TRANSPORT SYSTEM AND TRANSPORT METHOD

• US 20090208313A1
• Filed: 04/25/2007
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Murata Machinery Limited (Muratec), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corporation (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Murata Machinery Limited (Muratec), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corporation (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Hayashi, Takao, Kawano, Hiromichi, Sone, Hiroki, Yamada, Yoshinori, Kobayashi, Toyokazu, Inoue, Akiya, Tsujino, Masayuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,019,468 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 414/222.20
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

A transport scenario composed of a basic transport (From) from a transport starting point to, e.g., a buffer near the transport destination point and a basic transport (To) from the buffer to the transport destination point is created in response to a transport request of a production controller for transport whose loading times at the transport starting point and at the transport destination point are specified. The buffer is reserved so as to perform the basic transport (From) and the basic transport (To), transport vehicles are allocated, the travel time to the transport starting point or the buffer and the travel time from the transport starting point or the buffer are estimated, and transport instructions are given to the transport vehicles. The possibility that the loading times are out of the specified period is evaluated. If the possibility is larger, the impossibility of a just-in-time transport is notified to the production controller.

Claims

1. A transport system for transporting an article between a plurality of processing devices by a plurality of transport vehicles, the system comprising:

estimating means for estimating times at which the transport vehicles complete allocated transport instructions by setting down,

means for managing transport vehicles that will become empty in the future based on the times at which the transport vehicles become empty estimated by the estimating means and positions at which the vehicles become empty.

2. A transport system according to claim 1, further comprising vehicle allocating means allocating empty transport vehicles to transport instructions that will be issued in the future based on the times at which transport vehicles become empty by the estimating means and the positions at which the transport vehicles become empty.

3. A transport system according to claim 2, further comprising predicting means for predicting times and positions at which the transport instructions will be issued in the future from transport instructions already allocated to the transport vehicles,

the vehicle allocating means allocating the empty transport vehicles to the issued positions at the issued times, the positions and times predicted by the predicting means.

4-8. -8. (canceled)

9. A transport system for transporting articles between a plurality of processing devices by a plurality of transport vehicles, the system comprising:

buffers in a plurality of positions along a traveling route of the transport vehicles for temporarily storing the articles,

transport instruction issuing means for issuing two kind of transport instructions, transport instructions “

From”

, from transport source processing devices to stopover buffers, and transport instructions “

To”

, from the stopover buffers to transport destination processing devices, for transport requests with designated arrival times at the transport destination processing devices input from outside the transport system,

allocation means for allocating the transport instructions to transport vehicles,

estimating means for estimating times and positions at which transport vehicles will become empty from estimated finish time of allocated transport instructions “

From”

, the positions of the stopover buffers, estimated finish times of an allocated transport instructions “

To”

, and the positions of the transport destination processing devices,

predicting means for predicting the times and the positions at which the transport instructions will be issued in the future at least from the positions of the stopover buffers and pickup times in the transport instructions “

To”

, and

vehicle allocating means for running empty transport vehicles, based on the times and positions, estimated by the estimating means, at which transport vehicles will become empty, for allocating the empty transport vehicles to transport instructions that will be issued in the future, in accordance with the times and the positions, predicted by the predicting means, at which the transport instructions will be issued in the future.

10. A transport system according to claim 9,

wherein the traveling route includes a plurality of intra-bay routes along bays with the processing devices and an inter-bay route connecting the intra-bay routes and wherein the vehicle allocating means allocates empty vehicles from another part of the traveling route to an intra-bay route based on a difference between a number of issues of the transport instructions with pickup positions in the intra-bay route and a number of transport vehicles that become empty on the intra-bay route estimated by the estimating means.

11. A transport system according to claim 9,

wherein said allocation means estimates traveling times from current positions to pickup positions of the transport vehicles allocated by the vehicle allocating means and allocates the transport instructions to transport vehicles so that the transport vehicles arrive at the pickup positions at predetermined times based on the traveling times estimated by the allocation means.

12. A transport system according to claim 10,

wherein the predicting means predicts the number of transport vehicles that become empty in each intra-bay route from the number of allocated transport instructions whose transport destinations are on the intra-bay route.

13. A transport system for allocating transport instructions to a plurality of transport vehicles by a controller and transporting articles between a plurality of processing devices by the transport vehicles comprising:

a step for providing buffers in a plurality of positions along a traveling route of the transport vehicles for temporarily storing the articles,

a step for issuing two kind of transport instructions, transport instructions “

From”

, from transport source processing devices to stopover buffers, and transport instructions “

To”

, from the stopover buffers to transport destination processing devices, for transport requests with designated arrival times at the transport destination processing devices input from outside the transport system,

a step for allocating the transport instructions to transport vehicles,

a step for estimating times and positions at which transport vehicles will become empty from estimated finish time of allocated transport instructions “

From”

, the positions of the stopover buffers, estimated finish times of an allocated transport instructions “

To”

, and the positions of the transport destination processing devices,

a step for predicting the times and the positions at which the transport instructions will be issued in the future at least from the positions of the stopover buffers and pickup times in the transport instructions “

To”

, and

a step for running empty transport vehicles, based on the estimated times and positions at which transport vehicles will become empty, for allocating the empty transport vehicles to transport instructions that will be issued in the future, in accordance with the predicted times and the positions at which the transport instructions will be issued in the future.