JPH031682B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an automated guided vehicle that provides a traveling route for an automated guided vehicle by scanning a light beam, and guides and controls the automated guided vehicle while grasping information held by the automated guided vehicle. Concerning a car information transmission device.

The present inventor has previously filed a patent application for the results of research into a technology for guiding an automatic guided vehicle along a route obtained by scanning a light beam. (Japanese Patent Application No. 55-141306 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-59804)).

Today, however, it is not only possible to simply guide an automatic guided vehicle based on scanning light beams, but also to transmit various control commands to the automatic guided vehicle, such as speed control commands, stop or start commands, and destination address commands. At the same time, there is a need to understand and control information held by automatic guided vehicles, such as battery consumption status, vehicle number, type and weight of loaded cargo, etc., but conventional technology does not satisfy this requirement. It wasn't something.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to provide a travel route for an automatic guided vehicle by scanning a light beam, and to guide and control the automatic guided vehicle while grasping the information held by the automatic guided vehicle. Information transmission device for automatic guided vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the device of the present invention)
is intended to provide.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram for explaining the principle of the apparatus of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 100 is a command control unit provided at a fixed position above the route, and 200
3 is an automatic guided vehicle, and 300 is a response control unit provided in the automatic guided vehicle 200. The device of the present invention includes a command control unit 100 and a response control unit 300.

In FIG. 1A, the command control unit 100 is provided with a light beam scanning means that scans a light beam to determine the traveling route of the automatic guided vehicle. The light beam scanning means includes a light beam generator 110 and a rotating mirror 120. Further, between the light beam generator 110 and the rotary mirror 120, there is provided a light beam modulating means for modulating the light beam LB1 generated from the light beam generator 110 based on the information to be transmitted to the automatic guided vehicle. A beam modulator 130 is provided. Furthermore, the command control unit 10
0 includes a command controller 150 as a command control means.
A transmission signal generator 140 is provided as transmission signal generating means for receiving a control signal, converting it into a predetermined transmission signal, and applying the same to the optical beam modulator 130. This transmission signal generator 140 is a command controller 1
50 is converted into a transmission signal consisting of a predetermined pulse code, for example. Furthermore, the command control unit 100 detects the light beam LB3 reflected and returned from the automatic guided vehicle via the rotating mirror 120, and transmits the detection output to the command controller 15.
0 (hereinafter simply referred to as the detector 16).
0).

Note that 700 is on the ground, 200 is an automatic guided vehicle traveling on route 700, 310 is a detector, 350 is a corner cube, and 360 is a light beam modulation means.

Next, the configuration of the response control section 300 provided in the automatic guided vehicle 200 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1B.

In FIG. 1B, 310 is an automatic guided vehicle 200
A response control unit side light beam detection means (hereinafter simply referred to as detector 310) is provided at a predetermined position of the light beam and serves as a light beam detection means for detecting a scanned light beam. Consists of. In addition, in this embodiment, the detector 310 has two detectors as described later.
It consists of several detectors.

On the other hand, 320 is a traveling route detection means for detecting the traveling route drawn by the light beam based on the output from the detector 310, and 330 is a means for detecting a transmission signal given from the command control unit 100 based on the output from the detector 310. This is a transmission signal detection means.

Reference numeral 340 denotes a response signal generator as a response signal generating means that converts a signal from the storage device 500 of the automatic guided vehicle into a response signal consisting of a predetermined pulse code and outputs the response signal.

A corner cube 350 is provided close to the detector 310 and serves as a light beam reflecting means for receiving a scanned light beam and reflecting it in the same direction as the incident light beam. A light beam 360 is provided on the optical axis of the light beam reflected by the corner cube 350 and shifted by a bypass means to be described later, and modulates the light beam based on the response signal given from the response signal generator 340. It is a beam modulation means. Further, 400 is a steering device, and 500 is a storage device.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative diagram of the parts related to the light beam among the components of the command control section 100.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram showing the configuration near the light beam generator 110 more specifically than in FIG.
Components that are the same as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the figure, 170 is a frame that covers the rotary mirror 120, the lower surface and one side of which have openings for passing the light beam, and the upper surface of which has the light beam modulator 130 attached. There is. A light beam generator 110 is attached at a position in front of the frame 170 at a predetermined distance. On the surface of the light beam generator 110 where the light beam irradiation port (not shown) is located, as shown in FIG.
is installed. Such a detector 160 is formed of, for example, a solar cell. Or detector 1
60 may be a phototransistor or a photodiode. Note that the detector 160 is connected to the command controller 150, as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
The motor 12 is attached to the rotating shaft of the motor 12.
1 can be rotated or rotated by a predetermined angle.

The light beam modulator 130 shown in FIG.
LB1 is modulated to output a modulated light beam LB2, which is incident on the rotating mirror 120. The light beam modulator 130 is constituted by, for example, an acousto-optic modulator as shown in FIG. That is,
Transmission signal 13 to be given to the automatic guided vehicle to the piezoelectric element 132 attached to one end of the glass body 131
3, the glass body 131 transmits the transmitted signal 133
As a result, the light beam LB1 incident on the glass body 131 is diffracted according to the transmitted signal and becomes, for example, 0th-order diffracted light 134. and a first-order diffraction hole 135 is generated. Therefore, the transmitted signal 1
33 as appropriate, the diffracted light will turn on and off following this, so if a pulse signal appropriately coded is used as the transmission signal, it will not be affected by the first-order diffracted light 135 that follows this. It can be obtained as a modulated light beam LB2. As a result, as shown in Figure A, the modulated light beam LB2 output from the light beam modulator 130 is
, which is reflected and scanned.

Furthermore, LB3 shown in A of the same figure is a modulated light beam reflected from an automatic guided vehicle.
LB3 is reflected by the rotating mirror 120 and sent to the detector 1
60.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the traveling route detecting means 320 and the transmission signal detecting means 330. That is, the traveling route detecting means 320 shown in FIG. Discrimination circuit 323 to connect
It consists of

The discrimination circuit 323 discriminates the signals given from the amplifier circuits 321 and 322, as will be described later, and controls the steering device 400.

On the other hand, the transmission signal detection means 330 shown in FIG.
A pulse counting circuit 33 inputs the transmission signal from the filter circuit 331 and counts the number of pulses thereof.
2, and a pulse code setter 333 in which the input signal from the pulse counting circuit 332 and a pulse code constituting a predetermined transmission signal are stored and set in advance.
It is comprised of an identification circuit 334 that compares and identifies the input from the automatic guided vehicle and provides a control signal corresponding to the input signal to the storage device 500 of the automatic guided vehicle.

FIG. 4 is an illustrative view of the corner cube 350. In the figure, a corner cube 350 reflects a light beam 351 incident thereon at an inclination angle θ as a light beam 351' that is symmetrical with respect to its center point and has the same inclination angle θ. Therefore, the light beam 352 incident perpendicularly thereto is reflected as a light beam 352' which is also symmetrical and perpendicular to the center point. Furthermore, the light beam 353 incident on the center core 40 of the corner cube 350 is reflected along the same optical axis. An example of the corner cube 350 is a prism for laser theodolite (manufactured by Tokyo Kogaku).

FIG. 5 is an illustrative diagram of a light beam modulation means using a light beam bypass means as a preferred embodiment of the light beam modulation means 360 provided in the response control section 300. In the same figure, 361 is a half mirror, and this half mirror 361 is installed above the corner cube 350 so as to be parallel to it, and allows the modulated light beam LB2 incident from the command control section 100 to pass through. The modulated light beam reflected from the corner cube 350 is not transmitted but is reflected. And half mirror 36
The modulated light beam reflected by the half mirror 3
The light beam is reflected again by a total reflection mirror 362 mounted below and parallel to the light beam 61 and enters a light beam modulator 363 . The modulated light beam LB2 is transmitted to a response signal generator 3 as described later.
It is further modulated based on the response signal from 40. As a result, the modulated light beam LB3 reaches the command control unit 100 with a different optical axis from the modulated light beam LB2.
It will be reflected towards.

Here, the laser beam modulator 363 has the same configuration as the laser beam modulator 130 as described above, but when the amount of information of the response signal is relatively small, the response signal generator 340 The total reflection mirror 362 is rotated or rotated by a synchronous motor driven based on a given response signal, which is attached to the rotating shaft and has a predetermined circular hole or slit. It may be a modulator that modulates the reflected modulated light beam by intermittently blocking it.

Next, the operation of the information transmission device for an automatic guided vehicle will be explained.

That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the laser beam generator 110 irradiates a highly directional laser beam LB1 toward the laser beam modulator 130 through the small hole 161 of the detector 160.

On the other hand, the command control unit 150 receives a detection output from the detector 160 or a command from a central control unit 600 that is provided separately in relation to the command control unit 100, and sends a predetermined control signal (for example, a battery voltage check to the automatic guided vehicle). A signal for causing the transmission to occur) is provided to the transmission signal generator 140. Transmission signal generator 14
0 generates a predetermined transmission signal (for example, four consecutive pulse signals with a short pulse width) consisting of coded pulses based on the input control signal, and transmits this to the piezoelectric element 132 of the laser beam modulator 130. give to As a result, the laser beam LB1 incident on the laser beam modulator 130 is modulated by the transmitted signal.

FIG. 6 is a waveform diagram of the modulated light beam, and as described above, A in the figure is the modulated light beam LB2 modulated by the transmission signal. Portion A in the figure is a portion corresponding to the transmission signal. A modulated light beam output from the laser beam modulator 130
LB2 is reflected by the rotary mirror 120 and is scanned, for example, on the ground 700.
The route that the automatic guided vehicle 200 should travel is drawn.

On the other hand, if we consider a case where the modulated light beam LB2 is scanning the detector 310 and corner cube 350 attached to a predetermined position of the automatic guided vehicle 200 that is to travel along a route drawn on the ground 700, Based on the detection output of the detector 310, the travel route detection means 320 and the transmission signal detection means 330 operate.

First, the operation of the travel route detection means 320 will be explained. As shown in FIG.
The detection outputs of detectors 311 and 312 arranged in a direction intersecting the path constituting 0 are amplified by amplifier circuits 321 and 322, respectively, and given to a discrimination circuit 323. The determination circuit 323 generates a signal indicating whether the automatic guided vehicle 200 should be steered to the left or right based on the detection outputs amplified by the amplifier circuits 321 and 322. When it is determined that the modulated light beam LB2 is detected at the boundary between the detectors 311 and 312,
No steering signal is generated.

The output signal of this discrimination circuit 323 is then given to the steering device 400 included in the automatic guided vehicle 200. The steering device 400 causes the automatic guided vehicle 200 to travel along a preset route by steering the automatic guided vehicle left or right based on the output of the discrimination circuit 323.

Next, the operation of the transmission signal detection means 330 will be explained. As shown in FIG. 3B, the detector 31
The detection outputs 1 and 312 are added and input to a filter circuit 331, where a transmission signal consisting of a plurality of pulses from which the DC component is removed is input to a pulse counting circuit 332. and pulse counting circuit 33
2 provides its count output to the identification circuit 334. The identification circuit 334 compares the count output of the pulse counting circuit 332 with a plurality of pulse codes preset in the pulse code setter 333,
This is identified, and when this count output matches any pulse code, a predetermined control command (for example, a battery voltage check command) corresponding to the pulse code is sent to the storage device 500 of the automatic guided vehicle 200 ( (for example, a battery check device).

Next, from the automatic guided vehicle 200 to the command control unit 100
To explain the operation in response to, for example, suppose that a battery check device, which is one of the storage devices 500, checks the voltage based on the battery voltage check command and detects an abnormal voltage. The device sends a signal indicating the abnormal value to the response signal generator 340 (see FIG. 1B). Response signal generator 3
40 is a response signal consisting of a pulse code corresponding to the signal indicating the abnormal value (for example, 3 with a long pulse width).
continuous pulse signals) are applied to the laser beam modulation means 363. The modulated light beam LB2 being scanned is reflected by the corner cube 350 and enters the laser beam modulation means 363 as shown in FIG. The light is modulated again by the light beam and reflected to the command control unit 100 as a modulated light beam LB3 shown in FIG. 6B. The response signal generator 340 is controlled by the output of the filter circuit 331 of the transmission signal detection means 330 in order to avoid that the B section shown in the figure overlaps the A section corresponding to the response signal.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the modulated light beam LB3 that has been reflected and modulated in this manner enters the command control section 100 and is reflected by its rotating mirror 120. incident on the detector 160. Detector 160 provides its detection output to command controller 150. As a result, the command controller 150 notifies the central controller 600 of the content of the response signal, for example, that the battery voltage is an abnormal value, and issues the next instruction (for example, stop at the next station).
or provide the instructions directly to the transmission signal generator 140. The transmission signal generator 140 that has received the control command gives a transmission signal corresponding to the command to the laser beam modulator 130, so that the new control command is transmitted to the automatic guided vehicle 200.
is issued.

Since the above-described operations are repeated, the automatic guided vehicle 200 is guided and controlled by transmitting information to the automatic guided vehicle 200.

As is clear from the above description of the embodiments of the device of the present invention, the information transmission device for an automatic guided vehicle according to the present invention not only allows the automatic guided vehicle to travel along a route, but also uses the storage device of the automatic guided vehicle. Since it is possible to grasp the state of the automatic guided vehicle and give corresponding control commands to the automatic guided vehicle, the automatic guided vehicle can be controlled appropriately and quickly, so it has extremely high practical value.

In addition, although a laser beam is used as a scanning signal in the embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and visible light or other light beams may be used.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram for explaining the principle of the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an illustrative diagram of each component of the command control section, and Fig. 3 is an embodiment of the traveling route detecting means and the transmission signal detecting means. Figure 4 is an illustration of the corner cube.
FIG. 5 is an illustrative diagram of one embodiment of a laser beam modulation means provided in an automatic guided vehicle, and FIG. 6 is a waveform diagram of a modulated light beam. 100... Command control unit, 110... Laser beam generator, 120... Rotating mirror, 130... Laser beam modulator, 140... Transmission signal generator,
150...command controller 160...detector, 200
...Automated guided vehicle, 300...Response control unit, 310
...Detector, 320...Travel route detection means, 35
0... Corner cube, 360... Laser beam modulation means, 361... Half mirror, 362...
Total reflection mirror, 363...Laser beam modulator,
400...Steering device, 500...Storage device, 60
0... Central control device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an information transmission device for an automatic guided vehicle that guides and controls an automatic guided vehicle traveling along a route, the information transmission device for the automatic guided vehicle is provided at a fixed position above the route. It includes a command control unit and a response control unit provided in the automatic guided vehicle, and the command control unit controls the automatic guided vehicle by scanning the ground by reflecting a light beam generated from a light beam generator with a rotating mirror. a light beam scanning means for providing a travel route; a light beam modulating means for modulating the light beam based on a transmission signal to be given to the automatic guided vehicle; a transmission signal generation means for supplying a transmission signal to a light beam modulation signal; a command control means for supplying a predetermined control signal to the transmission signal generation means; a command control section side light beam detection means having a hole and detecting the light beam reflected and returned from the automatic guided vehicle via the rotary mirror and providing the detection output to the command control means; The response control section is provided at a predetermined position of the automatic guided vehicle, and includes a response control section beam detection means for detecting the scanned light beam, and an output from the response control section side light beam detection means. a traveling route detecting means for detecting along the traveling route by determining and generating a steering signal and controlling the steering device based on the steering signal; and based on the output from the light beam detecting means on the response control section side. a transmission signal detection means for detecting a transmission signal given from the command control unit; a response signal generation means for receiving information held in a storage device of the automatic guided vehicle, converting the same into a response signal, and outputting the same;
a light beam reflection means that is provided close to the light beam detection means and that receives the scanned light beam and reflects it in the same direction as the incident light beam;
A light beam that is provided on an optical axis obtained by shifting the light beam reflected by the light beam reflection means by a bypass means, and modulates the light beam based on a response signal given from the response signal generation means. The light beam modulation means provided in the response control section is an acousto-optic effect modulator, and the light beam modulation means provided in the command control section is a light beam modulation means provided in the light beam generator. The bypass means is provided with a half mirror that allows a part of the scanned light beam to pass through, and a half mirror that reflects the light beam reflected by the reflection means, and a half mirror that reflects the light beam reflected by the reflection means, and a half mirror that reflects the light beam reflected by the reflection means. 1. An information transmission device for an automatic guided vehicle, characterized in that the light beam reflecting means is a corner cube having a property of reflecting incident light in the same direction as the incident direction.