JPH04169308A - Unmanned carrier vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To utilize an unmanned carrier vehicle for a railless and rail induction systems at the time of putting a wheel dedicated for rail system on rail by positioning the lower end surface of the wheel dedicated for rail upper than the lower end surface of the wheel dedicated for railless system in such a way that the wheel dedicated for railless system is floated from the floor surface. CONSTITUTION:A pair of right and left wheels 7 dedicated for railless system, which are driven and run in contact with a floor surface 3, and wheels 8 dedicated for rail system which are run and driven upon a rail 4, are provided on the car body of an unmanned carrier vehicle 1. The height of a pair of right and left rails 4 for rail system, which are laid on the floor surface 3, to the floor surface, is H1. When the wheel 8 dedicated for rail system is put on the rail 4, a condition H1>H2 is satisfied where H2 is the difference in height of the lower end between the wheels 7 and 8, so as to put the lower end surface of the wheel 8 dedicated for rail system upper than the lower end surface of the wheel 7 for railless system, in such a way that the lower end surface of the wheel 7 dedicated for railless system is floated from the floor surface 3 by the height H3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the structure of an automatic guided vehicle that transports cargo unmanned within a factory or the like.

[Conventional technology]

As part of recent unmanned factory equipment, automated guided vehicles are driven along guide lines placed on the floor of the factory, and various cargoes are transported to predetermined locations using the automated guided vehicles. It is being said.

In this case, in conventional automated guided vehicle systems that guide automated guided vehicles, tracks such as rails are laid on the floor, and the wheels of the automated guided vehicle are mounted on these tracks, so-called track-type guidance systems. It was one of the so-called trackless guidance systems, in which magnetic guide wires or optical tape were stretched over the surface, and sensors installed on the automatic guided vehicle detected these and guided the vehicle so that it did not deviate from the route.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above-mentioned track guidance system, the automated guided vehicle is guided along the track, so it will not deviate from the track even when traveling at high speed, and if workers in the factory pay attention to the track, it will not deviate from the track. , it is safe because collisions with automated guided vehicles can be avoided. On the other hand, there were problems in that it was expensive to lay the tracks, and it was difficult to easily change, add, or extend the running route.

On the other hand, with a trackless guidance system, there are no rails laid on the floor, and as long as guide lines are laid, the automatic guided vehicle can move freely on the floor, so there are no costs associated with route changes or extensions. While this has the advantage of being less expensive, it also has the disadvantage of not being able to run the automated guided vehicle at a high speed for safety reasons such as avoiding collisions with workers.

Therefore, conventionally, one of the above-mentioned systems has been adopted, and an automatic guided vehicle compatible with the system cannot be used for the other system.

The present invention aims to solve this technical problem by providing an automatic guided vehicle that can be applied to either the trackless or tracked system.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vehicle body of an automatic guided vehicle with trackless dedicated wheels that drive and travel in contact with the floor surface, and track dedicated wheels that drive and travel in contact with a track located higher than the floor surface. and positioning the lower end surface of the trackless wheel above the lower end surface of the trackless wheel so that the lower end surface of the trackless wheel lifts off the floor surface when the trackless wheel rides on the track. It is structured as follows.

[Operation and effects of the invention]

In this way, the vehicle body of the automatic guided vehicle is provided with track-only wheels and trackless-only wheels, both of which are driven, and the lower end of the trackless-only wheel is lower than the lower end of the track-only wheel. Therefore, in a state where the trackless dedicated wheels are in contact with the floor surface and are driving, the track dedicated wheels do not come into contact with the floor surface.

On the other hand, when a trackless wheel is driven and driven on a track higher than the floor surface, the lower end of the trackless wheel will rise above the floor surface, and even if the trackless wheel is rotationally driven, the trackless wheel will The influence of the drive on the is eliminated.

Therefore, when you want to use a common path with the walking surface of workers or the running surface of other traveling machines such as forklifts, or when you want to change the traveling route frequently, use trackless dedicated wheels. In areas where it is desired to run or where there is a high risk of collision with workers, a dedicated track can be provided and the automated guided vehicle can be run along this track.

In this way, by providing trackless dedicated wheels and track dedicated wheels on one vehicle body, both trackless guidance systems and tracked guidance systems can be installed in a mixed manner in a factory, and the present invention can be applied to these systems. Therefore, it is possible to provide an automatic guided vehicle with so-called versatility.

〔Example〕

Next, to explain an embodiment, the reference numeral 1 in FIG. 1 indicates an automatic guided vehicle of the present invention, the reference numeral 2 indicates a metal tape for magnetic induction laid on the floor 3 of a factory, etc., and the reference numerals 4 and 4 indicate the floor surface. The height dimension (Hl) of the rail 4 with respect to the floor surface is a pair of left and right rails for the track laid in 3.

On the body of the automatic guided vehicle 1, there is provided a cargo loading section 6 such as a conveyor on which the cargo 5 is placed. As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the vehicle body of the automatic guided vehicle 1 has a pair of left and right trackless dedicated wheels 7, 7 that drive and run in contact with the floor surface 3, and a pair of trackless dedicated wheels 7, 7 that are in contact with the rails 4 so as to ride on the rails 4. The track dedicated wheels 8, 8 are driven and run by the track dedicated wheels 8 and the rail 4.
When getting on top, the lower end surface of the trackless dedicated wheels 7 or the floor surface 3
The lower end surface of the track-only wheel 8 is positioned above the lower end surface of the trackless-only wheel 7 so that it rises by a height dimension (H3) from (H2), it is set so that Hl>H2 as shown in FIG.

With this configuration, the trackless dedicated wheels 8 are moved to the rail 4 from the state in which the trackless dedicated wheels 7 run while contacting the floor surface 3.
This means that it is possible to automatically change the state in which the trackless dedicated wheels 7 ride on the vehicle (in this case, the trackless dedicated wheels 7 do not contact the floor or the rail) and the opposite state, so that Various types of automated guided vehicles can be used in systems that mix tracked and trackless guidance systems.

Reference numerals 9 and 9 denote drive motors capable of forward and reverse rotation with a transmission mechanism IO for individually driving the left and right trackless wheels 7 and track-only wheels 8, and their power source is a battery 11 mounted on the vehicle body.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a rotation transmission mechanism from each of the drive motors 9 to the trackless wheels 7 and the trackless wheels 8, and a gear 13 provided on the output shaft of the drive motor 9 connects the trackless wheels 7
(the gear 14 and the gear 15 attached to the support shaft of the track wheel 8 are always meshed, and the gear 14
The number of teeth of the gear 15 is larger than the number of teeth of the drive motor 9.
If the rotational speed of the trackless wheels 8 is set to be greater than the rotational speed of the trackless wheels 7 for the same rotational speed of State of contact with floor surface 3 and rail 4
With the track dedicated wheels 8 on top, it is possible to mechanically and automatically achieve a slow running speed of the automatic guided vehicle l on the floor surface 3 and a fast running speed on the rails 4. be.

In this way, in combination with the configuration in which the lower ends of the trackless wheels 7 and the lower ends of the track wheels 8 are different in height, it is possible to run safely at low speed on the floor 3, and on the rails 4. High-speed driving can speed up the transportation of cargo.

Furthermore, if the left and right drive motors 9, 9 are made separately so that they can rotate in forward and reverse directions, and one drive motor is rotated in the forward direction and the other is rotated in the reverse direction, the automatic guided vehicle can turn with a small turning radius at the wheel portion.

Note that when the trackless dedicated wheels 7 are arranged close to the outer edges of the pair of left and right rails 4° 4, the trackless dedicated wheels 8 may move away from the rails 4 due to meandering of the automatic guided vehicle 1 when traveling on the rails 4. It can prevent it from coming off and derailing. For this purpose, in principle, it is preferable that the diameter of the trackless wheels 7 be approximately equal to or smaller than the diameter of the track wheels 8.

Reference numeral 16 indicates an auxiliary wheel for the floor 3, and reference numeral 17 indicates an auxiliary wheel for the rail 4.

Note that it may be configured such that rotational force is transmitted from one drive motor to the left and right drive wheels via a transmission mechanism, an electromagnetic clutch mechanism, and a brake mechanism.

Reference numerals 18 and 18 shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 indicate a pair of left and right sensors that detect the guiding metal tape 2. When the sensors 18 approach the metal tape 2 and detect its metal components, While correcting the horizontal misalignment of the automatic guided vehicle 1 with respect to the metal tape 2, a steering correction signal and the like is output to the drive motor via the control device (including a microcomputer, etc.) 19.

FIG. 5 shows an example using electromagnetic induction, in which a low-frequency current is passed through electric wires 20 buried in the floor 3 to generate an alternating magnetic field around the electric wires, The alternating current magnetic field is detected by the pickup coil 21.21 and amplified by the preamplifier 22.22, and then the difference between the voltages induced in the two left and right pickup coils 21.21 is determined by the detection amplifier 23, and the difference is further calculated. amplifier 24
The output of a predetermined value is sent to the drive circuits 26 and 26 for the left and right drive motors 9 through the central processing unit 25 to control the steering.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the rightward positional deviation of the two left and right pickup coils 21.21 with respect to the electric wire 20 and the difference in induced voltage detected by the pickup coils.

In addition, a light reflective tape with high light reflectance such as aluminum tape is stretched on the floor surface 3, and a light sensor installed in the automatic guided vehicle 1 detects the installation position of the light reflective tape and controls the steering. It may be configured as follows.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic guided vehicle, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view, FIG. 3 is a side view, and FIG. 4 is a view taken along the line IV-rV in FIG. FIG. 5 is a control block diagram of another embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the induced voltage difference detected by the left and right pickup coils with respect to the electric wire. 1...Automated guided vehicle, 2...Metal tape, 3...
... Floor surface, 4 ... Rail, 7 ... Trackless dedicated wheels, 8 ... Track dedicated wheels, 9 ... Drive motor,
I2...Transmission mechanism, 13,14.15...Gear, 16,17...Auxiliary wheel, 18...Sensor,
19...Control device, 20...Electric wire, 21...
・Pickup coil. Patent applicant: Itoki Kosakusho Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) The vehicle body is equipped with trackless dedicated wheels that drive and travel in contact with the floor surface, and track dedicated wheels that drive and travel in contact with a track at a position higher than the floor surface, and the track dedicated wheels are driven and run on the track at a position higher than the floor surface. An unmanned conveyance system characterized in that the lower end surface of the trackless wheel is positioned above the lower end surface of the trackless wheel so that the lower end surface of the trackless wheel lifts off the floor surface when riding on the vehicle. car.