JPS6331902A - Trouble restoration handling system in automatic warehousing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform trouble restoring operation in a semiautomatic manner, by installing a storage device of a containment vessel, where materials are housed, and a conveyor device for this containment vessel, while storing storage places and conveying conditions of this containment vessel in memory by a conveyor device controlling device, and controlling the conveyor device. CONSTITUTION:When trouble happens, a trouble restoration handling system to be controlled by a computer 7 on the basis of information in a magnetic disc device 9 from a terminal 8 is started by an operator. If so, inquiry information inquiring whether a containment vessel 5 is loaded on a stacker crane 3 or not is first transmitted to a stacker crane controller 2 from a computer system 1. On the basis of this inquiry information, whether the containment 5 is placed on the crane 3 or not is judged. And, when it is on the crane, delivery operation takes place, but when it is none, it is inquired to a warehousing stack inside a stack rack 6, and when stock is the case, the delivery operation is carried out. Thus, trouble restoration operation is performed in a semiautomatic manner, and labor-saving comes to fruition in this way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a failure recovery processing method in an automated warehouse system, and more particularly to a failure recovery processing method in an automated warehouse system having a computer online controlled stacker crane.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in the fault recovery processing method for this type of automated warehouse system, the computer online controlled stacker crane performs loading and unloading operations based on instructions from the computer system, and there is no need to worry about failures occurring in the computer system, stacker crane, lines, etc. When the automated warehouse system is stopped, print information of the final operation instruction contents is output based on the stacker crane operation instruction history file held in the external storage device of the computer system.

The operator of the automated warehouse system manually completes the operation of the stacker crane based on this printed information, and then restarts the operation of the automated warehouse system.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the above-mentioned failure recovery processing method in the conventional automated warehouse system, when the number of stacker cranes increases, the operation of the stacker cranes is completed in 1,000 ε based on the printed information G of the final operation instruction before the failure occurred. The disadvantage is that a large number of workers are required to complete the work in a short time because it requires complicated work.

Considering the industry's objective of reducing labor costs, it is desirable to save labor in trouble recovery work in automated warehouse systems.

An object of the present invention is to provide a failure recovery processing method for an automated warehouse system that can semi-automatically perform failure recovery work in an automated warehouse system and achieve labor savings, in view of the above-mentioned points. be.

[Means for solving problems]

The failure recovery processing method in the automated warehouse system of the present invention includes: a storage means for storing a storage container in which materials are stored; a conveyance means for transporting the storage container in which materials are stored; and a storage container in which the materials are stored. and a conveyance means control means for storing the storage location and conveyance status of the conveyance means and controlling the conveyance means.

[Operation] In the failure recovery processing method in the automated warehouse system of the present invention, the storage means stores the storage container in which materials are stored, the transport means transports the storage container in which the materials are stored, and the transport means control means transports the storage container in which materials are stored. Is it possible to memorize the storage location and transportation status of the containment vessel in which the materials are stored and control the transportation method? 111.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the M plane.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a failure recovery processing method in an automated warehouse system of the present invention. The failure recovery processing method in the automated warehouse system of this embodiment consists of a convenience store system l that transmits various instruction information to the stacker crane control device 2 via a line, and storage of the containment vessel 5 in the stacker rack 6. Sequence control of the stacker crane 3 based on instruction information transmitted from the computer stem 1 by storing the location and transport status of the containment vessel 5 (management of the Sukusokaranok 6 by controlling a series of operations for transporting the containment vessel 5) ) and reports the completion of the operation of the stacker crane 3 to the computer system l, and the containment vessel 5 according to instructions from the stacker crane control device 2.
The stacker crane 3 transports the storage container 5 to be loaded into the stacker crane 3, and the storage container 5 is transported by the stacker crane 3 to a necessary point for unloading the storage container 5 from the warehouse. A conveyor 4 for storing materials, a storage container 5 for storing materials, and a plurality of shelves for storing the storage container 5 (each column has a unique number, and each of these shelves can be used as an incoming shelf or an outgoing shelf). 6).

Note that the stacker crane 3 and conveyor 4, which are shown only one in the figure, each exist in 11B and have fixed numbers.

The computer system 1 includes a computer 7 that performs data processing, a terminal on which a worker activates the failure recovery processing method in the automated warehouse system of this embodiment, and
It is configured to include a magnetic disk device 9 that stores various indicator holders.

Referring to FIG. 2, the processing of the fault recovery processing method in the automatic warehouse system of the present embodiment includes a step 11 of determining whether or not the containment vessels are loaded on the stacker crane, a step 12 of determining the presence or absence of the containment vessel on the stacker crane, Immediately before failure instruction re-instruction step 13 and Immediately before failure instruction determination step 1
4, step 15 for determining the presence or absence of storage containers in storage shelves, step 16 for determining the presence or absence of storage containers in storage shelves, step 17 for issuing the next storage/retrieval instruction, and step 1 for issuing instructions for storage immediately before failure.
8, Step 19 for determining the presence or absence of storage containers in the shipping shelf, Step 20 for determining the presence or absence of storage containers in the shipping shelf, Step 2 for outputting a shipping instruction immediately before a failure, and Step 2 for outputting a next loading/unloading instruction.
It consists of 2.

Referring to FIG. 3, the stacker crane 3 receives unloading instruction information (the number of the container 4,
It includes information indicating the number of the stacker crane 3 and the number of the delivery shelf in the stacker crane. If the unloading operation is stopped due to a failure immediately after the start of the unloading operation (before the containment vessel 5 is loaded onto the stacker crane 3), the failure recovery process performed by the computer system 1 and the Sukunoka crane control device 2 is as follows: , a step 31 of checking the presence or absence of containment vessels on the stacker crane, a step 32 of detecting the loading of the containment vessels on the stacker crane, a step 33 of determining the presence or absence of containment vessels on the delivery shelf, a step 34 of detecting the presence or absence of containment containers in the delivery shelf, and a step 31 for detecting the presence or absence of containment vessels on the stacker crane. Step 35: Output I notice
and an unloading operation step 36.

Referring to FIG. 4, the stacker crane 3 receives warehousing instruction information (conhair number 4,
It includes information indicating the number of the stacker crane 3 and the number of the receiving shelf in the stacker rack 6. The failure recovery process performed by the computer system 1 and the stacker crane control device 2 when the computer system 1 and the stacker crane control device 2 stop due to a failure immediately after the completion of the warehousing operation based on the following) is a step 41 of adjusting the loading/unloading capacity of the containment vessel on the Sukusoka crane. A step 42 for detecting storage container loading on the stacker crane, a step 43 for arranging the presence or absence of a storage container in the storage shelf, a step 44 for detecting storage containers in the storage shelf, and a step 45 for issuing the next storage/unloading instruction.
It consists of a loading/unloading operation step 46.

Note that step 11, step 31, step 41, step 15, step 43. Step 17 and Step 4
5. Step 19 and step 33 and step 21 and step 35 respectively indicate the same processing.

Next, the operation of the failure recovery processing method in the automated warehouse system configured as described above will be explained.

If a failure occurs and the automated warehouse system stops,
The fault recovery processing method in the automatic warehouse system of this embodiment, which is controlled by the computer 7, is activated from the terminal 8 by the operator of the automatic warehouse system based on the information fG4 in the magnetic disk device 9.

When this startup is performed, the computer system 1 sends timing information to the stacker crane control device 2 that specifies the number of the stacker crane 3 and inquires whether the containment vessel 5 is loaded on the stacker crane 3. is transmitted (step 11. step 31 or step 41).

Based on this timing information, it is determined whether the containment vessel 5 is on the stacker crane 3 (step 12).

In the example of FIGS. 3 and 4, in this determination, the stacker crane control device 2 detects that the containment vessel 5 is not on the stacker crane 3 (step 32 or step 42).

It is determined in step 12 that the containment vessel 5 is the stacker crane 3.
The stacker crane control device 2 transmits response information to that effect (including the number of the stacker crane 3 and information indicating that the containment vessel 5 is loaded) to the computer system 1. If
Immediately after the containment vessel 5 is transferred from the container 4 to the stacker crane 3 based on the storage instruction information, or immediately after the containment vessel 5 is transferred from the delivery shelf to the stacker crane 3 based on the storage instruction information, the stacker crane 3 is stopped due to a failure. Since it is in a stopped state, the same instruction information as the warehousing instruction information or the warehousing instruction information that was transmitted immediately before the failure is transmitted from the computer system 1 to the stacker crane control device 2 again (if the warehousing/unloading operation is in progress) (The operation is restarted from the middle using the same instruction information) (Step 13).

It is determined in step 12 that the containment vessel 5 is the stacker crane 3.
The stacker crane controller 2 transmits response information to that effect (including the number of the stacker crane 3 and information indicating that the containment vessel 5 is not loaded) from the stacker crane controller 2 to the computer system 1. If so, it is determined whether the instruction information transmitted from the computer system 1 to the stacker crane 3 immediately before the failure is warehousing instruction information or warehousing instruction information (step 14).
.

If this judgment indicates that the information is warehousing instruction information, it is time to inquire whether or not the containment vessel 5 is stored on the warehousing shelf specified by the warehousing instruction information by specifying the number of the stacker crane 3 and the number of the warehousing shelf. Information is transmitted from the computer system 1 to the stacker crane controller 2 (step 15 or step 43).

Based on the reply information based on this makeshift information (including information indicating the number of the stacker crane 3, the number of the storage shelf, and the presence or absence of the storage container 5), it is determined whether or not the storage container 5 is stored on the storage shelf. A determination is made (step 16).

In the example of FIG. 4, in this determination, the stacker crane control device 2 detects that the storage container 5 is within the storage shelf (step 44).

If it is determined in step 16 that the containment vessel 5 is stored, this means that the storage operation of the stacker crane 3 based on the storage instruction information immediately before the failure has been completed, so the next storage instruction information or removal instruction information is 1 to the stacker crane control device 2 (step 1
7 or step 45).

In the example of FIG. 4, the stacker crane control device 2 to which this new instruction information has been transmitted controls the operation of the stacker crane 3 based on the instruction information (step 46).

If the containment vessel 5 is not stored in the judgment in step 16, this may be because the warehousing instruction information immediately before the failure has not been received by the stacker crane control device 2 due to the failure, or the stacker crane 3 has started operation even though it was received. Since the stacker crane 3 has stopped immediately (before loading the storage capacity 1ts5) and the warehousing operation has not been completed, the same instruction information as the warehousing instruction information transmitted immediately before the failure is sent again from the computer system 1 to the stacker crane control. transmitted to device 2 (step 18).

If it is determined in step 14 that the shipping instruction information is the shipping instruction information, an inquiry is made as to whether the storage container 5 is stored on the shipping shelf designated by the shipping instruction information by specifying the number of the stacker crane 3 and the shipping shelf number. The timing information is transmitted from the computer system 1 to the stacker crane control device 2 (step 19 or step 33).

Based on the response information based on this timing information (including the number of the stacker crane 3, the number of the shipping shelf, and information indicating the presence or absence of the storage container 5), it is determined whether or not the storage container 5 is stored on the shipping shelf. (step 20).

In the example of FIG. 3, in this determination, the stacker crane control device 2 detects that the storage container 5 is within the delivery shelf (step 34).

If it is determined in step 20 that the containment vessel 5 is stored, the stacker crane 3 starts operating because the exit instruction information immediately before the failure was not received by the stacker crane control device 2 due to the failure, or even though it was received. Since the stacker crane 3 stopped immediately (before loading the containment vessel 5) and the unloading operation of the stacker crane 3 has not yet been completed, the same instruction information as the unloading instruction information transmitted immediately before the failure is sent from the computer system l again to the stacker crane controller. ? 111 transmitted to device 2 (step 21 or step 35).

In the example of FIG. 3, the stacker crane control device 2 to which this unloading instruction information is transmitted controls the operation of the stacker crane 3 based on the unloading instruction information (step 36
)a If the containment vessel 5 is not stored in the determination in step 20, the operation of the stacker crane 3 based on the unloading instruction information immediately before the failure has been completed, so the next warehousing instruction information or unloading instruction information is It is transmitted from the Yuk system 1 to the stacker crane control device 2 (step 22
).

The above-mentioned processing is performed for all the stacker cranes 3 in the automated warehouse system, the fault is recovered, and the operation of the automated warehouse system is restarted.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention enables automatic warehouse storage by making it possible to ascertain the completion status of the operation of a computer online controlled stacker crane in response to the loading/unloading instruction information immediately before the occurrence of a failure, without the operator's intervention. This has the effect of making it possible to semi-automatically and smoothly perform system failure recovery work and transition to normal operation, thereby achieving labor savings.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing of the failure recovery processing method in the automated warehouse system shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is the computer shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the processing between the system and the stacker crane control device. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of the processing between the computer system and the stacker crane control device in FIG. In the figure, 1... Computer system, 2... Stunker crane control device, 3... Stacker crane, 4... Conhair, 5... Containment vessel, 6... Stacker rank, 7...・Computer, 8...terminal, 9...magnetic disk device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Storage means for storing a storage container in which materials are stored; transportation means for transporting the storage container in which materials are stored; and storage location and transportation status of the storage container in which materials are stored. A failure recovery processing method in an automated warehouse system, comprising: a conveyance means control means that stores information and controls the conveyance means.