JPS6335900Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field of the invention] This invention relates to special traveling vehicles used for various transportation or inspection purposes in FA (factory automation) factories, etc., and in particular requires steering while stopped. Regarding special running vehicles.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Generally, the running vehicle used in the above-mentioned FA factory etc. is provided with wheel devices 2 located at four locations in the lower part of the vehicle body 1, front, rear, left and right, as shown in FIG. 3 can be rotated and steered independently, making it possible to run and move in various directions. For example, in the direction of the wheels 3 shown by the solid line in the figure, the wheels 3 travel in the direction of arrow A, and from that state each wheel device 2 operates to steer the wheels 3.
By changing the direction shown by the chain line, the vehicle will run in the direction of arrow B.

By the way, if the above-mentioned running vehicle is steered while running, each wheel 3 can smoothly change direction by utilizing the creep of the ground contact surface, but steering becomes difficult when the vehicle is stopped. In other words, when driving in a limited passage such as at the above-mentioned FA factory, it is often necessary to steer the vehicle from direction A to direction B while the vehicle is stopped. In this case, even on a normal concrete floor surface, the friction of the wheels 3 against the floor surface is large, so it is necessary to increase the power of the steering mechanism. 3 becomes very difficult. Moreover, since this type of vehicle generally uses rubber tires for the wheels 3,
If you steer the vehicle while it is stopped, the tires may be damaged or abnormally worn, shortening their lifespan.
I had a problem where I had to change tires frequently.

[Purpose of invention]

This idea was created in view of the above circumstances, and it allows each wheel to be steered extremely smoothly even when stopped, and the wheels will not be damaged or severely worn out even on rough surfaces such as gratings.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a special running vehicle that can exhibit various excellent effects such as extending the life of wheels and tires.

[Summary of the idea]

The special traveling vehicle of this invention has a plurality of wheel devices that can be steered at the bottom of the vehicle body and can travel by steering. In a configuration that is provided with a wheel lifting mechanism that moves the wheels of a specific wheel device up and down, when steering operation is performed to change the direction of the wheels of each wheel device while the device is stopped, the wheel lifting mechanism is used to move the specific wheel first, for example. The wheel load of the specific wheel is reduced so that the other wheels bear the weight of the vehicle, and in this state, the specific wheel is steered, and then the specific wheel is lowered using the lifting mechanism. By reducing the weight of other wheels by reducing the weight of the vehicle body, steering is carried out with the weight of the other wheels reduced. This is to prevent damage.

[Example of idea]

An embodiment of this invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4. Wheel devices 12A, 12A, 12B, 12 are provided at the front, rear, left and right of the lower part of the vehicle body 11, respectively.
B is provided. The wheel devices 12A and 12B disposed at one diagonal position each have a driving wheel 13A disposed at the other diagonal position.
2B and 12B each have a driven wheel 13B, but each is provided at the bottom of the vehicle body 11 via a steering mechanism 14, which will be described later, so that it can be steered independently. That is, the wheel device 12A is provided with an inverted U-shaped support 15 at the bottom of the vehicle body 11 via the steering mechanism 14, and the driving wheels 13A are pivotally attached to this, and the driving wheels 13A are supported by the support 15. The configuration includes a drive motor 17 with a speed reducer 16 for rotational driving, and the wheel device 12B has a steering mechanism 1 similar to the above described at the bottom of the vehicle body 11.
4, a wheel lifting mechanism 18 is provided, and a driven wheel 13B is pivotally attached to this wheel lifting mechanism 18.

Here, the wheel lifting mechanism 18 has a pair of left and right fixed arms 19 attached to the steering mechanism 14 and a pivot shaft 20 passing through the base ends of both the fixed arms 19. A pair of left and right movable arms 21 are rotatably provided with their respective parts pivotally connected, and a movable arm 21 is attached to be interposed between the distal end sides of both movable arms 21 and the fixed arm 19. The driven wheel 13 is constructed from an actuator 22 that rotates up and down, and the driven wheel 13 is located between the intermediate portions of the left and right movable arms 21, 21.
B is pivoted.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, each of the above-mentioned steering mechanisms 14 has a mounting base 23 fixed to the lower surface of the vehicle body 11, and a bearing 25 is fitted to the outer circumference of a rotating body 24 having a disc shape. The bearing 25 is held by connecting with a bolt 27,
In this state, attach the upper part of the rotating body 24 to the mounting base 23.
It is assembled by fitting the inner periphery of the lower annular part 23a through the bearing 25, and attaching a presser fitting 28 to the lower surface of the annular part 23a to hold the bearing 25, and the rotating body 24 is held at the same height. The worm 2 is rotatably supported, and the lower half of the rotating body 24 is in the form of a worm wheel.
9, and the worm 29 is connected to a steering motor (not shown) attached to the lower part of the vehicle body 11 so as to be rotationally driven, and the support 15 is attached concentrically to the lower surface of the rotating body 24. There is. Although FIG. 4 shows the case of a wheel device 12A having driving wheels 13A, the same steering mechanism 1 as described above is also used in a wheel device 12B having driven wheels 13B.
4 may be used, and the left and right fixing arms 19 shown in FIG. 3 are attached and fixed to the lower surface of the rotating body 24. Further, numeral 30 in the figure is a cover of the steering mechanism 14.

To describe the operation of the special traveling vehicle having the above-mentioned configuration, normally each wheel device 12A, 12A,
12B, 12B driving wheels 13A, driven wheels 13
All the wheel loads of B are kept substantially uniform, and in this state, the pair of drive wheels 13A, 13A arranged diagonally are driven to rotate, respectively, to run or stop the vehicle. Also, when steering while traveling, the direction of each wheel 13A, 13B is changed by rotationally driving the steering mechanism 14 of each wheel device while keeping each wheel load substantially uniform, as described above. However, due to the lack of space in the passageway, there was not enough time to steer the vehicle while it was running, so for example, the vehicle was stopped in order to change its running direction at right angles to the direction of arrow B while keeping the vehicle body 11 in the direction of arrow A in Figure 2. When steering each wheel, first, while driving is stopped, the driven wheels 13B, 13B of the wheel devices 12B, 12B arranged diagonally are operated by the actuator 22 of the wheel lifting mechanism 18, and the movable arm 21 is moved. By rotating it upward, it will be raised as if it were being pulled in. As a result, when the vehicle body load is increased to the drive wheels 13A, 13A at the diagonal position and the wheel weight of the driven wheels 13B, 13B is reduced, in that state, the driven wheels 13B, 13B
The steering mechanism 14 performs steering. Thereafter, the actuator 22 of each wheel lifting mechanism 18 is operated in the opposite direction to rotate the movable arm 21 downward, thereby lowering the driven wheels 13B, 13B so as to push them further below the reference level. In this way, the vehicle body load that was shared by the driving wheels 13A, 13A is taken over by the driven wheels 13B, 13B, and the wheel weight of the driving wheels 13A, 13A is reduced. Steering is done in the same manner as above. After steering all the wheels, the actuator 22 of the wheel lifting mechanism 18 is operated again to return the driven wheels 13B, 13B to the intermediate reference level, so that the wheel loads of all the wheels are initially almost uniform. state, and then the drive motor 17
The vehicle will start running with this action.

Note that the driven wheel 1 by the wheel lifting mechanism 18
The vertical movement strokes of 3B and 13B are set by the spring constant of each wheel. That is, the driven wheels 13B, 1
If the vertical stroke of the wheel 3B is too large and the driven wheels 13B, 13B or the driving wheels 13A, 13A are completely lifted off the road surface, the vehicle body 11 will tend and become unstable. The wheel load of the wheels used for this purpose should be selected to such an extent that it will not be detrimental to turning.

In addition, the wheel lifting mechanism 18 and the steering mechanism 1
It is preferable to control the operation 4 by incorporating a sequence so that it is automatically performed only by a steering command.

[Effects of the invention] Since this invention has been made as described above, when steering each wheel in a stopped state, it is possible to reduce the weight of each wheel one after another. It is smooth, requires little steering force, and is easy to design its structure.It also does not damage or wear out the wheels even on rough surfaces such as gratings, and is economical as it extends the life of the wheels. Moreover, since no wear powder is produced from the wheels, various excellent effects can be obtained, such as being able to be used even in places with strict environmental standards such as ultra-LSI factories.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic bottom view of a conventionally used special traveling vehicle, Fig. 2 is a schematic bottom view showing an embodiment of this invention, Fig. 3 is a side view of the same, and Fig. 4 is the same embodiment. FIG. 2 is an enlarged partially cross-sectional view of the wheel device section in FIG. 1, 11... Vehicle body, 2, 12A, 12B... Wheel device, 3, 13A, 13B... Wheel, 14...
Steering mechanism, 15... Support body, 16... Speed reducer,
17... Drive motor, 18... Wheel lifting mechanism, 1
9... Fixed arm, 20... Pivot, 21... Movable arm, 22... Actuator, 23... Mounting base, 23a... Annular part, 24... Rotating body, 2
5... Bearing, 26... Upper body, 27... Bolt, 28... Holder fitting, 29... Worm, 3
0...Cover.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a vehicle that has a plurality of steerable wheel devices at the bottom of the vehicle body and can be steered, the wheels of a specific wheel device other than a certain wheel device among the plurality of steerable wheel devices are moved up and down. A special traveling vehicle characterized in that it is configured with a wheel lifting mechanism that moves the wheels.