JPH0873010A - Destination instruction device in carrier system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To intuitively understand destination instruction work by displaying a configuration subject to a layout for a carrier system and residing commodities on a screen and making specifying and carrying instructions for the commodities before moved and their destinations on the screen. CONSTITUTION: An operator operates a mouse 14, points a mouse cursor 5 to a commodity object 3a for a carry-out commodity on a CRT display 11 and identifies the commodity via a window 6. The commodity object 3a for the carry-out commodity is dragged together with the mouse cursor 5 and laid on a carry-out station 4. A controller 13 delivers data from the mouse 14 to an instructor 15, where FROM-TO data are made with a shelf 2a corresponding to the commodity object 3a to be a start point and the carry-out station 4 to be a terminal point. A controller 16 receives the data to actuate a crane in accordance with the data, move the commodity and rewrite shelf management data. In this way, easy operation and intuitive carry-out for commodities intended to be carried out are achieved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer system such as an automatic warehouse and an automated guided vehicle system, and more particularly to a transfer destination indicating device for instructing a transfer destination of an article in the transfer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A transportation system including an automated warehouse, an unmanned vehicle transportation system, an overhead traveling vehicle system, a sorter, and the like, which are independent of each other, is in practical use. In the transfer system, the computer automatically controls by providing FROM-TO data to a transfer device such as a crane or an unmanned vehicle. The FROM-TO data is automatically created based on a slip or the like, and may be created by an operation from a terminal.

[0003]

When the FROM-TO data is created by the operation from the terminal, the person performing the operation inputs the data using the keyboard. For example, in an automated warehouse, the shelf number and the ID (or number) of the exit port have been entered using the keyboard. Therefore, it is necessary for the operator to know which shelves are empty and what, what items are in which shelves, etc., in addition to being able to operate the keyboard. It was an operation.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a moving-destination indicating device for a conveying system that can perform a moving-destination indicating operation for the conveying system in an intuitive and easy-to-understand environment.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 conforms to the layout of an actual transport system including a plurality of movement sources and movement destinations, and
The layout display means for displaying on the screen the article currently placed at the source and the destination, the article currently placed at the source, and the destination of the article are designated on the screen. The destination instructing device of the transport system is configured to include the designating unit and the transport command creating unit that creates the transport command based on the designation of the designating unit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the designating means is a mouse, and the object of the article to be moved is dragged to the destination to specify the article and the destination of the article on the screen. Thus, the movement destination instruction device of the transport system according to the first aspect is configured.

The invention according to claim 3 is provided with an article information display means for displaying information relating to the selected article by selecting one of the articles displayed on the screen by the designating means. The transfer destination instruction device of the transfer system according to item 1 is configured.

[0008]

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

In the moving destination designating apparatus of the carrying system according to the first aspect of the invention, the moving destination of the article is designated on the screen. On the screen, a form conforming to the layout of an actual transport system including a plurality of moving sources and moving destinations, and articles currently placed on the moving sources and moving destinations are displayed. The person who performs the operation designates, on the screen, the article currently placed at the source and the destination to which the article is to be moved, by the specifying means. The transport command creating means creates the transport command based on the designation of the designating means.
It should be noted that the source and the destination may refer to substantially the same thing, that is, even if they are on the same shelf, they are the source if the article is placed, and if they are not placed, they are moved. It may be the first.

In the moving-destination indicating device of the carrying system according to the second aspect of the present invention, the designating means is a mouse. The operator moves the mouse cursor on the screen,
By dragging the object of the article to be moved to the movement destination, the article and the movement destination of the article are specified on the screen.

In the moving destination designating device of the carrying system according to the third aspect of the present invention, when any of the articles displayed on the screen is selected by the designating means, information on the selected article is displayed, The operator can refer to the information.

[0012]

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

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a screen in an embodiment applied to an automatic warehouse of a movement destination instruction device of a carrying system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the same embodiment. Is.

In FIG. 1, an overall layout image of one shelf row 1 of an automated warehouse is displayed on the screen as an image from the front so that it is easy to see which shelf 2 is empty and which shelf is actual. Has been done. The shelf row 1 is composed of 14 shelves 2 arranged in parallel in 5 stages, and the shelves are shown in the left-right direction of the screen and in the up-down direction. Racks are 1 station from the left, 2 stations ...
・ 14 stations and shelves are represented as 1, 2 ... 5 from the bottom.

When an actual article is stored in one of the shelves, the article object 3 is also displayed on the corresponding shelf 2 on the screen. If another real shelf is empty, the article object 3 is not displayed on the corresponding shelf 2 on the screen. Although the actual articles have different packing forms depending on the product type, all the article objects 3 of this embodiment are shown in the same shape. Of course, it is also possible to configure the shape to change depending on the type.

The delivery stations 4, 4 are displayed near the left and right ends of the shelf row 1, which correspond to the actual delivery stations. The crane that actually carries out the warehousing operation is not shown because it does not have to be displayed on the screen, although it is a crane that travels and goes up and down in front of the actual shelves.

The mouse cursor 5 imitating the shape of a hand with a finger is moved on the screen by a mouse described later, and information is displayed on the screen by clicking, double-clicking, and dragging, and a crane is operated. You can

The window 6 is opened by pointing the article object 3 with the forefinger of the mouse cursor 5 and double-clicking it.
That is, the item number, the item name, the lot, the quantity, and the column, string, or column of the currently stored shelves 2 are displayed. An operator can specify the destination while referring to the information by opening the window 6 for the article to be moved.

The screen shown in FIG. 1 is displayed on the CRT display 11 shown in FIG. The CRT display 11, together with the layout display unit 12, the control unit 13, the mouse 14, and the command creating unit 15, forms a main part of a workstation for giving a transfer command to a crane in an automated warehouse by an operation of an operator. The workstation is connected to the crane controller 16 and the like by LAN.

The layout display section 12 outputs image data for displaying a screen as shown in FIG. 1 to the CRT display 11 in response to an instruction from the control section 13 by operating the mouse 14. The control unit 13 reads out the layout of the shelf row selected by the operation from the shelf layout data 18 through the LAN, reads the management data of the shelf from the shelf management database 17 connected to the crane control unit 16, and further acquires the information about the product. Data for reading out from the database 19 and creating a screen as shown in FIG. 1 is prepared.

Next, the procedure for creating the transport command will be described.

The operator operates the mouse 14 to display the article object 3 on the CRT display 11 for the article to be delivered.
The mouse cursor 5 is pointed to a and double-clicked, the window 6 is opened to display the information of the article as described above, and confirmation is performed. Double-click again to close window 6.

Next, the article object 3 of the article to be delivered
Click a and drag the article object 3a together with the mouse cursor 5 so that the article object 3a is overlaid on the delivery station 4. This is an example of the delivery instruction, but it goes without saying that it is also possible to instruct exchange of articles between the shelves 2.

When the above-mentioned operation for issuing a shipping instruction is performed, the control unit 13 converts the input data from the mouse 14 into the command creating unit 1.
Based on this, the command creating unit 15 starts from the shelf 2a in which the actual articles corresponding to the article object 3a are stored, that is, the shelf 2a of three rows and three columns in one row, and the exit station 4 as the end point. FROM-TO data is created and transmitted to the crane controller 16 through the LAN.

Upon receiving the FROM-TO data from the command creating section 15, the crane control section 16 receives the FROM-TO data.
Operate the crane according to the data to move the goods and rewrite the shelf management data. This allows
The updated shelf management data can be displayed on the CRT display 11.

As described above, in the movement destination designating apparatus according to the present embodiment, it is not necessary to input numerical values or characters from the keyboard, but the shelf row 1 imitating the actual layout and the actual availability of each shelf 2. The object object 3 is displayed to indicate whether it is empty,
Since it is possible to create a transportation command by dragging and moving the article object, the operation is easy even if you are not familiar with the keyboard, and you can intuitively retrieve the article you want to leave. Also, the state of each shelf 2 can be grasped at a glance,
It is possible to save the trouble of calling and checking information, and to realize a better operating environment.

Further, since the window 6 is opened to display the information by double-clicking the article object 3, it is not necessary to obtain the information by keyboard input, and the information can be easily obtained, and the window 6 is referred to. It is possible to operate while doing.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen in another embodiment applied to the automatic warehouse of the movement destination instruction device of the transfer system according to the present invention.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is applied to an automated warehouse having a larger number of shelves in one shelves than in FIG. 1 and a terminal having a small screen in which all shelves cannot be displayed. The device of this embodiment is also operated by the mouse as in the devices of FIGS.

On the screen of FIG. 3, nine 3 × 3 shelves 22 are displayed. All the shelves included in the shelf row are not displayed. By clicking the scroll buttons 23 arranged vertically and horizontally, the display of the shelves 22 is scrolled vertically and horizontally, and the shelf 22 to be displayed is selected. can do. In order to easily understand which position of the shelf 22 is displayed, a column display 24 and a continuous display 25 are displayed by numbers on the left side and the lower side of the display of the shelf 22, respectively.

When articles are stored in the actual shelves, the article objects 26 are displayed on the corresponding shelves 22 as in the embodiment shown in FIGS. Similarly, it is possible to open a window and refer to the information regarding the article by operating and double-clicking. The shelf number of the shelf 22 to which the mouse cursor 27 is currently pointing is displayed as a shelf number display 28 above the display of the shelf 22 by numbers representing columns, rows, and columns.

On the shelf 22, in addition to the article object 26, a prohibition mark 29 indicating that storage is prohibited, a leaving reservation 30,
A mark of "reservation reservation 31" is displayed. Prohibition mark 29
The shelf 22 in which is displayed cannot be stored for some reason. The shelving 22 that is reserved for shipping 30 and reserved for storage 31 has reservations for shipping and warehousing, respectively. Below the display of the shelf 22, two shipping stations 32, 32 are displayed.

The operation in this embodiment is similar to that in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the article object 26a to be moved by operating the mouse is pointed and dragged to the delivery station 32. You can open a window in advance and refer to the information. A transfer command is created by dragging and the transfer is performed by a crane.

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 illustrated embodiment has been described as being applied to an automated warehouse, but it can also be applied to other transport systems such as an unmanned vehicle system, an overhead traveling vehicle system, and a sorter. In these cases, the displayed layout is represented by the whole image viewed in a plane. Further, the present invention is not limited to a single system, and can be applied to, for example, a combined transportation system of an automated warehouse and an unmanned vehicle system.

In the illustrated embodiment, the operation is performed by using the mouse, but it is obvious that other pointing devices and other input devices, such as a touch panel, can be substituted.

[0037]

As described above, in the moving-destination indicating device of the conveying system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the moving destination of the article is displayed on the screen displaying the form corresponding to the actual state of the conveying system. Since it is instructed by, it is possible to create a transport command without inputting numerical values or characters using the keyboard, and it is not necessary for the operator to be familiar with keyboard operation or grasp shelf management information, and a better operating environment can be realized.

In the moving destination designating device of the carrying system according to the second aspect of the present invention, the carrying instruction can be given by dragging the object of the article to the moving destination with the mouse. It is easy and intuitive to operate and can be operated without error.

In the moving-destination indicating device of the transport system according to the third aspect of the present invention, since the information on the article can be displayed by selecting it on the screen, the information on the article can be easily obtained, which is incorrect. It does not move the goods.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a screen display in an embodiment applied to an automated warehouse of a movement destination instruction device of a transportation system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main part of the configuration of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen display in another embodiment applied to the automatic warehouse of the movement destination instruction device of the transfer system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Shelf row 2 Shelf 3 Article object 4 Outgoing station 5 Mouse cursor 6 Window

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A layout display means for displaying on the screen a form conforming to the layout of an actual transport system including a plurality of moving sources and moving destinations, and an article currently placed at the moving source and moving destinations. And a designation means for designating on the screen the article currently placed at the movement source and the movement destination of the article, and a transportation command creation means for creating a transportation command based on the designation of the designating means. Destination instruction device for transport system. 2. The transport according to claim 1, wherein the designating unit is a mouse, and the object and the moving destination of the article are specified on the screen by dragging the object of the article to be moved to the moving destination. System move destination indicator. 3. The transport system according to claim 1, further comprising article information display means for displaying information on the selected article by selecting one of the articles displayed on the screen by the designating means. Destination pointing device.