JPH0564302A - Replacement time management device for mobile battery batteries - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] It is relatively easy to manage the replacement time of the battery mounted on a mobile vehicle using existing equipment. [Composition] A battery replacement timing management device mounted on a moving vehicle equipped with a storage medium that can be read / written freely from a ground station, wherein the moving vehicle is provided with a time measuring means, and a signal from the time measuring means is provided. The updated elapsed time information is stored in the storage medium. In the ground station, a communication means for reading and writing the storage medium,
Processing means for determining whether or not the battery needs to be replaced is provided from the elapsed time information read out via the communication means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery replacement timing management device mounted on a mobile vehicle equipped with a storage medium which can be read and written from a ground station.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mobile vehicle such as an automated guided vehicle used for an automated guided facility in a manufacturing line in a factory is generally equipped with a battery such as a lead storage battery as a power source for its power. When the onboard battery discharges and becomes in a state that requires charging, it is replaced with a charged battery at the battery exchange station, and the discharged battery is charged and stored for the next use.

Further, for example, in a transportation facility in which a start / stop control is performed from the ground side by a linear motor of the ground type, a moving vehicle is provided with a storage medium which can be read / written from the ground side. Then, the destination address information, the cargo information, etc. are written or read from the ground side through the communication means.

By the way, the above-mentioned battery replacement must be carried out before the on-board battery is completely discharged, but it is usually replaced at regular intervals (for example, every hour). Conventionally, the management of the battery replacement time has been performed by the processing means on the ground side.

[0005]

However, when the number of moving vehicles increases, it becomes a considerable burden on the processing means on the ground side to manage the replacement time of the on-board battery for each moving vehicle. Further, if the number of mobile vehicles is increased, it is necessary to change the program or parameter of the processing means, which is disadvantageous in that the expandability is poor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to easily manage the replacement time of a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle using existing equipment. It is in.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The mobile vehicle battery replacement timing management device of the present invention manages the battery replacement timing of a mobile vehicle provided with a storage medium that can be read / written freely from a ground station. The characteristic configuration is that the moving vehicle is provided with a clocking means, and elapsed time information updated by a signal from the clocking means is stored in the storage medium, and the storage medium of the storage medium is stored in a battery exchange station on the ground side. There is provided a communication means for reading / writing and a processing means for judging whether or not the battery needs to be replaced from the elapsed time information read via the communication means.

[0008]

According to the above characteristic structure, the processing means on the ground side determines whether or not the battery needs to be replaced from the elapsed time information read from the storage medium of the moving vehicle through the communication means,
Perform necessary processing. For example, a battery exchange station is given to a moving vehicle as a destination address. Alternatively, if it is the processing means of the battery exchange station, the moving vehicle is stopped and the battery is exchanged. At this time, the elapsed time information is initialized.

The elapsed time information is updated by a signal from the clock means of the moving vehicle. That is, a part of the storage medium serves as an elapsed time storage area, and the area constitutes, for example, a counter that counts every minute.
In addition, to determine whether or not the battery needs to be replaced from the elapsed time information means, for example, that the battery needs to be replaced if the elapsed time from the battery replacement has reached 1 to 3 hours, and otherwise, It is to decide that battery replacement is still unnecessary.

Therefore, it is not necessary for the processing means of the battery exchange station to centrally manage the elapsed time for each mobile vehicle. Further, it is not necessary to newly install the above-mentioned communication means and storage medium for managing the battery replacement time. As mentioned above, communication means conventionally provided for destination control of moving vehicles from the ground side, loading / unloading control of luggage, etc.
This is because it is sufficient to use the storage medium and provide the above-mentioned elapsed time storage area in the unused area of the storage medium.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily manage the replacement time of the battery mounted on each mobile vehicle by utilizing the storage medium provided in the mobile vehicle and the communication means on the ground side. Now you can do it. This allows
It has become possible to contribute to reducing the load on the processing means on the ground side and improving expandability.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The unmanned transportation facility of the present embodiment is for automatically transporting luggage such as semiconductor wafers in a clean room, and as shown in FIG. 2, a guide rail B is provided on the moving route of the moving vehicle A. .. The moving vehicle A is magnetically levitated as described later, and moves along the guide rail B by the propulsive force of the linear motor. In addition, a plurality of stations ST are provided along the guide rails B to stop the moving vehicle A and load and unload luggage.

As shown in FIG. 3, on the upper part of the guide rail B, a levitation magnetic body 2 attracted by the levitation coil 1 of the moving vehicle A is continuously provided along the lower surface of the horizontal flange portion. ing. In addition, a primary coil 3 and a magnetic plate 4 that form a linear motor are provided on the bottom portion with a gap.

The moving vehicle A controls the exciting power of the levitation coil 1 on the basis of the detection value of a gap sensor (not shown) which detects the distance between the levitation coil 1 and the levitation magnetic body 2 to levitate. To do. The attraction force between the levitation coil 1 and the levitation magnetic body 2 serves to regulate the lateral direction of the moving vehicle A to an appropriate position. In addition, the secondary conductor 5 of the mobile vehicle A is connected to the primary coil 3
The moving vehicle A is given a propulsive force via the secondary conductor 5 by the induction magnetic field generated by the excitation of the primary coil 3.

The primary coil 3 and the magnetic plate 4 are
In order to reduce the equipment cost, it is provided at regular intervals along the guide rail B, and the moving vehicle A inertially travels between them. However, the primary side coil 3 and the magnetic plate 4 are always provided at the installation location of each station ST to perform deceleration when stopping the moving vehicle A and acceleration when starting the vehicle.
Further, a stop coil 7 for holding the moving vehicle A at a stop position by attracting the stopping magnetic body 6 of the moving vehicle A is provided at the installation location of each station ST.

As described above, the moving vehicle A has the primary coil 3,
The ground primary type linear motor configured by the magnetic plate 4 and the secondary conductor 5 allows the vehicle to move and run under the power and control of the ground side, and the stopped state is also maintained from the ground side. However, the power for exciting the levitation coil 1 and the power for the control circuit 8 thereof are supplied from the battery 9 mounted on the moving vehicle A. The mobile vehicle A is also provided with an ID card 10 which is a storage medium with a wireless (infrared type) communication device, and this power is also supplied from the battery 9. On the other hand, each station ST is provided with a wireless communication device 11 for writing and reading destination information, cargo information and the like on the ID card 10.

In the battery 9 mounted on the moving vehicle A,
A secondary battery (for example, a lead storage battery) is used. Then, before the battery 9 is completely discharged (when the traveling time reaches a predetermined time), the battery 9 is removed and charged at the battery exchange station ST0. The mobile vehicle A is equipped with another charged battery 9 that is prepared in advance. These operations are automatically performed by the battery exchange equipment C provided in the battery exchange station ST0.

The battery exchange facility C is a device for exchanging the discharged battery 9a of the moving vehicle A with the charged battery 9b prepared on the battery exchange table, and the discharged battery 9a.
Equipped with a charging / storage shelf consisting of multiple cells for charging and storing. Further, a device for taking out the charged battery 9a from each cell and transporting it to the battery exchange table, and conversely, a device for transporting the discharged battery 9a from the battery exchange table to the cell, and a processing means 12 for controlling the respective devices are provided. .. still,
The mobile vehicle A has a structure in which the battery 9 can be loaded and unloaded from the luggage loading section on the upper surface.

Battery replacement is carried out in the following procedure. As shown in FIG. 1, when the moving vehicle A approaches the battery exchange station ST0, the information stored in the ID card 10 of the moving vehicle A is read by the processing means 12 via the wireless communication device 11 provided in the station ST0. The read information includes elapsed time information.
This elapsed time information is initialized when the battery is replaced, and is updated (counted up) in 1-minute units by a signal from a real-time clock 8a as a timekeeping means provided in the control circuit 8 of the moving vehicle A. It Therefore, the elapsed time information indicates the elapsed time for managing the battery replacement time.

If the elapsed time information read from the ID card 10 has not reached the predetermined time (for example, 1 to 3 hours), the processing means 12 allows the mobile vehicle A to pass through as it is, but if the predetermined time has been reached, the mobile vehicle A passes. Stop A at a predetermined position and start battery replacement work. That is, the discharged battery 9a of the moving vehicle A is removed, and the charged battery 9b prepared on the battery exchange table is mounted. When the battery replacement is completed, the moving vehicle A is started.

After that, the discharged battery 9a on the battery exchange table is conveyed to the empty cell of the charging / storage shelf and set. Then, of the plurality of charged batteries 9b stored in each cell, the one that has been charged first is taken out, conveyed to the battery exchange table, and prepared for the next battery exchange. The empty state and the charging completed state of each cell are centrally managed by the processing means 12.

The battery exchange station ST0
In stations ST other than the above, the processing means performs the following processing regarding the management of the battery replacement time. That is, I
If the elapsed time information read from the D card 10 has not reached the predetermined time, it is ignored, but if it has reached the predetermined time, the address of the battery exchange station ST0 is given as the destination address after the end of the current carrying work.

As described above, a plurality of batteries are shared by a plurality of mobile vehicles, but the number of times of charging / discharging each battery is managed as follows. The life of the battery (secondary battery) depends on the number of times of charging and discharging (for example, 500 to
This is because the use exceeds the number of times of charging and discharging, which causes a trouble such as the moving vehicle stopping during traveling.

The stored information of the ID card 10 of the moving vehicle A includes the number of times of charging / discharging of the installed battery (charge / discharge history information). That is, when the charged battery 9b is mounted by exchanging the battery, the number of times the battery 9b is charged and discharged is changed from the processing means 12 to the wireless communication device 1.
It is written in the ID card 10 via 1. When the discharged battery 9a is removed, the charge / discharge count of the battery 9a is read from the ID card 10 to the processing means 12 via the wireless communication device 11.

As described above, the information on the number of times of charging / discharging associated with the battery goes back and forth between the ID card 10 of the mobile vehicle A and the processing means 12 of the battery exchange facility C.
When the battery exchange facility C is charged,
The processing means 12 increments the number of times the battery is charged and discharged by one. The result is the number of life settings (for example,
(500 to 1,000 times), and a process of moving the battery, which has reached the set number of lives, to the disposal area is performed. In this way, the processing means 12 also monitors and updates the charge / discharge frequency of each battery.

Another embodiment will be described below. Time measuring means (real time clock) in the above embodiment,
Alternatively, a circuit for rewriting the elapsed time information by the signal may be incorporated in the storage medium (ID card). Although the ID card with the communication device is used as the storage medium in the above embodiment, the communication device and the storage medium may be configured as separate units.

Instead of the elapsed time information, the battery replacement time may be managed based on the traveling time integrated information. That is, the elapsed time information is counted only when the moving vehicle is magnetically levitated and traveling. This is effective when the time when the moving vehicle is not running, that is, the time when the levitation coil 1 is not excited is not negligible compared with the elapsed time.

It should be noted that reference numerals are given in the claims for convenience of comparison with the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the configurations of the accompanying drawings by the entry.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a charge / discharge history management device for a mobile battery according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a part of the transportation facility.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a moving vehicle and a guide rail.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a moving vehicle and a guide rail.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A mobile vehicle ST, ST0 Ground station 8a Timing means 10 Storage medium 11 Communication means 12 Processing means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A battery replacement timing management device mounted on a mobile vehicle (A) equipped with a storage medium (10) which is readable and writable from a ground station (ST, ST0). A) is provided with a time measuring means (8a), and elapsed time information updated by a signal from the time measuring means (8a) is stored in the storage medium (10), and the ground side station (ST, ST0) is provided with the time information. Storage medium (1
The communication means (11) for performing read / write of (0) and the processing means (12) for judging whether or not the battery needs to be replaced from the elapsed time information read via the communication means (11) are provided. Battery replacement time management device for moving vehicles.