JPH0313769Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] This invention is a guided unmanned vehicle that is mainly used in factories to automatically transport various tools, workpieces, etc. to desired locations such as stations. It is equipped with a mechanism and a travel drive mechanism for automatically steering along the guide line by detecting the guide line, and a travel drive mechanism is provided at the end of the travel direction to detect collision with an obstacle and automatically steer the vehicle along the guide line. The present invention relates to a guided unmanned vehicle equipped with a foamed resin bumper equipped with a wide switch that transmits a travel control signal to a drive mechanism.

In this type of guided unmanned vehicle, the bumper with the wide switch stops the vehicle body in the event of a collision with an obstacle, such as a factory worker, various machines, or goods, if there is an obstacle on the guide line. This function detects collision with an obstacle and transmits a travel control signal to the travel drive mechanism in order to slow down the following unmanned vehicle in the event of a rear-end collision between unmanned vehicles. However, in the past, bumpers were made entirely of highly elastic, soft foamed resin with the primary purpose of absorbing shocks caused by collisions with obstacles.
According to this, in the event of a collision with an obstacle, a wide switch, typified by a tape switch, operates by being sandwiched between the pressing force received from the collision object side and the pressing reaction force received from the bumper side. ,
Since the bumper is soft, the push reaction force may be weaker and it may not operate, and the unmanned vehicle may continue to run in a normal state even though it has collided with an obstacle. There were drawbacks such as damage to unmanned vehicles and injuries to people when they collided with humans.

As a countermeasure, it may be possible to construct the entire bumper from a hard material to ensure the operation of the wide switch, but in this case,
If the bumper's originally required function of absorbing the impact caused by a collision is impaired, the impact force exerted on the unmanned vehicle and the obstacle increases, and the above-mentioned drawbacks are inevitable.

In view of these circumstances, the present invention aims to sufficiently meet the contradictory requirements of reliable wide switch operation and improved shock absorption in the event of a collision.

The characteristic configuration of the present invention, which has been made to achieve the above object, is that in the above-mentioned guided unmanned vehicle, the bumper is a hard foam resin layer that supports the wide switch from the side opposite to the obstacle contacting surface. and a soft foam resin layer that is in close contact with the side opposite to the side where the wide switch is present.

The effects of the present invention having such a characteristic configuration are as follows.

In other words, due to the hardness of the hard foam resin layer in the bumper, it is possible to sufficiently exert a pressing reaction force against the pressing force received from an obstacle, and to ensure the wide switch operation in the event of a collision.
Due to the soft elasticity of the soft foamed resin layer, impact force can be absorbed sufficiently well.
By making a simple improvement by making the bumper a double layer of hard and soft materials, it has become possible to prevent damage to obstacles or unmanned vehicles and injuries caused by collisions.

Next, an embodiment of the configuration of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

As shown in Figure 1, a towpath wire 10 is buried in the floor FL passing beside each station S for transferring tools and workpieces in the factory.
To construct an automatic guided vehicle that is guided by an electromagnetic induction method and runs along a guide line _T constructed by A traveling drive mechanism 2 having running wheels 6 to be driven is configured to be rotatable around a vertical axis P by a steering motor _M2 , and a pick-up coil 7 to which a control signal from the towpath wire 10 is input. , the electric signal from the pick-up coil 7 is inputted to detect the lateral displacement of the vehicle body with respect to the towpath wire 10, and a signal is sent to the steering motor _M2 to reduce the lateral displacement to zero. A mechanism for automatic steering along the vehicle body 9 is constructed, and bumpers 4, 4 are provided at the front and rear portions of the vehicle body 9 for shock absorption in the event of a collision.

As shown in FIG. 4, the bumpers 4, 4 are constructed by a soft foamed resin layer 4B made of urethane foam on the side of the vehicle body 9, and a hard foamed resin layer 4B made of urethane foam on the outer side of the layer 4B. It is composed of a foamed resin layer 4A, and a tape switch 3, which is an example of a wide switch, is adhered to the outer periphery of the hard foamed resin layer 4A, and the entire surface of the bumper 4 is covered with a skin cover 11. Then, the tape switch 3 and the travel motor M ₁ are linked so that the tape switch 3 is activated when the impact object 12 collides.
is operated to actuate the brake and cut off the power supply to the travel motor _M1 .

Further, the drive rotation of the traveling motor _M1 may be decelerated by the operation of the tape switch 3, and the unmanned vehicle may be decelerated in the event of a collision.

Furthermore, an ultrasonic wave is emitted toward the front in the running direction within the wall thickness in the longitudinal direction at or approximately at the center in the width direction of the bumper 4 to detect the presence of an obstacle within its operating area. An ultrasonic sensor 25 is provided for transmitting a travel deceleration signal to the travel drive mechanism 2 based on the vehicle speed. Although a tape switch is most preferable as the wide switch 3, a fluid pressure switch that detects a pressure change at the time of a collision may also be used.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the guided unmanned vehicle according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the whole, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the unmanned vehicle, FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the unmanned vehicle, and FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of the unmanned vehicle. The figure is a partially cutaway plan view of the main part. FL...Floor surface, T...Guide line, 2...Traveling drive mechanism, 3...Wide switch, 4...Bumper, 4
A...Hard foam resin layer, 4B...Soft foam resin layer, 11...Skin cover.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] The system is equipped with a mechanism 1 and a travel drive mechanism 2 for automatically steering along the guide line T by detecting the guide line T laid on the floor FL, In the guided unmanned vehicle, a foamed resin bumper 4 is provided at an end thereof with a wide switch 3 that detects contact with an obstacle and transmits a travel control signal to the travel drive mechanism 2. The bumper 4 has a hard foam resin layer 4A supporting the wide switch 3 from the side opposite to the side where the wide switch 3 is in contact with the obstacle, and a soft foam resin layer 4A that is in close contact with the wide switch 3 on the opposite side of the layer 4A from the side where the wide switch 3 is present. The guided unmanned vehicle is made up of a foamed resin layer 4B. The guided unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the bumper 4 is covered with a full skin cover 11. The guided unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the wide switch 3 is a tape switch. The guided unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein both the foamed resin layers 4A and 4B are made of urethane foam.