JP5727752B2 - Autonomous transport system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an autonomous traveling system for transporting materials and parts of products in a factory, for example.

  Various manufacturing factories such as the automobile industry and the electrical equipment industry have processes for transporting materials and parts of industrial products, intermediate products and final products. Conventionally, forklifts, electric traversers and conveyor lines are generally used. There are many cases that are transported by. For example, materials for industrial products are usually supplied from a material warehouse to a manufacturing site by a forklift, and remaining materials after use are returned by a forklift or a conveyor for transportation. As a production method, for example, due to the widespread use of the Kanban method, for example, materials are frequently replaced in recent years, and forklifts run around. Deteriorate working environment.

  As a transport system for improving such work conditions, for example, there is a technique as shown in Patent Document 1. According to the present invention, an IC tag is embedded in a passage, data is read by a tag reader provided on a battery-powered carriage, and an article is conveyed. As a result, the work environment can be improved to some extent with respect to the conveyance of the article.

JP 2007-128472 A

  However, in the invention described in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, since the transport carriage can only perform the transport motion in the linear direction, it is necessary to set the transport path in a straight line. There was a problem of lack of compatibility.

  The present invention has been made in view of such conventional drawbacks, and the object thereof is to be able to carry along any route, and to quickly and accurately when it deviates from the route. It is to provide an autonomous traveling system that can return to the original route.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of IC tags arranged along a transport path, a travel drive mechanism, a tag reader for reading information on the IC tag, and the operations of the travel drive mechanism and the tag reader. is composed of a conveyance carriage traveling along the conveying path while grasping the position and a control unit which controls to the transport carriage, right Oite width direction in the traveling direction front end portion of the conveyance carriage, center, left A plurality of tag readers, and the control unit transmits and receives data between a memory for storing map information relating to the transport route, a driver for driving and controlling the travel drive mechanism, and the transport cart and the center device. A communication unit; and a CPU that controls the driver based on the IC tag information and the map information read by the tag reader. One to autonomous between one IC tag and the next IC tag transport vehicle based on, during the autonomous, first checks whether or not the detection of the IC tag by the central reader, there has been detected In this case, the inertial running is continued. If there is no detection, the right (or left) tag reader checks whether or not the IC tag is detected, and if it is detected, the steering is turned to the right (or left). A deviation from the transport path of the transport carriage is detected based on the IC tag information from the plurality of tag readers so that the control signal is output to the driver so that the transport carriage returns to the normal track and travels inertially. Thus, an autonomous traveling system that sends control signals to the driver is realized. As a result, even if the transport route is a straight line or a curve, the transport system can be moved according to the map, and if it deviates from the route, the trajectory can be corrected, so that a transport system excellent in versatility and practicality can be realized. In one embodiment of the present invention, information is transmitted and received between the IC tag and the tag reader by RF (Radio-Frequency) data processing.

  Furthermore, as another aspect of the present invention, it includes a center device that transmits map data and various command data to the transport carriage, and the center device provides an input unit for inputting various commands, and an operation control command for the transport cart. A sub-controller to be generated, a storage unit that stores map information and various command data, and a communication unit that performs a communication operation with the transport carriage may be included. Thereby, operation control of a plurality of conveyance trolleys can be carried out according to the contents of work individually.

  With the above configuration, the battery-driven transport cart travels on all courses regardless of whether it is a straight line or a curved line, so that it is possible to carry articles with excellent practicality, versatility, and adaptability to situations.

  In addition, since a plurality of tag readers are installed in the width direction of the transport carriage, it is possible to perform correction control by detecting a deviation from the route during travel of the transport carriage, and to perform a reliable transport operation.

  In addition, by installing a central device that performs global control of the transport cart, individual control is possible even when there are multiple transport carts, and not only track tracking and track correction, but also route intersection control and transport cart operation It is possible to obtain effects such as centralization and decentralization.

The top view which shows the installation example of the structure of the conveyance trolley of the autonomous traveling conveyance system which concerns on one embodiment of this invention, and an IC tag The block diagram which shows the structure of the control part of the conveyance trolley used in the said embodiment. The block diagram which shows the structure of the central control apparatus which controls a conveyance trolley globally in the said embodiment. The top view which shows an example of the conveyance area in the said embodiment The top view which shows an example of the conveyance path | route in the said embodiment, and its map information The top view which shows an example of the conveyance area in the said embodiment

  FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a configuration of a transport carriage and an example of IC tag installation in an autonomous traveling system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The transport carriage 1 includes a vehicle body 2 as a housing and four wheels 3 provided at the lower part of the vehicle body 2 (respectively a front right wheel 3a, a front left wheel 3b, a rear right wheel 3c, and a rear left wheel 3d). And a driving motor 4 connected to the rear wheels 3c and 3d of the vehicle body 2 and a battery 5 connected to the motor 4 and supplying electric power to the motor 4. It has a configuration. In the transport carriage 1, as the motor 4, a first motor 4a connected to the rear right wheel 3c and a second motor 4b connected to the rear left wheel 3d are used, and are connected in parallel to the battery 5, respectively. ing. Further, the transport cart 1 is loaded with a control unit 6 that controls the travel of the transport cart 1 and a tag reader 7 that is a kind of sensor for acquiring data necessary for travel control of the transport cart 1. The tag reader 7 is provided with three tag readers 7a, 7b, and 7c on the front side of the transport carriage 1 in the width direction of the transport carriage 1 at substantially equal intervals. Three tag readers 7d, 7e, and 7f on the right, center, and left are provided at substantially equal intervals in the width direction of the transport carriage 1, and a total of six tag readers are provided. The tag readers 7 a, 7 b, 7 c, 7 d, 7 e, 7 f are connected to the control unit 6. As a specific example, the tag readers 7a to 7f are configured by a wireless antenna device and configured to perform wireless communication with an IC tag that is a communication partner. Any one of the tag readers 7a, 7b, and 7c at the front of the transport carriage 1 can be operated by switching between them (antenna switching). Further, any one of the tag readers 7d, 7e, and 7f at the rear of the transport carriage 1 can be operated by switching a switch between them.

  On the other hand, a plurality of IC tags 8 are installed or embedded along the travel path (transport path) of the transport carriage 1 on the ground or floor surface on which the transport carriage 1 travels. In FIG. 1, the IC tag 8 is installed on the front side of the transport carriage 1 along the transport path from the side close to the transport carriage 1 as IC tags 8a, 8b, 8c,. An IC tag 8d is also installed behind the transport cart 1. Each IC tag 8a, 8b, 8c,..., And 8d stores unique information related to each IC tag, for example, position information where each IC tag 8a, 8b, 8c,. A communication operation using an RF (Radio-Frequency) signal is performed between the IC tag 8 and the tag reader 7, and information (position information and the like) of the IC tag 8 is read (received) by the tag reader 7.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the control unit 6 used in the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, a portion surrounded by a two-dot chain line is the control unit 6. The control unit 6 stores an RF signal processing unit 11 that processes an RF signal received by the tag reader 7, a driver 12 that sends a drive signal to the motor 4, and various data necessary for controlling the traveling of the transport cart 1. And a communication unit 14 that transmits and receives data to and from a central control device (described later) installed in the center, and a CPU 15 that controls the functional units 11, 12, 13, and 14. Is done. Further, various sensors 16 attached to the transport carriage 1, a camera 17 and the like are connected to the control unit 6.

  The RF signal processing unit 11 has a function as an input unit for information from the IC tag 7 and transmits position information of the IC tag 7 to the CPU 15. The memory 13 stores drive control data for controlling the drive of the motor 4 and map information indicating the transport route on which the transport carriage 1 should travel. Some of the map information is stored in the memory 13 in advance, and some of the map information is sent from the center when carrying out the transfer work. For example, when a specific transport cart 1 performs a transport operation on the same transport route all the time or every day, a map corresponding to the transport operation is stored in the memory 13 in advance, but the transport operation is temporarily or irregularly performed. For the transport route to be received, the corresponding map is sent from the center, and the transport work is performed along the transport route indicated in the received map. The communication unit 14 communicates with a control device installed in another place or a control box possessed by the operator. Data transmission / reception is also performed with a central processing unit installed at the center.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control device 20 installed in the center. The control device 20 controls traveling of the transport carriage 1 globally. Specifically, the control device 20 stores an input unit 21 for inputting data and commands necessary for traveling control of the transport carriage 1, various data necessary for traveling control of the transport carriage 1, and map information of the transport route. Storage unit 22, a plurality of sub-controllers 23 that perform a traveling control operation corresponding to each of the transport carts 1, a communication unit 24 that performs data transmission / reception operations with the transport cart 1, and the input unit 21, The central processing unit 25 monitors the operation of the storage unit 22, the sub-controller 23, and the communication unit 24, and exchanges data with these functional units. The central processing unit 25 sends map information corresponding to the transfer instruction to the control unit 6 of the transfer carriage 1 when a transfer instruction by the transfer carriage 1 is input from the input unit 21, and the map information is stored in the transfer carriage 1 in the memory. 13. As described above, when the map information is already stored in the memory 13, the map information is not sent from the central processing unit 25 to the control unit 6 of the transport carriage 1.

  FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of a conveyance area by the conveyance carriage in the present embodiment. Moreover, this figure is also a figure which shows an example of how to determine the position where the IC tag 8 is installed. In FIG. 4, the site 31 of the factory where the transfer system according to the present invention is adopted, the buildings 32a and 32b of the two buildings, and the transfer path 33 configured from the inside of the building 32a to the inside of the building 32b. Is shown. In this embodiment, one corner of the site 31 is the site coordinate origin 31a, and in FIG. 4, the X axis of the XY two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system is taken in the horizontal direction and the Y axis of the XY two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system is taken in the vertical direction. The position of each point is represented by XY coordinates. For example, in the site 31 of FIG. 4, the site coordinate origin 31a is taken at the lower left corner in FIG. 4, and the point is represented by (X0000, Y0000). Further, the point 31b at the lower right corner in FIG. 4 is represented by (X9000, Y0000). Similarly, the point 31c at the upper right corner in FIG. 4 is represented by (X9000, Y6000), and the point 31d at the upper left corner in FIG. 4 is represented by (X0000, Y6000). All points in the site 31 are represented by arbitrary values within the range of the XY coordinates. The conveyance path 33 is extended along the peripheral wall of the building inside each of the buildings 32a and 32b, and paths 33a and 33b that divide the building plane into two are extended in the central portions of the buildings 32a and 32b. Furthermore, between the building 32a and the building 32b, the conveyance path 33 is continuously extended from one building (for example, 32a) to the inside of the other building (for example, 32b). 4 shows an example in which the conveyance path 33 is extended inside the buildings 32a and 32b, the conveyance path 33 may be extended outside the buildings 32a and 32b (outer garden area of the factory).

  FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of the transport route and map information thereof in the present embodiment. In FIG. 5, an L-shaped conveyance path 33c that gently curves is shown, and a plurality of IC tags 8 are embedded under the floor along the conveyance path 33c. In FIG. 5, (00000023), (00000024), (00000025),... (00000029) attached to each IC tag 8 are tag numbers (ID), which is one of map information. Further, although not shown in FIG. 5, as the map information, the position information of the point where each tag 8 is embedded is given as the coordinate data described in FIG. For example, in FIG. 5, the position information of the point A is given for the IC tag (00000023), the position information of the point B is given for the IC tag (00000024), and then the points C, D, E, Position information of the point F and the point G (IC tag (0000029)) is given.

  The control operation of the autonomous traveling system having such a configuration will be described below. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the control operation of the transport system according to the present embodiment, specifically, the travel control operation of the transport cart 1. Here, it is assumed that the transport carriage 1 travels (moves forward) in the direction of arrow S in FIG. 5 along the transport path 33c according to the map shown in FIG. When the travel operation is started, the CPU 15 outputs a signal necessary for travel to the driver 12 and controls the transport carriage 1 to perform inertia travel according to the map (step ST1). During this control operation, the CPU 15 takes in a signal from the tag reader 7 via the RF signal processing unit and monitors whether the inertial running is correctly performed. Therefore, the IC tag 8 (here, the IC tag (00000023)) by the central tag reader 7b is used. Is detected (step ST2). If it is determined by this check operation that the IC tag (0000027) has been detected by the central tag reader 7b, the inertia traveling is performed correctly, so that the position (point A) of the IC tag (00000023) is next traveled. It is checked whether or not it is a stop position ID (step ST3). If the point A is the travel stop position ID by this check operation, the CPU 15 stops the transport carriage 1 (step ST4). On the other hand, if the point A is not the travel stop position ID, the process returns to step ST1 to return to the next IC tag. Control is performed so that the inertial running is performed until (0000024) is detected.

  If it is determined in step ST2 that the IC tag (0000027) has not been detected by the central tag reader 7b, it is next checked whether or not the IC tag (00000023) has been detected by the left tag reader 7c (step ST5). If it is determined that the IC tag (00000027) is detected by the left tag reader 7c by this check operation, it is checked whether or not the position (point A) of the IC tag (00000027) is the travel stop position ID ( Step ST6). If the point A is the travel stop position ID by this check operation, the CPU 15 stops the transport carriage 1 (step ST7). On the other hand, if the point A is not the travel stop position ID, the travel path of the transport carriage 1 is corrected (step ST7). After that, the process returns to the process of step ST1, and control is performed so that the inertial running is performed until the next IC tag (00000024) is detected. The trajectory correction process in step ST8 is performed as follows. That is, if the IC tag (000000023) is detected by the left tag reader 7c in step ST7, the transport carriage 1 is traveling to the right side of the regular track. Therefore, in step ST8, the CPU 15 outputs a control signal to the driver 12 so that the transport carriage 1 turns to the left, and controls the transport carriage 1 to return to the normal track and travel inertia. As a result, the trajectory of the transport carriage 1 is corrected and travels along the transport path 33c according to the map again.

  If it is determined in step ST5 that the IC tag (0000027) has not been detected by the left tag reader 7c, it is next checked whether or not the IC tag (00000023) has been detected by the right tag reader 7a (step ST9). If it is determined by this check operation that the right tag reader 7a has detected the IC tag (00000027), it is checked whether or not the position (point A) of the IC tag (00000027) is the travel stop position ID ( Step ST10). If the point A is the travel stop position ID by this check operation, the CPU 15 stops the transport carriage 1 (step ST11). On the other hand, if the point A is not the travel stop position ID, the travel path of the transport carriage 1 is corrected (step ST11). ST12) After that, the process returns to the process of step ST1, and control is performed so that the inertial running is performed until the next IC tag (00000024) is detected. In the trajectory correction process in step ST12, the CPU 15 executes the same processing operation with only the right and left being different from the maneuver correction process in the previous step ST8, and controls the carriage 1 to return to the normal trajectory and travel inertia. As a result, the trajectory of the transport carriage 1 is corrected and travels along the transport path 33c according to the map again.

If it is determined in step ST9 that the IC tag (000000023) has not been detected by the right tag reader 7a, the CPU next checks whether or not the predetermined inter-tag distance is larger than the set range (step ST13). When it is determined that the predetermined inter-tag distance is not larger than the set range, the transport carriage 1 is stopped (step ST14). On the other hand, when it is determined that the predetermined inter-tag distance is larger than the set range, It returns to a process and it controls so that it may drive | work inertially until it detects the next IC tag (00000024).
According to the control operation of the transport system as described above, the transport carriage 1 generally travels according to the map information. On the other hand, if the transport cart 1 deviates from the transport route, the trajectory is corrected immediately and the inertia according to the original map information. Since it can drive | work, even if it is a conveyance path | route including a curve part, autonomous driving | running | working can be automatically performed along the path | route.

  The autonomous traveling system of the present invention controls a plurality of IC tags arranged along a transportation route, a traveling drive mechanism, a tag reader that reads information on the IC tag, and operations of these traveling drive mechanism and tag reader. And a transport cart that travels along the transport path while grasping the position, and the transport cart includes a plurality of tag readers in the width direction at the front end portion and the rear end portion in the traveling direction of the transport cart. ing. Therefore, any route can be transported along the route, and when the route deviates from the route, the route can be quickly and accurately returned to the original route.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Carriage 2 Car body 3 Wheel 4 Motor 5 Battery 6 Control part 7 Tag reader 8 IC tag 11 RF signal processing part 12 Driver 13 Memory 14 Communication part 15 CPU
16 Sensor 17 Camera 20 Control device 21 Input unit 22 Storage unit 23 Sub-controller 24 Central processing unit 31 Site 32 Building 33 Transport route

Claims (3)

A plurality of IC tags arranged along the transport path;
A travel drive mechanism, a tag reader that reads information on the IC tag, and a transport carriage that travels along the transport path while grasping the position are provided with a control unit that controls the operation of the travel drive mechanism and the tag reader. ,
The transport carriage is provided with right, center, a plurality of tag readers of left Oite width direction in the traveling direction front end portion of the conveyance carriage, also,
The control unit is read by the tag reader, a memory that stores map information related to the transport route, a driver that controls the travel drive mechanism, a communication unit that transmits and receives data between the transport cart and the center device, and the tag reader. A CPU for controlling the driver based on the IC tag information and the map information,
The CPU autonomously travels the transport cart between one IC tag and the next IC tag based on the map information,
During the autonomous running, it is first checked whether or not the IC tag has been detected by the central tag reader. If the IC tag has been detected, the inertial running is continued. If there is no detection, the right (or left) tag reader is then used. It is checked whether or not the IC tag has been detected by the vehicle, and if it is detected, a control signal that turns the steering to the right (or left) is output to the driver, and the carriage is returned to the normal track and travels inertially. So as to control
An autonomous traveling conveyance system, wherein a deviation from a conveyance route of a conveyance carriage is detected from IC tag information from the plurality of tag readers, and a control signal is sent to the driver.   2. The autonomous traveling system according to claim 1, wherein information is transmitted and received between the IC tag and the tag reader by RF (Radio-Frequency) data processing. Including a center device that transmits map data and various command data to the carriage,
The center device performs communication operations between an input unit to which various commands are input, a sub-controller that generates a command for operation control of the transport carriage, a storage unit that stores map information and various command data, and the transport cart. The autonomous traveling system according to claim 1, further comprising: a communication unit that performs the following.

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