JPH05100740A - Control system for unmanned carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inform an unmanned carrier of the state of a station so as to judge whether transfer work can be executed or not. CONSTITUTION:The unmanned carrier 1 to travel on a rail 2 receives a signal to show whether the station 3 is in the state that the transfer work can be executed or not before it arrives at the station 3 of the starting point or the terminal point of transportation work. The controller 5 of the unmanned carrier 1 controls autonomously the unmanned carrier 1 on the basis of this signal, and executes the transfer work. Since a central control device 4 can manage without processing this execution instruction work, the load on the central control device 4 can be reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automated guided vehicle that travels between stations to transport articles, and more particularly to a control system for an automated guided vehicle when transferring articles between stations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to convey articles from one station to another, an automatic guided vehicle that automatically travels along a conveyance path is used. Each automated guided vehicle is equipped with a control device for controlling the traveling / transfer device of the automated guided vehicle, and the allocation of the transport work to the plurality of automated guided vehicles is performed by the central control unit on the ground. The central controller will send a transfer request, and if the station can be transferred,
Send a transfer command specifying the start point and end point stations to the waiting automated guided vehicle. Based on this command, the control device of the automatic guided vehicle receives the article from the start point station and travels to the end point station to deliver the article.

Although the automatic guided vehicle transfers the article to and from the station, the central control unit determines whether the station is ready before sending the conveyance command, that is, the article is placed at the article transfer position. Whether or not the automatic guided vehicle is to perform the work is determined depending on whether the automatic guided vehicle is placed or not, whether the station is abnormal, or the like. Therefore, the central control unit was monitoring the status of the station.

[0004]

In such a system in which the central control unit issues a transportation command to the control unit of the automatic guided vehicle based on the data from the station as described above, the load of the central control unit becomes large and the CPU size becomes large. However, there have been problems such as having to be made into a waste, and causing a trouble in the work for assigning the transport request, and lowering the transport efficiency.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to reduce the load on the central control unit by entrusting the autonomous control of each unmanned guided vehicle to the determination as to whether or not the transfer work is being performed by the central control unit.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a standby traveling from a central control unit when an article is requested to be transferred from station to station, regardless of whether the station can be transferred. A transport command specifying the start point and the end point is transmitted to the unmanned guided vehicle. Then, when the automatic guided vehicle approaches the start or end station of the transfer work, the station directly communicates with the automatic guided vehicle, and a signal indicating whether or not the station can perform the transfer operation is controlled by the automatic guided vehicle. The control device for the automatic guided vehicle is configured to control the automatic guided vehicle based on the signal transmitted to the device.

[0007]

Since the present invention has the above-mentioned structure, the following operational effects are obtained.

In the control system for the automatic guided vehicle according to the present invention, the control device for the automatic guided vehicle determines whether the transfer operation can be executed. That is, a signal is communicated directly between the station and the automated guided vehicle, which indicates whether the station can be transferred. Based on this signal, the control device for the automatic guided vehicle controls the automatic guided vehicle to execute the transfer operation or to go around again and stand by.

Therefore, according to the control system for the automatic guided vehicle according to the present invention, the control device of the automatic guided vehicle recognizes the state of the station without passing through the central control device, and determines the execution of the transfer operation. Therefore, the central control device only allocates the transfer work to the automatic guided vehicle and communicates with the automatic guided vehicle, so that the load on the central control device can be reduced.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments shown in the drawings will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a carrier system to which an embodiment of an automatic guided vehicle control system according to the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, an automated guided vehicle 1 travels on a track 2 and a plurality of stations 3 ... 3 arranged side by side on the track 2.
Transport articles between. Allocation of the transfer work to the automatic guided vehicle 1 is performed by the central control unit 4 on the ground. For example, when a transfer request from the station 3a to the station 3b occurs, the central control unit 4 designates the start point station 3a and the end point station 3b, and transmits the designated station 3a to the automatic guided vehicle 1 in the standby traveling mode. Communication between the automatic guided vehicle 1 and the central control device 4 is performed by, for example, IR optical communication. The control of the traveling / transferring operation of the automated guided vehicle 1 is performed by the control device 5 mounted on the automated guided vehicle 1.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the control device of the transfer system shown in FIG. Each station 3 ... 3 has a loading sensor 6,
It has a load collapse detection sensor 7 and an online sensor 8. These sensors 6, 7, 8 are turned on and off at the positions in front of the unmanned guided vehicle 1 of the stations 3, ...
Depending on the state of F, the photocells 9, 9, which are turned on and off,
9 are arranged. The optical axis emitted by each photoelectric tube 9 is received by the photocells 10, 10 and 10 provided in the automatic guided vehicle 1. The signals from the photocells 10, 10, 10 are transmitted to the control device 5. The control device 5 controls the traveling motor 11 and the transfer device drive motor 12.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

When a transport command is transmitted from the central control unit 4 to the automatic guided vehicle 1, the control unit 5 drives the traveling motor 11 to approach the starting station. For example, it is assumed that an instruction to convey an article is given from the station 3a to the station 3b. Automated guided vehicle 1 is station 3
When approaching a, the state of the station 3a is transmitted by the phototube 9. That is, the loading sensor 6 determines whether the article W is placed at the article transfer position of the station 3a.
The load collapse detection sensor 7 detects whether the article W is in a normal packing state, and the online sensor 8 detects whether the article W is in an online state, and the photoelectric tubes 9, 9, 9 are turned on according to the respective states.
Set to N or OFF.

The control device 5, which receives the optical axes from the respective photocells 9, 9 and 9 and recognizes the state of the station 3a, operates the traveling motor 1 if the station 3a can be unloaded.
1 to stop the automatic guided vehicle 1 in front of the station 3a, and drive the transfer device drive motor 12 to receive the article W from the station 3a. If there is any abnormality, the article transfer work is not performed, and the front side of the station 3a is passed until the station 3a side is ready, and the vehicle is recirculated and waits.

When the transfer of the article W is completed, the automatic guided vehicle 1
Runs towards station 3b. Photocells 9, 9, 9 are also arranged in front of the station 3b, and the control device 5 can know the state of the station 3b.
The automated guided vehicle 1 can be controlled according to the state.

As described above, according to the control system for the automated guided vehicle of the present embodiment, the central control unit 4 conventionally determines whether the station 3 side can handle the transfer work, but the automated guided vehicle 1 is directly sent from the station. Since it is now sent to, it is possible to reduce the load on the central control unit 4,
Therefore, even a small-scale CPU can perform work such as transfer work allocation without delay, and the transfer efficiency can be improved.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments and can be appropriately modified within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a transfer system to which an embodiment of a control system for an automated guided vehicle according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram showing a main part of a configuration of a control mechanism of the embodiment of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Automated guided vehicle 3 Station 4 Central control device 5 Control device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When an automated guided vehicle approaches a station at the start or end point of a transport operation, the station directly communicates with the automated guided vehicle, and a signal indicating whether or not the station can perform the transfer operation is unattended. A control system for an automatic guided vehicle, which is transmitted to a control device for the automatic guided vehicle, and the controller for the automatic guided vehicle controls the automatic guided vehicle based on this signal.