JPH03129409A - Optically guiding type mobile vehicle control facility - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To transmit a travel control command at a state in taking advantage to both in the constitutional point of view of a mobile vehicle and the installing point of view of a mark by providing the mark displaying the travel control command on a guide line. CONSTITUTION:The marks m1-m3 displaying the travel control commands for the stopping position of the mobile vehicle vehicle A for a station ST, a branching start position at an intersection, and a decelerated travel start position, etc., are provided adhesively on the guide line 4. And optical communi cation equipment 12, 13 consisting of an infrared projector and an infrared receiver are provided at station ST parts at a mobile vehicle A side and a ground side, and an intersection part, respectively so as to transmit the various kinds of information of preceding data and revolving data, etc., and that of station arrival data, intersection arrival data, etc. Thereby, since travel control can be performed only by providing an optical sensor at the movile vehicle, advantage can be taken in the constitutional point of view of the mobile vehicle, and also, the installing work of the mark can be simplified.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a guide line for guiding a moving vehicle on the running road surface, and a guide line for guiding a moving vehicle based on detection information of an optical sensor provided on the moving vehicle side. The present invention relates to optically guided moving vehicle control equipment that includes a control means for automatically driving a moving vehicle along a line.

[Conventional technology]

In such control equipment, guidance lines are provided to form bifurcated or trifurcated intersections, and moving vehicles are automatically driven straight or branched at intersections, or vehicles are automatically driven at stations, etc. To do this, in the past, a mark for instructing travel control commands was placed on the traveling road side beside the guidance line, and a sensor dedicated to reading the mark was provided on the moving vehicle side. ing. Incidentally, the mark is generally constructed by providing a plurality of pieces of light-reflecting tape on the running road surface in a front-back or left-right arrangement to form a code.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) According to the above conventional means, there is a disadvantage that the configuration of the moving vehicle becomes complicated due to the need to provide a mark reading sensor separately from the optical sensor for driving control. At the same time, as mentioned above, in order to install a large number of marks made up of a plurality of pieces of light-reflecting tape on the road surface, the distance from the guide line must be measured and the marks must be placed accurately. This is a cumbersome work that requires a lot of time, which is disadvantageous in terms of mark installation.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to enable traveling control commands to be transmitted in a state that is advantageous for both the moving vehicle configuration side and the mark installation side. It is in.

[Means to try to solve the problem]

In order to achieve this object, the characteristic configuration of the optically guided mobile vehicle control equipment according to the present invention is that a mark for displaying a travel control command is provided to be located on the guidance line, and the control means is controlled by the optical sensor. The vehicle is configured to control travel based on mark detection information.

[For production]

The optical sensor not only detects steering control information based on the guidance line, but also detects travel control command information based on a mark displaying a travel control command provided on the guidance line. be.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Therefore, simply by equipping a mobile vehicle with an optical sensor, it is possible to perform steering control while detecting steering control information and to perform travel control while detecting travel control command information, which improves the configuration of the mobile vehicle. In addition to being advantageous, since the traveling control command mark is located on the guide line, the optical sensor can be used for mark detection without modification such as enlarging its detection range. This can be done, for example, by pasting a mark on the light-reflecting tape that forms the guide line, by adding a mark to the light-reflecting tape in advance, or by placing the mark between the front and rear parts of the light-reflecting tape. Therefore, it is possible to simplify the mark installation work, and as a result, we have obtained optically guided vehicle control equipment that is extremely useful in cases where there are many intersections and many stations. .

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a mobile vehicle (A) equipped with a loading platform (1) that can be driven up and down is provided, and a plurality of load transfer stations (ST) are placed beside the traveling path of the mobile vehicle. It is located on the side and is configured to allow the moving vehicle (A) to transport various loads while traveling between stations.

The mobile vehicle (A) includes a pair of left and right propulsion wheels (
2) can be driven independently by a pair of electric motors (M), and a pair of left and right caster-type idle wheels (3) are provided at the front and rear ends of the vehicle body to drive the left and right propulsion wheels (2). The two electric motors (M) are configured to be operated to change speeds so as to provide a difference in rotational speed for steering.

As shown in Figures 1 and 4, a light reflective tape (4) as a guide line for guiding moving vehicles is provided on the road surface side, and the moving vehicle (A) is guided along the guiding line (4). A steering control means is provided so that the mobile vehicle (A) automatically travels between stations.

To constitute the control means, a detection section consisting of a light emitter (5) and an image sensor (6) is provided at each of the front and rear ends of the moving vehicle (A), and a host controller (7) and an image processing controller ( 8), a travel control device (H) equipped with a digital servo controller (9) is provided on the moving vehicle side, and an encoder (e) attached to both electric motors (M) is further provided with a digital servo controller (9). At the same time, the servo amplifiers (10) for both electric motors (M) are connected to the digital servo controller (9) via the servo amplifier driver (11), and the image processing controller (8) controls the light reflection. Both electric motors (M) are configured to be operated to change speed in order to reduce the amount of lateral deviation of the vehicle body relative to the tape (4) to zero.

The rain detection section is configured such that the one on the front side is selectively used when the vehicle is moving forward, and the one on the rear side is selectively used when the vehicle is moving backward.

Also, marks (m→,
(m3) and (m=) are attached to the guidance line (4), and various information such as destination data and turning data can be transmitted from the ground side to the moving vehicle side, and station arrival data In order to be able to transmit various information such as intersection arrival data from the moving vehicle side to the ground side, optical communication devices (12) and (13) consisting of an infrared emitter (a) and an infrared receiver (b) are installed. The optical communication device (12) on the moving vehicle side is installed in the station section and the intersection section on the moving vehicle side, the ground side, and the host controller (7).
In addition, the ground-side optical communication devices (13) are connected to the ground-side central control device (V), and based on various information such as information input to the central control device (v) and information stored in advance. At the intersection, the moving vehicle (A
) can automatically travel to a desired station (ST).

In other words, the optical sensor (6) detects the driving control command information by reading the mark along with the steering control information, the image processing controller (8) transmits the mark discrimination signal to the host controller (7), and the host controller (7) , transmits traveling speed information, turning information, forward/reverse information, etc. to the digital servo controller (9), which transmits selection information of the detection section to be used to the image processing controller (8), and further , the digital servo controller (9) moves while exchanging information between the controllers (7), (8), and (9), such as transmitting information on whether or not the digital servo controller (9) is running to the host controller (7). The driving control of the car (A) is performed. However, a command information input unit for the central controller (V) is provided at each station (ST), and an information input unit for the host controller (7) is provided at the mobile vehicle (A).
Let us prepare for it.

To further explain the travel control operation based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, when a travel command such as destination data is transmitted to the moving vehicle (A), the optical sensor (6)
image capture is started, and steering control is performed in accordance with the measurement of the amount of deviation of the light reflective tape (4) from the center.Next, travel control command marks (m+), (+y+z), (
According to the reading of m3), the vehicle will diverge at an intersection, decelerate toward a station, and temporarily stop at a station (ST) or the like. When starting image capture, if there is no light reflective tape (4) (including when there are no travel control command marks (m3), (m2), (m3)), an emergency stop will be performed to ensure safety. Furthermore, the mobile vehicle (A) is driven only when there is a start command (a power ON signal for running the mobile vehicle).

Furthermore, to explain the above-mentioned branching, as the moving vehicle (A) arrives near the intersection, the optical communication device (1)
2), (13) changes the turning pattern to moving vehicle (A)
Based on this information, the vehicle travels while determining the traveling speed, steering amount, etc.

Although the explanation of the above control operation has been omitted, each moving vehicle (A) is given a car number in advance,
Each mobile vehicle (A
)'s current position along with the machine number and the central control unit (V
), and the entire mass moving vehicle (A) is monitored by the central control unit (V). Furthermore, when multiple vehicles (A) arrive at one merging intersection, the optical communication devices (12) and (13) give start/stop commands to the vehicles (A) to avoid collisions. It turns out.

Figure 2 shows the light reflective tape (4) and the travel control command marks (m3), (m3), (m=) attached to it. The black part (4b) is positioned at the
m3), (m2), and (m3) are constructed by placing black parts (14b) between a plurality of white parts (14a) and on both outer sides. However, each mark (m3), (m2)
, (m3) so that the center of the tape coincides with the center tape center between the lateral outer edges of the white parts (14a) and (14b) located on both ends in the tape width direction so that the tape center can be measured even when passing through the installation location of (m3). It is set as.

In other words, the image processing controller (8) determines the lateral deviation of the vehicle body relative to the light reflective tape (4) based on the outside edge of the white part on both ends in the tape width direction in the captured image and the tape center stored in advance. Each mark (m+), (m2), and (ms) is determined by so-called pattern recognition, which calculates and determines the quantity and also compares and determines the captured image with a pre-stored reference pattern for mark reading. It's like this.

[Another example]

Next, another example will be described.

In order to make the mobile vehicle (A) run automatically, the specific means of each part will depend on the intended use, such as making the signal transmission and reception between the mobile vehicle (A) and the central control unit (V) by guided radio system. Various changes can be made depending on the location, etc.

In addition, when configuring the moving vehicle (A), the specific configuration for steering, accessory devices provided for work, etc. can be changed in various ways depending on the purpose of use.

Further, as the optical sensor (6), a CCD camera is generally used, but a sensor having other configurations may also be used. For example, a camera equipped with an image pickup tube may be used,
Also, a scanner unit scans the laser beam in the width direction of the light reflective tape and receives the reflected light, and a signal from this scanner unit is output to output steering control information or travel control command information. A barcode reader equipped with a decoder section may also be used. In this case, the steering control information is provided with an angle sensor that scans the laser beam, detects the guidance or movement of the rotating mirror, and uses pre-stored mirror angle information when the vehicle runs in the center of the guidance line. It is calculated based on the detected mirror angle information.

Mark (n++), (m2) that displays travel control commands
.

In addition to those described in the above embodiments, various types of (m3) can be considered, such as counting marks arranged at set intervals in the direction of the travel route in order to detect the amount of movement of the vehicle along the travel route. It will be done. In addition, in the above embodiment, the case where the amount of lateral deviation from the tape center can be calculated and determined from the mark reading image, that is, the case where steering control is performed even when traveling at the mark installation location was exemplified. The vehicle may be implemented without steering control when traveling through a certain location, and in that case, the mark format can be changed in various ways.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the optically guided mobile vehicle control equipment according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the specific configuration of the travel control, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the light reflective tape and the travel control command mark, and FIG. Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the travel control operation.
The figure is a schematic plan view showing the traveling route, and FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of the moving vehicle. (4)...Guidance line, (6)...Photo sensor, (m3), (m=), (m3)...Mark.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A guide line (4) for guiding a moving vehicle is provided on the road surface side, and the guide line (4) is installed on the moving road side based on detection information of an optical sensor (6) provided on the moving vehicle side. Car moving along (
A) is an optically guided mobile vehicle control equipment equipped with a control means for automatically traveling, and has a mark (
m_1), (m_2), and (m_3) are connected to the guide line (4).
) an optically guided mobile vehicle control facility located above the optical sensor (6) and configured to control the traveling of the control means based on mark detection information from the optical sensor (6); 2. The optically guided mobile vehicle control equipment according to claim 1, wherein the optical sensor (6) is an image sensor.