Transport system and transport method
First Claim
1. A transport system for transporting articles between a plurality of processing devices by a plurality of auto-guided transport vehicles, the system comprising:
- buffers in a plurality of positions along a traveling route of the auto-guided transport vehicles for temporarily storing the articles,transport instruction issuing means for issuing two kind of transport instructions;
(i) “
From”
instructions corresponding to transportation instructions from transport source processing devices to stopover buffers, and (ii) “
To”
instructions corresponding to transportation instructions from the stopover buffers to transport destination processing devices, the “
To”
instructions having designated arrival times at the transport destination processing devices and being input from outside the transport system,allocation means for allocating the transport instructions to the auto-guided transport vehicles,estimating means for estimating times and positions at which the auto-guided transport vehicles will become empty (i) at the stopover buffers after performing the “
From”
instructions, and (ii) at the transport destination processing devices after performing the “
To”
instructions,predicting means for predicting the times and the positions at which the transport instructions will be issued in the future, based on at least the “
To”
instructions, andauto-guided vehicle allocating means for running empty auto-guided transport vehicles, based on the times and positions estimated by the estimating means at which the auto-guided transport vehicles will become empty, and for allocating the empty auto-guided transport vehicles to be transported based on 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.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
5 Claims
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1. A transport system for transporting articles between a plurality of processing devices by a plurality of auto-guided transport vehicles, the system comprising:
-
buffers in a plurality of positions along a traveling route of the auto-guided transport vehicles for temporarily storing the articles, transport instruction issuing means for issuing two kind of transport instructions;
(i) “
From”
instructions corresponding to transportation instructions from transport source processing devices to stopover buffers, and (ii) “
To”
instructions corresponding to transportation instructions from the stopover buffers to transport destination processing devices, the “
To”
instructions having designated arrival times at the transport destination processing devices and being input from outside the transport system,allocation means for allocating the transport instructions to the auto-guided transport vehicles, estimating means for estimating times and positions at which the auto-guided transport vehicles will become empty (i) at the stopover buffers after performing the “
From”
instructions, and (ii) at the transport destination processing devices after performing the “
To”
instructions,predicting means for predicting the times and the positions at which the transport instructions will be issued in the future, based on at least the “
To”
instructions, andauto-guided vehicle allocating means for running empty auto-guided transport vehicles, based on the times and positions estimated by the estimating means at which the auto-guided transport vehicles will become empty, and for allocating the empty auto-guided transport vehicles to be transported based on 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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A transport method for allocating transport instructions to a plurality of auto-guided transport vehicles by a controller and transporting articles between a plurality of processing devices by the auto-guided transport vehicles comprising:
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providing buffers in a plurality of positions along a traveling route of the auto-guided transport vehicles for temporarily storing the articles, issuing two kind of transport instructions;
(i) “
From”
instructions corresponding to transportation instructions from transport source processing devices to stopover buffers, and iii) “
To”
instructions corresponding to transportation instructions from the stopover buffers to transport destination processing devices, the “
To”
instructions having designated arrival times at the transport destination processing devices and being input from outside the transport system,allocating the transport instructions to the auto-guided transport vehicles, estimating times and positions at which the auto-guided transport vehicles will become empty (i) at the stopover buffers after performing the “
From”
instructions, and (ii) at the transport destination processing devices after performing the “
To”
instructions,for predicting the times and the positions at which the auto-guided transport instructions will be issued in the future, based on at least the “
To”
instructions, from the positions of the stopover buffers and pickup times in the transport instructions “
To”
, andrunning empty auto-guided transport vehicles, based on the times and positions estimated by the estimating means at which the auto-guided transport vehicles will become empty, and allocating the empty auto-guided transport vehicles to be transported based on 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.
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Specification