from the loading location to the loading location, a route from the loading location to the loading location, a route from the charging location to the loading location, etc. It is confirmed that the generation of all paths to be generated is not completed (S21). If there is a route that has not been generated (No), the station of the route to be generated is set as the start point and the end point (S22), and the marker IDs installed at the start point and end point stations are set as the end points (S23).
[0040]
For example, when the station 24 is the start point and the station 28 is the end point, the sign 105 is set as the start point and the sign 301 is set as the end point. In addition, a flag indicating whether or not all the signs and line segments on the taxiway are confirmed at the time of route generation is provided, and all the flags are set to “unconfirmed”.
[0041]
Next, it is determined whether or not there is a line segment having the start point as an end point (S24). If there is a line segment (Yes), the process proceeds to step S25. For example, in FIG. 1, the line segments having the start point 105 as an end point are a line segment 404 and a line segment 405. Here, for example, the line segment 404 is selected and the data flag of the line segment 404 is set to “confirmed”.
[0042]
Next, another end point 104 of the line segment 404 is obtained, and it is determined whether it is the end point of the obtained route (S25). In this case, since the end point 104 is not the end point of the desired route (No), the process proceeds to step S26, and the end point 104 is set as a new end point. In step S24, the line segment 403 including the new end point 104 is selected.
[0043]
Hereinafter, in the loop of steps S24 to S26, the line segments 402 and 401 are selected, but in step S24, the end point 101 of the line segment 401 has no other line segment (No). Therefore, the process proceeds to step S28, and it is determined whether or not there is an “unconfirmed” line segment that has not been selected in the previous steps.
[0044]
In the case of FIG. 1, since there is a line segment 405 not selected in the first step S24 (Yes), the process proceeds to step S29, and the end point 106 of the line segment 405 is set. In step S24, it is determined whether or not there is a line segment including the end point 106.
[0045]
In this case, the line segment including the end point 106 includes the line segment 406 and the line segment 410. When the line segment 410 is selected, the line segment 406 is selected because the process returns to the end point 106 in the same manner as described above. In the loop of S26, the line segments 406, 407, and 408 are selected.
[0046]
Similarly, in step S24, it is determined whether or not there is a line segment including the end point 109. Here, the line segment including the end point 109 includes a line segment 409 and a line segment 411. When the line segment 409 is selected, the line segment 411 is selected because the process returns to the end point 109 as described above.
[0047]
In this case, in step S25, since another end point 111 of the line segment 411 is the end point (Yes), the route data from the station 24 to the station 28 is stored (S27), and the process returns to step S21.
[0048]
Note that end point and line segment data that are no longer required during route generation are excluded from the route data. The end points and line segments that can connect the start point and the end point obtained in this way are the route data to be obtained. The route data from the station 24 thus configured to the station 28 is as follows.
[0049]
Start point 105-line segment 405-end point 106-line segment 406-end point 107-line segment 407-end point 108-line segment 408-end point 109-line segment 411-end point 111
If there is no “unconfirmed” line segment even after returning to the start point, it means that the sign data was read incorrectly in the advance traveling of the self-propelled vehicle, or that the sign was given an incorrect ID. Can not be configured. Therefore, if there is no other line segment in step S28 (No), the process proceeds to step S30, and the fact that the route could not be configured is displayed on the display device provided in the self-propelled vehicle, or the self-propelled vehicle has a sound source. If it is equipped, the user is notified using sound. Also, the user may be notified of which route could not be configured.
[0050]
FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a process of generating a route from the station 24 (start point 105) to the station 28 (end point 301) as described above. As described above, the route data of the automatic transport device according to the present embodiment is composed of data of end points and line segments. The broken line first constituted a route from the starting point 105 to the end point 101 in the course of the route generation, but an unconfirmed line segment was not found at the end point 101 (step S24 in FIG. 6). This indicates that a route to the end point 301 is generated based on the line segment 405. Of course, the route generation method is not limited to this method.
[0051]
FIG. 8 is an example of route information and index information generated in the automatic transport device of the present embodiment. In FIG. 8, three types of routes on which the self-propelled vehicle travels are assumed: a loading place to a loading place, a loading place to a loading place, and a charging place to a loading place. Each route is represented by a combination of station IDs and a combination of end point IDs and line segment IDs, and the movement time required for movement of each route is used as index information. These route information and index information are generated by advance traveling of the self-propelled vehicle, and are communicated to other self-propelled vehicles, thereby being shared with other self-propelled vehicles.
[0052]
If the route information from the start point to the end point is generated in this way, the self-propelled vehicle can autonomously run while detecting the data of the sign, but when moving on a complicated branched route, It is also possible to extract the end points or branch points from the route data in the order of movement, and set the extracted end points or branch points as target points as appropriate for movement. Here, referring to FIG. 9, the setting of the target point when moving from the station 24 to the station 28 will be described.
[0053]
Now, assuming that the self-propelled vehicle 31 loads a load at the station 24, the branch point 106 is set as the first target point. Then, after passing through the branch point 106, the branch point 109 is set as the next target point, and after passing through the branch point 109, the end point 301 is set as the target point.
[0054]
In this way, it is not necessary to compare the data of the sign that simply passes through with the route data, and only the data of the start point 105, the branch points 106 and 109, and the end point 301 indicated by the two-dot chain line are compared with the route data. Therefore, the data processing burden of the self-propelled vehicle 31 can be reduced.
[0055]
On the other hand, when the control means 11 and 12 efficiently assign a transport request to the plurality of self-propelled vehicles 31 and 32, a determination criterion for assigning the transport request is necessary. In the automatic transfer device of the present embodiment, the above-described index information is used for this determination criterion.
[0056]
For example, when a new transport request is generated, the control means 11 and 12 determines the time until the processing is completed when each self-propelled vehicle receives a request for a new transport request from each self-propelled vehicle. Let them answer. For this purpose, it is only necessary to answer from each of the self-propelled vehicles 31 and 32 the time obtained by adding the processing time of the transport request that has already been requested and the processing time of the new transport request. In this case, the control means 11 and 12 request a self-propelled vehicle that can process a new transport request earliest to improve the transport efficiency.
[0057]
The protection scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but covers the invention described in the claims and equivalents thereof.
[0058]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to generate a travel route and index information by sharing a self-propelled vehicle by installing a sign along the taxiway and sharing the information with other self-propelled vehicles. it can. Therefore, there is no need to create a travel map while the self-propelled vehicle is traveling in the manual travel mode as in the prior art, and even when a new taxiway is installed and when the layout of the taxiway is changed, Information necessary for transportation can be easily generated.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a main part of an automatic guided device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an example of data written on a sign.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of information generation according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of pre-travel of the self-propelled vehicle in the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is an example of connection between signs and travel time data.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart for configuring route information in the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram when configuring route information in the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is an example of route information and index information according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for setting a target point during movement.
[Explanation of symbols]
4 1st taxiway 5 2nd taxiway 6 3rd taxiway 11, 12 Control means 21-29 Station 31, 32 Self-propelled vehicles 41-46 Communication means 101-110, 201, 301 Signs 401-411 Line segment

Claims (2)

In an unmanned conveyance apparatus having a plurality of stations connected by a taxiway having a branch point and one or more self-propelled vehicles that deliver a conveyance at the station,
When newly installing the taxiway or when changing the layout of the taxiway,
A sign is installed at the station and the branch point, and the sign has data specifying at least the station or the branch point and specifying a street adjacent to the sign,
The self-propelled vehicle is
Before transporting the transported object, based on the data of the sign, autonomously travels on the taxiway to create a travel map, and based on the travel map, a travel route from one station to another station And route information indicating the travel time or travel distance or distance information from the one station to the other station is generated,
Based on the generated route information and index information, branch points between the one station and the other stations are taken out in order of movement, and all the signs from the one station to the other stations are installed. The automatic transfer apparatus is characterized in that, instead of setting the point as a target, the taken branch point is set as a target point as appropriate , and the transported object is transported from the one station to the other station. In claim 1,
An unmanned conveyance device characterized in that the route information and the index information generated by the self-propelled vehicle are shared with other self-propelled vehicles.

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