JPH048324B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention mainly relates to article sorting equipment used to sort articles according to shipping destinations.
Specifically, a plurality of article storage sections are arranged in a plurality of rows along the longitudinal direction of a travel path of a moving vehicle for transporting articles, and a space between the moving vehicle and the article storage section is arranged. The present invention relates to article sorting equipment equipped with display means for indicating article transfer information.

[Conventional technology]

Such article sorting equipment moves a moving vehicle to an article storage section disposed along the travel path of the moving vehicle, and sorts the moving vehicle and the article storage section according to article transfer information instructed by an instruction means. The system allows goods to be transferred between the two locations.

By the way, in order to drive the mobile vehicle to the article storage section, conventionally, information on shelves (article storage sections) arranged along a predetermined traveling route is sequentially instructed and the vehicle is driven. things (e.g.
(see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 183505/1983) was known.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional means, if another moving vehicle is already working on the traveling path where the instructed shelf is located, it is necessary to wait until that moving vehicle finishes its work. In this case, there was a disadvantage that unnecessary waiting time was generated and work efficiency of the article transfer work was reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to accurately and quickly select and set another suitable travel route when there is another moving vehicle on the scheduled travel route. At the same time, it is an object of the present invention to facilitate the work of transferring goods on the above-mentioned travel route.

[Means to solve the problem]

A characteristic configuration of the article sorting equipment according to the present invention is that a traveling path setting means is provided for setting a traveling path to be worked next among the plurality of traveling paths located along the plurality of rows of the article storage section, and The display means is
The present invention is configured to sequentially display the article transfer information for the article storage sections corresponding to the travel route set by the travel route setting means, and its functions and effects are as follows. .

[Effect]

In other words, it is possible to select and set the driving route to be worked on, so while avoiding the driving path where there are already other moving vehicles and the work cannot be done, it is possible to quickly determine other empty driving paths that can be worked on and set that driving path. At the same time, on the travel route set above, the article transfer information corresponding to the travel route is sequentially displayed, and the worker can perform the transfer work according to the displayed information. Become.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Therefore, unlike conventional methods, the moving vehicle can always be driven on the appropriate route without causing unnecessary waiting time, and the display information can also be used for transfer work on the route that has been traveled. All they had to do was to do it as expected, and eventually they were able to obtain article sorting equipment that could improve the efficiency of article collection work and make the work easier.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the article sorting equipment has a plurality of article sorting sections A arranged in parallel, and each article sorting section A has articles X stored in containers such as buckets.
A vehicle B for transporting the vehicle B is provided, and a plurality of boxes 1 for storing articles as article storage sections are arranged in a plurality of rows along the longitudinal direction of the travel path of the vehicle B.

However, reference numeral 2 in the figure is a free roller for temporarily storing the articles X to be sorted by the mobile vehicle B, and is provided in a plurality of rows in each article sorting section A, respectively. Reference numeral 3 denotes an unmanned vehicle that distributes and supplies the articles X received from the article supply station 4 to each article sorting section A, and has a function of automatically traveling along a guidance line 5 based on destination information and a function of automatically traveling along a guidance line 5 based on destination information. It is equipped with a function that automatically stops at article sorting section A.

To explain the arrangement of the boxes 1 for storing articles, each article sorting section A has a plurality of moving vehicle running paths arranged in parallel, and the boxes 1 are placed on both sides of each running path. There is.

In addition, for the purpose of distributing goods as described below, there are
A number is given to identify each running path, and each running path is defined such that one end side close to the free roller 2 is called the front side, and the other end side is called the rear side.

Further, each of the boxes 1 corresponds to each shipping destination, and on the back thereof, as shown in FIG. 3, there is a tag 6 with a number for identifying the shipping destination. is placed.

As shown in FIG. 4 A and B, the moving vehicle B is
A pair of left and right idle wheels 7 are arranged at each of the front and rear ends,
It is constructed in the form of a so-called handcart, with a pair of left and right handles 8 for operation, and near the handles 8 there is a sorting course setting box 9 as a means for setting a running route. It is equipped with a switch 10, a sorting information display 11, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 5, the sorting course setting box 9 includes a plurality of setting switches 1 for setting which of the respective travel routes the vehicle is scheduled to travel on.
2. Forward entry setting switch 13A, which sets to enter from the front side of the running road, and rear entry setting switch 1, which sets to enter from the rear side of the running road.
It is equipped with 3B.

As shown in FIG. 6, the distribution information display 11 includes a shipping destination display section 11A that displays the shipping destination number.
and a pair of upper and lower quantity display sections 11B that display the quantity of articles X to be stored in the box 1 to be shipped. The reason why two quantity display sections 11B are provided is to allow two types of articles to be distributed at one time, as will be explained later.

Next, an explanation will be given while describing the control configuration.

As shown in Figure 2, there is a host controller HC that manages the operation of the entire facility, and each article sorting section A.
A sorting controller 14 for separately managing each operation and a work controller 15 for managing the operation of the unmanned vehicle 3 are provided, and the unmanned vehicle 3 is provided with an unmanned vehicle controller 16, and the moving vehicle B is provided with an unmanned vehicle controller 16. A mobile vehicle controller 17 is provided respectively.

The host controller HC stores order data 18 issued by a customer, etc., and warehousing data 19 of goods to be stocked in accordance with the contents of the order data 18.
At the same time, information on the arrangement of the boxes 1 for storing articles provided in each article sorting section A is also input.

Then, the host controller HC provides unmanned vehicle work data for distributing the received articles Create work data for the moving vehicle as article transfer information for distributing the articles, output the work data for the unmanned vehicle to the work controller 15, and output the work data for the moving vehicle to the work data storage means 20. do.

By the way, the equipment in this example can handle one type of article
Each time an item is stored, the item The work data for unmanned vehicles is created when the item will be done.
Therefore, the work data for unmanned vehicles is created in such a way that the product sorting section A to which the product It is created in such a way that the types and quantities of items to be stored in 1 are made clear.

Note that each article X is attached with a barcode to clarify the type of article ing.

The work controller 15 is equipped with a communication device 21A such as an optical type and an ID communication device 22, and can provide destination information using the communication device 21B connected to the controller 16 on the unmanned vehicle side. The device is configured to provide article distribution information to the ID card 23 attached to the device.

Incidentally, the ID card 23 includes an antenna section for communication, a memory, and a controller for control, and communicates with the work controller 15 using the ID communication unit 22 described above.

The work data storage means 20 performs a process of storing mobile vehicle work data corresponding to each article sorting section A in a storage medium FD such as a floppy disk.

Sorting controller 1 of each article sorting section A
4 includes a work data reading means 24 for reading information stored in the storage medium FD by the work data storage means 20, an ID communication unit 25,
Display panel 26 such as CRT, barcode reader 27,
A card writer 29 is provided for each IC card 28.

Here, to roughly explain the distribution of goods by the unmanned vehicle 3, when the unmanned vehicle 3 receives the goods X at the goods supply station 4, destination information and goods distribution information are transmitted to the unmanned vehicle side. . Then, as the unmanned vehicle 3 travels to the desired article sorting section A and stops, the article distribution amount stored in the ID card 23 is read by the sorting controller 14 through the ID communication unit 25, and the read information is displayed. It will be displayed on the board 26.

Therefore, the worker performs the work of taking out the displayed quantity onto the free roller 2, and when the taking out work is completed, the unmanned vehicle 3 is restarted.

The relaunched unmanned vehicle 3 is transferred to the next article sorting section A.
When all the work is completed, the machine returns to the article supply station 4.

The article sorting section A will be explained below.

The article sorting work is carried out by loading one or two types of articles X onto a moving vehicle B and distributing the articles
Every time an article Staff members will be responsible for distributing supplies.

That is, the storage medium FD created by the work data storage means 20 is transferred to the work data reading means 24.
By setting the sorting controller 14 to , the sorting controller 14 receives the work data for the mobile vehicle created by the host controller HC functioning as the work data creation means 100.

When the worker loads article X onto moving vehicle B, when the barcode reader 27 reads the barcode of one article 26, and the article information for the article X is stored in the IC card 28 using the card writer 29.

The IC card 28 includes a controller a for read/write control, a ROMb, and a RAMc.

When loading only one type of article Of course, you can do it twice.

When the loading work of item
The article distribution information read at 0 is input to the mobile controller 17.

Incidentally, the work data for the moving vehicle created by the host controller HC is transmitted to the moving vehicle using the storage medium FD and IC card 28 via the sorting host controller 14, as described above. There is, but the host controller HC
and the sorting controller 14 can be considered as one controller for sorting articles, and the data transmission means 101 in the present invention
In this example, an IC card 28 is used as a storage medium, a card writer 29 functions as a writing means for writing data to the IC card 28,
and a card reader 30 that functions as a reading means for reading data from the IC card 28.

The mobile vehicle controller 17 selects one of the traveling routes to be entered based on the article distribution information inputted as described above, the traveling route number information and the approach start position information of the traveling route inputted by the worker at a timely manner. in,
The shipping destination number and the quantity of goods corresponding to the box 1 that requires distribution of goods and is located closest to the approach start position are displayed using the distribution information display 11, and the work is performed with one display. Each time the completion switch 10 is operated as the process is completed, the box 1 closest to the previously displayed box 1 will be displayed in the same manner as described above. Of course, once the distribution for one running route is completed, the display for another running route will be performed in the same manner as described above.

Therefore, using the mobile vehicle controller 17, the display means 102 for displaying information on distribution of articles to the boxes 1 based on the information from the data transmission means 101 is constructed.

The operation of the mobile vehicle B will be explained while describing the control operation of the mobile vehicle controller 17 based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

That is, it checks whether or not the IC card 28 is set, and if it is set, the work data reading process is executed.

Thereafter, the operating state of the sorting course setting box 9 is read, and a process for operating the distribution information display 11 is executed based on the read data and work data.

Next, the operating state of the completion switch 10 is repeatedly checked and the operator waits until the distribution work for one box 1 is completed.

When the work is completed, it is checked whether there is any remaining work on the current travel route, and if there is any remaining work, each process from the operation process of the distribution information display 11 is executed.

If there is no remaining work, it is checked whether there is any remaining work on another route, and if there is remaining work, each process starts from the process of reading the operating status of the sorting course setting box 9. Execute.

[Another example]

In carrying out the present invention, a configuration may be adopted in which three or more types of articles X can be loaded onto the moving vehicle B, so that the multiple types of articles X can be distributed all at once. In that case, the mobile vehicle B may be equipped with a drive device for propulsion.

In addition to box 1, a shelf is provided as an article storage section.
The specific configuration of the article storage section can be changed in various ways depending on the purpose of use, such as using each shelf part of the shelf as an article storage section.

As the data transmission means 101, various modifications can be made, such as using the communication used in the unmanned vehicle 3 of the above-mentioned embodiment. Furthermore, when using a storage medium as in the embodiment, various types of storage media such as magnetic disks, optical disks, etc. can be used in addition to the IC card 28, and the writing means 29 and reading means 30 are used depending on the storage medium to be used. Various types can be used according to your needs.

Further, in the above embodiment, a plurality of article sorting sections A
Although the case where the apparatus is provided with an article sorting section A has been exemplified, it may be implemented in a form where one article sorting section A is provided.

Alternatively, the moving vehicle may be equipped with an article transfer device to automatically transfer the articles from the moving vehicle to the article storage section 1.

Incidentally, although reference numerals are written in the claims section for convenient comparison with the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the structure shown in the accompanying drawings.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the article sorting equipment according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the article sorting equipment, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the control configuration, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an article storage container. Figures 4A and 4B are side and front views of the moving vehicle, Figure 5 is a plan view of the sorting course setting box, Figure 6 is a plan view of the distribution information display,
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the control operation. 1... Goods storage section, 9... Running route setting means, 1
02...display means, B...mobile vehicle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of article storage units 1 arranged along the longitudinal direction of the traveling path of the moving vehicle B for transporting articles.
are arranged in a plurality of rows and are provided with display means 102 for instructing article transfer information between the moving vehicle B and the article storage section 1, Traveling route setting means 9 is provided for setting the traveling route to be worked next among the plurality of traveling routes located along a plurality of rows, and the display means 102 is set by the traveling route setting means 9. The article sorting equipment is configured to sequentially display the article transfer information for the article storage section 1 corresponding to the travel route.