Guidance system for unmanned transporting vehicle
First Claim
1. A guidance system for an unmanned transporting vehicle which runs along a guide track comprising a belt-shaped light-reflective guide track laid out on a floor or the like, said belt-shaped light-reflective guide track having a predetermined width:
- and at least one unmanned transporting vehicle including body means;
front wheel means and rear wheel means mounted to said body means;
drive means for driving at least one of said front wheel means and rear wheel means;
a steering mechanism for causing said front wheel means to swivel rightward and leftward;
a plurality of photodetectors mounted to said body means forwardly of said front wheel means and longitudinally arranged in a right-hand row and a left-hand row above a said belt-shaped light-reflective guide track, said photodetectors including plural pairs of photodetectors, each pair including a right-hand photodetector and a left hand photodetector, said right-hand and left-hand photodetectors being positioned with a spacing less than said predetermined width, said right-hand photodetector having a light projecting element set to project light onto the belt-shaped light reflective guide track and a light receiving element to receive the light reflected thereby for detection of the guide track, said left hand photodetectors having a light projecting element set to project light onto said guide track and a light receiving element to receive the light reflected thereby for detection of the guide track;
control means for controlling said steering mechanism such that said front wheel means is caused to swivel leftward when photodetectors in the right-hand row fail to detect the guide track whereas said front wheel means is caused to swivel rightward when photodetectors in the left-hand row fail to detect the guide track, the degree of said swivelling of the front wheel means being substantially in proportion to the number of photodetectors which fail to detect the guide track.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A guidance system for an unmanned transporting vehicle which runs along a guide track. The guide track is composed of a belt-shaped light reflective material and laid out on a floor or the like. The unmanned transporting vehicle has two rows of photodetectors longitudinally arranged thereon forwardly of the front wheel. Since the two rows of the photodetectors are spaced apart from each other with a distance less than the width of the guide track, increasingly forwardly photodetectors begin failing to detecting the guide track earlier when the vehicle runs off the guide track. The vehicle is equipped with control means for controlling the steering mechansim of the vehicle in response to the detection count value such that the front wheel is swivelled to correct the vehicle deviation at a sufficiently early stage.
40 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A guidance system for an unmanned transporting vehicle which runs along a guide track comprising a belt-shaped light-reflective guide track laid out on a floor or the like, said belt-shaped light-reflective guide track having a predetermined width:
- and at least one unmanned transporting vehicle including body means;
front wheel means and rear wheel means mounted to said body means;
drive means for driving at least one of said front wheel means and rear wheel means;
a steering mechanism for causing said front wheel means to swivel rightward and leftward;
a plurality of photodetectors mounted to said body means forwardly of said front wheel means and longitudinally arranged in a right-hand row and a left-hand row above a said belt-shaped light-reflective guide track, said photodetectors including plural pairs of photodetectors, each pair including a right-hand photodetector and a left hand photodetector, said right-hand and left-hand photodetectors being positioned with a spacing less than said predetermined width, said right-hand photodetector having a light projecting element set to project light onto the belt-shaped light reflective guide track and a light receiving element to receive the light reflected thereby for detection of the guide track, said left hand photodetectors having a light projecting element set to project light onto said guide track and a light receiving element to receive the light reflected thereby for detection of the guide track;
control means for controlling said steering mechanism such that said front wheel means is caused to swivel leftward when photodetectors in the right-hand row fail to detect the guide track whereas said front wheel means is caused to swivel rightward when photodetectors in the left-hand row fail to detect the guide track, the degree of said swivelling of the front wheel means being substantially in proportion to the number of photodetectors which fail to detect the guide track. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- and at least one unmanned transporting vehicle including body means;
Specification