JPH08194532A - Guiding device for unmanned vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide the guiding device of an unmanned vehicle for reducing the cost and working man-hour of laying a guide line, improving the stability of the branching operation of a travelling path and laying the guide line for which damages such as peeling off or the like is hardly generated. CONSTITUTION: Since a sensor 4 mounted on the unmanned vehicle detects the guide line 3 by projecting light scanning in a direction orthogonally crossing the advancing direction of the unmanned vehicle 2 from a projector 19 to the travelling path and receiving the reflected light from the guide line 3 of the light by a light receiver 21, the guide line is detected in the scanning width of the projecting light and detection is performed even when the width of the guide line is made extremely narrower than the width of the light guide line of a conventional light guiding system. Also, by forming identification display in the guide line 3, it is read by the sensor 4 and the reliability of branching line selection is improved. Further, the guide line 3 is embedded in a floor surface and durability is improved.

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 for the purpose of automatically transporting articles in a factory, and more particularly to an unmanned guide line laid on a floor set as a traveling route. The present invention relates to an unmanned vehicle guidance device that automatically drives an unmanned vehicle to a destination by recognizing it by a sensor mounted on the vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the guidance of an unmanned vehicle of a light guidance system in which a light reflection line is used as a guide line of a traveling route, light is projected from the unmanned vehicle onto a floor surface in the traveling direction, and the light is reflected from the light reflection line. The unmanned vehicle is caused to travel along the light reflection line by detecting the reflected light of the image sensor. Also, when the traveling route is branched into a plurality of routes, the light reflection line is branched at a key point, the light reflection line to be detected is selected based on the branch command signal from the central control unit, and the selected light reflection line is selected. It is possible to guide to the destination by continuing the detection operation for the line.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional light guide system, since the reflection of the projected light from the light reflection line is detected by the one-dimensional image sensor, a high degree of image processing is required, and during steering. It is necessary to use a wide sensor having a sufficiently high resolution so that the sensor does not lose sight of the light reflection line due to vibration of the vehicle body or the like. Therefore, there is a problem that the image processing device and the sensor are expensive and the cost and the man-hours are increased. Further, when a reflective tape or a reflective paint is laid on the floor surface, it may be peeled off or damaged by the passage of people or other vehicles, resulting in poor durability. An object of the present invention is to provide a guide device for an unmanned vehicle that realizes a reduction in the cost of the image processing device and the sensor, work man-hours, and laying of a guide line in which damage such as peeling is unlikely to occur.

[0004]

The means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above object is to detect the position of a guide line laid on a travel route by a sensor mounted on an unmanned vehicle, whereby In an unmanned vehicle guidance device that drives a traveling vehicle to a destination along the guidance line,
With a sensor provided with a light projector for projecting light, which is scanned in a direction crossing the traveling direction of the unmanned vehicle, onto a traveling path, and a light receiver for receiving reflected light of the scanning light from the guide line, It is configured as a guide device for an unmanned vehicle, which is characterized by recognizing the position of a guide line.
Further, the guide line may be provided with an identification display that can be identified by the sensor. Further, the guide line may be laid in a groove formed on the floor surface.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the sensor mounted on the unmanned vehicle projects the light, which is scanned from the projector in the direction intersecting the traveling direction of the unmanned vehicle, onto the traveling route and from the guide line of this light. By receiving the reflected light of
Since it is configured to detect the guide line,
The guide line can be detected within a sufficiently wide scan width of the projected light. Further, one light receiving element is sufficient for detecting the reflected light. Therefore, an expensive wide image sensor is not required, and the guide line can be detected by analyzing only the signal from the above-mentioned one light receiving element, so that high-level image processing becomes unnecessary and the cost can be reduced accordingly. Is. Claim 1 corresponds to this. Further, by providing an identification display such as a bar code in the laying direction of the guide line, the identification display can be read by the projected scanning light, and the branch line and the main line can be reliably separated at the branch point of the traveling route. Therefore, the lack of reliability of distinguishing the branching direction from the same guide line in the conventional light guide system is improved. Claim 2 corresponds to this. Further, by laying the guide line in the groove formed on the floor surface, the peeling of the light reflecting tape and the damage of the light reflecting coating in the conventional light guiding system can be suppressed,
The durability of the guide line is improved. Claim 3 corresponds to this.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings for the understanding of the present invention. The following embodiments are examples embodying the present invention and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention. Here, FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a guide device for an unmanned vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of guidance control for an unmanned vehicle according to the embodiment, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of controlling the branching of the travel route in the configuration of the first embodiment, FIG.
5 is a plan view showing the configuration of the guidance device according to the second embodiment, FIG.
Is a plan view showing the structure of the guide line according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the structure of the guide line according to the third embodiment.

The unmanned vehicle 2 according to the first embodiment is mounted on the unmanned vehicle 2 at the position of the guide line 3 laid along the traveling route set on the floor surface 17, as shown in FIG. It is configured so that it can be traveled along the guide line 3 detected by the guide sensor 4. A guide device 1 for controlling the travel of the unmanned vehicle 2 toward a destination is a guide line 3 laid along a travel route,
A guide sensor 4 mounted on the unmanned vehicle 2, a reading processor 22 for processing a detection signal from the guide sensor 4,
The unmanned vehicle 2 includes a steering controller 5 serving as a steering control device 5, a servo motor driver 7, a steering motor 8, and a steering mechanism (not shown), and the control operation is performed as follows.

The position data of the guide line 3 detected by the guide sensor 4 is processed by the reading processing device 22,
By inputting this control data to the servo controller 6, the servo controller 6 calculates the deviation of the unmanned vehicle 2 from a predetermined position and outputs a control signal to the servo motor driver 7. Since the servo motor driver 7 controls the steering motor 8 by the output according to the control signal, the drive of the steering mechanism by the steering motor 8 corrects the deviation of the unmanned vehicle 2 from the guide line 3. By continuing the operation of the traveling control, the unmanned traveling vehicle 2 can travel along the guide line 3. Further, when a plurality of traveling routes are set, the guide line 3 is laid in a branched manner as shown in FIG. 1, so only the guide line 3 in the direction instructed by the host controller 9 is detected. As a result, steering is performed at the branch point of the travel route.

The guide sensor 4 for detecting the guide line 3 is constructed as shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, a guide sensor 4 receives a reflected light from a light projector 19 which projects scanning light for scanning a light beam with a predetermined width onto a floor surface of a traveling route and a guide line 3 of the light projected by the light projector 19. And a light receiver 21. The light projector 19 is composed of a light source 10 and a polygon mirror 11, and the light receiver 21 is composed of a condenser lens 12 and a light receiving element 13. In the above configuration, the light projected from the light source 10 toward the polygon mirror 11 is
By being reflected by the rotating polygon mirror 11,
The light beam is scanned with a required width and projected onto the floor surface on which the unmanned vehicle 2 travels. A guide line 3 that intersects with the scanning light (orthogonally in this embodiment) is laid at a position set as a traveling route on the floor, and the guide line 3 is a light-reflecting tape or a light-reflecting coating having a high reflectance. The reflected light when the projected light beam scans the guide line 3 is condensed by the condenser lens 12 and detected by the light receiving element 13. The detection signal of the guide line 3 detected by the light receiving element 13 is input to the steering control device 5 from the reading processing device 22, and steering control is performed so that the detected position of the guide line 3 comes to the center of the unmanned vehicle 2. .

At the branch point of the guide line 3, either the branch line 3b or the main line 3a is selected in accordance with a command from the host controller 9 as shown in FIG. That is, the plurality of guide lines 3 are detected from the time difference when the light receiver 21 detects the reflected wave.
Since a and 3b can be distinguished from each other, in the scanning direction of the light beam shown in FIG. 3, the main line 3a is detected first and the branch line 3b is detected next with a certain time difference, and either one is selected. When branching from the main line 3a to the branch line 3b for traveling, if the host controller 9 issues a command to proceed to the branch line 3b, the two guiding lines at the branch point as shown in FIG. When 3a and 3b are detected, the branch line 3b is steered so as to be located at the center of the unmanned vehicle 2. Therefore, the unmanned vehicle 2 continues to detect the branch line 3b, and the travel route is branched. Since the guide sensor 4 detects the guide line with one light receiving element by scanning the light beam side as described above, it is an expensive sensor as in the case of using a conventional light guide type one-dimensional image sensor. And does not require advanced image processing. Further, branching control of the traveling route can be executed easily and stably.

Next, the configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The second embodiment is a configuration in which the reliability of the control at the branch point of the guide line 3 is further improved by utilizing the characteristics of the guide sensor 4 described above. The elements common to those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.
In FIG. 4, the guide sensor 4 of the guidance device 20 according to the second embodiment has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment. The feature of the configuration of the present embodiment resides in the guide line 14, and as shown in the figure, after the guide line 14 is provided in parallel as a plurality of guide lines 14a and 14b at a branch point with a required length, the branch line 14b is predetermined. The guide lines 14a and 14b are formed so as to branch in directions, and an identification mark is formed on each of the guide lines 14a and 14b. This identification display can be formed as a black line displayed by carbon black or the like and a visible line displayed by a phosphor. In the case of displaying with a phosphor, the light from the light source 10 is of a type that causes the phosphor to emit fluorescent light. Further, this identification display only needs to have the number of branches of the guide line 3, and when selecting one of the three directions and branching as shown in FIG. Form as a cord-like line.

In the branch point structure as shown in FIG. 5, when the guide sensor 4 approaches the branch point of the guide line 14, the three guide lines 14a, 1 are scanned by the light beam.
4b and 14c are detected, and at the same time, the respective guide lines 14a, 14b and 14c are determined from the number or pattern of the identification display lines.
Identify. The host controller 9 outputs a command signal as to which guide line 14 to select. Therefore, if the code number of the commanded guide line, for example, the branch line 14b is commanded, the unmanned vehicle 15 The steering control is performed so that the branch line 14b is at the center, and the vehicle can branch toward the destination by branching the travel route. In addition to the above-mentioned bar code, such identification display can also be applied to guide lines with different reflectances, guide lines with different colors, and the like. Since the guidance control according to the configuration of the present embodiment is the absolute value signal discrimination, the reliability of the branch control is improved. In addition, the function of reading the identification display on the guide line 14 of the guide sensor 4 can be used to perform control such as stopping and slowing down at a specific position. That is, by providing an identification display at an appropriate position on the guide line 14, when this is read by the guide sensor 4, the servo controller 7 operates by this detection signal, and required control can be performed at a specific position. .

Next, the configuration of the third embodiment of the present invention will be described. The third embodiment relates to a guide line structure having improved durability. In FIG. 6, the guide line 16 according to the present embodiment has a groove 18 formed in the floor surface 17.
It is formed by pouring light-reflecting paint inside. The guide line 16 can be used as the guide line 3 or 14 of the configuration of the first embodiment or the second embodiment. or,
It can also be used as a magnetic induction type induction line by using a conventional light induction type or paint as a magnetically responsive material. Since the guide line 16 according to the present embodiment is formed in a state in which the surface of the guide line 16 is exposed and embedded in the floor surface 17, when a conventional light reflecting tape or light reflecting paint is laid on the floor surface. Unlike the above, the degree of peeling or damage is small, and the durability of the guide line 16 is improved. In particular, the high durability of the guide line 16 is effectively exhibited in a place where the part where the guide line 16 is laid is shared with a passage for people and other vehicles.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the sensor mounted on the unmanned vehicle projects the light, which is scanned from the projector in the direction orthogonal to the traveling direction of the unmanned vehicle, onto the traveling route. The guide line is detected by receiving the reflected light from the guide line of this light by the light receiver. Therefore, the guide line can be detected within the scanning width of the projected light. You can Therefore, a single light receiving element can detect a sufficiently wide width, and the cost of the sensor is reduced. Further, since only the signal from one light receiving element needs to be analyzed, high-level image processing is not required and cost reduction can be expected in that respect as well. (Claim 1) Further, by providing an identification display such as a bar code in the laying direction of the guide line, at the branch point of the traveling route,
Since the branch line and the main line can be distinguished, the lack of reliability of distinguishing the branch direction from the same light guide line in the conventional light guide system is improved. (Claim 2) Furthermore, by laying the guide line in the groove formed on the floor surface, the peeling of the light reflecting tape and the damage of the light reflecting coating in the conventional light guiding system are suppressed, and the guide is provided. Line maintenance and maintainability are improved. (Claim 3)

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a guide device for an unmanned vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of guidance control of an unmanned vehicle according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of controlling branching of a travel route in the configuration of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a guidance device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the configuration of a guide line according to the configuration of the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the structure of a guide line according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 20 ... Guidance device 2, 15 ... Unmanned vehicle 3, 3, 3a, 3b, 14, 14a, 14b, 14c, 1
6 ... Guidance line 10 ... Light source (projector) 11 ... Polygon mirror (projector) 12 ... Condensing lens (receiver) 13 ... Photodetector (photoreceiver) 17 ... Floor surface 18 ... Groove 19 ... Projector 21 ... Photoreceiver

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sensor mounted on an unmanned vehicle recognizes the position of a guide line laid on a travel route,
A guide device for an unmanned vehicle that drives the unmanned vehicle to a destination along the guide line, and a projector that projects light scanned in a direction intersecting a traveling direction of the unmanned vehicle onto a traveling path. A guide device for an unmanned vehicle, characterized in that a position of the guide line is recognized by a sensor having a light receiver that receives reflected light of the scan light from the guide line. 2. The guidance system for an unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein an identification display is provided on the guidance line so as to be identified by the sensor. 3. The guide device for an unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the guide line is laid in a groove formed on the floor surface.