JPS60200315A - Guide method of unmanned truck - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a method for guiding an unmanned vehicle.

An electromagnetic induction method is used to guide an unmanned vehicle, in which a guide wire is buried under the floor of the driving course in advance, and the alternating current flowing through the guide wire is detected by an antenna on the unmanned vehicle. There is also an optical guidance method in which a photoelectric switch on the unmanned vehicle detects a white line made of cloth or pasted on the floor of the driving course, and the vehicle is driven while driving. Construction work such as burying induction wires or laying lines is required, and it does not apply to oily floors where construction cannot be performed, such as floors with buried foundation partitions or conductive floors. It had the disadvantage that it could not be equipped with an unmanned vehicle system. Furthermore, the above method also has the disadvantage that once the guiding equipment such as the guide line or the like is laid on the floor surface, the running course cannot be easily changed.

Therefore, this invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks by allowing an unmanned vehicle to travel automatically over the entire course based on travel information stored in advance in a computer that controls the traveling direction and distance traveled on the unmanned vehicle. It is something.

Examples will be described below based on the drawings.

Figure 1.2 shows a transport system according to the first embodiment and a forklift-type unmanned vehicle (1) for transporting loads.
), and the running course (M2) shown by the dotted line in FIG.
It is based on the information given by (Mn), and is not fixed, but based on the information given by memory (Ml) (M
2) If you change the information in (Mn), you can change the course completely freely.

In the conveyance system of this embodiment, the unmanned vehicle (1) circulates between a large number of pallet holders (3a), (3b), and travels between the forklift section (1a). ), the pallet (4) on the pedestal (3) can be received and delivered, and transported to and from the pallet (4).

(5) is the standby position of the unmanned vehicle (1), (6) is the standby value @(5), and a current is passed through the electric wire (7) buried at the standby value @(5), with the running information to be described later converted into a specific waveform pattern. It is a higher-level control device that loads driving information to the traveling vehicle (1) on the standby position (5), and a computer (8) is provided in the control device (6). , the memories (MI 0M2 ), . . . (Mn) are provided in which travel information is stored as different travel patterns for each destination location. Matoko, the above electric wire (7) is connected to an unmanned vehicle (1).
) receives a signal transmitted from the onboard computer (9) mounted on the aircraft via the transmission pickup coil (lla) and transmits it to the upper control device (6).

The above travel pattern information for each destination is drawn using a CAD system and loaded into the memory (Ml) (M2)... (Mn) of the computer (8). By simply replacing the information in 0M2)...(Mn) with new travel pattern information, the unmanned vehicle (1) can easily be caused to travel in a new travel pattern.

Next, the structure of the unmanned vehicle (1) will be explained based on FIG. 13)(
14), is a three-wheeled type with one drive wheel (15) provided at the rear, and a travel motor (16) and a rotary encoder (17) are coaxially connected to the drive wheel (15), and
Motor (18L chain (19 sprocket (21)
A steering device (22) consisting of the following is connected perpendicularly to the axis.

An onboard computer (9) is connected to an antenna (23) for communication with the upper control device (6), which is composed of the transmission pickup coil (lla) and the reception pickup coil (llb), The computer (9)
Each intermediate control device (24) (25
) of the steering device (22).
8) and a travel motor (16) are controlled. In addition, the signal from the rotary encoder (17) is sent back to the computer (9) so that the unmanned vehicle (1) itself can detect the distance traveled (total distance traveled) from the reference position (standby position (5)). It looks like this.

Next, a driving method of the unmanned vehicle (1) in this first embodiment will be explained.

That is, the unmanned vehicle (1) is initially waiting at the standby position (5), and what it is doing is waiting at that position and using the transmitting big amplifier coil of the computer (9) on the unmanned vehicle (1). (lla) to the electric wire (7) on the floor and is recognized by the upper control device (6).
The running pattern information from any of the memories (Ml), (M2), . . . (Mn) in 8) is passed as a current converted into a specific waveform pattern. Memory (MI 0M2
) ... (Mn), for example, in the memory (Ml), after traveling to the cradle (3a) position, the pallet (4) is received from the pedestal (3a), and the pallet (4) is received from the pedestal (3a), Transport the pallet (4) to the pedestal (3e) position and place it on the pedestal (3e).
3C) and return to the standby position again (as shown by the dashed line in Figure 1), and the memory (M2) stores the information for delivering the pallet (4) to the cradle (3C) and returning to the standby position (indicated by the dashed line in Figure 1). After that, information for receiving the pallet (4) from the pedestal (3d), transporting the received pallet (4) to the pedestal (3f) position for delivery, and returning to the standby position (5) again is provided.・
..., etc., are stored as functions of the traveling distance and traveling direction of the traveling vehicle (1), and other command information (for example, information on raising and lowering the fork).

Therefore, the specific current pattern applied to the electric wire (7) at the standby position (5) is
RA in the computer (9)
The computer (9) starts traveling based on the received traveling information such as the traveling distance and traveling direction.

That is, for example, if the electric wire (7) at the standby position is now energized with the driving pattern information from the memory (Ml) of the host computer (8), the unmanned vehicle (1) will first move from the left side in FIG.・Go straight ahead and reach the point where the distance traveled from the waiting position @ (5) reaches the pre-given distance information (
At A), the steering device (22) is switched to the left and the vehicle (1) starts turning. As mentioned above, the distance traveled by the vehicle (1) is measured by integrating the pulse signals from the encoder (17) in the computer (9), and is determined by comparing it with the distance information given in advance as the number of pulses. It is determined whether the distance has been reached.

Then, every time the vehicle (1) that has started turning reaches a given mileage point (for example, (B), (e), etc.), the steering device (22) The forklift (1a) is moved up to receive the pallet (4) on the pedestal (3a). .

The vehicle (1) that received the pallet (4 pallets) travels backward along a trajectory similar to the above (or a trajectory of another shape), returns to the straight course again, and then moves forward to the left in Figure 1 to move along the trajectory given in advance. At the next point (G), start turning again, draw the given running pattern (approximately S-shaped pattern) and move to the pedestal (3e).
), the pallet (4) is delivered to the pedestal (3e), and the pallet (4) is returned to the standby position (5).

The vehicle (1) that has returned to the standby position sends a waiting position presence signal to the higher-level control device (6) via the antenna (23) and the electric wire (7), as described above. ) from the next running pattern information (e.g. memory (M2
) circle information is loaded into the R, AM (26) in the computer (9) on the vehicle through the wire (7) and antenna (23), and the information on the vehicle (1) is loaded again, this time to another The vehicle starts running according to the running pattern.

In any case, as described above, the vehicle (1) travels at the standby position (5) based on the loaded travel pattern information, transports the pallet (4), etc., and then returns to the standby position again. , the driving pattern information for each destination is
The operator operates the upper control device (6) to control the running vehicle (1).
) memory (MI XM2)...(Mn)
You can arbitrarily select the order of the information in the vehicle (
1) It is possible to perform a reasonable pallet (4) transfer process.

Furthermore, in the first embodiment, r(, AM in the computer (9) on the running vehicle and in the standby position @ (5),
Since new travel information is loaded one after another, the traveling vehicle (1) can easily be made to travel in any desired travel pattern by simply replacing the travel pattern information in the higher-level control device (6) on the ground side as described above. However, the running pattern can be specified to some extent, and an example will be described next.

That is, FIG. 3 is a layout diagram of the conveyance system according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 4.5 is a plan view and a schematic structural diagram of a trolley-type unmanned vehicle. As mentioned above, several types of driving pattern information are stored in advance in the computer (31) on the driving vehicle.
Even at the timing position (32), there is no need to provide the electric wire (7) on the floor surface as in the previous example, and no equipment for guiding is provided on the floor surface. The running course (33) indicated by the dotted line in Fig.
31) shows possible routes for the vehicle based on the travel pattern stored in the ROM (34).

Communication between the higher-level control device (35) on the ground side and the vehicle (30) is carried out via wireless devices (36) (37) installed in each, and information on the destination and start/stop commands for the vehicle are communicated. , running vehicle (
30) Lifting and lowering information of the upper loading table (38), etc. are exchanged.

Next, to explain the structure of the unmanned vehicle (30) of this second embodiment, the unmanned vehicle (30) of this example has a pair of driving wheels (39) and a pair of driven wheels (41X42) at the front and rear. It has a rotating movement due to the rotation difference between the left and right drives @ (39),
A cylinder (not shown) is installed on the upper loading table (38
) is raised and lowered to receive and deliver objects such as pallets (4) to and from the pallet holder (49). A travel motor (43) and a rotary encoder (44) are coaxially connected to the drive wheel (39) as in the previous example, and each travel motor (43) and rotary encoder (44) are controlled by a computer (45) via a control device (45). 31), and the rotation of each traveling motor (43) is controlled by a control signal from the computer (31), so that the traveling vehicle (30) moves straight or turns and starts and stops.

In addition, the signal from the O-#')-encoder (44) is fed back to the computer (31), and the unmanned vehicle (30) itself moves to each reference position (SPI) (SI), which will be described later.
)2) It is possible to detect the distance traveled from...

The distance traveled is detected by the encoder (44) as in the previous example.
The pulse signals are integrated in the computer (31) and measured by comparison with distance information given in advance as the number of pulses.

(47) is a proximity switch that detects iron pieces (48) provided at appropriate stopping points (SF3) (SF3) on the driving course of the unmanned vehicle (30) and sends the detection signal to the computer (31). , to accurately confirm the stopping position. That is, the stopping point (SF3) (SF3) is a pallet loading/unloading point that requires precision positioning.

The unmanned vehicle (30) of this second embodiment has the above-described structure, and destination information is given to the vehicle (30) by radio communication from the control device (35) on the ground side. and proceed in the following order to reach the destination.

That is, the computer (31) on the unmanned vehicle (30)
) The ROM (34) in ) stores the entire travel course (33) between the pallet holders (49) on which the unmanned vehicle (30) is to travel, the intermediate point of the straight travel section, the loading and unloading of transported goods, etc. Multiple reference points (SPI) (SF3)
)...Traveling pattern information (51) for each traveling section is stored separately as shown in Figure 6, and when destination information is given from the ground side, the traveling pattern information (51) ) The computer (31) above searches and selects adjacent reference points one after another to reach the destination from the current location, and generates travel pattern information (51) between the selected adjacent reference points.
Run based on.

That is, FIG. 6 shows the ROM (3) of the computer (31).
4) is a map of information stored in 5), and for each reference point index (52), information (5
3) Also, the adjacent reference point number (54a), the reference point number (54b) that can be reached from the adjacent reference point, and the travel pattern information for traveling from each reference point to the adjacent reference point are stored. address information (54c) is stored as a set (55) as search information (54), and travel pattern information (54c) between each reference point is stored.
1) (Like the traveling pattern information in the previous example, information expressed as a function of traveling distance and traveling direction, etc.) is also stored in advance in the ROM (34) of the computer (31).

Now, for example, the unmanned vehicle (30) is at the reference point (SF3
), and the reference point "(SF3)" is given as destination information via radio.
The computer (31) displays the reference point index of the current location.
(Adjacent reference point number (54) corresponding to SF4 river (evil F)
a) and 2. Reference point number (54) reachable from the adjacent reference point.
b) Search each memory in which 1 set (55) is set,
In the reachable reference point number (54b), the target reference point “(S
F3) Adjacent reference point number r where j enters (SF3)
J is selected, and the current reference point (SF
3) to the adjacent reference point (SF3), and thereafter similarly move to the adjacent reference point r(
By setting SP June as the current reference point, the reference point (in this example, r
(SF3) Select J r (SP January), and between each reference point (SF3) ~ (SF3), (SF3) ~ (SPI
The driving pattern information (51b) for driving the engine, (SPI) to (SF3) is read from the memory. In other words, in the above example, the initial current location is (SF3)
, and the reference point index r (corresponds to SP April (IW
I! ' ) is the adjacent reference point with number r (SF3
), (SF3), (SF3)J are budded, and each number [(SF3), (SF3 ), (SP) is the reference point number that can be reached from each in June (for example, for (SF3) (SPI) (SF3) (SF3) (SF3) ) are written as a set (55), so the computer (31) is adjacent to the target reference point "(SF3)" written. The reference point 1-(SF3)J is selected.

Therefore, even when the driving route is complex and the driving patterns are extremely diverse, a series of driving information for each driving pattern (for example, in the above example, from (SF3) to (SF3), (
There is no need to store a series of information to reach (SF3) through SPI) in a large amount of memory, and R
, 0M circle, it is sufficient to store fragmentary travel pattern information between each reference point (SPI) (SF3), etc., and the number of required memories can be extremely small.

The driving pattern information read as described above (for example, in the case of the upper side (SP4 - (SF3), (SF3) - (SP
As mentioned above, the traveling information corresponding to I), (SPI) to (SF3) stores the information on the traveling distance and the traveling direction as a function, so the traveling vehicle (30) will move next time based on this information. Proceed as follows.

That is, the traveling vehicle (30) that has started receiving a start signal through radio communication first moves from the reference point (SF3) to the reference point (S
Based on the driving pattern information (51a) up to F3), go straight to the left in Figure 3, and at the point (X) where the driving distance from the reference point (SF3) reaches the read driving distance information, turn the left and right drive wheels (39 ), and the vehicle (30) begins to turn to the left.

Then, the traveling vehicle (30) continues to turn while maintaining the rotation difference between the left and right drive wheels (39) until the next travel distance point (Y), and when it reaches the point cY, the left and right drive wheels are turned again. (39) at the same rotation speed, start going straight to the next mileage point, that is, the reference point (SF3), and then go straight to the reference point (SF3).
After reaching F3), the driving pattern information (51b) between (SF3) and (Sl'l), (SPI) to (SF3
) to reach the target reference point (8132) based on the travel pattern information between the target reference point (SF3
), cargo such as pallets (4) is loaded and unloaded.

In addition, in the above example, the selected and read driving information ((S
F3) ~ (SF3) ~ (SF3) ~ (SPI
), (SPI) to (SF3)) are all initially stored in the RAM (56) of the computer (31), and are sequentially read as the traveling vehicle (30) progresses.
It read and ran from AM (56) (c), but RAM (
56) If there is a limit to the capacity of the vehicle, and the travel route covers a long distance and has many sections to pass, do not first select all the reference point sections to pass as described above. , first select the next reference point to reach the target reference point, read the information up to the reference point and start driving based on the information, and while driving until reaching the next reference point, Select and read the travel information from the next reference point to the next reference point, and store the read travel information for one section in the RAM.
(56), and when the reference point of the above method is reached, the information is read out from the RAM (56) and the driving continues.
By selecting and reading out travel information for the next travel section, automatic travel similar to the above can be achieved without any problems even with a small-capacity RAM.

In addition, depending on the capacity of R and AM, in addition to the above method, the currently running section (for example, C5P4) to (SF
3) ), two section light ((SF3) ~ (SPI
), (SPI) ~ (SF3) ) or select and read the travel information for the 3-section light travel section RAM (29
) may be stored within.

Moreover, if the ROM (34) in the computer (31) is made rewritable, the R, OM (34)
You can change the driving pattern in various ways just by rewriting the information inside.

In any case, as is clear from the above explanation, in the method for guiding an unmanned vehicle according to the present invention, based on driving information stored in advance in a computer mounted on the unmanned vehicle, Since the dogless vehicle runs automatically over the entire course, there is no need for fixed guidance equipment such as guide lines or guiding lines, and the system of the driverless vehicle can be installed even in places where the floor surface cannot be processed. be able to. In addition, there are of course inherent disadvantages when using guide wires or guide lines, such as the risk of wire breakage in the case of guide wires and the disadvantages that guidance becomes impossible if the line becomes soiled in the case of Z guide lines. do not.

Another advantage is that the actual driving pattern can be easily changed by simply changing the driving information stored in the computer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a layout diagram of the transport system according to the first embodiment, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of the unmanned vehicle, and Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of the unmanned vehicle.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of the unmanned vehicle, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the same structure, and FIG. 6 is a map of information stored in the computer's ROMn. be. (1), (30)...Unmanned vehicle, (2), (33)...Driving course, (9), (31
)...Computer, (26)...RAM. (34)...ROM, (51)...Travel pattern information, (MIXM2)/(Mn) -Memory.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An unmanned vehicle is operated based on travel information such as travel direction information and travel distance information stored in advance in a computer mounted on the unmanned vehicle that controls the travel direction and travel distance of the vehicle. A method for guiding an unmanned vehicle, which is characterized by causing the vehicle to travel automatically over the entire course.