JPH0652177B2 - Position detection device for moving body - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a position detecting device for a moving body, which is suitable for use in guiding a moving body such as an automated guided vehicle.

[Outline of Invention]

According to the present invention, information relating to the movement of a moving body is stored in advance, and when the moving body moves, a magnetic field or light from a guiding medium provided along the movement of the moving body is detected and its detection output is detected. By reading the information stored as an address and using it as a steering signal for the moving body, the detection device itself has a judgment function with a simple circuit configuration, and the load on the moving body control computer is lightened. It is a thing.

[Conventional technology]

For example, the method of guiding a moving body such as an unmanned guided vehicle is roughly classified and used. The method of processing by turning on and off a plurality of switch elements and the method of using an analog signal of a displacement detector as they are for guiding. It can be divided into things. As an example of the former, a method of arranging a plurality of magnetic switches in one row to detect the band of permanent magnets installed in the taxiway or a strip of reflective tape installed in the taxiway by arranging a plurality of optical switches in one row There is a method of detecting. On the other hand, as an example of the latter, there is a method that uses a pickup coil as a detection element to detect the magnetic field generated by the low-frequency current supplied to the wire installed in the guide path, and also uses a magnetic flux response type magnetic displacement detector. There is a method to detect the band of the permanent magnet installed in.
Hereinafter, for simplicity, these strips of permanent magnets, strips of reflective tape, wires, etc. will be referred to as guide wires.

In the method of processing ON / OFF of a plurality of switch elements and inducing them, an ON / OFF signal is decoded according to a preset condition to obtain a steering signal. The present invention relates to this decoding method. .

In general, when the switch element is used as a guiding detector, the guiding detector has been limited to simply detecting the guiding line and outputting a plurality of ON / OFF signals. The on / off signal of the guidance detector is a system in which a computer mounted on an automated guided vehicle recognizes a pattern to calculate a deviation, and calculates and outputs an optimum steering signal corresponding to the deviation. That is, the distance between the guide wire and the detector changes due to the undulation of the running floor, the number of switch elements that are turned on changes even if there is no deviation, or a complicated on / off pattern such as the calculation of deviation at a branch point. Conventionally, a computer for storing / judging a traveling route, controlling an automatic guided vehicle, etc. is mounted on the automatic guided vehicle so that the pattern recognition described above can be performed. It was

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

By the way, in the case of the conventional apparatus, as described above, the computer mounted on the automatic guided vehicle is made to recognize the traveling route, recognize the ON / OFF pattern of other switch elements such as control of the automatic guided vehicle, and the like. Therefore, the load on the computer itself is large, and as a result, the configuration is complicated and the cost is high.

The present invention has been made in view of the above point, and a function such as pattern recognition is added to the detection device itself to achieve so-called intelligence in which the detection device has a judgment function, thereby simplifying the configuration and reducing the cost. A position detecting device for a moving body that can contribute.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The moving body detection device according to the present invention is arranged on a traveling path (10) and has a long guide medium (11) having a constant width, and moves in the length direction on the guide medium (11). Moving body (13)
And a position detection device integrally provided on the moving body (13), the position detection device detecting means (1) (2) for detecting the magnetic field or light from the guiding medium (11), This detection means (1) (2)
ROM (3) connected to the detection means (1) (2) has a plurality of on-off elements (1 ₁ ) ~ (1 ₁₄ ), the on-off elements (1 ₁ ) ~ (1 ₁₄ ) are arranged in the width direction of the guiding medium (11) and at a predetermined pitch in a substantially longer row than the width of the guiding medium (11) at a predetermined pitch and face the guiding medium (11). Only on / off elements arranged at positions (for example, # 7 to # 7 in FIG. 7).
# 11 on / off element) is turned on or off, and the ROM (3) has an on / off element.
The on / off state of (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ) is used as an address signal.
A steering signal (see FIG. 6) for correcting the deviation of the moving body (13) in the width direction with respect to the guiding medium (11) is written, and the moving body (13) is the guiding medium. (11) When moving up, it reads the steering signal from the ROM (3) and moves.

[Action]

On / off elements (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ), (21 ₁ ) in the detection means (1) (2)
The ON / OFF state of (21 ₁₄ ) is used as an address signal to be supplied to the ROM (3) in which the steering signal for correcting the deviation of the moving body in the width direction with respect to the guiding medium (11) is written. Therefore, the guiding medium (1
The deviation between 1) and the moving body (13) can be detected, and the displacement can be corrected while accurately traveling on the guiding medium (11) as a traveling path.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of this embodiment. In FIG. 1, (1) is a detection element, (2) is a switch circuit, (3) is a programmable read-only memory (hereinafter referred to as PROM), 4) is a D / A converter, all of which are located on the floor (10) of the taxiway at least at the detection element (1) at a predetermined position of the moving body (13) (Figs. 7 and 8). It is provided so as to face a magnetic tape (11) as a guiding medium provided on the disk. As the detecting element (1), for example, as shown in FIG. 2, 20 magnetic switches arranged in a horizontal row at intervals of about 10 mm are used. The magnetic switch is a saturable coil ( ₁₁ ) with a winding on the core of permalloy as shown in Fig. 3 ~
At (1 ₁₄ ), for example, an operation of turning on (saturable) in a magnetic field of about 5 gauss or more and turning off (non-saturable) in a magnetic field of less than 5 gauss is performed. As shown in FIG. 2, the detection element (1) uses 20 sets of magnetic switches in order to widen the detection range. However, since the number of address input terminals of the PROM (3) is limited, Then, the total of 12 magnetic switches located at both ends of the detection element (1) are the outputs of two adjacent magnetic switches, and the output is Wired OR, and it has 14 output lines. In FIG. 2, for convenience of explanation, reference numerals # 1 to # 1 are assigned to 14 magnetic switches having this output line.
Number 4 is attached.

As shown in FIG. 3, the switch circuit (2) is provided corresponding to the common oscillator (20) for supplying the exciting current to the saturable coils and the saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ), respectively. Transistor
(21 ₁ ) to (21 ₁₄ ) and the bases of the transistors (21 ₁ ) to (21 ₁₄ ) are resistors (22 ₁ ) and (23 ₁ ) to (22 ₁₄ ) and (23
Is connected to the output side of the oscillator (20) via a _14), the resistor (22
The connection points of ₁ ) and (23 ₁ ) to (22 ₁₄ ) and (23 ₁₄ ) are grounded via saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ), respectively. The emitters of the transistors (21 ₁ ) to (21 ₁₄ ) are grounded, and the collectors of the transistors (21 ₁ ) to (21 ₁₄ ) are connected to the positive power supply terminal + B via the resistors (24 ₁ ) to (24 ₁₄ ), respectively. And the transistor (21 ₁ )
.. (21 ₁₄ ) are connected to the address input terminals A0 to A13 of the PROM (3).

Also, a magnetic tape (11) attached on the floor (10) of the taxiway.
Is made of a rubber magnet having a width of 50 mm and a thickness of 0.8 mm, and is uniformly magnetized in the thickness direction such that the front surface is the N pole and the back surface is the S pole. Read clearance of element (1) is 30 ± 1
0 mm), about 5 magnetic switches located on the magnetic tape (11) are turned on, that is, the saturable coil (1 ₁ ) ~
About 5 of (1 ₁₄ ) are saturable.

Explaining this in a circuit manner with reference to FIG. 3, the oscillator (20) always generates a sinusoidal drive signal having a certain constant amplitude, and the saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to In the part of (1 ₁₄ ) that is not close to the magnetic tape (11), the saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ) are in the non-saturable state, so the drive signal is from the resistor (23 ₁ ) to (23 ₁ ) 23 ₁₄ ) and saturable coil (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ) are divided, and resistors (22 ₁ ) to (22
It is supplied to the base of the transistor (21 ₁₎ to (21 ₁₄₎ through a _14), the output signal of the transistor (21 ₁₎ to (21 ₁₄₎ is turned to low level in the collector side (L) is can get.

On the other hand, the magnetic tape (11) of the saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ )
Since the saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ) are in the saturable state in the area close to, the inductance of the saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ) becomes small and the transistors (21 ₁ ) to (21 The voltage substantially supplied from the oscillator (20) to the base of (21 ₁₄ ) becomes lower than a predetermined value (base-emitter voltage V _BE ), which causes the transistors (21 ₁ ) to (21 ₁₄ ) to turn off. A high level (H) output signal is obtained on the collector side.

In this way, an ON (high level) OFF (low level) pattern signal is obtained at the output side of the switch circuit (2) corresponding to ON / OFF of the magnetic switch composed of the saturable coils (1 ₁ ) to (1 ₁₄ ). be able to. This ON / OFF pattern signal is supplied as an address signal to the address input terminals A0 to A13 of the PROM (3).

The PROM (3) uses, for example, an EPROM of 65536 words × 8 bits and has, for example, 16 address input terminals A0 to A15, and the switch circuit (2) is provided at the address input terminals A0 to A13 as described above. From the terminals (8) and (9), and branch command input signals SEL1 and SEL2 are supplied to the higher-order address input terminals A14 and A15. The branch command input signals SEL1 and SEL2 select branch conditions and are coded as shown in FIG. 4, for example.

Further, the PROM (3) has data output terminals D0 to D7, of which the data output terminals D0 to D5 are connected to the input side of the D / A converter (4), and the data output terminals D6 and D7.
7 is connected to the output terminals (6) and (7), respectively.

The D / A converter (4) converts 6-bit digital data from the data output terminals D0 to D5 of the PROM (3) into a steering analog signal and outputs it to the output terminal (5).

The data obtained at the data output terminal D6 of the PROM (3) is used for address detection output. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, an address magnet (12) is provided beside the guiding magnetic tape (11), and this magnet ( PROM when the detection element (1) detects the magnetic field of 12)
The data obtained at the data output terminal D6 of (3) is output as "1", for example. The control computer of the automatic guided vehicle counts the address detection output from the output terminal (6) to identify the traveling and position of the automatic guided vehicle on the route map.

Further, the data obtained at the data output terminal D7 of the PROM (3) is used as an alarm signal, that is, for the derailment detection output, the unmanned guided vehicle is disengaged from the taxiway, and the magnetic switch of the detection element (1) is replaced by the magnetic tape (11). The data obtained at the data output terminal D7 of the PROM (3) when the magnetic field is no longer detected is output as "1", for example.

As shown in FIG. 6, the PROM (3) has its storage area substantially divided into four areas. The storage area (3 ₁ ) stores data for straight travel, and the storage area (3 ₂ ) branches to the right. Data is stored, the storage area (3 ₃ ) stores left branch data, and the storage area (3 ₄ ) stores undetermined data.

Now, as shown in FIG. 7, the guideway to which the magnetic tape (11) is attached is a straight line portion, and each magnetic switch # 1 to # of the detection element (1) mounted on the automatic guided vehicle (13) is It is assumed that 14 operates as shown in FIG. In the figure, the circles represent magnetic switches that were turned off, and the circles represent magnetic switches that were turned on. In FIG. 7, of the 14 magnetic switches # 1 to # 14, five magnetic switches # 7 to # 11 are turned on. At this time, the branch command input signals SEL1 and SEL2 supplied to the terminals (8) and (9) are in the straight traveling mode, that is, P
ROM (3) of the address input terminals A14, if A15 levels are both "0" PROM (3) of the storage area (3 ₁₎ of the address input terminals A0-A5, the address signal of "0" to A11~A15 Is input and "1" is input to the address input terminals A6 to A10.
Address signal is input, that is, "00000111"
An address signal of 11,000,000 "is input, and data at address 07C0 (H) in the storage area (3 ₁ ) is selected and output. Of the five magnetic switches # 7 to # 11 that are turned on, the central # 9 is selected. There is a center line of the magnetic theta (11) just below the magnetic switch.The magnetic switches in the center of the magnetic sensor are # 7 and # 8, so two and a half of the magnetic switches, that is, about 25 mm relative to each other. Therefore, the data for the address 07C0 in the storage area (3 ₁ ) must be stored in advance with the steering data for correcting the deviation of 25 mm.

It is also assumed that the automatic guided vehicle (13) approaches a branch road as shown in FIG. 8 and each magnetic switch of the detection element (13) operates as shown in FIG. That is, in the figure, # 1 to # 14
Of the 14 magnetic switches of # 3 to # 5 and # 10
The six magnetic switches # 12 are on. Therefore P
Address input terminal of the storage area (3 ₂₎ of the ROM (3) A0-A1
5 is inputted address signal "0011100001110001", the address input terminal A0~A15 the PROM (3) storage area (3 ₃₎ for "00111000011
An address signal of 10010 ″ is input.

Four of the magnetic switch from the center of which such right branch to the address signal of the eighth detection element, as shown in FIG. (1), that is since the offset to the right as 40 mm, the storage area (3 ₂ In the data of the address corresponding to the address signal of "0011100001110001", the steering data which is displaced 40 mm to the right side is stored in advance, and the left branch is the detecting element (1) as shown in FIG. Since there are four magnetic switches displaced from the center, that is, about 40 mm to the left, the storage area
(3 ₃₎ the address of the data corresponding to the address signal of "0011100001110010" stores the data for steering the coordinating 40mm polarized to the left beforehand.

In this way, all the on / off patterns of the 14 magnetic switches and the steering data corresponding to the branching condition are publicized.
It is possible to store it in the OM.

In this way, in this embodiment, the detection device can be made into intelligence with a very simple circuit configuration, and the load on the control computer of the automated guided vehicle can be reduced. Further, since the number of additional circuits is small, it is possible to hardly change the outer shape of the conventional detection device. Further, only by inputting the branching condition to the detecting device, the detecting device itself can judge the branching point and output the steering signal for the branching, and the complicated branching can be performed relatively easily. Also, because it is possible to process the irrational pattern of the ON / OFF pattern of the magnetic switch at the step of the writing data,
Becomes stronger against external noise. Further, the function can be changed only by changing the write data of the PROM. Further, it is possible to provide a detection device having a combined function such as derailment detection and address detection. Further, since the correlation of steering data with respect to the deviation can be set arbitrarily, an optimum detection signal can be output.

In the above-described embodiment, the magnetic tape is used as the guiding medium, and the magnetic switch that is the magnetic sensitive element is used as the detecting element. However, the reflecting tape is used as the guiding medium and the light detecting element is used as the detecting element. You may use it.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the magnetic field or light from the guiding medium is detected, and the detection output is used as an address to read out the information relating to the movement of the moving body and read the information for steering the moving body. Since it is used as, it is possible to achieve intelligence by providing the detection device itself with a judgment function such as pattern recognition with a simple circuit configuration, and it is possible to reduce the load on the mobile body control computer by that amount,
The circuit configuration can be simplified and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a layout diagram of detection elements, FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a concrete example of a main part, and FIGS. FIG. (1) is a detection element, (2) is a switch circuit, (3) is a programmable read-only memory (PROM), and (4) is a D / A.
A converter, (11) is a magnetic tape, and (13) is an automated guided vehicle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A long guiding medium which is arranged on a traveling road and has a constant width, a moving body which moves on the guiding medium in a longitudinal direction, and a moving body which is integrally provided on the moving body. A position detecting device, the position detecting device detecting means for detecting a magnetic field or light from the guiding medium, and an RO connected to the detecting means.
M and the detecting means has a plurality of on / off elements, and the on / off elements are arranged in a line in the width direction of the guiding medium and longer than the width of the guiding medium. Only the on / off elements arranged at a predetermined pitch and arranged at a position facing the guiding medium are turned on or off, and the on / off elements of the ROM are turned on / off. A steering signal for correcting the deviation in the width direction of the moving body with respect to the guiding medium is written with the state as an address signal, and when the moving body moves on the guiding medium, RO above
A position detecting device for a moving body, which is configured to move while reading the steering signal from M.