JPH06119048A - Scraper device for unmanned vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the scraper device of an unmanned vehicle, which can effectively remove dropped objects on the surface of a travel line to beyond the are of the travel route with few scrapers. CONSTITUTION:In the lower surface of the front part of a chassis 1 of the unmanned vehicle, a center scraper 5A whose front surface is an almost chevron is arranged in the front of the advancing direction of a caster 3 and side scrapers 5B are arranged so that an almost truncated chevron-shaped incline whose front surface extends backward is formed at right and left sides with the center scraper between. Thus, a taper scraper 5 which exists along the whole width of the chassis at the lower surface of the front part of the chassis 1 and extends backward in the advancing direction with the center part of a side direction as vertex is formed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an unmanned vehicle used in an unmanned transportation system or the like, and more particularly to a scraper device for removing a fallen object on a traveling road surface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of unmanned vehicle, one generally known is one in which traveling control, that is, unmanned operation, is performed along a guide line buried in a road surface. An unmanned transportation system using such an unmanned vehicle has been put into practical use as a physical distribution system that replaces fixed equipment such as a conveyor.
Then, in this unmanned transportation system, an unmanned vehicle is required to travel accurately and smoothly along a guide line in order to convey an object along a predetermined route as with a conveyor. However, various falling objects are rolling on the traveling road surface of the unmanned vehicle, and particularly when the unmanned vehicle is used as an assembly cart, bolts and nuts are often rolling. When the wheels of the unmanned vehicle step on the falling object, the wheels may be locked or slipped, which may cause troubles during traveling. In order to solve such problems, it is proposed to install a scraper at the forward position of the traveling wheel installed on the underside of the machine base to remove falling objects such as bolts and nuts to the side of the traveling wheel. As such an example, for example, the actual Kaihei 2-11
No. 1811 can be cited.

[0003]

However, the scraper described in the above publication has each of the two wheels, that is, the left and right drive wheels installed on the lower surface of the center of the machine base, and the front and rear wheels arranged on the lower and front surfaces of the machine base. The scraper is installed to correspond to each one of the casters, but as is generally known, the height from the floor surface to the bottom surface of the machine base is very low, and the scraper installation space is restricted. That there is
It is difficult to assemble because many scrapers are required. In addition to the above wheels, a plurality of proximity sensors that may malfunction due to metal falling objects such as bolts and nuts are arranged on the lower surface of the machine base as position detecting means necessary for traveling control. If scrapers are arranged even to these proximity sensors, there is a problem that a large number of scrapers are provided and it becomes more difficult to assemble them.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a scraper device for an unmanned vehicle, which is capable of effectively removing a fallen object on a traveling road surface to the outside of a traveling area with a few scrapers and which is easy to assemble. , The technical problem to be solved.

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as follows. That is, it is a scraper device for an unmanned vehicle for removing a fallen object on the traveling road surface to the outside of the traveling area, and the front surface is formed in a substantially mountain shape in the traveling direction at the front position of the caster on the lower surface of the front of the machine base. The center scraper is installed with its lower surface grounded to the road surface, and the left and right side scrapers at the lower left and right sides of the machine front are attached to the left and right side scrapers with the lower surface grounded to the road surface and the front surface is It is characterized in that it is attached so as to form an octagonal inclined surface. The center scraper and the side scraper have a two-layer structure of an upper layer portion made of a soft sponge material and a lower layer portion made of a sponge material harder than the upper layer portion, and the sponge material of the upper layer portion is a machine bottom surface. It is desirable that the structure is attached to the flat surface of the.

[0006]

In the scraper device for an unmanned vehicle according to the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the center scraper and the side scrapers arranged on both sides of the scraper are provided on the lower surface of the front part of the machine base to have the full width. Since a tapered falling object exclusion surface that spreads backward in the direction of travel is formed, when there is a falling object on the travel route through which the unmanned vehicle passes, it can be effectively and reliably pushed away to the side of the travel route. Eliminate to one. Therefore, the traveling wheel is prevented from being locked or slipped by a falling object, and malfunction of the proximity sensor is avoided. In this case, when the upper layer of the scraper is a soft sponge material and the lower layer is a harder sponge material than the upper layer,
While the flexibility of the upper sponge material makes it possible to follow the pitching of the machine base, the hard sponge material of the lower layer can reliably remove falling objects.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, an unmanned type in which two drive wheels 2 on the left and right are provided on the lower central surface of the machine base 1 and one caster 3 is provided on each of the front and rear lower surfaces of the machine base 1. It is intended for cars. Although not specifically shown, the front and rear casters 3 in the unmanned vehicle of this type generally rotate not only on the machine base 1 but also on the spring force in order to obtain a suitable ground pressure for the drive wheels 2. It is configured to be able to be displaced in the vertical direction with the restoring force of.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, inside the left and right drive wheels 2 on the lower surface of the center of the machine base 1, there are a total of two rows in front and rear, which are three rows used for detecting operation instruction points of an unmanned vehicle. Six proximity sensors 4 are attached, and the proximity sensors 4 detect an iron mark plate (not shown) provided on the traveling route.

In the unmanned vehicle as described above, as shown in FIG. 1, a scraper 5 for removing falling objects on the traveling road surface is installed on the lower surface of the front part of the machine base 1. Scraper 5
Is a center scraper 5A arranged so as to be positioned in front of the front caster 3 and left and right side scrapers 5 arranged on both left and right sides of the center scraper 5A.
B and the center scraper 5
Both A and the side scraper 5B are formed in a two-layer structure of upper and lower two layers with a sponge material such as foamed urethane having different hardness.

That is, the center scraper 5A is arranged at the front position of the caster 3 on the lower surface of the front part of the machine base 1 so that the lower surface is in contact with the traveling road surface.
It is formed into a substantially triangular shape in a plane that is substantially mountain-shaped toward the traveling direction, and the front surface shape forms an inclined surface toward the rear. As shown in FIG. 2, the center scraper 5A has a two-layer structure in which the upper layer portion is a soft sponge material 6 and the lower layer portion is a sponge material 7 harder than the upper layer portion. The mating surfaces of the sponge materials 6 and 7 are bonded to each other with an adhesive, and the upper surface of the sponge material 6 in the upper layer portion is adhered to the lower flat surface of the machine base 1 with the adhesive.

On the other hand, the left and right side scrapers 5B are shown in FIG.
As shown in, the center scraper 5A is arranged at a slightly rear position on both left and right sides so as to be inclined so that the lower surface of the center scraper 5A is in contact with the road surface and has a substantially eight shape. The left and right side scrapers 5B are, as shown in FIG.
As in the case of the center scraper 5A, the upper layer is made up of a soft sponge material 8 and the lower layer is made up of a sponge material 9 harder than the upper layer to form a two-layer structure, and the upper and lower sponge materials 8 and 9 are The mating surfaces are bonded to each other with an adhesive, and the upper surface of the upper sponge material 8 is adhered to the lower flat surface of the machine base 1 with the adhesive. As described above, by mounting the center scraper 5A and the side scraper 5B, a taper-shaped falling object removing surface is formed on the lower surface of the front part of the machine base 1 and spreads backward in the traveling direction over the entire width thereof.

Further, in this embodiment, a guard plate 10 is installed at a side position of the drive wheel 2 for preventing falling objects from rolling in from the side. The guard plate 10 is made of a single-layer sponge material such as urethane foam, and has the same hardness as that of the sponge materials 7 and 9 in the lower layers of the scrapers 5A and 5B. The guard plate 10 is arranged at a position slightly outside the outer surface of the drive wheel 2 so as to be parallel to the traveling direction and to have the lower surface contact the traveling road surface. It is attached with an adhesive via.

In the unmanned vehicle of the present embodiment constructed as described above, if a falling object is present on the traveling route, it can be pushed away by the center and side scrapers 5A, 5B. In this case, since the entire front surface of the center and side scrapers 5A, 5B is formed in a taper shape that spreads rearward in the traveling direction from the center in the vehicle width direction, the falling object is outside the area of the traveling route. Will be eliminated to the side of. This prevents not only the front casters 3 but also the following drive wheels 2 and the rear casters 3 from being locked or slipped by the falling objects, and the influence of the metal falling objects on the proximity sensor 4 is prevented. It is avoided and malfunctions in traveling control are prevented.

Further, in an unmanned vehicle of the type having drive wheels 2 on the central lower surface of the machine base 1 and vertical displacement type casters 3 on the front and rear lower surfaces, it is driven by the unevenness of the traveling road surface or during turning or spin turn. Pitching occurs in the front-back direction around the wheel 2, but in this case, the center scraper 5A and the left and right side scrapers 5B are individually pitched by the elastic restoring force of the upper soft sponge materials 6 and 8. The lower hard sponge material 7, 9
Keeps the ground contacting the road surface and eliminates falling objects. Since the lower hard sponge materials 7 and 9 have elasticity to some extent, the elastic sponge material itself acts so as to always maintain the grounded state with the correspondence to the traveling road surface.

The guard plate 10 provided on the side of the drive wheel 2 dispels the fallen object rolling from the side of the unmanned vehicle and prevents the fallen object from entering the traveling path of the drive wheel 2. To prevent. The guard plate 10 has a single-running structure made of sponge material, but the pitch of the machine base 1 occurs back and forth around the drive wheel 2, so that the drive wheel 3 is driven.
The influence of the pitching on the guard plate 10 arranged near is extremely small, and therefore the elasticity possessed by itself can sufficiently cope with the machine base pitching.

In this embodiment, the center scraper 5A and the left and right side scrapers 5B have an upper and lower two-layer structure made of sponge materials having different hardness, and are attached to the flat surface of the lower surface of the machine base. Therefore, it is possible to easily mount even in a narrow mounting space, and in combination with the fact that no special bracket is required, the mountability can be greatly improved. Especially in the case of unmanned vehicles, the ground height from the road surface to the bottom of the machine base is generally set very low. It is extremely difficult to ground the scraper composed of the above components so as to be vertically displaceable via a spring or the like so as to be compatible with machine base pitching. In this respect, the scraper 5 of the upper and lower two layers of the sponge material of this embodiment can be easily attached to such a narrow place.

The planar shapes of the center scraper 5A and the side scraper 5B are not necessarily limited to the shapes shown in the figures, and in short, the front surface shape in the traveling direction may be formed as an inclined surface for removing falling objects. Good.

[0018]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
The three scrapers, the center scraper and the side scrapers arranged on both sides of the center scraper, can effectively and reliably remove the falling objects existing in the travel route of the unmanned vehicle by pushing them away to the outside of the travel area. Compared to the case where a scraper is attached every time, falling objects can be efficiently eliminated with a small number of scrapers. Further, the fact that the number of scrapers is small leads to an improvement in the assembling, and the problem that the number of parts increases unnecessarily is solved. When the scraper is formed of a soft sponge material in the upper layer and a sponge material in the lower layer that is harder than the upper layer to form a two-layer structure, the soft sponge material in the upper layer absorbs the pitching of the machine base and the hard layer in the lower layer. With the sponge material, it is possible to accurately prevent the entry of falling objects, and when the upper and lower two-layer structure is adopted, there is an advantage that it can be easily installed in places where there are restrictions on the upper and lower spaces. To be

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a bottom view of an unmanned vehicle equipped with a scraper according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a center scraper.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a side scraper.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Machine stand 2 ... Drive wheel 3 ... Caster 5 ... Scraper 5A ... Center scraper 5B ... Left and right side scrapers 6, 8, ... Soft sponge material 7, 9 ... Hard sponge material

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A scraper device for an unmanned vehicle for removing a fallen object on a traveling road surface to the outside of a traveling area, wherein a front surface of a lower surface of a front portion of a machine base is substantially mountain-shaped toward a traveling direction. The center scraper formed on the lower side of the center scraper is attached to the road surface, and the left and right side scrapers are attached to the left and right sides of the center scraper on the lower part of the front of the machine base. A scraper device for an unmanned vehicle mounted so that the front surface forms an inclined surface with an approximately 8-shape. 2. The center scraper and the side scraper have a two-layer structure of an upper layer portion made of a soft sponge material and a lower layer portion made of a sponge material harder than the upper layer portion, and the sponge material of the upper layer portion is The scraper device for an unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the scraper device is attached to a flat surface of a lower surface of the machine base.