JPH09323887A - Automatic control system and method for conveying means - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manage stock control and automatic control of a conveying means for material whose configurations can not be specified. SOLUTION: Output from a crane system 1 sensor 10 is inputted in a tracking mechanism 5 through the controller 3 of a system device 2 and the weight and height signals formed by the tracking mechanism 5 are outputted to a stock control mechanism 6 through the controller 3 and, simultaneously as being stored in a stock control file 4, they are inputted in a schedule mechanism 7, while a crane operation command formed by the schedule mechanism 7 obtaining conveying schedule data from a host computer 8 or a man-machine 9 is outputted to the crane system 1 actuator through the controller 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for automatically loading and unloading a substance having an indefinite shape into a storage location by a transportation facility. For example, in the field of iron and steel, various materials such as stock control of raw material yard are used. The present invention relates to an automatic control method of a transportation means in a storage place where it is necessary to manage the inventory of scraps for each material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to the development of technology related to automation of equipment, materials brought in from the outside using a transportation means such as a crane are stored in a predetermined storage place, and materials stored in the storage place are set in advance. The technology related to the so-called automatic control of a crane that is carried out to a predetermined place according to the above schedule is being automated. As an example of such automation, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-71958 discloses a technique for automatically eliminating the deflection angle of a material when the material is conveyed by a crane. In addition, JP-A-63-176291
The publication discloses control in which the outputs of distance sensors installed at a plurality of locations are controlled to be equal and the material to be conveyed is always kept horizontal.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned prior art targets the one having a specific shape in advance, for example, the steam turbine described in JP-A-63-176291. ing.

On the other hand, when considering a scrap yard in the field of steel, for example, the target material is an empty can,
The shape of a scrap car such as iron, punching chips, and chips cannot be specified. In other words, the above-mentioned conventional technique cannot be used as it is when carrying in or out a product whose shape cannot be specified to or from a storage place. In other words, because the shape of the material is unspecified, the storage shape and distribution are not constant, and for example, when trying to hoist these materials with a crane with a magnet, the height of the material is not clearly known. Crane position cannot be determined. That is, if the position of the magnet is too high, the material cannot be adsorbed, and if the position of the magnet is too low, the material hits the material and the magnet is damaged.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic control system for a transporting means, which manages the stock of materials whose shapes cannot be specified and automatically controls the transporting means.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The above-mentioned object is to convey a means for loading and unloading a substance having an indefinite shape to a storage location, inventory management of the transported material, and the transportation means based on the result of the inventory management. And a predicting means for predicting a distribution of the substance at the storage location when the transport means carries the substance into the storage location. Detecting the error in the distribution of the substance when it is carried out from the place,
This can be achieved by including a correction unit that corrects the predicted substance distribution.

Further, the above object is to carry out automatic control of carrying means for carrying out inventory management of the material based on the material carried in and out of the storage location by the carrying means and determining scheduling of the carrying means based on the result of the inventory management. In the method, when the transport means carries in the substance to the storage location, the distribution of the substance in the storage location is predicted based on the type of the transport substance and the weight of the transported material, and the substance is transported from the substance storage location. This can be achieved by detecting an error in the distribution of the substance based on the height information of the conveying means and correcting the predicted substance distribution.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall structure of the present invention. The output from the sensor 10 of the crane system 1 is input to the tracking mechanism 5 via the control device 3 of the system device 2, and the weight and height signals generated by the tracking mechanism 5 are transmitted via the control device 3. Inventory management mechanism 6
Crane operation command generated by the schedule mechanism 7 that has been output to the schedule management mechanism 7 and stored in the inventory management file 4 and input to the schedule mechanism 7 to obtain the carry-out plan data from the host computer 8 or the man-machine 9. Is output to the actuator of the crane system 1 via.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of the inventory management mechanism 6. In the case of carry-in, the inventory management mechanism 6 activates the inventory distribution prediction mechanism 65, acquires the inventory distribution from the inventory management file 4, predicts the distribution by this shipment, adds the results, and then the inventory management file. Store in 4. On the other hand, in the case of unloading, the inventory management mechanism 6 activates the inventory distribution correction mechanism 64, acquires the inventory distribution from the inventory management file 4, corrects the distribution by this unloading, and stores it in the inventory management file 4. .

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the processing of the tracking mechanism 5 of the present invention.

In this flowchart, the solid line represents the processing flow and the broken line represents the data flow.

When the tracking mechanism 5 is activated, position data from the sensor 10 is fetched by a work position acquisition process 51. Next, the sensor 1 is executed by the loaded weight acquisition process 52.
The brand and weight data from 0 are taken, it is determined whether the operation data from the sensor 10 is carry-in or carry-out, and in the case of carry-out, the height data from the sensor 10 is acquired by the lifting position height acquisition processing 54.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the inventory management mechanism 6 of the present invention. The inventory management mechanism 6 receives the position data of the crane, the weight data of the transported object, and the height data from the tracking mechanism 5, and in the weight distribution constant acquisition processing 61,
The constant data for predicting and correcting the vicinity of the carry-in or carry-out position is acquired from the inventory management file 4, and the weight distribution process 62 imports the inventory distribution data from the inventory management file 4 to determine whether the operation is carry-in or carry-out. 63, in the case of carrying out, the inventory distribution correction processing 64 corrects the distribution using the weight distribution constant. On the other hand, in the case of carrying in, the inventory distribution prediction processing 65 predicts the distribution by using the weight fraction constant.
Then, in the inventory distribution update processing 66, the inventory management file 4
The data is stored in, and in the man-machine output processing 67, the data of the current situation is output to the man-machine 9 (eg CRT).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the schedule mechanism 7. In case of loading, crane system 1 or
When the man-machine 9 is carried out, it is activated by the host computer 8 or the man-machine 9, and the operation schedule planning process 71
Get inventory distribution data from inventory management file 4 at
This shows that a schedule for the next operation is set and the operation instruction processing 72 outputs an operation command to the actuator 11.

Next, a case where the present invention is applied to an automated system for a scrap yard in the steel field will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 14.

The iron and steel industry is divided into a blast furnace manufacturer that manufactures pig iron by melting iron ore and an electric furnace manufacturer that manufactures steel by using electric heat from iron scrap as a raw material. The place to store is called a scrap yard.

There are various types of scrap (for example, empty cans, scrap iron parts, punching scraps, shavings,
Finely categorize by the ratio of iron contained in shavings, bulk specific gravity, etc., and set up compartments in the yard (in many cases, not as a guide, but as a guideline) and store them in piles. In order to recycle high-quality iron, the type of scrap and the melting sequence are important, and therefore it is necessary to carry out accurate inventory management in the scrap yard and accurate unloading according to the unloading plan. However, since the shapes of scraps are not constant, when scraps are piled up, the scraps collapse into other compartments or mix with other types of scraps, making inventory management difficult. Therefore, it is possible to carry out according to the carry-out plan by accurately managing the inventory (height) as shown below.

The preconditions and environment are shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the event flow is shown in FIGS. 9 to 10, and the data flow is shown in FIGS. 11 to 14, which will be described in detail below.

FIG. 6 shows that a crane is equipped with a lifting magnet 100 (a device having a structure for adsorbing scrap (iron scrap) by magnetic force; hereinafter referred to as a riff mag) to adsorb and release scrap. Show. In other words, when scrap is suspended, it is necessary to predict the diffusion state after release from the height of the scrap, so it is released at a certain height, and when suspended, it is attracted by magnetic force to scrap. It shows that it will land on the mountain and adsorb. In order to release from a certain height when suspending, it is necessary to already know the height of the scrap pile, but this is the predicted value of the scrap height diffused by the release at the time of suspension before that, Alternatively, a correction value obtained by actually measuring the landing height at the time of lifting is used, but there are various types of scrap, and in order to predict the diffusion at the time of release, a model based on diffusion data for each type of scrap is used. Prediction is possible by calculating more. The constant height at the time of release is an arbitrary set value determined by the equipment, and the scrap diffusion data also changes according to this release height. On the other hand, it is necessary to recognize the height because it is necessary to land on the pile of scraps even when hoisting, but if the height is not recognized correctly, for example, if the height is recognized as high, If the floor is not adsorbed and cannot be adsorbed, and if it is recognized as low, the riff mug collides with the scrap pile, which may lead to the destruction of the riff mag. When hoisting, the height at the time of landing can be measured, but the height after adsorption is reduced by adsorption, so in this case as well, a model based on adsorption data is set according to the type of scrap as in the case of suspension. By doing so, it is possible to predict the height after adsorption.

FIG. 7 shows the flow of scrap in the scrap yard, and in the carry-in 104, the scrap stored in the temporary storage place 103 is used as the raw material yard 10.
2 Indicate that a crane is used to carry in, and carry out 105
Shows that a crane is used from the raw material yard 102 to carry out to the compounding place 101.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing that the center of the riff mug 100 is set as the crane stop point 121 and is allocated to the raw material yard 102 as coordinates (x, y). For example, the size of the riff mug 100 is 4 m in width and 4 in length. The raw material yard 102 has an x coordinate of 2 m and ay coordinate of 2.
It is set every 25 m 2, and the mesh 122 has crane stop point coordinates (x, y), (x + 1, y),
The area surrounded by four points (x, y + 1) and (x + 1, y + 1) is defined as mesh (x, y), and four meshes (2 × 2) correspond to one riff mug. That is, the crane stop point 1 at the time of release and adsorption from the riff mag.
With 21 as the center, the surrounding 4 meshes are the management range,
Diffusion by setting and calculating a 2 × 2 matrix with coefficients per mesh according to the type of scrap,
It is possible to predict the height after adsorption. It should be noted that, depending on the height at the time of release, it is necessary to consider that the surrounding 4 meshes diffuse to the outside, and further the outside meshes should be within the control range.

FIG. 9 is an event flow showing the flow of processing at the time of carrying in, and an example of the details of the processing is shown in FIGS.
This will be described with reference to the data flow of FIG. The temporary storage location crane system sensor 12 notifies the schedule mechanism 7 when inventory occurs in the temporary storage location 103 in FIG. 7, and the schedule mechanism 7 stores the inventory management file 4 in the operation schedule planning processing 71 in FIG. Based on the data, search the lowest place (because it is convenient for inventory management such as a large amount of inventory if the distribution is flat) in the mesh of the relevant brand, determine the hanging position, and by the operation instruction processing 72 A crane operation command is issued to the actuator 11 of the crane system 1 (for example, weight 800
0kg, loading (release) position (x, y) = (8000, 11
250), carry-in brand: heavy, height: 1700 mm). After the loading operation is completed, the sensor 10 of the crane system 1 records the operation result data (for example, the suspended weight of 8000 k).
g, carry-in (release) position (x, y) = (8000, 112)
50), the carry-in brand: heavy) is transmitted to the tracking mechanism 5 via the control device 3, and the tracking mechanism 5 performs the work position acquisition process 51 in FIG.
00mm, 11250mm) is acquired, and logical coordinates (4,5)
Converted to, in the loaded weight acquisition process 52, the brand (heavy),
The weight (8000 kg) is acquired and these data are passed to the inventory management mechanism 6. In FIG. 12, after the inventory management mechanism 6 is activated, the weight distribution constant 13 is acquired by the weight distribution constant acquisition processing 61.
3 (for example, bulk specific gravity: 0.6 ton / cubic meter, mesh area: 2.25 square meters) and the weight distribution matrix 131 are read, and the weight management process 4 reads the inventory management file 4 (for example, coordinates, weight, height,
Each brand has 4 meshes (3,4), (2295kg), (1700mm), (heavy), (3,5), (2430kg), (1800mm), (heavy), (4,4), (2160kg) , (1600 mm), (heavy), (4,5), (2430 kg), (1800 mm), (heavy)) In the inventory distribution correction mechanism 64, the predicted weight of each mesh is calculated by the following formula 1.

[0024]

[Equation 1] Weight = Crane suspension weight × Weight distribution matrix (Equation 1) Weight by calculation ((1600 kg), (240 respectively)
0 kg), (2400 kg), (1600 kg)) are obtained, and then the predicted height of each mesh is calculated by the equation 2.

[0025]

[Equation 2] Height = weight / (bulk specific gravity × area per mesh) (Equation 2) Heights calculated ((1185 mm) and (177), respectively)
8mm), (1778mm), (1185mm)) is calculated and added to the values read from the inventory management file 4 (coordinates, weight, height, brand are (3, 4), (3895kg) for each mesh. , (2885mm), (Heavy) (3,5), (4830kg), (3578mm), (Heavy) (4,4), (4560kg), (3378mm), (Heavy) (4,5), (4030kg) ), (2985 mm), (heavy)) Stored in the inventory management file 4 in the inventory distribution update processing 66. Further, the inventory management mechanism 6 outputs the carry-in result data to the man-machine 9, and indicates that the user in the man-machine 9 can use the result data as basic data for carrying-out planning.

FIG. 10 is an event flow showing the flow of processing at the time of export, and an example of the details of the processing will be described with reference to the data flow of FIG. Export plan 1 of the brand, weight, and sequence data to be exported from the host computer 8 or man-machine 9
The schedule mechanism 7 is notified as 32. The schedule mechanism 7 uses the carry-out plan 132 (for example, carry-out order 1, (press), (7 ton)), and the inventory management file 4
More inventory information is read to plan the unloading operation of the crane,
An operation command is output to the crane system 1. After the carry-out operation is completed, the sensor 10 of the crane system 1 controls the operation result data (for example, the suspended weight 7000 kg, the carry-out (adsorption) position (x, y) = (18000, 6750), the carry-in brand: press) 3 To the tracking mechanism 5, and the tracking mechanism 5 acquires the carry-out result data and converts it into logical coordinates (9, 3), and the inventory management mechanism 6
To notify. In FIG. 13, after the inventory management mechanism 6 is activated,
By the weight distribution constant acquisition processing 61, the weight distribution constant 134
(For example, bulk specific gravity: 0.8, mesh area: 2.25) and the weight distribution matrix 132 are read, and the inventory management file 4 is read in the weight distribution processing 62 (for example,
(8, 2), (3780kg), (2100mm), (press), (8, 3), (3780kg), (2100mm), (press), (9) , 2), (3600 kg), (2000 mm), (press), (9,3), (3960 kg), (2200 mm), (press)) In the inventory distribution correction mechanism 64, the number 1 of each mesh is used. Adsorbed weight is calculated ((2100kg each),
(1400 kg), (1400 kg), (2100 kg)) is calculated, and then the predicted height of each mesh is calculated by the above-mentioned number 2 ((1167 mm) and (778 m, respectively).
m), (778 mm), (1167 mm)) is calculated, and the values read from the inventory management file 4 are corrected (coordinates, weight, height, brand are (8, 2), (1680 kg) for each mesh. , (933mm), (press) (8,3), (2380kg), (1322mm), (press) (9,2), (2200kg), (1222mm), (press) (9,3), (1860kg) ), (1033 mm), (press)) Stored in the inventory management file 4 in the inventory distribution update processing 66. Further, the inventory management mechanism 6 outputs the carry-out result data to the man-machine 9 and indicates that the user can use the result data as the basic data for carrying-out planning in the man-machine 9.

[0027]

According to the present invention, inventory management can be carried out accurately, so that it is possible to manage the components of dispensed substances,
There is an effect that manpower can be reduced by improving the quality of the product and fully automating it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional configuration diagram showing an overall configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional configuration diagram of an inventory management mechanism that represents a feature of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing details of a tracking mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing details of an inventory management mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing details of the scheduling mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a lifting and lowering work of scrap, which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flow of carrying in and out of scrap, which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a crane stop point and a partition mesh that are an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an event flow of a related mechanism at the time of carrying in of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an event flow of a related mechanism at the time of carrying out of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a data flow of the tracking mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a data flow when the inventory management mechanism of the present invention is carried in.

FIG. 13 is a data flow when the inventory management mechanism of the present invention is carried out.

FIG. 14 is a data flow of the scheduling mechanism of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Crane system, 2 ... System device, 3 ... Control device, 4 ... Inventory management file, 5 ... Tracking mechanism, 6
... inventory management mechanism, 7 ... schedule mechanism, 8 ... host computer, 9 ... man-machine, 10 ... sensor, 11 ... actuator, 51 ... work position acquisition process, 52 ... loaded weight acquisition process, 54 ... lifting position height acquisition process , 61 ... Weight distribution constant acquisition processing, 62 ... Weight distribution processing, 64 ... Inventory distribution correction mechanism, 65 ... Inventory distribution prediction mechanism, 66 ... Inventory distribution update processing, 71 ... Operation schedule planning processing, 72 ... Operation instruction processing.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Akira Hashimoto 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki Hitachi Ltd. Omika factory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A transport means for loading and unloading a substance having an indefinite shape to and from a storage location, inventory management of the transported material, and means for scheduling the transport means based on the result of the inventory management. In the automatic conveying means control system, the predicting means for predicting the distribution of the substance at the storage location when the conveying means carries the substance into the storage location,
An automatic conveyance system control system, comprising: a correction unit that detects an error in the distribution of the substance when it is carried out from the substance storage location and corrects the predicted distribution of the substance. 2. The automatic transport means control system according to claim 1, wherein the predicting means predicts the distribution of the substance on the basis of the position at which the substance drops the substance and the type of the substance. 3. The automatic conveying means control system according to claim 1, wherein the correcting means detects a distribution error of the substance based on height information when the conveying means lifts the substance. 4. A transport means automatic control method, wherein inventory control of the substance is carried out based on the substance carried in and out of the storage location by the transport means, and scheduling of the transport means is decided based on the result of the inventory management. When the transport means carries in the substance to the storage location, predicts the distribution of the substance at the storage location based on the type of the transported substance and the weight of the transported substance, and when carrying out from the substance storage location A method for automatically controlling a transporting means, which comprises detecting an error in the distribution of the material based on height information of the transporting means and correcting the predicted distribution of the material.