JPS61271504A - Operation controller for unmanned carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the operation control of an unmanned carrier among many stations with a small number of mark plate patterns by dividing plural stations into blocks and setting the mark plates to allocate absolute addresses to each block. CONSTITUTION:Plural stations 30 are divided into blocks 32 and 34 and mark plates 35 and 38 are provided to these blocks 32 and 34 respectively. When an unmanned carrier 10 detects the plate 36, the target station 30 delivers a low-speed command and a stop command through a signal output unit 22. The carrier 10 receives these commands and is stopped at the target station 30. Thus an unmanned carrier can be stopped at a desired station within a block. This attains the operation control of the unmanned carrier among many stations with a small number of mark plate patterns.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a driving system for an unmanned vehicle that can be used as an unmanned transportation system, etc., and particularly to a driving system for an unmanned vehicle that can be steered and self-propelled along a guide line laid on a driving route. The present invention relates to an operation control device that causes the vehicle to travel to a destination station among a large number of stations provided on the travel route.

[Prior art]

In an unmanned vehicle driving system, different mark plate patterns are formed at important points along the driving route, such as gear change points, turning points, route merging points, branching points, and each station position by arranging and combining iron plate pieces. A mark plate detection sensor is installed on the unmanned vehicle side to detect these mark plays 1. The mark plate pattern based on the detected mark plate is read and determined by a control means using a microcomputer, and the unmanned vehicle 2. Description of the Related Art Operation control devices that control the operation of a vehicle by issuing commands to its driving system have already been provided. In such a traveling system, unmanned vehicles accurately identify and reach the target station according to a pre-organized operation plan in order to automatically carry out desired unmanned work such as transfer work where workpieces are delivered and received at each station. For this purpose, there is already a system in which an absolute address is assigned to each station using a mark plate, so that each station can be recognized by the absolute address no matter where the unmanned vehicle travels on the travel route. Proposed.

〔Problems to be solved〕

However, when assigning absolute addresses by a mark plate pattern using a mark plate using a piece of iron plate, there must naturally be a limit to the types of mark plate patterns. In other words, the mark plate pattern is comprehensively read by multiple mark plate detection sensors installed on an unmanned vehicle, but due to limitations in installation space, there is a natural limit to the number of mark plate detection sensors that can be installed on an unmanned vehicle. Therefore, it is impossible to increase the variety of mark plate patterns by using an unlimited number of mark plates. With such limited types of mark plate patterns, on the other hand, in a traveling system, the number of stations may be large due to necessity, and it is difficult to assign an absolute address to each of these many stations. may occur. Moreover, installing the mark plate requires a suitable space, and if the stations are too close to each other, it becomes difficult to install the mark plate. Therefore, there is a need for an operation control device for an unmanned vehicle that can take advantage of the absolute addressing method even in a traveling system having a large number of stations.

That is, an object of the present invention is to develop and provide an operation control device for an unmanned vehicle that can satisfy such demands.

[Means of solution and action]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object of the invention, the present invention is directed to steering and self-propelling an unmanned vehicle along a travel route provided with a large number of stations. The unmanned vehicle is divided into station blocks, each station block includes a plurality of stations, and an absolute address is assigned to each of the plurality of stage blocks. In order for the unmanned vehicle to reach a desired station within the block, each station outputs a low speed command for slowing down and a stop command for stopping, and the unmanned vehicle receives these low speed commands and stop commands. This allows the unmanned vehicle to stop at a desired station position.

That is, according to the present invention, in the operation control device for an unmanned vehicle that steers and self-propels along a guide line laid on a travel route, a station block including a plurality of stations consecutively installed on the road side of the travel route is provided. A mark plate pattern that displays an absolute address is planted in the appropriate place corresponding to each block by a combination of a plurality of iron plates, and a plurality of stations in each block are equipped with low-speed slow speeds for slowing down toward unmanned vehicles. The vehicle is equipped with a ground signal output unit capable of outputting commands and stop commands for stopping instructions; mark plate pattern reading means; operation instruction determination means for storing and determining the operation instruction in the station block of the absolute address read by the mark plate pattern reading means; and the operation instruction determination means determining that the station block is the destination station block. A station block with an absolute address is equipped with a command detection sensor that detects and receives a low speed command and a stop command of the ground signal output unit issued from a station in the block, and a large number of unmanned vehicles are installed on the roadside of the driving route. The present invention provides an operation control device for an unmanned vehicle that can reach a destination station at any of the following stations. below,
The present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a driving system for an unmanned vehicle equipped with the operation control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic mechanical diagram showing the configuration of the unmanned vehicle.

First, in FIG. 2 showing the configuration of an unmanned vehicle, an unmanned vehicle 10
detects the taxiway vilR (e.g., a guidance route through which a minute low-frequency current flows), so that the vehicle steers and moves by itself, which is a taxiway laid out to form a fixed travel route on the running road surface. It has a steering mechanism that steers so as to correct the lateral displacement, and a traveling mechanism that moves forward or backward along the guide line R. For example, the pair of left and right wheels 12° 12 on the left side in FIG. Forms the steering wheel in the steering mechanism,
Another pair of left and right wheels 14.14 on the right side form drive wheels in the traveling mechanism. As a detection means for the guide line R, a big amplifier device that is sensitive to low frequency minute currents is used. Note that the details of the above-mentioned steering mechanism and traveling mechanism are already well known in many conventional unmanned vehicles.
No further details will be given here.

The unmanned vehicle 10 further includes a microcomputer 16 constituting a driving instruction discriminating means, and a plurality of mark plate detection sensors 1 constituting a mark plate pattern reading means for reading a mark play I pattern by a mark plate, which will be described later.
8. Stop command output device 2 included in the ground signal output unit 22 at each station installed on the roadside of the travel route
Stop command signal and low speed command output device 2a output from 2a
The mark plate detection sensor 18 is equipped with a stop command detection sensor 20a and a low speed command detection sensor 20b that detect a low speed command signal for slowing output from the vehicle 2b. A total of four mark plate detection sensors 1 in two rows in the front and rear, in pairs on the left and right.
8 are fixedly attached to the unmanned vehicle mechanism at predetermined intervals on the left and right, front and back, and detect when it faces a steel plate, which will be described later, forming a mark plate.These mark plate detection sensors 18 are It is connected to an interface 24 that the computer 16 has.

The microcomputer 16 includes a CPU 26 as an arithmetic processing unit that discriminates operation instructions together with this interface 24, stores the correspondence between mark plate patterns and stations, and the contents of operation instructions, and stores detection data from the mark plate detection sensor I8. ROM provided for this purpose.

A memory means 28 consisting of a memory circuit such as a RAM is provided.

FIG. 1 shows a traveling system using the above-mentioned unmanned vehicle 10, and in this embodiment, as an example, a very simple traveling system in which the guide route R is laid in a substantially elliptical shape to form a traveling route R' is shown. Although a system is shown, it will be understood from the following description that the present invention is not limited to one example of such a travel route R' but can be applied to various travel systems.

Now, the unmanned vehicle 10 moves forward and backward along this elliptical travel route R'. It is now assumed that the unmanned vehicle 10 travels in the direction indicated by arrow "A", and that a large number of stations 30 are provided on the roadside of the travel route R'. In this case, the stations 30 connected to the roadside of one straight section of the traveling route R' are connected to one station block 32 (
One station block 34 (hereinafter referred to as a first station block) is defined as a station block 34 (hereinafter referred to as a second station block), and the other station 30 connected to the roadside of one straight section is referred to as another station block 34 (hereinafter referred to as a second station block). I can do it. Of course, the unmanned vehicle 10 uses the first one of these. It operates in order to perform various unmanned operations at several desired stations 30 belonging to the second station block 32, 34, and depending on changes in the operation plan, it may be possible to change the operation plan by simply passing through the stations 30 or by stopping and performing various unmanned operations. It is divided into target stations 30 that perform unmanned work (for example, work transfer work). Each station 30 has a ground command output unit (22b, 22a) for issuing the aforementioned low speed command and stop command to the traveling unmanned vehicle 10 when it becomes the destination station 30. A container 22 is provided. Note that the low speed command output unit 22b and the stop command unit 22 in the ground command output device 22
Actually, the low speed command output unit 22b is arranged on the front side with respect to the traveling direction A of the unmanned vehicle 10, and the crab unit 22a for stop command is arranged on the rear side, and the unmanned vehicle 10
After receiving a low speed command, the vehicle slows down and then stops when receiving a stop command.

Now, on the travel route R', the first. At a fixed position in front of the second station block 32.34 when viewed in the traveling direction, a mark brake 36.38 indicating an absolute address unique to each station block 32.34 is planted on the running road surface. That is, instead of the general concept of identifying and displaying a plurality of stations 30 with different absolute addresses, absolute addresses are assigned to these plurality of stations 30 as a station block, as shown in Fig. 1. Although each of the station blocks 32 and 34 shown in FIG. 30 consecutive stations
It is only necessary to consider them collectively as one station block and to assign a unique absolute address to that station block.As a result, of course, the number of types of mark plate patterns used as absolute addresses can be changed by assigning an absolute address to each station 30. It can be seen that the number can be significantly reduced compared to the case.

Mark plate 36.3 indicating each absolute address mentioned above
8 forms mutually different mark plate patterns by arranging and combining four or less iron plate pieces so that they can be detected by the four mark plate detection sensors 18 provided in the unmanned vehicle 10. As shown in the enlarged diagram, the mark plate 36 is formed by three iron plate pieces 40, and the mark plate 38 is formed by four iron plate pieces 40, and these iron plate pieces 40 are formed by the mark plate detection sensor 18 (second They are arranged in the same dimensional relationship as the 9 front and rear arrangement intervals on the left and right in the figure). Note that when forming the mark plate pattern using the iron plate pieces 40, among the mark plate detection sensors 18 provided in two rows of front and rear of the unmanned vehicle 10, one of the mark plate detection sensors 1 of each row is used.
8, the combination is determined so that the iron plate piece 40 is always detected, and in this way, when the mark plate detection sensor 18 acts to detect the unmanned vehicle IO while the unmanned vehicle IO is running, it is determined that the mark plate pattern is a regular mark plate pattern. It is possible to determine whether the data has been read or not. In addition, each of the above-mentioned mark plate detection sensors 18 that detect the iron plate piece 40
For this purpose, a commercially available proximity sensor may be used. In addition, in a traveling system where the number of station blocks exceeds the number of mark plate patterns that can be formed by combining the arrangement 2Mi of four or less iron plate pieces 40, the unmanned vehicle 10 has a total of six mark plate patterns, for example, one pair on the left and right, and three rows in the front and back. If the mark plate detection sensor 18 is provided, even more kinds of absolute addresses can be secured by using the arrangement combination of two to six iron plate pieces 40 for the mark plate, and these can be allocated to each station block. Of course, the mounting space for the mark plate detection sensor 18 on the unmanned vehicle 10 is limited due to the structure and dimensions of the unmanned vehicle.

On the other hand, the mark plate pattern formed by the arrangement and combination of the iron plate pieces 40 is not only assigned to the absolute address of the station block, but also the shift point for instructing acceleration/deceleration while the unmanned vehicle 10 is running, the branching point for instructing branching, and the It is also possible to use it as a mark plate pattern for indicating a confluence point for indicating a confluence of routes.

Note that the mark plate pattern of the mark plates 36 and 38 of each absolute address and each station block 32.
34 is naturally stored and registered in advance in the memory means 28 of the microcomputer 6 of the unmanned vehicle 10.

Each station block 32, 34 is then marked with its own absolute address mark plate 36, 38 as described above.
The operation for causing the unmanned vehicle 10 to reach the desired destination station 3o in the unmanned vehicle traveling system shown in FIG.

First, it is assumed that the unmanned vehicle 10 starts traveling from a point S in a traveling direction "A". At this point, the correspondence between each station block 32, 34 of the traveling system and the mark plate pattern of the absolute address mark plate 36, 38 has already been stored and registered in the memory means 28 of the unmanned vehicle 10, as described above. In addition, the operation plan for which station block 32 or 34 the unmanned vehicle 10 will target is set in advance in the memory means 28, and is selected by a ground control device (not shown). shall be. It is also assumed that the ground control device has the same operation plan as the unmanned vehicle 1o.

The unmanned vehicle 10 departs from the point S and travels along the traveling route R' in the direction of arrow A.
When this point is reached, the mark plate pattern of the mark plate 36 is read and detected by the mark plate pattern reading means, that is, the mark plate detection sensor I8. This read mark plate pattern is read into the CPU 26 via the interface 24, and the CPU 26 determines the mark plate pattern of the mark plate 36 based on the operation plan set in the memory means 28 and the above-mentioned correspondence relationship stored in advance. Determine whether it matches the plan or not.
- When defeated, it recognizes that the target station 30 exists within the station block 32 and becomes ready to receive low speed commands and stop commands.

At this time, a ground control device (not shown) on the ground side operates the ground side signal unit 22 of the target station 30, and a low speed command and a stop command are output from the low speed command output device 22 and the stop command output device 22a, respectively. Ru. That is, the control device on the ground side knows in advance which station 30 is the destination station from the operation plan,
In accordance with this, the two command signals mentioned above are output from the destination station 30. In this way, when the unmanned vehicle lo enters the station block 32 while maintaining reception readiness,
The unmanned vehicle 10 receives a low speed command and a stop command at the target station 30 by a low speed command detection sensor 20b and a stop command detection sensor 20a, respectively, and inputs them to the CPU 26 via the interface 24. CPU26 is everywhere,
The traveling mechanism of the unmanned vehicle 10 is caused to slow down based on the low speed command, and then stops at a predetermined position of the destination station 30 based on the stop command. Then, at the destination station 30, desired unmanned work, such as work transfer work, is performed. When this unmanned work is completed, the unmanned heavy worker 0 determines the starting direction in accordance with the pre-stored operation information regarding inter-station operation in the station block 32 and starts. The unmanned vehicle 10 that has left the station block 32 travels again along the travel route R', and when it reaches the next absolute address mark plate 38, the same action as described above is repeated with respect to the station block 34. In this way, the unmanned vehicle 10 repeatedly travels along the travel route R' and travels between desired destination stations according to the travel plan.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to one embodiment, it is not limited to the case where two station blocks are provided on the travel route as shown in FIG. It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied even if each station block includes stations of different numbers.

The flowchart in FIG. 4 shows the operation flow of the microcomputer 16 in the operation of the above-described embodiment.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In an unmanned vehicle driving system, when a large number of stations are installed on the roadside of the driving route, the multiple stations are treated as one collective station block, and a mark plate is set to assign an absolute address to each station block. , there is an advantage that operation control between a large number of stations can be performed with a small number of mark plate patterns.

Furthermore, since the mark plate can be formed by a combination of inexpensive iron plate pieces, the cost of the operation control device can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a driving system for an unmanned vehicle equipped with an operation control device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic mechanical diagram showing the configuration of an unmanned vehicle used in the driving system, and FIG.
The figure is a schematic diagram showing an example of a mark plate pattern formed by iron plate pieces, and FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Unmanned vehicle, 16... Microcomputer, 18... Mark plate detection sensor, 20a... Stop command detection sensor, 20b... Low speed command detection sensor, 22... Ground side signal output unit , 24...Interface, 26...CPU. 28...Memory means, 30...Station, 32.34...First. 2nd stage 3
6.38...mark plate, 40...iron plate piece.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an operation control device for an unmanned vehicle that steers and self-propels along a guide line laid on a travel route, a station block including a plurality of stations consecutively installed on the road side of the travel route is provided. A mark plate pattern that displays an absolute address is planted in the appropriate place corresponding to each block by the arrangement and combination of a plurality of iron plates, and a plurality of stations in each block are each given slow speed commands for unmanned vehicles to slow down. and a ground signal output unit capable of outputting a stop command for a stop instruction, and a mark plate pattern reader having a plurality of mark plate detection sensors on the unmanned vehicle side for detecting the plurality of iron plates facing each other, respectively. means, an entrainment instruction discriminating means for storing and discriminating operation instructions in the station block at the absolute address read by the mark plate pattern reading means, and a station at the absolute address determined to be the destination station block by the operation instruction discriminating means. A block is equipped with a command detection sensor that detects and receives a low speed command and a stop command of the ground signal output unit issued from a station in the block, and the purpose is to provide a large number of stations where unmanned vehicles are installed on the roadside of a travel route. An operation control device for an unmanned vehicle, characterized in that the vehicle can reach a station. 2. The ground signal output unit provided at each of the plurality of stations has a low speed command output unit on the front side when viewed in the traveling direction of the unmanned vehicle, and a stop command output unit on the rear side of the low speed command output unit. An operation control device for an unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, comprising: 3. The mark plate pattern for displaying the absolute address of each station block is installed at a position close to the front of the corresponding station block when viewed in the traveling direction of the unmanned vehicle. unmanned vehicle operation control device.