JPH11322294A - Vehicle operation assisting device and industrial vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle operation assisting device and an industrial vehicle, by which information for efficiently and easily carrying out insertion into a pallet is given to an operator on the vehicle. SOLUTION: A relative positional attitude between a pallet and a vehicle is measured by means of a positional attitude measurement sensor 10, and on the basis of the provided measurement data, a target route and a target steering angle in each position on a running route for insertion are computed in a computing device 12. A current steering angle is provided by means of a steering angle detector 11 detecting a steering angle of a wheel. According to these data, the positions of the vehicle body and the pallet, the target route, the target steering angle, and the current steering angle are displayed in a display monitor 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle driving support system for guiding a vehicle into a gate-shaped pallet comprising a loading platform for loading goods and a footrest for supporting the same, and an industrial vehicle using the system. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method for guiding a vehicle for cargo handling and transport into a pallet, there is a method applied by the present applicant (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-58324). This conventional example will be described with reference to FIG. In this figure, a vehicle 1 of a cargo handling and transporting system irradiates a beam in a point array from a laser 2 attached to a vehicle body to an inner wall 6A of a leg 6 of a pallet 4 when the vehicle 1 dives into a portal pallet 4. By this, the laser beam spot reflected on the inner wall is photographed by the CCD camera 3 attached to the upper part of the vehicle body, and the obtained image is analyzed to measure the relative position and orientation between the pallet 4 and the vehicle body,
The result is displayed as a graphic on a display monitor installed in the driver's seat. The driver performs an operation while watching this display, and proceeds toward the pallet 4.

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, the position and the attitude of the vehicle 1 with respect to the pallet 4 can be recognized. There was a problem that it was difficult to understand.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a vehicle driver with:
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle driving support device and an industrial vehicle that can provide information that can be efficiently and easily sunk into a pallet.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle driving support apparatus for driving a vehicle into a portal-type pallet including a loading platform on which goods are loaded and a footrest supporting the loading platform. And a loading / unloading system for loading / unloading cargo by raising / lowering a loading platform of the vehicle, comprising: a position / posture measuring unit for measuring a relative position / posture between the pallet and the vehicle; A traveling trajectory calculating means for calculating a traveling trajectory which is a target of dive into the pallet from the current position of the vehicle based on the relative position and posture, and a relative position and posture measured by the position and posture measuring means. And a display means for displaying the travel trajectory calculated by the travel trajectory calculation means.

[0006] According to this configuration, the vehicle can efficiently and easily dive into the pallet.
In addition to the relative position and orientation between the pallet and the vehicle body, a traveling trajectory that is a target for squatting is displayed on display means (a display monitor installed in the driver's seat). The target traveling trajectory can enter the vehicle body in parallel from the center of the pallet by traveling along the traveling trajectory from any position and orientation of the vehicle body. That is, the driver can efficiently and easily dive into the pallet simply by operating the vehicle body as instructed by the traveling trajectory.

In addition to displaying the target traveling trajectory, the steering angle of the vehicle wheels following the traveling trajectory may be displayed to instruct the driver to perform a steering operation. By doing so, turning the steering wheel in accordance with the display of the target steering angle makes it easier for the vehicle body to follow the target trajectory, thereby improving operability, that is, improving work efficiency. Further, a steering angle detecting means for detecting the steering angle of the vehicle may be provided to simultaneously display the current steering angle and the target steering of the vehicle. In this manner, the driver can more accurately follow the target steering, and can perform an accurate operation.

[0008]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a vehicle driving support device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Note that the cargo handling transport system itself using the vehicle driving support device of this embodiment is the same as the conventional cargo handling system shown in FIG. 10 described above. Is denoted by reference numeral 4. As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle driving support device according to the present embodiment includes a position and orientation measurement sensor 10, a steering angle detector 11, a calculation device 12, and a display monitor 13. The position and orientation measurement sensor 10 corresponds to a position and orientation measurement unit, and the arithmetic unit 12 corresponds to a traveling trajectory calculation unit. The display monitor 13 corresponds to a display unit, and the steering angle detector 11 corresponds to a steering angle detection unit.

The position and orientation measurement sensor 10 includes a laser 2 and a CCD camera 3 in the same manner as in the above-described prior art, and measures the relative position and orientation between the vehicle 1 and the pallet 4. The steering angle detector 11 detects a current steering angle of a wheel of the vehicle 1. The arithmetic unit 12 includes a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like (not shown). The vehicle 1 moves the pallet 4 based on the measurement data obtained by the position and orientation measurement sensor 10 in accordance with the control program written in the ROM. And a target steering angle at each position on the running trajectory. The output of the steering angle detector 11 detects the current steering angle of the vehicle 1. Further, the position of the vehicle body with respect to the pallet 4 (that is, the position of the vehicle 1), the target trajectory, the target steering angle, and the current steering angle are displayed on the display monitor 13 based on the data obtained by the calculation.

The calculation and display of the target trajectory and the target steering may be performed only once at a certain measurement position, may be performed at regular time intervals, or may be performed only when the vehicle deviates from the target trajectory. May be. FIG. 2 shows a display example of the display monitor 13. In this display example, the position of the footrest 6 of the pallet 4, the position of the vehicle 1, the pallet center line, the target trajectory, the target steering angle, and the current steering angle are displayed.
The driver performs an operation while watching the display, and sneaks into the pallet 4.

Here, an example of calculation of a target trajectory and a target steering angle at a position on each traveling trajectory will be described below. The vehicle 1 has a position / posture P0 (x0, y) as shown in FIG.
(0, θ0), the trajectory P0-Pe and the target steering angle may be considered so that the vehicle body is parallel to the pallet 4 at the pallet entrance position Pe. There are various methods for calculating the trajectory. For example, when considering the trajectory of the position P0-Pe as shown in FIG. 4A, the trajectory is represented by a combination of a circle and a straight line as shown in FIG. be able to. The trajectory P0-P1 is on a circle having a radius of 1 / κ1, P1-P2 is on a straight line, P2-P3 is on a circle having a radius of 1 / │κ2│, and P3-Pe is a trajectory on a straight line. Note that κ
Is the curvature. At this time, the curvature κ of the target trajectory and the tangential direction θ of the trajectory are functions as shown in FIG. In this figure, the curvature when turning left is positive, and the curvature when turning right is negative. Since the direction of the orbit is expressed as the integral of the curvature, the following equation is obtained.

[0012]

(Equation 1)

In this case, the x and y coordinates of the trajectory are represented by θ (s)
Can be expressed by the following equation.

[0014]

(Equation 2)

[0015]

(Equation 3)

Considering the case of a four-wheeled vehicle (one-drive, one-steering) as shown in FIG. 6, the steering angle φ of a vehicle running at a wheel speed v at a distance L between front and rear wheels is tan φ = κ · L .. (1) The target trajectory and the steering angle can be calculated by the method described above. However, since the trajectories shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 have non-continuous curvatures, they are temporarily stopped at the positions P0, P1, P2, and P3. I have to turn the steering from. For this reason, a method of expressing the curvature by a continuous linear function or quadratic function is actually used.

For example, if the trajectory is represented by a continuous curvature of a linear function as shown in FIG. 7, the steering angle φ represented by the above equation (1) becomes a continuous function, and nonstop operation is possible. Further, by expressing the curvature using a quadratic function, smoother steering is possible. Although the target trajectory and the steering angle can be calculated by such a method, the trajectory calculation is not limited to this method.

Next, the display of the target steering will be described. If the target trajectory and the steering angle on the trajectory can be calculated as described above, then it is necessary to display the current position of the vehicle on the target trajectory and the target steering angle at that position. . For this purpose, a target track as shown in FIG. 8 is provided with an allowable width, and as shown in FIG. 9, the steering angle of the vehicle body at a position PI on the track closest to the vehicle body position PR within the range is set as the target. A method for setting the steering angle is used. Then, the target steering angle obtained based on the series of calculation results and the current steering angle from the steering angle detector 11 are simultaneously displayed. As the timing of the trajectory calculation, a method of calculating the trajectory again when the vehicle body position straight line PR deviates from the allowable range in FIG. 8 can be considered.

As described above, in this embodiment, the relative position and orientation of the pallet 4 and the vehicle 1 are measured by the position and orientation measurement sensor 10 and the target for squatting is calculated by the arithmetic unit 12 based on the obtained measurement data. Calculate the target steering angle at each position on the track and the running track. The current steering angle is obtained by a steering angle detector 11 that detects the steering angle of the wheel. Then, based on these data, the position of the vehicle 1 and the pallet 4, the target trajectory and the target steering angle, and the current steering angle are displayed on the display monitor 13.

Therefore, the driver can efficiently and easily dive into the pallet simply by operating the vehicle body so as to match the target track. In addition, by turning the steering wheel in accordance with the display of the target steering angle, the vehicle body can more easily follow the target trajectory and the operation can be simplified. Further, by simultaneously displaying the current steering angle and the target steering angle, the driver can more accurately adjust to the target steering and can more accurately perform the driving operation.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the vehicle 1 which carries the goods via the gate-shaped pallet 4 is used. Can be used for vehicles.

[0022]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the driver can sneak in simply by operating to match the displayed target trajectory without worrying about the position or posture of the vehicle body. The burden on the person can be reduced. According to the second aspect of the invention, by turning the steering wheel in accordance with the display of the target steering angle, the vehicle body can more easily follow the target trajectory, and the operability, that is, the work efficiency can be improved.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the current steering angle and the target steering angle are simultaneously displayed, so that the driver can more accurately follow the target steering and perform an accurate operation. According to the invention described in claim 4, since the invention described in claims 1 to 3 is used,
An industrial vehicle that can be efficiently and easily sunk into a pallet can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a vehicle driving support device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display of the vehicle driving support device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining calculation of a target trajectory and a target steering angle at a position on each traveling trajectory in the vehicle driving support device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining calculation of a target trajectory and a target steering angle at a position on each traveling trajectory in the vehicle driving support device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining calculation of a target trajectory and a target steering angle at a position on each traveling trajectory in the vehicle driving support device of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining calculation of a target trajectory and a target steering angle at a position on each traveling trajectory in the vehicle driving support device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining calculation of a target trajectory and a target steering angle at a position on each traveling trajectory in the vehicle driving support device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a diagram for describing display of target steering in the vehicle driving support device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining display of target steering in the vehicle driving support device of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a conventional vehicle driving support method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 vehicle 2 laser 3 CCD camera 4 pallet 5 carrier 6 footrest 6A footrest inner wall 10 position and orientation measurement sensor 11 steering angle detector 12 arithmetic unit 13 display monitor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle of a cargo handling / transporting system for loading / unloading a vehicle by lowering a vehicle into a portal pallet including a cargo platform on which cargo is loaded and a footrest for supporting the cargo, and raising / lowering the cargo platform of the vehicle. A driving support device, comprising: a position and orientation measurement unit that measures a relative position and orientation between the pallet and the vehicle; and the pallet from a current position of the vehicle based on the relative position and orientation measured by the position and orientation measurement unit. A traveling trajectory calculating unit that calculates a traveling trajectory that is a target of sneaking into the inside, a display that displays the relative position and orientation measured by the position and orientation measuring unit and that displays the traveling trajectory calculated by the traveling trajectory calculating unit. Means for driving a vehicle, comprising: 2. The vehicle driving support device according to claim 1, wherein the display means displays a target steering angle of a wheel of the vehicle with respect to the travel trajectory calculated by the travel trajectory calculation means. 3. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a steering angle detecting unit configured to detect a steering angle of a wheel of the vehicle, wherein the display unit displays the target steering angle and the current steering angle of the wheel detected by the steering angle detecting unit. 3. The vehicle driving support device according to claim 2, wherein the information is displayed simultaneously. 4. An industrial vehicle comprising the vehicle driving support device according to claim 1.