JPH09240810A - Information recording medium automatically mounting device, information recording medium automatically mounting device system, and control method for information recording medium automatically mounting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily merge a magnetic tape by specifying a tray in which a target magnetic tape is housed on the basis of the merging request, by transferring it from a tray storing rack to a tray station through a process of controlling a tray robot, and by housing it in the desired tray. SOLUTION: When the merging request is generated from the outside, the number of a magnetic tape to be subjected to the merging request is recognized by a merging control part, Next, the number of a tray is which the magnetic tape to be subjected to merging is housed in recognized, and a recognized tray 7 is conveyer from a tray storage warehouse 1 to a tray station 2 by a tray robot 5. The specified tray for housing the desired magnetic tape to be merge- processed is converter to the tray station 2, and tape merging is performed by a mount robot 6. Thus, the replacing operation for the magnetic tape between trays is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for automatically mounting a standardized package-shaped information recording medium such as a cartridge type magnetic tape on a medium driving device such as a magnetic tape device. In particular, the present invention relates to a large-scale information recording medium automatic mounting device which is capable of handling a large amount of information recording medium by adding a storage device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A magnetic tape that is frequently used and has a small amount of storage.
Compared to the systems disclosed in US Pat. No. 3,831,197 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-168871, which are known as magnetic tape library systems for tapes, not only the operator but also the librarian work at the time of tape operation. The present applicant has proposed an automatic magnetic tape automatic mounting device for further reducing the load.
It is disclosed as Japanese Patent No. 74475.

This device is a device which stores information recording media such as magnetic tapes in a batch and automatically mounts or demounts a desired magnetic tape on a medium driving device such as a magnetic tape device. A tray that houses a large number of magnetic tapes in an array, and a magnetic tape data
Magnetic tape device for recording / reproducing data, trace station for temporarily holding a large number of trays, and trace station
Mounted robot that is mounted between the magnetic tape device and the magnetic tape device, picks the magnetic tape in the selected tray and mounts it on the magnetic tape device, or demounts it back into the tray. The information control device controls the picking operation of the mount robot by moving the robot to the picking position. Hereinafter, this will be described based on the schematic configuration diagram shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, this information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus has a tray 7 for storing a plurality of magnetic tapes.
A series in which a large number of tray storage shelves 1 for storing are stored, and a series in which a plurality of trays 7 are placed and a plurality of tray stations 2 for loading and unloading the magnetic tape stored in each tray 7 are installed side by side. , Storage for magnetic tape
The magnetic tape device 3 for performing processing such as reproduction is roughly divided into three series, that is, a series in which a plurality of magnetic tape apparatuses 3 are provided side by side. The tray storage shelf 1 and the tray station 2 operate under the control of a mount controller, which will be described later, and can move laterally along the rails 8.
A tray robot 5 is arranged to move the tray 7 between the tray tray 2 and the tray station 2 and to move the tray 7 in and out of the outside through the loading / unloading port 4. In addition, between the tray station 2 and the magnetic tape device 3, the magnetic tape device 3 also operates under the control of the mount controller, and a desired magnetic tape is taken out from the tray 7 placed on the tray station 2 and a predetermined magnetic tape is provided. One or a plurality (two in the figure) of mount robots 6 for mounting or demounting on the mount port (entrance for inserting / recording / reproducing a magnetic tape) of the apparatus 3 are arranged. This mount robot 6 has a dolly 10 that can rotate.
It is placed on top and can move laterally along the rail 9.

Further, a plurality of magnetic tape units 3 are provided side by side.
An optional I / O station 11 is provided at an arbitrary part of the I / O station for taking in and out a magnetic tape brought in by an operator from the outside. Further, when the magnetic tape is transferred between the mount robots 6, an arbitrary place on the tray station 2 located between the mount robots 6 is set as a transfer place, and the transfer is performed here. That is, when the magnetic tape picked up by one of the mount robots 6 is transferred to the other mount robot 6, the one mount robot 6 once puts the magnetic tape at the transfer place, and this magnetic tape is mounted on the other mount robot 6. The magnetic tape is delivered by picking up at. Note that this delivery place is determined by the information control device at any time. Further, a partition door 12 is provided between the I / O station 11 and the outside to protect security. Further, an unmanned transport vehicle is laterally attached to the outside of the loading / unloading port 4, and the tray 7 is loaded / unloaded.
Can be automatically transported to the outside.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory view showing a schematic structure of the mount robot 6, and as shown in the figure, the mount robot 6 has a torso 31, a shoulder 32, an elbow 33, an arm 34 and a wrist. A six-axis articulated type having a turret head 36 and a turret head 36 is provided, and a desired magnetic tape 39 can be picked up by operating a finger 38 of a hand 37 attached to the turret head 36. FIG. 15 is a block diagram schematically showing a control system of the above automatic mount device, which is roughly divided into a host system 21 and a mount control device 22. The host system 21 comprehensively manages all the magnetic tapes managed by the automatic mounter,
When a recording / reproducing request for each magnetic tape is issued, this data is output to the mount controller 22.

The mount control device 22 includes a data input / output unit 23, a CPU 28, a tray number / tape number recognition unit 24, a tray loading / unloading control unit 25, a tray robot control unit 26, and a mount robot control unit 27. Based on the data given from the host system 21, loading / unloading of trays, control of tray robots,
Each control such as control of the mount robot is performed.
Next, the operation of the conventional device thus configured will be described. For example, for a magnetic tape contained in each tray 7, when a delivery command is issued, a desired tray is recognized by an identification mark (not shown). The tray robot 6 is moved to the loading / unloading port 4. Then, it is transported to the outside by the automatic guided vehicle 14. When a data recording / reproducing command for a predetermined magnetic tape is issued, the tray 7 storing the magnetic tape is transferred from the tray storage shelf 1 to the tray station 2, and the mount robot 6 mounts the magnetic tape. The recording / reproducing process is performed by mounting on the device 3. Then, the processed magnetic tape is demounted from the mount port of the magnetic tape device 3 and returned to the predetermined tray 7 by the mount robot 6.

However, in the above-described conventional information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus, it is possible to perform recording / reproduction by taking out a desired magnetic tape or mounting or demounting the desired magnetic tape in the magnetic tape apparatus. However, the order of storing the magnetic tapes in the tray 7 is changed, or the desired magnetic tapes scattered in a large number of trays 7 are taken out and stored in other predetermined trays. The operation (hereinafter referred to as tape merge) cannot be performed. Therefore, for example, a plurality of magnetic tapes requested from outside may be collected and stored in a transfer tray, a plurality of magnetic tapes to be used the next day may be stored in a specific tray, and the order of use Therefore, there is a drawback that the magnetic tape in the tray 7 cannot be replaced in advance depending on the situation.

In addition, there are requests for recording / reproducing to / from a magnetic tape that are input from the outside, one with a specified magnetic tape number and the other without a specified magnetic tape number. Then, normally, for those with a number designated, the designated magnetic tape is taken out and a predetermined magnetic tape device 3 is used.
You can perform the required processing by mounting it on the disk, and if you do not specify the number, use scratch tape (tape that has become expired such as unnecessary tape) to newly create data. Is executed. When a large number of requests without number designation occur, a large number of scratch tapes are placed on the mount seat (not shown) of the magnetic tape device 3 and sequentially mounted in the mount opening to record data. I do.

Thereafter, the processed magnetic tape is taken out to the demount receiving seat, and when the processing for a predetermined number of scratch tapes is completed, the mount robot 6 stores it in a predetermined tray 7. ing. In this case, the demounted magnetic tape remains in the state of being mounted on the demount seat until the processing for the predetermined number of times is completed. When the recording / reproducing process is performed on the tape, the following process must be performed after all the tapes are returned to the tray 7, and there is a drawback that the rapid process cannot be performed.

[0011]

As described above, since the conventional information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus does not have the function of performing the tape merging operation, the magnetic tapes in the tray 7 cannot be replaced. Moreover, it has been impossible to perform an operation such as collecting magnetic tapes scattered in a large number of trays 7 and storing them in a predetermined tray 7.
Further, when it is desired to immediately use the magnetic tape demounted from the magnetic tape device 3 in the next stage, the magnetic tape can be taken out only after the processing of all the plurality of continuously mounted scratch tapes has been performed. Since it is not possible, there was a drawback that the waiting time would be long.
The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and a first object thereof is to provide an information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus capable of tape merging. A second object is automatic mounting of an information recording medium that can immediately take out a requested magnetic tape from the magnetic tapes stacked on the demount receiving seat of the magnetic tape device and mount it on another magnetic tape device. It is to provide a device.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 of the present invention is to record / reproduce data on / from an information recording medium such as a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, an optical disk or a microfiche. A medium driving device for carrying out the above, a tray capable of accommodating a large number of the information recording media, a trace station for temporarily holding a large number of the trays, and arranged between the trace station and the medium driving device. A mounting robot that picks up the information recording medium in the tray and mounts it on the medium driving device, or demounts it back to the tray, a tray storage rack that stores an empty tray or a tray containing the information recording medium, and an external device. Automatic reading to read in / out station for carrying in / out tray by tray, and recognition code on the side of tray and recognition code attached to tape Device, a tray robot that is arranged between the trace station and the tray storage shelf, and transfers a tray between the trace station and the tray storage shelf, and a request for recording / reproducing on an information recording medium. , And according to a loading / unloading request, the mount robot is moved to a predetermined picking position to control the picking operation of the mount robot, and a predetermined tray of the tray storage rack is traced by the tray robot or a trace tray. An information recording medium automatic mounting device having at least an information control device for controlling a transfer operation for returning the tray of FIG.

When a merge request for taking out the information recording medium housed in an arbitrary tray and housing it in a predetermined tray is input, the information control device is a target to be taken out based on the merge request. All trays containing the information recording medium are specified, the tray robot is controlled to transfer all the specified trays from the tray storage shelf to the tray station, and the mount robot is controlled to be transferred to the tray station. The feature is that the predetermined information recording medium stored in the tray is taken out and the control is performed so as to be stored in a desired tray.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of the information recording medium automatic mounting devices according to the first aspect are arranged in parallel,
A transfer device is bridged between the information recording medium automatic mounting devices to enable the transfer of the information recording medium between the automatic mounting devices, and the information control device is stored in a certain information recording medium automatic mounting device. When a request for taking out an information recording medium and a request for merging are made in another information recording medium automatic mounting device, a desired information recording medium is accommodated in the tray according to the request, and the other information recording medium automatic It is characterized in that it is controlled to be sent to the mount device. The invention according to claim 3 is an information recording medium such as a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, and a microfiche, and a plurality of series of medium drive devices for recording and reproducing data on the information recording medium. A tray station having a plurality of trays, which accommodates a plurality of the information recording media in the trays, is movable between the plurality of medium driving devices, and is located on the mount opening side of each medium driving device, A mounting robot that picks the selected information recording medium from the tray of the tray station and mounts or demounts it on the medium driving device, and controls the mounting robot to move to the picking position of the tray station, An information control device for at least performing picking operation control of the mount robot,
In the information recording medium automatic mounting device having

The medium driving device has a demount receiving seat on which a plurality of demounted information recording media can be stacked and placed, and the mount robot holds the information recording medium placed on the demount receiving seat. It is characterized in that it has a finger portion and a pressing mechanism which is arranged above and below the finger portion and which temporarily fixes the information recording medium positioned above and below the information recording medium to be grasped by the finger portion. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the medium drive device stacks and accommodates a mount seat for accommodating a plurality of information recording media to be mounted from a mount port and an information recording medium demounted from the mount port. A demount receiving seat, wherein the mount receiving seat accommodates the information recording medium from above in the order opposite to the order of mounting in the medium driving device, and after the processing by the medium driving device is completed, When a picking request for an information recording medium that has been demounted and stacked on the demount receiving seat is generated, control for picking the information recording medium that is the target of the request using the mount robot according to claim 2 is performed. It is characterized by performing.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the plurality of medium driving devices include a medium driving device with number designation for recording / reproducing data in response to a mount request with information recording medium number designation, and information recording. It is divided into a medium drive device without number designation that records / reproduces data in response to a mount request without medium number designation, and the information control device is mounted on the mount seat of the medium drive device without number designation. If the number of information recording media to be accommodated is a preset allowable number and the number of information recording media accommodated in the mount seat of the medium drive device with the number designation is less than the allowable number, the number designation It is characterized in that the information recording medium assigned to the non-existing medium recording device is controlled to be assigned to the medium recording device with the number designation.

According to the invention of claim 1 configured as described above, when a tape merge request is issued, all the numbers of the trays containing the information recording media to be merged are recognized, Transported to tray station. Then, an operation of accommodating the information recording media in a desired order is performed in a predetermined tray for accommodating the merged information recording media. By this operation, desired magnetic tapes can be taken out in a desired order.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the information recording medium automatic mounting device is connected by using the conveying device, the information recording medium can be transferred between the respective information recording medium automatic mounting devices. . Therefore, for example, an information recording medium stored in a certain information recording medium automatic mounting device can be merged and conveyed to another information recording medium automatic mounting device, and a wide variety of flexible information recording media can be managed. be able to. According to the third aspect of the invention, when a desired one is taken out from the information recording mediums stacked in a plurality of stages, the information recording to be taken out by the pressing mechanism located above and below the finger portion. The desired information recording medium can be taken out by the finger portions while pressing the medium positioned above and below the medium.

According to the invention of claim 4, claim 2
By using the mount robot described in, it is possible to easily take out the desired one from the multi-stage magnetic tapes dispensed from the mount opening of the medium drive, so that the information recording used in a certain process can be performed. When using the medium in another medium drive, it can be taken out immediately,
It becomes possible to speed up the processing. Claim 5
According to the invention described in (1), when the number of information recording media mounted on a medium drive device is large and exceeds the allowable number,
Since the processing is performed by allocating it to another medium recording device that does not reach the allowable number, it is possible to speed up the processing.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The overall configuration according to the present embodiment is the same as that shown in FIG. 13 already described, and the configuration of the control device is different in this embodiment. That is, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control system of the information recording medium automatic mounter according to the present embodiment, which is roughly divided into a host system 21 and a mount controller 22. Data input / output unit 23, tray number / tape number recognition unit 24, tray loading / unloading control unit 2
5, a tray robot control unit 26, and a mount robot control unit 27 are the same as those of the conventional example shown in FIG. 11. In the present embodiment, the merge control unit 4 is further added.
1 and a batch mount control unit 42. In addition, when a plurality of information recording medium automatic mounting devices are installed side by side, a transfer device (described later) is bridged between the mounting devices in order to transfer trays between the mounting devices. In order to control the above, the mount control device 22 is provided with an inter-device transfer control unit 43.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing performed by the merge control unit 41. The operation of the merge control unit 41 will be described with reference to the flow chart. First, when a merge request is issued from the outside (step S
T1), the number of the magnetic tape to be the target of this merge request is recognized (step ST2). Next, the tray number in which the magnetic tape to be merged is stored is recognized (step ST3), and the recognized tray is transported to the tray station 2 (step ST4). Then, a predetermined tray for storing the desired magnetic tape to be merged is conveyed to the tray station 2 (step ST5), and the mount robot 6 performs tape merging (step ST6). Thus, the operation of exchanging the magnetic tape between the trays is performed.

The batch mount control unit 42 controls the operation of the mount robot 6 when mounting a magnetic tape on each magnetic tape device 3. The batch mount control unit 42 controls the magnetic force applied to each magnetic tape device 3 by the batch mount control unit 42. The operation of receiving and dispensing the tape will be described below. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing this operation. Reference numeral 61 shown in FIG. 7A is a mount port for inserting a magnetic tape into a magnetic tape device, and a scratch for sequentially mounting the mount port on the upper side thereof. A mount receiving seat 62 for holding the tape on standby is arranged. Then, on the mount receiving seat 62, the magnetic tapes set in the order opposite to the order of mounting from above are placed. For example, when the magnetic tapes A, B, and C are mounted in this order, the magnetic tapes C, B, and A are placed in this order from above.
Then, as shown in FIG.
The scratch tape that has been mounted from and has been processed is the demount receiving seat 6 arranged below the mount opening 61.
3 is placed.

At this time, optical sensors 64a and 64b are attached to two positions of the demount receiving seat 63 at a predetermined height, and the number of magnetic tapes dispensed from the mount opening 61 can be detected. It is like this. If the number of magnetic tapes is set to, for example, three by this number, it is necessary to temporarily return the magnetic tapes to the tray 7 by the mount robot 6 while the three magnetic tapes are accumulated on the demount receiving seat 63. To do. In the present embodiment, the magnetic tape placed on the demount receiving seat 63 is picked up before being returned to the tray 7 so that it can be used in the next step.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the construction of the tip portion of the mount robot for performing such an operation. As shown in the figure, this mount robot has a magnetic tape 39 at the tip.
Has a finger 51 for picking up, and spring members 52 retractably retractable are arranged above and below the finger 51. A pressing plate 53 for pushing the magnetic tape 39 up and down is attached to the tip of the spring member 52. Therefore,
For example, in the case of taking out a magnetic tape 39 located in the middle stage of the magnetic tape device 3 which is ejected from the mount port and placed on the demount receiving seat 63, the pressing plate 53 is used.
Then, the magnetic tapes above and below the desired magnetic tape may be pressed and the desired magnetic tape may be picked up by the fingers 51.

Hereinafter, this pickup operation will be described with reference to FIGS.
3, when the magnetic tape 39a shown in FIG. 3 is taken out, the front end of the mount robot 6 is brought close to the magnetic tape 39a, and the upper and lower pressing plates 53 are located above and below the magnetic tape 39a, respectively. To do so. Then, when the pressing plate 53 is pressed toward the magnetic tape in this state, a space is generated above and below the magnetic tape 39a by the pressing plate 53, and when the pressing plate 53 is further pressed, the spring member 52 contracts and the fingers 51 are formed as shown in FIG. Is magnetic tape 39a
Will be pinched. Then, as shown in FIG.
The magnetic tape 39a can be taken out by pressing the magnetic tape 39a with the fingers 51, as shown in FIG. In this way, it becomes possible to easily take out only the desired magnetic tape from the plurality of magnetic tapes mounted on the demount receiving seat 63. Further, in the automatic mounting device of the present embodiment, when the number of scratch tapes assigned to a certain magnetic tape device increases and the scratch tape cannot be placed on the mount receiving seat, the magnetic tape device is in a congestion state. Is determined to be
Automatically assigns to other magnetic tape devices.

In this way, in the information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus of this embodiment, tape merging between the trays 7 can be performed, so that desired magnetic tapes can be arranged and taken out in a desired order. it can. Further, since only a desired magnetic tape can be taken out from the magnetic tapes stacked on the demount receiving seat 63, when the magnetic tape used in a certain magnetic tape device is immediately used in the next step, the demount is performed. It is not necessary to wait for the magnetic tape that has been removed to be returned to the tray 7 once, and the processing can proceed rapidly.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the above-described first embodiment, one information recording medium automatic mounting device has been described. However, in the present embodiment, it is configured as a system in which two or more information recording medium automatic mounting devices are connected, and a magnetic tape is provided between each device. And a merge operation according to a merge request. FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of an information recording medium automatic mounting device system according to the second embodiment, and in this example, five systems of information recording medium automatic mounting devices I to V are provided side by side. The configuration of each information recording medium automatic mounting device I to V shown in the figure is almost the same as the device as shown in FIG. 13 described above, but in the present embodiment, the respective devices I to V are passed. A two-way tray transporting conveyor (transporting device) 71 is provided in each of the devices. Through the conveyor 71, the magnetic tapes are transferred between the devices I to V and a merging operation by a merge request is performed. There is. FIG. 9 is an information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus I shown in FIG.
1 to V, and FIG. 10 is a side view of the apparatus in which the two systems are connected, respectively. The conveyor 71 is arranged on the ceiling of the apparatus, and the tray robot 5 is provided.
The tray 7 is loaded and unloaded on the conveyor 71 by using. Therefore, the inter-device transfer control unit 43 shown in FIG. 1 performs a merge operation in another automatic mount device in response to a merge request generated in a certain automatic mount device, and vice versa. This makes it possible to greatly improve the flexibility of work.

Further, in the above-described second embodiment, an example in which a plurality of information recording medium automatic mounting devices are provided side by side has been described, but it is also possible to provide a device without the magnetic tape device 3 and the mount robot 6. Is. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus configured as described above, and FIG. 12 is a plan view thereof. As shown in the figure, this apparatus is configured similarly to the apparatus shown in FIG. The automatic mounting device X and the device Y which does not have the magnetic tape device 3 and the mounting robot 6 are provided side by side. A conveyor 71 is bridged between the devices X and Y as in the second embodiment, so that trays can be transferred between the devices. With such a configuration, when the amount of magnetic tape to be stored becomes large, only the functions of the tray storage rack 1 and the tray robot 5 can be added, so that the number of magnetic tapes can be appropriately increased. You will be able to respond. In the present embodiment, a magnetic tape is described as an example of the information recording medium, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a microfiche, etc. may be used.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, the predetermined magnetic tapes contained in the respective trays can be taken out and housed in the desired trays in the predetermined order. Depending on the order of use, you can collect multiple magnetic tapes that are more demanded and store them in a tray for transport, store multiple magnetic tapes to be used the next day in a specific tray, It is possible to perform operations such as replacing the magnetic tapes in advance, which is extremely useful in operating the apparatus. Further, when a plurality of information recording media such as magnetic tapes ejected from the mount opening are stacked, the information recording media at any position can be easily picked up by the mount robot. Even when the information recording medium that has been processed by the device (magnetic tape device 3) is immediately used in another medium recording device, this can be dealt with, and the processing time can be significantly shortened.

Further, when the number of scratch tapes accumulated in a certain medium drive device exceeds the allowable number, the medium tapes are allocated to the medium drive devices less than the other allowable number to mount the scratch tapes. It is possible to speed up the processing without only congestion. Further, by connecting a plurality of automatic information recording medium mounting devices in parallel and disposing a conveyor between the respective devices, it becomes possible to transfer the information recording medium between the respective devices.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mount control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of a merge control unit provided in the mount control device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a tip portion of the mount robot according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing how a mount robot picks up a magnetic tape.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing how a mount robot picks up a magnetic tape.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing how a mount robot picks up a magnetic tape.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing how a magnetic tape is mounted in a magnetic tape device.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of when five information recording medium automatic mounting devices are arranged in parallel.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an information recording medium automatic mounting device having a conveyor.

FIG. 10 is a side view when two information recording medium automatic mounting devices are installed side by side.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a state in which the information recording medium automatic mounting device shown in FIG. 9 is connected to a device having no magnetic tape device or mount robot equipment.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the system shown in FIG.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a general information recording medium automatic mounting device.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a conventional mount robot.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system of a conventional automatic mounter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 tray storage shelf 2 tray station 3 magnetic tape device (medium drive device) 4 loading / unloading port 5 tray robot 6 mount robot 7 trays 8, 9 rails 10 trolleys 11 I / O stations 12 partitions 13 transfer devices 14 unmanned transport vehicles 21 hosts System 22 Mount control device 23 Data input / output unit 24 Tray number and tape number recognition unit 25 Tray loading / unloading control unit 26 Tray robot control unit 27 Mount robot control unit 28 CPU 31 Body 32 Shoulder 33 Elbow 34 Arm 35 Wrist 36 Turret head 37 Hand 38 Finger 39 Magnetic tape (information recording medium) 41 Merge control unit 42 Batch mount control unit 51 Finger 52 Spring member 53 Holding plate 61 Mount port 62 Mount receiving seat 63 Demount receiving seat 6 4a, 64b sensor 71 conveyor (conveyor)

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A medium drive device for recording / reproducing data to / from an information recording medium such as a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a microfiche, a tray capable of accommodating a large number of the information recording medium, and a large number of trays. A trace station for temporarily holding the tray, and a trace station disposed between the trace station and the medium drive unit, picking an information recording medium in the selected tray to mount or demount the medium drive unit. Mount robot that returns to a tray, a tray storage shelf that stores empty trays or trays that contain information recording media, an entry / exit station that performs entry / exit transport in units of external trays, and an identification code on the side of the tray. A recognition code attached to the tape
An automatic reading device for reading the data, a tray robot disposed between the trace station and the tray storage shelf, and for transferring the tray between the trace station and the tray storage shelf, and an information recording medium. In response to the recording / playback request and the loading / unloading request, the mount robot is moved to a predetermined picking position to control the picking operation of the mount robot, and a predetermined tray of the tray storage shelf is traced by the tray robot. Alternatively, in an information recording medium automatic mounting device having at least an information control device for controlling a transfer operation for returning a tray of a trace station to a tray storage rack, the information control device is an information recording device housed in an arbitrary tray. When a merge request to take out the media and store it in the specified tray is entered, Based on the merge request, all the trays containing the information recording medium to be taken out are specified, and the tray robot is controlled to transfer all the specified trays from the tray storage rack to the tray station. An information recording medium automatic mounting device, comprising: controlling a mounting robot to take out a predetermined information recording medium stored in a tray transferred to a tray station and storing the medium in a predetermined tray. 2. A plurality of information recording medium automatic mounting devices according to claim 1 are arranged side by side, and a transfer device is bridged between the respective information recording medium automatic mounting devices to provide information between the respective automatic mounting devices. It is possible to transfer a recording medium, and the information control device is configured to, when a request for taking out or merging an information recording medium stored in a certain information recording medium automatic mounting device is generated in another information recording medium automatic mounting device. According to this request, the information recording medium automatic mounting device system is characterized in that a desired information recording medium is accommodated in the tray and is sent to the other information recording medium automatic mounting device. 3. An information recording medium such as a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, and a microfiche, a plurality of series medium drive devices for recording / reproducing data to / from the information recording medium, and a plurality of trays. Then, a tray station that accommodates a plurality of the information recording media in the tray and a plurality of medium driving devices are movable, and the selected information recording device is located at the mount opening side of each medium driving device. A mounting robot that picks a medium from the tray of the tray station and mounts or demounts it on the medium driving device; and a control that moves the mounting robot to a picking position of the tray station, and a picking of the mounting robot. An information recording apparatus for performing at least operation control, and an information recording medium automatic mounting apparatus having The medium driving device has a demount receiving seat on which a plurality of demounted information recording media can be stacked and placed, and the mount robot holds the information recording medium placed on the demount receiving seat. An information recording medium having a finger portion and a pressing mechanism which is disposed above and below the finger portion and temporarily fixes the information recording medium positioned above and below the information recording medium to be gripped by the finger portion. Automatic mounting device. 4. The medium drive device includes a mount seat for accommodating a plurality of information recording media to be mounted from a mount port, and a demount seat for accommodating the information recording media demounted from the mount port in a stack. Having, in the mount receiving seat, a plurality of the information recording media are accommodated from above in an order opposite to the order of mounting the medium drive device, and after the processing by the medium drive device is completed,
When a picking request for an information recording medium that has been demounted and stacked on the demount receiving seat is generated, control for picking the information recording medium that is the target of the request using the mount robot according to claim 2 is performed. A method for controlling an information recording medium automatic mounting device, characterized by performing. 5. The plurality of medium driving devices record / record data in response to a mount request with an information recording medium number designation.
A medium drive device with a specified number for playback and recording / recording of data in response to a mount request without specifying the information recording medium number
The information control device is divided into a medium drive device with no number designation for reproduction, and the information control device has a preset allowable number of the information recording medium accommodated in the mount seat of the medium drive device without number designation. If the number of information recording media accommodated in the mount seat of the medium driving device with the number designation is less than the allowable number, the information recording medium assigned to the medium recording device without the number designation is The control method of the information recording medium automatic mounting device according to claim 4, wherein the control is performed to assign the medium recording device to a designated medium.