JPH07291424A - Dolly system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control dollies without increasing the load of a higher order control device. CONSTITUTION:A ceiling trolley 1 travening along a track 2 receives an object W from one input station 3 and hands it over to one output station 4. A bar- code label is affixed to the side face of the object W by a bar-code labeler 6 furnished beside a conveyor 5. The trolley 1 can know that of the output stations 4 which becomes the final point of transportation according to the destination data contained in the bar-code read at that of the input stations 3 which was the beginning point of the transport operation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile trolley system including a plurality of mobile trolleys which travel along a fixed route and convey articles between stations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a factory, a warehouse or the like, a mobile carriage system including a plurality of mobile carriages that travel along a fixed route and convey articles between stations has been put into practical use. In a mobile trolley system, control of work assignment to each mobile trolley must be optimized in order to maximize the transport efficiency of the system. In order to perform the optimal allocation, the host controller that manages the system always keeps track of the status of each mobile trolley (travel position, empty load or actual load, etc.) and is the most suitable mobile trolley to execute a certain transfer request. Was determined and a command was given to the trolley control device of the mobile trolley.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

According to such a centralized control system, it is necessary to constantly communicate between the host control device and each trolley control device, the allocation control and management load is large, and the host control device is large-scaled. It had to be complicated.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile carriage system capable of reducing the load on a host controller by distributed control.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention according to claim 1 is a data receiving device for reading data including a delivery station for delivering an article from a data medium attached to the article at a receiving station. A reading device, a trolley control device that is mounted on each mobile trolley and controls the mobile trolley according to the data transferred from the data reading device, and a host control device that specifies a receiving station for receiving the articles to each trolley control device. The mobile trolley system was constructed including it.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the mobile trolley system according to the first aspect is configured such that the data reading device is mounted on each mobile trolley.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the data reading device is attached to each receiving station, and the communication device transmits the data to the vehicle control device of the mobile vehicle that receives the article at the receiving station. Thus, the mobile trolley system according to claim 1 is configured.

[0008]

Since the present invention has the above-mentioned structure, it has the following effects.

In the mobile trolley system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the host controller designates each trolley controller for each receiving station for receiving the article. Each trolley control device having a designated receiving station causes the mobile trolley to travel toward the receiving station. When the mobile carriage reaches the receiving station, it receives data transfer from a data reading device which reads data from the data medium attached to the article, including the delivery station where the article is delivered. The trolley control device controls the traveling of the mobile trolley according to the transferred data, and travels toward the transfer station.

In the mobile carriage system according to the second aspect of the present invention, the data reading device for reading data from the data medium attached to the article at the receiving station is:
It is mounted on each mobile trolley.

In the mobile carriage system according to the third aspect of the present invention, the data reading device for reading data from the data medium attached to the article at the receiving station,
It is attached to each receiving station. The data reading device transmits the data by the communication device to the carriage control device of the mobile carriage that receives the article at the receiving station.

[0012]

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

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing an embodiment of a moving carriage system according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a plurality of overhead traveling vehicles 1 travel along a loop-shaped track 2. Each overhead traveling vehicle 1
The articles W are received from a plurality of receiving stations 3 arranged immediately below the track 2 and delivered to one of the plurality of delivery stations 4.

The supply of the article W to the receiving station 3 is
It is carried out from an automated warehouse (not shown) through the conveyor 5. A barcode labeler 6 is arranged on the side of the conveyor 5, and a barcode label is attached to the side surface of the article W that has been unloaded from the automated warehouse.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the control structure of the embodiment shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, the host controller 11 includes a controller 12 and a common data area 13. Control unit 12
Controls the automatic warehouse control device 14 and the bar code labeler 6, and stores the transportation request in the common data area 13. The transport request is generated by the load detection of the plurality of load detectors 16 that detect the load of each receiving station 3.

Each traveling control device 17 is mounted on each overhead traveling vehicle 1, and the data displayed by the barcode attached to the article W is read by the barcode reader 18 attached to each overhead traveling vehicle 1. Is read, and the traveling of the overhead traveling vehicle 1 is controlled based on the data. Communication between each traveling control device 17 and the higher-level control device 11 is performed through a trolley provided on the rail 2.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

The host controller 11 gives a command to the automatic warehouse controller 14 in response to a request from the picking device or the like,
A certain article W is unloaded. The delivered article W is placed on the conveyor 5 and conveyed.

When the article W reaches the front surface of the bar code labeler 6, a bar code label is attached to the side surface of the article W. One of the delivery stations 4, which is the destination, is designated as the data displayed by the barcode of the barcode label.

After the bar code label is attached to the article W, the article W is conveyed from the conveyor 5 to one of the branching receiving stations 3 and reaches a position where the overhead traveling vehicle 1 at the tip of the receiving station 3 can hold the article. .

When the article W reaches the tip of the receiving station 3, the loading detector 16 detects the article W. Control unit 1
2 registers in the common data area 13 a transfer request having the receiving station 3 where the article W is detected as the starting point of the transfer operation.

Usually, a transfer request in such a system is a FROM-T that specifies the start point and end point of the transfer operation.
Although it is O control, in the case of the present embodiment, only the start point is designated and the end point is not designated.

When the overhead traveling vehicle 1 to be controlled is idle traveling with no load, each traveling control device 17 selects one of the unselected transfer requests from the common data area 13 and starts the work. The scheduled time is transmitted to the host controller 11.
When there is no unselected transfer request, the work start scheduled time of the selected transfer request is referred to, and when it is determined that the work can be started earlier than that, it is transferred to another travel control device 17. Optimal control is realized by communicating and exchanging work.

The traveling control device 17, which has selected the transport request,
It heads to the receiving station 3 which is the starting point of the carrying work, stops immediately above it, and receives the article W. Article W
When the receipt of the information is finished, the traveling control device 17 reads the barcode of the barcode label attached to the side surface of the article W by the barcode reader 18 to obtain the destination data.

The travel control device 17, which has obtained the destination data,
Divides the travel route into multiple blocks, receives map data, branch data, etc. from a block controller (not shown) provided for each block, travels, reaches the destination indicated in the data, and delivers it. The article W is delivered to the station 4.

As described above, according to the mobile carriage system of the present embodiment, the host controller 11 does not control the traveling or tracking of each overhead traveling vehicle 1 and designates the receiving station 3 which is the starting point of the carrying work. Since it is only, the load can be reduced.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configurations of a traveling control device and a bar code reader of another embodiment of the mobile carriage system according to the present invention.

An optical communication device 22 is connected to the traveling control device 21. The barcode reader 24 is arranged adjacent to the receiving station 3 and
The bar code of the bar code label attached to the side surface of the article W placed on is read. The read data can be transmitted by the optical communication device 23. Other configurations are similar to those of the embodiment shown in FIG.

In the present embodiment, when the overhead traveling vehicle 1 reaches the designated receiving station 3 and stops there, the optical communication devices 22 and 23 are ready for communication. The bar code reader 24 reads the bar code and transmits the data to the travel control device 21 through the optical communication devices 23 and 22. The travel control device 21 travels based on the received data.

According to this embodiment, the bar code reader 24
Are arranged for each receiving station 3, the number of bar code readers 24 may be small in a system in which the number of receiving stations 3 is smaller than the number of overhead traveling vehicles 1, resulting in cost reduction and labor for installation work. Can be omitted. On the other hand, according to the embodiment of FIG. 2, since the bar code reader 18 is attached to the overhead traveling vehicle 1, it is advantageous when the number of receiving stations 3 is larger than the number of overhead traveling vehicles 1.

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.

For example, the data medium provided in the article is
In the illustrated embodiment, a bar code label, I
It is clear that it can be replaced with a D tag or the like.

[0035]

As described above, in the mobile carriage system according to the invention described in claim 1, since the host control device only designates the receiving station for receiving the articles to each car control device, the host control device The system can be controlled without increasing the load. Also, since each mobile trolley receives the receiving station and starts traveling and reads the destination data attached to the article at the receiving station and travels to the delivery station, if the order of arrival of the article at the receiving station is changed, etc. Even then, these abnormalities can be dealt with accurately.

According to the mobile trolley system of the second aspect of the present invention, since the data reading device is mounted on each mobile trolley, even if the number of receiving stations is large, there are as many data reading devices as there are mobile trolleys. If they are prepared, the cost can be reduced and the manufacturing can be simplified.

In the mobile carriage system according to the third aspect of the present invention, since the data reading device is attached to the receiving station, it is sufficient to prepare the data reading devices for the number of receiving stations. When the number is large, the cost can be reduced and the manufacturing can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a transfer system including an embodiment of a moving carriage system according to the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing a control structure of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a part of a control structure of another embodiment of the mobile carriage system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Overhead vehicle 2 Orbit 3 Receiving station 4 Transfer station 5 Conveyor 6 Bar code labeler W Goods

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A data reading device for reading data including a delivery station to which an article is delivered from a data medium attached to the article at a receiving station, and a data reading device mounted on each mobile trolley and transferred from the data reading device. A mobile carriage system including a carriage control device for controlling a mobile carriage and a host control device for designating a receiving station for receiving articles to each carriage control device. 2. The mobile trolley system according to claim 1, wherein the data reading device is mounted on each mobile trolley. 3. The mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the data reading device is attached to each receiving station, and the communication device transmits data to the vehicle control device of the mobile vehicle that receives the article at the receiving station. Dolly system.