JPH048323B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an article collection facility used to collect multiple types of articles according to shipping destinations, and more specifically, to a mobile vehicle equipped with an article storage section. Article collection equipment arranged along the longitudinal direction of a travel path, and in which a plurality of shelves storing a plurality of types of articles are arranged side by side to form a passage for the moving vehicle between adjacent ones. Regarding.

[Conventional technology]

Such article collection equipment has a procedure in which a moving vehicle is driven to a passage adjacent to a shelf where articles to be collected are stored, and articles stored on the shelf are taken out and collected in an article storage section on the moving vehicle side. You will be tasked with collecting items.

By the way, when moving a mobile vehicle to the above-mentioned aisle, conventionally, the vehicle is configured to sequentially instruct information on the shelves in which items are stored in accordance with a predetermined aisle running order (for example, , see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 183505/1983).

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional means, if there is another mobile vehicle working in the aisle adjacent to the shelf that was instructed to travel, the user has to wait until the work of that mobile vehicle is completed, which is a waste of time. This has the disadvantage of causing long waiting times and reducing the work efficiency of article collection work.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to enable accurate and quick determination of another appropriate route even if there is another moving vehicle on the route to the planned destination. It is in.

[Means to solve the problem]

A characteristic configuration of the article collection equipment according to the present invention is that destination passage information display means is provided for displaying all of the passages to be worked on among the plurality of passages formed between the plurality of shelves based on article collection information. Its functions and effects are as follows.

[Effect]

In other words, all the paths to be worked on are displayed based on the article collection information, so if another moving vehicle is already working in the displayed path, you can avoid that path and do other work. It is possible to quickly determine an empty aisle, and the mobile vehicle can be driven to the empty aisle to collect items from the shelves.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Therefore, even if there are other moving vehicles on the scheduled travel path, the work can be carried out without delay without causing unnecessary waiting time unlike in the past, thereby improving the work efficiency of goods collection work. We have now acquired equipment for collecting goods.

〔Example〕

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

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the article collection equipment includes a mobile vehicle V equipped with a plurality of article storage sections S,
A plurality of shelves 1 are provided which store a plurality of types of articles Xa and are arranged along the longitudinal direction of the travel path of the moving vehicle V.

Each of the shelves 1 is divided into a plurality of sections along its longitudinal direction, and each of the partitioned shelf portions 1A is provided with four upper and lower loading sections. Three types of items Xa are stored.

As shown in FIG. 4, the mobile vehicle V includes a steering front wheel 3 whose direction is changed around a vertical axis P by a steering handlebar 2, and a pair of left and right rear wheels 4. The pair of left and right rear wheels 4 are connected by a differential device 5 and are driven by an electric motor 6 for propulsion.

As shown in FIG. 5, a control box 7 is provided at the tip of the control handle rod 2, and the control box 7 can be moved forward and backward to
A travel control lever 8 that switches the propulsion motor 6 between a forward rotation state, a reverse rotation state, and a stopped state, and a vehicle speed lever 9 that changes the rotational speed of the propulsion electric motor 6 by forward and backward movement are provided.

However, in FIG. 5, 10 is a key switch, 11 is an alarm lamp, and 12 is an alarm buzzer.

The article storage section S is formed by a storage frame 13 mounted on a moving vehicle V, and is formed by a storage frame 13 mounted on a moving vehicle V.
3 is provided with four upper and lower shelves, and each shelf has a
Three article storage sections S are formed in the horizontal direction.
However, containers Z are stored in each of the article storage sections S in order to store the articles in the containers Z corresponding to the respective shipping destinations.

The storage frame 13 is loaded onto and unloaded from the moving vehicle V by a transfer device K, which will be described later, at the transfer station ST. A transport device 14 for carrying in and out is provided.

Therefore, after loading the storage frame 13 at the transfer station ST, the worker drives the moving vehicle V to the desired shelf section 1A based on the destination information, and then takes out the article from the shelf section 1A based on the information. The task is to take out the goods and store the taken out goods in a desired container Z based on the goods storage information.
Of course, once all the work is completed, the mobile vehicle V will return to the transfer station ST.

The transfer device K will be explained. Note that this transfer device K is similarly provided at each of the two transfer stations ST.

That is, an empty container conveyor 15 that transports empty containers Z from a shipping work area, a stored container conveyor 16 that transports containers Z in which goods have been stored to the shipping work area,
A container storage device 17 that stores empty containers Z in a storage frame 13, a supply conveyor 18 that transports the storage frame 13 that stores empty containers Z to the transfer station, and a storage that stores containers Z that have already stored goods. The moving vehicle V uses a sending conveyor 19 that conveys the frame 13, a container takeout device 20 that takes out the stored container Z stored in the storage frame 13 to the stored container conveyor 16, and a transversely movable relay conveyor 21A. A first relay device 21 that transfers the storage frames 13 from the supply conveyor 18 to the delivery conveyor 19 and transfers the storage frames 13 from the supply conveyor 18 to the mobile vehicle V, and a relay conveyor 22A that can freely move laterally. The empty storage frame 13 from the delivery conveyor 19 is transferred to the supply conveyor 1.
8, and these devices are operated based on commands from a work controller SC, which will be described later, to load the storage frames 13 onto the mobile vehicle V. The work of unloading the storage frame 13 from the moving vehicle V is automatically performed.

Next, an explanation will be given while describing the control configuration.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the contents of an order form 23 issued by a customer etc. are input to the host controller HC, the order form 23 is sent to the host controller HC.
A purchase order 24 is created according to the contents of item 3, goods are purchased according to the contents of the purchase order 24, and warehousing data 25 of the purchased goods are also input to the host controller HC.

The host controller HC creates work data for collecting goods based on the contents of the order form 23 input in advance while managing the inventory of various goods, and outputs the work data to the work controller SC. However, the work data is formed so as to be distinguishable for each data given to one moving vehicle V, and is provided in a plurality of article storage sections S provided in one moving vehicle V, that is, a plurality of containers Z. It is formed in a format that allows the type and quantity of articles stored in each to be determined.

The work controller SC manages the operation of the transfer device K, and collects goods while exchanging various information with the mobile vehicle controller IC provided in the mobile vehicle V using the data transmission means D described later. The operation will be comprehensively managed.

The information transmission means D includes a controller 26a for read/write control, a ROM 26b, and a RAM 2.
A card writer 27B is attached to the work controller SC and serves as a writing means for writing work data to the IC card 26. card 26
The card reader 27A, which functions as a reading means for reading the data of the mobile vehicle controller,
It is attached to the IC.

However, L in the figure is a printer that creates article slips to be stored separately in each container Z stored in the moving vehicle V, and is operated in synchronization with the operation of the card writer 27B. The goods slip is used for inspection after the goods collection work, and the IC card 26
When setting the materials on the moving vehicle, the workers will distribute the materials to each container Z in a predetermined order.

The mobile vehicle controller IC generates destination information for traveling the mobile vehicle V and a shelf portion 1A on which the mobile vehicle V travels, based on the aforementioned work data and information on articles stored in the shelf 1 stored in advance. The device outputs the information while determining and outputting the information on taking out the article from the container Z and the container Z in which the article is to be stored and the storage information indicating the amount to be put in. A display panel DC for displaying removal information is provided, and the storage frame 13
An indicator lamp 28 for indicating storage information and a numerical display section 29 for displaying the amount of stored articles are provided on each side of the upper side of each container Z.

The destination information includes a passage number assigned in advance between each adjacent shelf 1 and a zone number assigned in advance to each shelf portion 1A, and the display panel DC includes the following information:
As shown in FIG. 6, there is a destination passage NO display section B ₁ as a destination passage information display means that lights up the part corresponding to each passage NO, and a zone NO display part B ₂ that lights up the part corresponding to the zone NO. It is provided.

The article removal information consists of the shelf number assigned to each storage location of each article Xa, the shelf position, and the amount of article taken out, and the shelf number is displayed on the display panel DC as shown in FIG. There are provided a shelf number display section B ₃ for displaying the number of items to be taken out, a quantity display section B ₄ for displaying the amount of articles to be taken out, and a shelf position display section B ₅ for lighting up a portion corresponding to the shelf position.

In addition, the article retrieval information is displayed when the moving vehicle V travels to the desired shelf section 1A, and for this reason, there is a mark M indicating the aisle number and zone number on the ceiling side of each aisle. In addition, a mark detection sensor 30 is attached to the storage frame 13. Incidentally, the mark detection sensor 30 detects that the mobile vehicle V has traveled to the shelf portion 1A where work is to be performed.
When detected, the above-mentioned alarm lamp 11 and alarm buzzer 12 will be activated, and the detected approach passage number will be displayed on the approach passage number display section B ₆ of the display panel DC. become.

Furthermore, the article retrieval information is for one information instruction to instruct one article among the plurality of kinds of articles stored in the shelf section 1A. As the work completion switch 31 is operated, it is checked whether information instructions for other types of articles are available, and if there are, instructions are subsequently given for article removal information.

By the way, when storing goods in each container Z, it is necessary to store a desired amount of goods of the type assigned to each container Z, respectively.
Therefore, the article storage information is displayed while also confirming the position of each container Z. That is, for example, while identifying the position of each container Z using a matrix, article data to be stored in each container Z is determined, and article storage information is displayed based on the data. However, when determining the article data for each container Z, it goes without saying that it should be associated with the distribution order of the article slips described above.

The storage frame 13 is equipped with a connector 32B that connects to a connector 32A extending from the vehicle controller IC when loaded onto the vehicle V, and by this connection, the indicator lamp 28 and the numerical value are displayed. The display unit 29 and mark detection sensor 30 are connected to the mobile vehicle controller IC.

Therefore, using the mobile vehicle controller IC, the destination information instruction means 100 instructs destination information, and the article retrieval information instruction means 10 instructs article retrieval information.
1 and an article storage information instruction means 102 for instructing article storage information, an instruction means for instructing article collection information is constituted.

The operation of the mobile vehicle V will be explained while describing the control operation of the mobile vehicle controller IC based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

In other words, at the transfer station ST etc.
When the card 26 is set in the card reader 27A on the moving vehicle side, the moving vehicle controller IC reads the work data and then performs a process of displaying the destination passage number.

When the mobile vehicle V enters the desired passage, the entrance passage
A process for displaying NO and a process for displaying the zone number in which the vehicle should drive are executed.

When the work area is reached, an alarm process is executed to activate the alarm buzzer 12 and alarm lamp 11.
After that, the process of displaying the shelf position, the process of displaying the shelf number, and the process of displaying the quantity of articles to be taken out are executed, and furthermore, the instruction lamp 28 and the numerical display section 29 are operated to display the storage information. Processing to output is executed.

Next, the operating state of the work completion switch 31 is checked repeatedly and the process waits until the article removal work is completed.

When the work is completed, it is checked whether the work in that zone is to be continued or not, and if the work is to be continued, each process from the above-mentioned shelf position display process is executed.

If there is no need to continue, check whether there is any remaining work in other zones, and if there is, execute each process from the approach path NO display process.

If there is no remaining work, it is checked whether or not to continue the work, and if the work is to be continued, the above-mentioned processes are executed.

[Another example]

As the mobile vehicle V, a mobile vehicle that automatically travels based on destination command information may be used.

In order to instruct information on taking out articles at each shelf portion 1A, information on articles of the same type may be displayed separately for each container Z, in which case the numerical display section 29 becomes unnecessary.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the articles are sorted using the container Z is illustrated, but the articles may be sorted while being directly stored in the article storage section S.

Furthermore, in carrying out the present invention, article data for each shipping destination is written in separate storage media 26, so that a plurality of storage media 26 can be set simultaneously on the moving vehicle side, and each shipping destination is If these items are stored in the same item storage section S, each storage medium 26 can be stored in the corresponding item storage section S after the item collection work, and the items can be inspected using the information on the storage medium 26. is also possible.

As the storage medium 26, various types can be used, such as an IC card, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc., and various types can be used as the writing means 27B and the reading means 27A, depending on the storage medium 26 used. .

Incidentally, although reference numerals are written in the claims section for convenient comparison with the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the structure shown in the accompanying drawings.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the article collection equipment according to the present invention, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the control configuration, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the article sorting equipment, and FIG. 3 is a moving vehicle stopped beside a shelf. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of the moving vehicle, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the control box, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the control box.
The figure is a plan view of the display panel, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the control operation. 1... Shelf, B ₁ ... Destination aisle information display means, S
...Goods storage section, V...Movement vehicle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of shelves 1 which are arranged along the longitudinal direction of the travel path of the mobile vehicle V having the article storage section S and which store a plurality of types of articles are located between adjacent ones of the shelves 1 of the vehicle V. A destination passage that displays all the passages to be worked on among the plurality of passages formed between the plurality of shelves 1 based on the article collection information, which are article collection equipment arranged in parallel to form a plurality of shelves 1. Goods collection equipment equipped with display means B ₁ .