JPH0511841A - Conveyance control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately stop respective carriages at destinations without requiring many detectors which identify the carriages. CONSTITUTION:This method is equipped with plural LIM controllers 3a -3c which control driving forces, communication lines 7a and 7b for receiving and passing the numbers of the carriages which enter sections among the LIM controllers 3a-3c, and a conveyance controller 6 which sends travel commands corresponding to the carriage numbers set for the respective carriages to the respective LIM controllers. The conveyance controller 6 sets the number of the carriage to stop at the due LIM controller 3c and sends the same carriage number as the set carriage and a start command to the LIM controller 3a at a start point. Once the carriage 2 enters the next section, the number of the entering carriage is sent to the next section LIM controller 3b through the communication line 7a and the carriages stop at the stop position in order. The LIM controller 3c at the stop position stops the entering carriage when the carriage number set as a stopping carriage number is sent. Thus, a carriage number signal is only transmitted to move the carriage to its destination.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[Object of the Invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transportation control method for identifying a vehicle that is automatically traveling and traveling the vehicle to a desired location.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Automatic conveyance of articles in offices and factories has been widely carried out as a part of recent OA and FA conversion.

[0003] Conventionally, a system in which drive wheels are installed in a vehicle and the vehicle is driven and driven by an electric motor is widely used in the vehicle used for such automatic transportation. In this case, it is necessary to supply electric power to the traveling transport vehicle, and a current collector is used. Among the automatic transportation, those used in semiconductor manufacturing factories, hospitals, etc. are particularly required to have low dust generation and low noise, and there is a limit to the conventional wheeled / current collector system.

In recent years, along with the development of the linear motor technology, by driving the carrier vehicle by a linear motor, dust generation and noise are reduced without supplying electric power to the carrier vehicle (therefore, there is no current collector). The transportation method has been put to practical use. Here, the difference in the traveling control between the case where the transport vehicle has the drive wheels and the case where the drive is performed on the fixed side on the ground will be briefly described.

When a plurality of transport vehicles travel on different transport routes toward different destinations and the transport vehicles have driving wheels, the transport vehicles themselves measure the traveled distance and the transport vehicles store the travel distance. It is possible to stop at the destination by comparing and driving the destination route. On the other hand, when driving on the fixed side of the ground, such as fixing the primary drive control side of the linear motor to the ground, the plural vehicles are identified by some method, and the vehicles that should be stopped at the destination are passed. It is necessary to determine whether the vehicle is a transport vehicle and perform drive control. Conventionally, various sensors have been used for identifying a carrier vehicle, and one example thereof will be described below.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of a conventional guided vehicle identification traveling control method. Reference numeral 1 is a track on which the transport vehicle 2 travels. Three
Reference numeral a denotes a primary induction motor (hereinafter referred to as LIM) fixedly installed on the ground side and a LIM controller for controlling the excitation of the primary coil. The LIM controller 3a is a carrier vehicle 2.
The propulsion and deceleration forces are controlled with the secondary conductor plate 4 attached to the. An identification detector 5 identifies the vehicle number of the passing vehicle 2 when the vehicle 2 passes immediately before the LIM controller 3c. The identification signal output from the identification detector 5 is input to the LIM controller 3c. Reference numeral 6 denotes a transfer controller that gives a command to the LIM controllers 3a and 3c.

When the carrier 2 departs from the point of the LIM controller 3a and stops at the LIM controller 3c, the carrier controller 6 tells the LIM controller 3c at the stop point the number of the carrier to be stopped (stop Set the car number). After that, when a departure command is output to the LIM controller 3a, the LIM controller 3a executes excitation control, gives propulsive force to the stopped vehicle 2 and the vehicle 2 starts acceleration. LIM controllers 3a, 3b, 3c
Are installed at a predetermined interval, so that the carrier 2 travels between the LIM controllers with difficulty.

When the carrier 2 reaches the LIM controller 3b,
The LIM controller 3b accelerates the carrier vehicle 2 to pass the LIM controller 3b. Immediately before the transport vehicle 2 passes through the LIM controller 3c, the identification number of the transport vehicle previously installed in each transport vehicle is identified by the identification detector 5, and the identification signal is sent to the LIM controller 3c. The LIM controller 3c compares the preset stop vehicle number with the identification signal (vehicle number), and if they are the same, applies a deceleration force to stop the entering vehicle 2 and stops the vehicle 2. If the vehicle numbers are different, the transport vehicle is given an accelerating force and passed. By doing so, a plurality of transport vehicles can be driven to the destination.

[0009]

In this transport control method, an optical detector, a radio wave detector or the like is used as an identification detector of the transport vehicle. However, since it is detected while the transport vehicle is running, it is shaken due to the deviation of the transport vehicle. Due to such reasons, there was a problem that false detection was caused and it could cause a stray vehicle. Further, not only the destination but also the branch point needs the discriminator, and as the transport route becomes complicated, the number of discriminators installed increases, and the probability of false detection increases as a whole. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for a large number of detectors for identifying a transport vehicle,
A transport control method for accurately stopping each transport vehicle at a destination. [Constitution of Invention]

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, in the first aspect of the invention, a propulsion controller installed at a predetermined interval in the conveyance path and a conveyance path by these propulsion controllers. A plurality of guided vehicles that are controlled to start, run, or stop along with, and start or run corresponding to the vehicle number set for each vehicle to each propulsion controller,
It has a transport controller that gives a stop command and a communication line that passes the vehicle number of the transport vehicle between adjacent propulsion controllers, and when the transport vehicle leaves the propulsion controller, the front of this propulsion controller The vehicle number of the vehicle is transmitted to the propulsion controller of the vehicle via the communication line, and the propulsion controller in front of the vehicle controller selects the start, run, or stop command from the vehicle controller according to the transmitted vehicle number, and enters. It is characterized in that the operation of the guided vehicle is controlled by executing the selected command for the incoming guided vehicle.

Further, according to the second aspect of the invention, a plurality of transport vehicles that can travel along the transport route, and the transport route is divided into a plurality of zones in the traveling direction, and the transport vehicles provided in each zone are started or moved. A propulsion controller that controls running and stopping,
A vehicle number detector that is provided in some of the key zones of the plurality of zones and that identifies the vehicle number of the passing vehicle that is preset for the passing vehicle, and deviates from the preset route The stray vehicle number detector that is provided on the transport route through which the transport vehicle always passes and that detects the vehicle number of the passing transport vehicle, and the vehicle number detected by this stray vehicle number detector are the preset vehicle numbers. If there is a vehicle number that is not registered in advance, it has a stray vehicle returning means for returning to a preset route, operation control of a carrier vehicle that is traveling normally on the route, and a route The feature is that the deviation of the guided vehicle is detected separately.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a transfer control system diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In addition, in FIG. 1, the parts denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 7a is a signal line, and a carrier identification number is sent from the LIM controller 3a to the LIM controller 3b before the carrier 2 passes through the LIM controller 3a and reaches the LIM controller 3b. . Similarly, 7b is a LIM controller 3b
To 3c. Consider a case where the vehicle starts at the point of the LIM controller 3a and stops at the point of the LIM controller 3c as the destination. First, the transport controller 8 sets the LI of the destination.
A vehicle identification number (denoted as vehicle number n) different from other vehicles is set in the M controller 3c. Next, the transport controller 6 transmits the same vehicle number n as the vehicle number set in the LIM controller 3c and a departure command to the LIM controller 3a in which the transport vehicle 2 exists.

The LIM controller 3a accelerates the carrier vehicle 2 and, at the same time, transmits the vehicle number n to the LIM controller 3b via the signal line 7a. Next, the operation of the transfer control system will be described with reference to FIG. The LIM controller 3b determines whether there is the approach vehicle number transmitted in the approach vehicle number determination step 8. If there is an approaching vehicle number, the LIM controller 3b compares the approaching vehicle number n with the vehicle number set by the transport controller 6 in the vehicle number determination step 9, and there is no matching vehicle number. To judge. Then, the LIM controller 3b performs a passage process (acceleration) 10 for the transport vehicle 2. Further, the vehicle number n of the passing transport vehicle 2 is sent to the LIM controller 3c via the signal line 7b.
The LIM controller 3c compares the vehicle number n of the next guided vehicle 2 transmitted from the rear with the vehicle number set value to be stopped, determines that they match, and stops the vehicle 2. Processing (deceleration stop) 11 is performed.

In this way, by delivering the identification number (vehicle number) of the transportation vehicle in accordance with the traveling section of the transportation vehicle 2, the transportation vehicle is delivered to the destination without the detector for detecting the vehicle number. You can move.

In the present embodiment, the vehicle number to be stopped is set in advance in the destination LIM controller. However, when the branch part is in the middle, information on which carrier vehicle branches to which is provided. Set from the transport controller. Further, in the present embodiment, the case where the transport vehicle of the set vehicle number is stopped has been described, but when the transport vehicle set to the opposite is passed, the LI other than the stop point is set.
Set the car number in the M controller. In this way, when there is no vehicle number of the incoming vehicle in the vehicle number group set by the transport controller 6, the stopping process is performed on the incoming vehicle. The same effect can be obtained. Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram for operating a plurality of transport vehicles on the same guide rail. Reference numeral 12 denotes a transfer control general controller, which is a controller that supervises and controls the group controller 13. Group controller 13 is speed controller 14
It is a controller that controls the traveling of the guided vehicle based on the data reported from Speed controller 14
Controls the speed of a passing vehicle, some of which are connected to a vehicle number detection sensor 15 and a stray vehicle number detection sensor 16, which input the vehicle number from the sensors and report it to the group controller. Here, the group controller 1 connected to the vehicle number detection sensor 15
3 has a dedicated transport control (speed, direction) program for a vehicle number registered in advance. The same transport control is performed for all unregistered vehicle numbers. FIG. 4 shows the layout of the control zone in a plan view of the entire conveying device. S1 at the lower right of the zone number indicates that the zone is equipped with a vehicle number detection sensor.
2 indicates that a stray vehicle number detection sensor is provided. For example, the carrier of car number 3 is station #D to #C at the current location.
Consider the case where you are about to be driven to. Zone number 1
2, 15, 17, 29 are provided with vehicle number detection sensors, and zone number 18 is provided with a stray vehicle number detection sensor.
Therefore, zone numbers 18 and 2 provided with vehicle number detection sensors and stray vehicle number detection sensors on the operating route
Register vehicle number 3 in 9 and 12. When the transport vehicle starts its operation and passes through the zone number 18, the vehicle number 3 is output from the stray vehicle number detection sensor, and the vehicle number 3 is already registered, so the vehicle number passes through as it is. In zone numbers 15 and 17, since the vehicle number 3 is not registered in advance, the vehicle number detection sensor does not output the vehicle number and the transport vehicle passes through as it is. Next, when the transport vehicle passes through the zone number 29, the vehicle number 3 is output from the vehicle number detection sensor, and the transport vehicle of the vehicle number 3 has the zone number 2
Stop at 9 and turn at zone number 30. Similarly, in zone number 12, the vehicle number 3 is output from the vehicle number detection sensor, the transport vehicle is stopped, and the vehicle is pulled into the #C station. If the vehicle number is erroneously detected in zone number 12 and the vehicle does not stop in zone number 12, the vehicle will output vehicle number 3 from the stray vehicle number detection sensor when passing zone number 18. However, since the stray vehicle number detection sensor determines that the vehicle number that is not registered is a stray vehicle, vehicle number 3 is no longer registered and is therefore determined as a transport vehicle that deviates from the preset route. The transfer control general controller determines from the operation program that the stray vehicle is a transfer vehicle to be operated from the vehicle number to the #C station, and again registers the vehicle number 3 in the zone numbers 29 and 12. This guides the guided vehicle to the #C station.

With the above configuration and operation, even if the vehicle number detection in each zone of the transport vehicle is incorrect, tracking and operation control of the transport vehicle can be corrected and continued, and a sensor or vehicle number for transport detection can be used. Anomaly detection and analysis of marks is also possible.

Further, it is possible to judge whether the vehicle is a vehicle that deviates from a preset route in one zone, and communication is performed by disconnecting from the operation management of the vehicle that is normally traveling on the preset route. It is possible to eliminate waste of the system and perform efficient operation management.

Although the magnetic levitation type carrier vehicle has been described in the above embodiments, a carrier vehicle which is supported by wheels on a track may be a vehicle which is supported by air levitation. Further, the method of generating the propulsion force (deceleration force) may be a linear motor (linear synchronous motor, linear pulse motor, linear DC motor) other than the linear induction motor, or other propulsion force (deceleration force) generation. The same effect can be obtained by using the device.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the vehicle can be moved to the destination without using a large number of detectors for identifying the vehicle. It is possible to prevent running.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a transfer control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram of the transport control system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a transfer control system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a layout view of control zones of a transfer control system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a conventional transfer control system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Track, 2 ... Transport vehicle, 3a, 3b, 3c ... LIM controller, 4 ... Secondary conductor, 5 ... Identification detector, 6 ... Transport controller, 7a, 7b ... Signal line, 8 ... Approach vehicle number determination Steps, 9 ... Vehicle number determination step, 10 ... Passing process, 11 ... Stopping process, 12 ... Transport control integrated controller, 13 ... Group controller, 14 ... Speed controller, 15 ... Vehicle number detection sensor, 16 ... Stray vehicle number detection sensor , 17 ... Zone, #A, #B, #C, #D, #E ... Luggage loading / unloading station.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A propulsion controller installed at a predetermined interval on a conveyance route, a plurality of conveyance vehicles which are controlled to start, run, or stop along the conveyance route by these propulsion controllers, and respective propulsion controls. A transport controller that gives a start, run, or stop command corresponding to the vehicle number set for each carrier, and a communication line that passes the vehicle number of the carrier between adjacent propulsion controllers are provided. However, when the guided vehicle leaves the propulsion controller, the vehicle number of the guided vehicle is transmitted to the forward thrust controller in front of this propulsion controller via the communication line, and this forward propulsion controller is transmitted. Select the start or run or stop command from the transfer controller according to the vehicle number,
A transportation control method for controlling the operation of an incoming vehicle by executing the selected command. 2. A plurality of transport vehicles that can travel along a transport route, and a propulsion control that divides the transport route into a plurality of zones in the travel direction and controls the transport vehicles provided in each zone to start, run, or stop. And a vehicle number detector that identifies a vehicle number of a vehicle that is preset for passing vehicles that are provided in some of the plurality of important zones among the plurality of zones. The stray vehicle number detector for detecting the vehicle number of the passing vehicle and the vehicle number detected by this stray vehicle number detector are set in advance and set in the transport route where the vehicle that deviates from the route always passes. It has a stray vehicle returning means for judging whether it is a vehicle number and returning to a preset route if it is a vehicle number not registered in advance, and operation control of a carrier vehicle traveling normally on the route And the vehicles that have deviated from the route are detected separately. Transport control method.