JPH04129918A - Running control of track cart - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To save personnel and time and prevent erroneous registration by arranging so that a host controller makes a judgment as normal when an identification signal is received within a specific time after issuing a command of original point movement, and as abnormal when another identification signal or no signal is received. CONSTITUTION:When an object is placed on a conveying station 6a, the object is detected as a transport request by a central control device 8. If there are three warehousing stations on which no object is placed and one station 4a of them is vacant, a command is made for conveying from the conveying station 6a to the warehousing station 4a. This conveying command is allotted to a track cart 1c capable of reaching the conveying station 6a at the earliest time if all the track carts 1a, 1b, 1c are on standby, and a conveying command is sent out. If that cart is in the middle of the conveying work, the command is allotted to the track cart 1a capable of reaching the conveying station 6a earlier than the track cart 1b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a track guided vehicle for transporting articles, and more particularly to a travel control system for a track guided vehicle that automates settings at startup.

(Prior Art) Track-guided carts are used in factories, warehouses, etc. to transport articles from station to station. The tracked bogie is controlled by a travel control system that includes a host controller. In other words, the host controller assigns transport instructions to the tracked vehicles in response to transport requests from various sensors, etc., and performs automatic operation.

There is a type of track guided bogie in which a plurality of track guided bogies run on a track forming a closed loop. When starting such a type of track guided vehicle, it is necessary to initialize the position of each track guided vehicle. In order to allocate optimal transport instructions to multiple tracked bogies and perform transport work efficiently, it is necessary to determine the position of each tracked bogie when starting up the travel control system, that is, where each tracked bogie is located. It is necessary to register in the higher-level controller each time the vehicle is started up in such order. This is because the position of the tracked bogies at the end of the operation is not constant, and there are some tracked bogies that are off the track due to maintenance etc., and the number varies. Conventionally, this registration was performed manually by inputting information by an operator.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) According to the method in which an operator visually recognizes and registers the position of a tracked vehicle, it requires human labor to start it up, and this method is difficult to use when there is a transportation system including a large number of tracked vehicles. Each operator had to go to the site and visually check the position of the tracked trolley, and since the number of operators was small, it took a long time to start up the entire system and get the factory ready for operation. was. There was also a tendency for human error to occur.

If an input error were to occur, optimal control could not be achieved and efficient conveyance work could not be performed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a travel control system for a track guided vehicle that can automatically place the track guided vehicle in a workable state without operator intervention.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a traveling control system for a plurality of tracked bogies running in a closed loop, in which when the tracked bogies are started, the upper controller controls all the tracked bogies. A command is given to the track bogies to move to the origin, and each track bogie that arrives at the origin transmits an identification signal to the host controller to identify the individual track bogie, and if no identification signal is sent after a certain period of time has passed. The upper controller instructs the leading tracked bogie that arrived at the origin first to move to the origin, and if the upper controller receives the identification signal of the leading tracked bogie within a certain period of time after instructing the leading tracked bogie to move to the origin, The running control system of the tracked bogie is determined to be normal, and if the identification signal of the leading tracked bogie is not received after a certain period of time or the identification signal of another tracked bogie is received, it is determined to be abnormal. was configured.

(Effects) Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, the following effects are achieved.

According to the track guided vehicle travel control system according to the present invention,
When starting the tracked bogies according to instructions from the Shigenobu controller, each tracked bogie first moves to the origin, which is a specific point on the track. Since each track guided vehicle traveling in a closed loop faces in a fixed direction, the track guided vehicles reach the origin in the order in which they are lined up. The tracked bogie that has reached the origin transmits an identification signal to the higher-level controller. The higher-level controller that has received the identification signal can thereby recognize the position (order) of each track guided vehicle.

Each track guided bogie sends an identification signal one after another, and when no identification signal is received for a certain period of time, the Shigenobu controller determines that it has received the identification signals of all track guided bogies and reaches the origin first. Sends an instruction to move the origin to the lead tracked bogie. If all tracked bogies have been registered, there will be no other tracked bogies between the first tracked bogie and the origin, so the first tracked bogie will not be able to reach the origin within a certain amount of time. can. If the host controller receives the identification signal of the leading track guided vehicle within a certain period of time, it determines that the system has started up normally and starts the transport work.

If the leading tracked bogie does not send an identification signal within a certain period of time, or if an identification signal from another tracked bogie is sent, the upper controller will determine if an accident or malfunction has occurred in the tracked bogie or the track, and there is an abnormality. It is determined that there is a problem, and countermeasures are taken, such as restarting the system or issuing an alarm.

As described above, according to the running control system for tracked bogies according to the present invention, the positions of a plurality of tracked bogies can be automatically initialized in the host controller without requiring human intervention, thereby saving personnel and time. You can save money and avoid registration mistakes.

(Example) The illustrated embodiment will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a transportation system including a track guided vehicle to which an embodiment of the track guided vehicle travel control system according to the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, three track guided vehicles 1a.

lb and lc run clockwise on track 2 forming a closed loop. The track guided vehicle 1 is equipped with an individual control device that controls traveling, transfer work, and the like. Stop points 3 are provided at various locations on the track 2, and in the vicinity of the stop points 3, a warehousing station 4, a warehousing station 5, a carry-in station 6, and a carry-out station 7 are arranged. Further, one origin HP, which will be described later, is provided on the orbit.

A central control device 8 is provided on the ground and can communicate with each track guided vehicle 1 by radio at any time. The central controller 8 also receives information such as whether or not articles are placed at each station 4,5,6,7.

An example of a transport operation of a transport system including such a track guided vehicle 1 will be explained.

When an article is placed on the carry-in station 6a, the article is detected by a sensor, and the central controller 8 recognizes this as a transport request. Next, when the central control device 8 searches for a warehousing station 4 on which no article is placed, it is assumed that 4a of the three warehousing stations 4 is vacant. As a result, from the loading station 6a to the warehousing station 4a
A transport command is created.

The created transport command is assigned to one of the track guided vehicles 1. Each track guided vehicle 1a.

If both lb and lc are on standby, the transport command is assigned to the tracked trolley IC that is determined to be able to reach the loading station 6a quickly, and the central controller 8 transmits the transport command to the tracked trolley 1c. . If the tracked trolley [C] is in the middle of transport work, the tracked trolley 1a, which can arrive at the loading station 6a before the tracked trolley 1b, is assigned (subtracted by -1.) In this way, optimal control is performed and the efficiency is increased. Realizes efficient transportation work.

In order to perform the traveling control as described above, each track guided bogie 1a, lb on the track must be controlled.

The central controller 8 must recognize the position of 1c. Therefore, initial settings are required.

The initial setting procedure in one embodiment of the track guided vehicle travel control system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 1 and 2.

(Step 1) When the track guided bogie 1 and the central control device 8 are turned on, the basic program of the central control device 8 and the running control device of each track guided bogie 1 is started, and each track guided bogie 1 can run. state.

The central controller 8 sends a command to all of the tracked bogies 1 to move to the origin points H and P, and the tracked bogies 1 that have received this command
starts running.

For example, in the state shown in FIG.
The tracked bogie undergoing maintenance] d remains stopped.

(Step 2) The central control device 8 enters a state of waiting for transmission of an identification signal from the track guided vehicle 1.

(Step 3) Each track guided vehicle 1 follows the movement command and reaches the origin HP one after another. Then, each track guided vehicle 1 reaches the position of the track guided vehicle 1a shown in FIG. 1, and transmits an identification signal assigned in advance to each track guided vehicle 1 to the central controller.

When the central control device 8 receives a transmission from each track guided vehicle 1, the central control device 8 sequentially stores the identification signal. In the order shown in FIG. 1, ], a, lb.

The order is 1c.

(Step 4) If there is no transmission, the central control device 8 counts the time without transmission, and continues to wait for reception from each track guided vehicle 1 until a certain period of time TI has elapsed. The time to be counted is determined by taking into consideration the length of the track 2, the traveling speed of the track guided vehicle 1, etc.

If there is a transmission, the count time After resetting to T1, the transmission waiting state continues.

(Step 5) If there is no transmission from the tracked bogie 1 even after a certain period of time has elapsed, the central control device 8 returns all the tracked bogies 1 to the origin H.
After reaching P, it is determined that the identification signals of all the track guided vehicles 1 have been received, and in step 2, a home position movement command is issued to the leading track guided vehicle 1 that first transmitted the identification signal. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the leading track guided vehicle is 1a.

(Step 6) The central control device 8 enters a state of waiting for transmission from the leading track guided vehicle 1a.

(Step 7) After issuing an origin movement command to the leading track guided vehicle 1a, a certain period of time T2 is counted. The state of waiting for transmission from the leading track guided vehicle 1a continues until the predetermined time T2 has elapsed.

If there is no transmission after a certain period of time T2 has elapsed, it is determined that the robot has not started up normally due to a communication error, a failure of the track guided vehicle 1, etc., and returns to step 1 to perform the startup operation again. repeat.

The length of the certain time T2 is determined by taking into account the length of the track 2, the speed of the track guided vehicle 1, and the like.

(Step 8) When the identification signal is received, it is determined whether it matches the identification signal of the leading track guided vehicle 1 stored in Step 3.

If they do not match, it is determined that there is some kind of abnormality, such as when the track guided vehicle 1d that was in the evacuation line 9 starts moving and enters in front of the leading track guided vehicle 1a, and the process returns to step 1.

(Step 9) When the identification signal of the leading track guided vehicle 1a is recognized, it is determined that the transport system including the track guided vehicle 1 has been started without any abnormality, and the transport work is started.

As described above, according to the running control system for tracked bogies of the present embodiment, the article conveyance system including the plurality of tracked bogies 1 has the central controller 8, which is a higher-level controller, control the tracked bogies necessary for running control. By automatically registering the mutual arrangement of the two systems, it is possible to start up the system without any human intervention. Therefore, errors in inputting the arrangement of track guided vehicles do not occur, and manpower and time can be saved.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be modified as appropriate within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a transportation system including a tracked bogie to which the tracked bogie running control system according to the present invention can be applied, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the tracked bogie running control system according to the present invention. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure during orbit in one embodiment. 1... Track guided vehicle, 2... Track, 8... Central control unit, HP... Origin.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A travel control system for a plurality of tracked bogies running in a closed loop, in which, when the tracked bogies are started, a host controller instructs all the tracked bogies to move to the origin, and each of the tracked bogies that has arrived at the origin The tracked bogie sends an identification signal to the higher-level controller to identify each individual tracked bogie, and if no identification signal is sent after a certain period of time, the higher-level controller sends an identification signal to the leading tracked bogie that arrived at the origin first. The host controller determines that the leading track bogie is normal if it receives the identification signal of the leading track bogie within a certain period of time after instructing the leading track bogie to move to its home position, and the leading track bogie does not move even after a certain period of time has elapsed. A travel control system for a tracked bogie, characterized in that an abnormality is determined when an identification signal of a bogie is not received or when an identification signal of another tracked bogie is received.