JPH05270396A - Trackless unmanned carrier truck - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To change the directions of wheels from longitudinal running to traverse running in a state that the direction of a carrier truck is left unchanged and perform sideways running by a method wherein a direction converting device to switch the directions of a pair of right and left driving wheels are switched to longitudinal running and traverse running through revolving operation of the driving wheels around the truck frame is mounted on the truck frame. CONSTITUTION:In a stop state, a jack 12 is expanded downward and a truck frame 1 is jacked up. The truck frame 1 is raised and separated away from the load support platform 22 of a revolving bracket 10. A positioning pin 21 is pulled off from the hole of the truck frame 1 and the truck frame 1 and the revolving bracket 10 are released from constrainment therebetween. The revolving bracket 10 is slid over the axis of a support axle 9 togetherwith a guide bearing 17 and rotatably carried on a thrust bearing 18. When a drive motor 16 is started, a pinion 14 is engaged with a solar gear 13 and revolved around the gear. This constitution causes revolution of a driving wheel 2 togetherwith the revolving bracket 10 in a state that the direction of the truck frame 1 is left unchanged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a railless automatic guided vehicle which runs on a designated route along a guide line laid on a floor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As the above-mentioned railless unmanned guided vehicle,
There is known a structure in which a pair of left and right moving wheels are provided in the center of a bogie frame, and front and rear wheels thereof have follower wheels as casters. FIG. 5 is a view showing the structure of such a carriage. In the figure, 1 is a carriage frame of the carriage, 2 is a pair of left and right moving wheels attached to the center of the carriage frame 1, and 3 are provided at front and rear ends of the carriage frame 1. A follower wheel as a caster, 4 is a loading platform equipped with a transfer device 5 such as a roller type conveyor, and 6 is a pickup coil for detecting a guide wire provided at the center of the front and rear ends of the bogie frame 1.

Further, FIG. 5 (a) shows a conventional travel route of an unmanned guided vehicle, and a guide line 7 is provided on the floor side along the travel route passing through the stations S-1 and S-2. Is laid, and the carrier truck detects the guide wire 7 by the pickup coil 6 and steers the carrier truck 1 forward or backward along the guide wire 7 based on the detection signal. Controlled.

[0004]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional carrier truck, the moving wheel assembly is attached to the carriage frame 1 of the carrier truck while the direction of the moving wheels 2 is fixed, and the carrier truck is only in the front-rear direction. It is possible to drive. For this,
For example, in FIG. 5A, stations S-1 and S-
Even if a new station S-3 is newly installed between the two stations, the station S-3 has a station
-1 and S-2 should be laid out so that they are lined up in a line, and due to space constraints, the new station S-3 should be laid out at a position deeper than other stations as indicated by the chain line. Unless the space between the stations S-1 and S-2 is sufficient to curve the guide line, the station S is turned while changing the direction of the carrier along the guide line.
It is difficult to construct a travel route passing through -3.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to allow a vehicle to travel laterally while changing the direction of wheels from forward or backward running to lateral running while keeping the direction of a carrier vehicle unchanged. The purpose is to provide an unmanned rail-guided automatic guided vehicle.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in the carrier truck of the present invention, a pair of left and right driving wheels are turned around the center of the truck frame while the truck frame is fixed in the forward and backward traveling posture. The bogie frame is equipped with a direction changing device that changes the direction of the driving wheel between forward and backward running and lateral running.

Here, the above-mentioned direction changing device connects a pair of moving wheels and pivotally supports a swing bracket vertically movably with respect to a vertical support shaft installed on a bogie frame, and the swing bracket as a support shaft. It can be composed of a turning drive mechanism that turns around a vehicle and a jack that moves up and down the bogie frame with respect to the floor. Further, as an embodiment thereof, a configuration in which a planetary gear mechanism having a sun gear as a gear having a swing drive mechanism fixed on a support shaft and a drive motor for the planetary gear mechanism mounted on a swing bracket are combined, and further For example, there is a configuration in which a pickup coil is attached to a swing bracket for detecting a guide wire laid on the floor side.

[0008]

With the above structure, the carrier truck is temporarily stopped from the front-rear traveling state, and then the truck frame is jacked up to turn the direction of the moving wheels by 90 °, and then the truck frame is jacked down again. The direction of the frame remains unchanged and the driving wheel is turned sideways. Therefore, if the moving wheels are driven in this state, the carrier truck travels sideways. Further, in this case, if the pickup coil is attached to the swing bracket, the direction of the pickup coil is changed along with the moving wheel, so that the same pickup coil can steer-control the carrier truck along the guide wire laid on the traverse route. ..

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The configuration of an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
Will be explained. The same members corresponding to those in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals. 1 to 3, on the lower surface side of the bogie frame 1, while the bogie frame 1 is fixed in the forward and backward traveling posture, the moving wheel 2 is turned around the center of the bogie frame to change the direction of the forward and backward running. A turning device 8 for switching to traverse is incorporated. The direction changing device 8 connects a pair of left and right moving wheels 2 and a swing bracket 10 vertically movably supported on a vertical support shaft 9 fixedly installed at a center position of a carriage frame 1, and the swing bracket 10. It is composed of a turning drive mechanism 11 for turning the bracket 10 around the support shaft 9, and jacks 12 attached to the four corners of the truck frame so as to move the truck frame 1 up and down with respect to the floor surface. 2a is a drive motor directly connected to the driving wheel 2.

Further, as shown in the detailed structure of FIG. 3, the turning drive mechanism 11 has a spur gear 13 fixed on the shaft 9 (cylindrical support) attached to the bogie frame 1 with respect to the shaft.
Is a sun gear, and is composed of a planetary gear mechanism 15 in which a pinion 14 meshing with the planetary gear mechanism 15 is combined, and a drive motor 16 attached to the swing bracket 10 and connected to the pinion 14 of the planetary gear mechanism 15. The swing bracket 10 is vertically movably supported on the support shaft 9 through a guide bearing 17, and supports the weight of the swing drive system including the moving wheels 2 below the guide bearing 17 during a swing operation. A thrust bearing 18 is provided.

On the other hand, in FIG. 2, the swing bracket 10
A support frame 19 extending in the front-rear direction of the moving wheel 2 is integrally assembled therewith, a power supply battery 20 is mounted therein, and a pickup coil 6 is attached to the front and rear ends of the support frame 19. Further, a positioning pin 21 is attached to the upper surface side of the swing bracket 10 so as to project upward,
The positioning pin 21 is adapted to be fitted in a pin hole formed in the bogie frame 1 at each of forward and backward traveling and transverse traveling positions. Reference numeral 22 denotes a load receiving base mounted on the upper surface of the swing bracket 10. In a traveling state, the carriage frame 1 is placed on the load receiving base 22 and the load of the transport carriage is applied to the moving wheels 2.

Next, the station S-
A switching operation will be described in the case where the carriages 1, S-2, and S-3 are laid out as shown in FIG. 5B, and the transporting vehicle is made to travel forward and backward or traverse in the directions of arrows P and Q. First, when the carriage is to be moved back and forth between the stations S-1 and S-2, the moving wheel 2 of the carriage is held at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. When the moving wheels 2 are driven in this state, the carrier truck travels back and forth in the direction of arrow P along the guide line 7 in FIG. 5 (b). On the other hand, when the carrier vehicle is to be traversed from the point A in the middle of the straight traveling route to the station S-3 in order to stop at the station S-3, the carrier vehicle is temporarily stopped at the point A and the next operation is performed. ..

First, in the stopped state, the jack 12 is extended downward to jack up the carriage frame 1. As a result, the load of the carrier truck is applied to the four jacks 12, the carriage frame 1 rises and is disengaged from the load receiving base 22 of the swing bracket 10, and the positioning pin 21 is pulled out from the hole of the carriage frame 1 to dismount the carriage frame. 1 is released, and the swing bracket 10 is rotatably carried on the thrust bearing 18 by sliding on the shaft of the support shaft 9 together with the guide bearing 17 shown in FIG. Become so. Next, when the drive motor 16 of the turning drive mechanism 11 is started in this state, the pinion 14
Meshes with the sun gear 13 and revolves around the gear.
As a result, the direction of the carriage frame 1 remains unchanged, and the moving wheel 2 turns together with the turning bracket 10 from the solid line position in FIG. 1 toward the chain line position. The drive motor 16 is stopped when the driving wheel 2 turns 90 ° from the front-rear direction.
Subsequently, when the truck frame 1 is jacked down by operating the jack 12, the positioning pin 21 provided on the swing bracket 10 is fitted into the positioning hole of the truck frame 1 at a new position, and the load of the carrier truck swings again. The moving wheel 2 is loaded via the bracket 10.

If the driving wheel 2 is driven by the drive motor 2a, the carrier truck laterally travels in a direction perpendicular to the forward / backward traveling direction. In this case, since the position of the pickup coil 6 is also changed by 90 ° along with the direction change of the moving wheel 2, the guide wire 7 is moved along the traverse path of FIG. 5B.
Thus, the guide wire 7a branched and laid in a right angle direction is detected, so that steering control can be performed in the same manner as when traveling forward and backward. Further, in order to switch from traverse traveling to front-rear traveling, if the direction changing device 8 is operated in the reverse procedure to the above, the moving wheel 2 will move to 90 °
Turn back and return to the front-back direction.

If the turning angle of the turning bracket 10 is set in advance in 45 ° increments, diagonal running is possible in addition to forward and backward running and lateral running.

[0016]

As described above, according to the structure of the present invention, it is possible to change the direction of the moving wheels without changing the direction of the carrier truck to switch the vehicle from the front-rear traveling to the traverse traveling, and thereby in a narrow space. It is possible to provide a railway-type unmanned guided vehicle having a high practical value that can be adapted to various traveling route layouts.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a rear view of a carrier truck that represents the basic structure of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the internal structure of the carrier truck in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a detailed structural diagram of a turning drive mechanism for driving wheels in FIG.

[Fig. 4] Side view of a railless automatic guided vehicle

5A and 5B are diagrams showing a layout of a traveling route of a carrier vehicle, in which FIG. 5A is a layout diagram of a conventional front-rear traveling only, and FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 bogie frame 2 driving wheel 3 follower wheel 6 pickup coil 7 guide wire 8 direction changing device 9 spindle 10 swing bracket 11 swing drive mechanism 12 jack 15 planetary gear mechanism 16 swing drive motor

Claims (4)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A railless unmanned guided vehicle that travels along a guide line laid on the floor, comprising a pair of left and right moving wheels in the center of the bogie frame, and front and rear follower wheels.
It is characterized by being equipped with a direction change device that turns the pair of left and right moving wheels around the center of the bogie frame to change the direction of the moving wheels between forward and backward running and transverse running while keeping the bogie frame fixed in the forward and backward running posture. Railless automatic guided vehicle. 2. The transport carriage according to claim 1, wherein the direction changing device connects between a pair of moving wheels, and a pivot bracket vertically movably supported with respect to a vertical shaft installed on the carriage frame, A railless automatic guided vehicle, comprising: a swivel drive mechanism for swiveling the swivel bracket around a support shaft; and a jack for vertically moving a bogie frame with respect to a floor surface. 3. A carrier vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the turning drive mechanism comprises a planetary gear mechanism having a sun gear as a gear fixed on a support shaft, and a drive motor for the planetary gear mechanism mounted on a turning bracket. A railless automatic guided vehicle characterized by the following. 4. The railless automatic guided vehicle according to claim 2, wherein a pickup coil for detecting a guide wire laid on the floor is attached to the swing bracket.