Conveying system

Abstract

The technology disclosed herein enables autonomous, distributed transport by multiple mobile units. [Solution] The transport system comprises a plurality of mobile units that each operate autonomously to transport goods to a destination, and a control device that controls the assignment of jobs, including fleet information, to the mobile units. The system includes an acquisition unit that acquires transport information indicating the status of the transported goods, and a mobile unit information management unit that acquires mobile unit information of other mobile units via a network between the mobile units. The plurality of mobile units form a fleet using the fleet information, and each unit cooperates to maintain the fleet and transport the goods using the transported goods information and the mobile unit information to configure a transport route.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a conveyance system.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, there has been a technology in which a plurality of conveyance robots cooperate and coordinate to convey a conveyance object such as a large-sized, long-sized, or heavy object. For example, there are the technologies disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2.

[0003] In the conventional technology, a central management system manages mobile bodies, which are a plurality of conveyance robots (AMRs), as a group, and realizes cooperative conveyance by distributing tasks and control commands to each mobile body while setting the roles of a leader and a follower for each. Specifically, a central management system (LMS: Local Management System) directly issues a control command to a fleet (a group of mobile bodies that convey a conveyance object), and the control command is controlled in order according to the dependency relationship. This central management system has a configuration that becomes the center of control.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Patent Document 2

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] However, when the central management system is responsible for overall control of the mobile bodies, various problems have occurred.

[0006] For example, there are challenges with the control system. Because the central management system is the central control center, if a network problem occurs between the central management system and the mobile units during transport, there is a risk that commands will not reach each mobile unit, making it difficult to complete the transport task. Because the control system is heavily dependent on the central management system, there is a risk that the coordinated transport job will stop incomplete if the network is disconnected. In addition, there are challenges that are structurally dependent on the leader mobile unit. Because the control commands for the followers are structured to depend on the leader's actions, there was a control challenge in that delays in the leader's actions would spread to the entire group, causing delays in task processing. Furthermore, because the scalability of the fleet is limited by the processing capacity of the central management system, there was a challenge in the flexibility of group control.

[0007] The technology disclosed herein has been developed in view of the above points, and aims to provide a transport system that enables autonomous, distributed transport by multiple mobile units. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] To achieve the above objective, the transport system according to this disclosure comprises a plurality of mobile bodies, each operating autonomously to transport objects to a destination, and a control device that controls the assignment of jobs, including fleet information, to the mobile bodies, and includes an acquisition unit that acquires transport information indicating the status of the transport objects, and a mobile body information management unit that acquires mobile body information of other mobile bodies via a network between the mobile bodies, wherein the plurality of mobile bodies form a fleet using the fleet information, and each of them cooperates to maintain the fleet and transport the transport objects using the transport information and the mobile body information to configure a transport route. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to this disclosure, it is possible to provide a transport system that enables autonomous, distributed transport by multiple mobile units. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0010] [Figure 1]Figure 1 shows an example of the configuration of the transport system according to this embodiment. [Figure 2] Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the control device according to this embodiment. [Figure 3] Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the mobile body according to this embodiment. [Figure 4] Figure 4 shows an example of a fleet pattern. [Figure 5] Figure 5 shows an example of a control strategy during fleet formation. [Figure 6] Figure 6 shows a sequence illustrating the flow of the transport process in the transport system. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0011] Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, identical or equivalent components and parts are given the same reference numerals. Also, the dimensional ratios in the drawings are exaggerated for illustrative purposes and may differ from the actual ratios.

[0012] The technology disclosed herein relates to a cooperative transport system for multiple autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Addressing the various control challenges associated with the centralized control system of conventional transport systems, this technology proposes a transport system that delegates a portion of the management authority for transport task execution to a group of AMRs, thereby achieving autonomous and distributed control. Furthermore, the transport method is not limited to lift-up transport, but can also be applied to towing transport by multiple transport robots.

[0013] Figure 1 shows an example of the configuration of a transport system according to this embodiment. As shown in Figure 1, the transport system 100 is configured such that a control device 110 and a plurality of mobile bodies 112 (1 to n) are connected via a network N. Each of the mobile bodies 112 is a plurality of autonomous mobile transport robots that operate autonomously to transport objects to their destination. The control device 110 controls the assignment of jobs to the mobile bodies 112. At that time, the control device 110 transmits to the mobile bodies 112 information necessary for multiple or one mobile body to transport objects to the target location as a job. This information may include transport information such as the target location, size, and weight of the transport object, and may also include fleet information such as the number of mobile bodies, their arrangement, and their arrangement order. Furthermore, the job may also include a transport route for the fleet to transport the objects. The control device 110 includes a job information management unit 114 and a system control unit 116. Each of the mobile bodies 112 includes an acquisition unit 120, a mobile body information management unit 122, a processing unit 124, and a movement control unit 126. Each of the mobile units 112 works in coordination to transport the transported object C. Note that, in the following descriptions of the transported object and the mobile units in general, symbols may be omitted.

[0014] Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the control device 110 according to this embodiment. As shown in Figure 2, the control device 110 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, storage 14, input unit 15, display interface (I / F) 16, and communication interface (I / F) 17. Each component is connected to communicate with each other via a bus 19. Note that the hardware configuration of the control device 110 is not limited to a single hardware unit, but may be implemented using multiple virtual machines built in a cloud environment.

[0015] The CPU 11 is a central processing unit that executes various programs and controls each part. That is, the CPU 11 reads a program from the ROM 12 or the storage 14 and executes the program using the RAM 13 as a working area. The CPU 11 performs control of each component and various arithmetic processes according to the program stored in the ROM 12 or the storage 14. Since general hardware configurations may be used for other components, the description is omitted.

[0016] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the mobile body 112 according to the present embodiment. The mobile body 112 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 32, a memory 34, a storage device 36, a drive mechanism 38, a sensor 40, a storage medium reader 42, and a communication I / F (Interface) 44. Each component is connected to be communicable with each other via a bus 46.

[0017] A transport control program for executing transport processing is stored in the storage device 36. The CPU 32 is a central processing unit that executes various programs and controls each component. That is, the CPU 32 reads a program from the storage device 36 and executes the program using the memory 34 as a working area. The CPU 32 performs control of each of the above components and various arithmetic processes according to the program stored in the storage device 36.

[0018] The memory 34 is composed of a RAM (Random Access Memory) and temporarily stores programs and data as a working area. The storage device 36 is composed of a ROM (Read Only Memory), an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an SSD (Solid State Drive), etc., and stores various programs including an operating system and various data.

[0019] The drive mechanism 38 includes mechanisms such as a motor for driving the moving body 112, a power source such as a battery, a transmission, tires, and sensors. Further, when lifting a conveyed object from below, a lifter mechanism or the like may be included in the drive mechanism 38. The sensor 40 detects the state of the moving body 112 such as its position, orientation, speed, and acceleration, as well as the surrounding environment. For example, it may include an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), gyro sensor, acceleration sensor, wheel encoder, distance sensor (laser / LiDAR, etc.), camera (2D / 3D), and the like. Also, when the drive mechanism 38 includes a lifter mechanism, an inclination sensor (such as an acceleration sensor) can be provided on the conveyed object support part of the lifter to measure the inclination of the conveyed object itself. Furthermore, the height of the conveyed object when lifted can be measured by a sensor (encoder, distance sensor, camera, etc.) for measuring the height of the support part. Based on the inclination and height of the conveyed object obtained from these sensor outputs, by synchronously controlling the height of the lifters of each moving body, the risk of tipping during conveyance can be reduced.

[0020] The storage medium reader 42 reads data stored in various storage media such as memories and writes data to the storage media. The communication I / F 44 is an interface for communicating with other devices. For example, standards such as Ethernet (registered trademark), FDDI, Wi-Fi (registered trademark), etc. are used. [[ID=…]]

[0021] The functional configuration of the conveyance system 100 will be described.

[0022] The control device 110 has a function of managing, in the job information management unit 114, fleet information (including fleet patterns) corresponding to the conveyed object. The fleet pattern includes the number, arrangement, and arrangement order of the moving bodies for conveying the conveyed object as a fleet. It also includes the predefined positional relationship between the feature points of the conveyed object and the moving body 112, and the predefined positional relationship between the moving bodies within the fleet. Note that the arrangement order assigns a priority as to which moving body to arrange from.

[0023] The system control unit 116 has a function to assign leader and follower roles to mobile units within a fleet when assigning a job to the fleet.

[0024] Figure 4 shows examples of fleet patterns. (A1) is a 4-column fleet pattern, (A2) is a 2-column fleet pattern, and (A3) is a 3-column fleet pattern. In a fleet pattern, the center of gravity is defined as follows: P1: the center of gravity of the moving object (origin of the moving object's coordinate system), and P2: the center of gravity of the transported object (origin of the transported object's coordinate system). In addition, constraints are defined as follows: R1: relative position constraint between the moving object and the transported object, and R2: relative position constraint between the moving objects. Furthermore, a leader moving object (hereinafter referred to as the leader moving object) is predetermined in the fleet pattern. All moving objects other than the leader moving object are follower moving objects.

[0025] (Control during fleet formation) In this embodiment, control is performed during fleet formation. The control device 110 has a function in the system control unit 116 to instruct the mobile bodies to move to the transported object according to the arrangement order defined by the fleet pattern. As a challenge before starting coordinated transport, it is necessary to consider the actions of the mobile bodies when they approach the transported object and go underneath it during the preparation stage before starting coordinated transport. In a real environment, if multiple mobile bodies reach the vicinity of the transported object at the same time, congestion may occur in front of the transported object, or movement to the designated position may be hindered, which may cause problems in fleet formation. Therefore, by giving instructions to move according to the arrangement order, fleet formation can be performed smoothly, congestion can be avoided, and the transport task of the transported object can be started smoothly.

[0026] Figure 5 shows an example of the control concept when forming a fleet. For convenience, the moving objects are denoted as AMRs in the figure. (B1) is a scenario in which a moving object that arrived earlier is obstructing the designated position. In this embodiment, by pre-loading the job information with placement order information, the first arriving moving object does not obstruct the path. (B2) is a scenario in which a moving object is delayed in front of the transported object and cannot move to the designated position. In this embodiment, the control device 110 grasps the position information of the moving objects and manages the timing of task distribution to prevent the moving objects from delaying in front of the transported object. The function of the system control unit 116 to instruct movement has settings for (1) the order in which each moving object starts moving according to the placement order, and (2) the timing for sending a movement start instruction to start the movement of subsequent moving objects according to the order. The timing for sending a movement start instruction for each moving object is set to occur when the previous moving object reaches a predetermined reference position. The reference position can be determined by any reference position based on, for example, the distance traveled from the starting point or the remaining distance to the placement position. The system control unit 116 monitors the position information of each moving object and, based on the position information and reference position of the preceding moving object, detects that the preceding moving object has reached the reference position. When it detects this, it sends a start-movement instruction to the next moving object, thereby controlling the subsequent moving objects to start moving sequentially. By monitoring the position information of the moving objects as they begin moving, if the movement of the preceding moving object to its designated position is delayed, the timing of the start-movement instruction to the subsequent moving object can also be appropriately delayed, thereby preventing congestion.

[0027] The formation of the fleet is completed when each mobile unit arrives at its designated position. In the transport system 100, the control after the completion of fleet formation may be configured to start transport by each mobile unit at the transport start time. Since each mobile unit operates autonomously and in a distributed manner, when the fleet is formed and transport begins, delays in the timing of the start of movement among the mobile units are expected to cause problems at launch. Therefore, after synchronizing the time information of each mobile unit at the time the fleet formation is completed, a transport start trigger with time information can be set to prevent problems at launch. The instructions for the transport start time and the synchronization of time information may be included in the transport job or as a separate job, and should be sent to each mobile unit at the appropriate time as needed.

[0028] (Control of mobile objects) In the transport system 100, each of the multiple mobile units 112 forms a fleet using fleet information, and each unit cooperates to maintain the fleet using transport item information and mobile unit information to configure a transport route for transporting the transport item. In the transport system 100 of this embodiment, some or all of the execution management authority for transport tasks is delegated from the control device 110 to the mobile units 112 and is controlled autonomously and in a distributed manner.

[0029] The acquisition unit 120 acquires information about the transported object, indicating its status.

[0030] The mobile unit information management unit 122 acquires mobile unit information from other mobile units via the network N between mobile units. The mobile unit information management unit 122 manages the current status of mobile units that form the same fleet based on the information from other mobile units.

[0031] The processing unit 124 calculates a transport route to maintain the fleet using fleet information and transport information, as described below. In calculating the transport route, the control logic that allows each mobile unit to follow the calculated route includes constraints obtained from the transport information and constraints that keep the difference in relative position between the transported object and other mobile units within acceptable limits. For example, the control logic for the leader mobile unit in Figure 4 can be optimized using the following equation (1).

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[0032] By providing the same control logic to other follower units, the fleet can be robustly coordinated to accommodate changes in formation and displacement of the transported objects. The relative position to the transported object is obtained periodically by recognizing feature points assigned to the transported object using external sensors such as cameras held by the units. Feature points include, for example, QR codes (registered trademark) or protrusions. The position where the feature points are assigned to the transported object does not necessarily have to be the center of gravity; it is sufficient if the "reference position" of the transported object can be determined. Furthermore, the relative position to other units is obtained periodically by receiving the estimated self-position obtained by the other units through their own self-position estimation function via inter-unit communication.

[0033] As described above, the processing unit 124 has the function of calculating the state of the conveyed object obtained from the acquisition unit 120, as well as a first error and a second error. The first error is calculated as (distance between moving body and conveyed object - constraints) 2 The first error is the error between the positional relationship between the transported object and the transported object as defined by the fleet pattern, as shown by (distance between moving objects - constraints). The second error is the error between the state of the moving objects within the fleet obtained from the moving object information management unit 122 and the positional relationship between the moving objects within the fleet as defined by the fleet pattern, as shown by (distance between moving objects - constraints). Furthermore, the processing unit 124 has a function to calculate the transport route in accordance with equation (1) above, such that the first error and the second error are each less than or equal to a predetermined tolerance value.

[0034] The intention of the constraints is to always maintain a certain tolerance level of distance from other moving objects and transported items. With at least three constraints, the position of the transported item will be fixed at a single point.

[0035] The movement control unit 126 autonomously operates according to the calculated transport route to transport the object to its destination. By operating autonomously in this manner, the fleet can maintain the positional relationship between each mobile unit and the transported object, as well as the positional relationship between mobile units within the fleet, enabling stable coordinated transport.

[0036] Next, the processing flow of the transport system 100 will be explained. Figure 6 shows the sequence of transport processing flow of the transport system 100.

[0037] In step S100, the control device 110 receives a transport instruction for the transported object.

[0038] In step S102, the control device 110 instructs each of the mobile units 112 to move to the transported object according to the arrangement order defined in the fleet pattern. Here, it is sufficient to send a job containing fleet information (fleet pattern) as an instruction.

[0039] In step S104, each of the mobile units 112 acquires transported object information indicating the status of the transported object, as well as mobile unit information of the other mobile units. Note that transported object information and other mobile unit information are acquired continuously.

[0040] In step S106, each of the mobile units 112 moves according to the arrangement order in the fleet pattern to form a fleet.

[0041] In step S108, each mobile unit 112 begins transporting goods after the fleet is formed, and uses the fleet information and goods information to calculate a transport route that maintains the fleet.

[0042] In step S110, each of the mobile units 112 moves according to the calculated transport path. Each of the mobile units 112 operates autonomously to transport the object to its destination. The processes from steps S108 to S110 are repeated until the transport is complete.

[0043] As described above, the transport system 100 according to the embodiment of this disclosure enables autonomous, distributed transport by multiple mobile bodies.

[0044] (modified version) A modified version of this embodiment will now be described. In the modified version, the leader mobile unit, which is assigned the role of leader, has a processing unit 124 that has the function of detecting obstacles that suddenly appear on the transport path and the function of correcting the transport path based on the detection result. In addition, the follower mobile unit, which is assigned the role of follower, has a processing unit 124 that has the function of calculating its own transport path based on the transport path corrected by the leader. This makes it possible to avoid obstacles that suddenly appear on the transport path while maintaining coordinated operation as a fleet.

[0045] Furthermore, the follower unit may also be equipped with a detection function. The follower unit has a function in the processing unit 124 to detect obstacles that suddenly appear in the transport path and a function to transmit the detection result to the leader unit. The leader unit corrects the transport path using the detection results of both the leader and the follower.

[0046] Furthermore, the information processing that the CPU reads and executes in each of the above embodiments may be executed by various processors other than the CPU. Examples of such processors include PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices) such as FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) whose circuit configuration can be changed after manufacturing, and dedicated electrical circuits that are processors with circuit configurations specifically designed to execute specific processing, such as ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits). In addition, the information processing may be executed by one of these various processors, or by a combination of two or more processors of the same or different types (for example, multiple FPGAs, and a combination of a CPU and an FPGA). More specifically, the hardware structure of these various processors is an electrical circuit that combines circuit elements such as semiconductor elements.

[0047] Furthermore, while the above embodiments describe a configuration in which the information processing program is pre-stored (installed) in ROM or storage, the invention is not limited to this. The program may be provided in a form recorded on a non-transitory recording medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory), DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disk Read Only Memory), or USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory. Alternatively, the program may be provided in a form that is downloaded from an external device via a network. The following are additional notes regarding this disclosure.

[0048] (Additional note 1) A transport system (100) comprising a plurality of mobile bodies (112) each operating autonomously to transport objects to a destination, and a control device (110) that controls the assignment of jobs including fleet information to the mobile bodies, An acquisition unit (120) acquires information about the transported object that indicates the state of the transported object, It includes a mobile information management unit (122) that acquires mobile information of other mobile units via a network between mobile units, Using the fleet information, multiple mobile bodies form a fleet, and using the transported object information and the mobile body information, each cooperates to maintain the fleet and configure a transport route for transporting the transported object. Conveying system (100).

[0049] (Additional note 2) In the transport system (100) described in Appendix 1, The control device has a job information management unit (114) that has a function to manage the fleet pattern corresponding to the transported object, The fleet pattern includes the number, arrangement, and arrangement order of the mobile units for transporting the transported goods as a fleet. The control device has a system control unit (116) that has a function to instruct the moving body to move to the transported object according to the arrangement order defined in the fleet pattern. Conveyor system.

[0050] (Additional note 3) In the transport system described in Appendix 1, The control device has a function in the job information management unit (114) to maintain a fleet pattern that includes the positional relationship between the characteristic points of the transported object and the moving body, and the positional relationship between the moving bodies within the fleet, which is predetermined. The moving body has a function in the processing unit (124) to calculate a first error between the state of the transported object obtained from the acquisition unit and the positional relationship between the transported object as defined by the fleet pattern, and a second error between the state of the moving body in the fleet obtained from the moving body information management unit and the positional relationship between the moving bodies in the fleet as defined by the fleet pattern. Furthermore, the processing unit (124) has a function to calculate the transport path such that the first error and the second error are each less than or equal to a predetermined tolerance value. Conveyor system.

[0051] (Additional note 4) In the transport system described in Appendix 3, The control device has a system control unit (116) that, when assigning a job to a fleet, assigns leader and follower roles to the mobile bodies within the fleet. The mobile unit assigned the role of leader has a processing unit (124) that has a function to detect obstacles that suddenly appear in the transport path and a function to correct the transport path based on the detection result. The mobile unit assigned the role of follower has a function in the processing unit (124) to calculate its own transport path based on the transport path modified by the leader. Conveyor system.

[0052] (Additional note 5) In the transport system described in Appendix 4, The moving body assigned the role of a follower has, in the processing unit (124), a function to detect an obstacle that suddenly appears in the transport path and a function to transmit the detection result. The mobile body assigned the role of leader modifies the transport path using the detection results of the leader and the follower, respectively. Conveyor system.

[0053] (Additional note 6) In the transport system described in Appendix 2, The system control unit (116), in its function for instructing movement, has set an order in which each of the moving bodies shall begin to move according to the arrangement order, and has set the timing for transmitting a movement start instruction to begin the movement of the subsequent moving body according to the order to occur when the previous moving body reaches a predetermined reference position. The system control unit monitors the position information of each of the moving bodies and controls the movement of the next moving body to begin based on the position information of the previous moving body and the reference position. Conveyor system.

[0054] (Additional note 7) In the transport system described in Appendix 1, The control after the formation of the fleet is configured to start transport by each of the aforementioned mobile units at the transport start time. A transport system that synchronizes the time information of each mobile unit once the fleet formation is complete, and then sets a transport start trigger that incorporates this time information.

[0055] (Additional note 8) A transport method in a transport system comprising a plurality of mobile bodies, each operating autonomously to transport objects to a destination, and a control device that controls the assignment of jobs, including fleet information, to the mobile bodies, The transported object information indicating the state of the transported object is acquired, By obtaining information about other mobile devices through a network of mobile devices, Using the fleet information, multiple mobile bodies form a fleet, and using the transported object information and the mobile body information, each cooperates to maintain the fleet and configure a transport route for transporting the transported object. Method of transport. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0056] 100 Conveyor Systems 110 Control device 112 Mobile Unit 114 Job Information Management Department 116 System Control Unit 120 Acquisition Department 122 Mobile Information Management Department 124 Processing Unit 126 Movement Control Unit

Claims

1. A transport system comprising multiple mobile units, each operating autonomously to transport objects to their destination, and a control device that controls the assignment of jobs, including fleet information, to the mobile units, The transported object has predetermined characteristic points, Each of the plurality of mobile bodies comprises an acquisition unit that acquires transported object information indicating the relative distance between the transported object and the feature points of the transported object, and a mobile body information management unit that acquires mobile body information of other mobile bodies via a network between mobile bodies. Using the fleet information, multiple mobile bodies form a fleet, and using the transported object information and the mobile body information, each cooperates to maintain the fleet and configure a transport route for transporting the transported object. The control device has a function in the job information management unit to maintain a fleet pattern that includes the positional relationship between the characteristic points of the transported object and the moving body, and the positional relationship between the moving bodies within the predetermined fleet. The moving body has a function in the processing unit to calculate a first error between the relative distance between it and the transported object obtained from the acquisition unit and the distance constraint based on the positional relationship between the characteristic points of the transported object defined in the fleet pattern and the moving body. The processing unit has a function to calculate the transport path such that the first error is less than or equal to a predetermined tolerance value. Conveyor system.

2. In the transport system according to claim 1, The acquisition unit includes an external sensor, and the mobile body acquires the state of the transported object by recognizing characteristic points of the transported object using the external sensor. Conveyor system.

3. In the transport system according to claim 1, The control device has a job information management unit that has a function to manage fleet patterns corresponding to the transported objects. The fleet pattern includes the number, arrangement, and arrangement order of the mobile units for transporting the transported goods as a fleet. The control device has a system control unit that has a function to instruct the mobile body to move to the transported object according to the arrangement order defined in the fleet pattern. Conveyor system.

4. In the transport system according to claim 1, The mobile body has a function in which the mobile body information management unit acquires the relative distance between it and other mobile bodies as mobile body information, and the processing unit calculates the first error and the second error between the relative distance between it and other mobile bodies in the fleet obtained from the mobile body information management unit and the distance constraint based on the positional relationship between the mobile bodies in the fleet as defined by the fleet pattern. Furthermore, the processing unit has a function to calculate the transport path such that the first error and the second error are each less than or equal to a predetermined tolerance value. Conveyor system.

5. In the transport system according to claim 1, The control device, in the system control unit, has a function to assign leader and follower roles to the mobile bodies within the fleet when assigning jobs to the fleet. The mobile unit assigned the role of leader has in its processing unit a function to detect obstacles that suddenly appear in the transport path, and a function to correct the transport path based on the detection result. The mobile unit assigned the role of follower has a function in the processing unit to calculate its own transport path based on the transport path modified by the leader. Conveyor system.

6. In the transport system according to claim 5, The mobile body assigned the role of a follower has, in the processing unit, a function to detect an obstacle that suddenly appears in the transport path and a function to transmit the detection result. The mobile body assigned the role of leader modifies the transport path using the detection results of the leader and the follower, respectively. Conveyor system.

7. In the transport system according to claim 3, In the function for instructing movement, the order in which each of the moving bodies will start moving is set according to the arrangement order, and the timing for transmitting a movement start instruction to start the movement of the subsequent moving body according to the order is set to occur when the moving body preceding in the order reaches a predetermined reference position. The system control unit monitors the position information of each of the moving bodies and controls the movement of the next moving body to begin based on the position information of the previous moving body and the reference position. Conveyor system.

8. In the transport system according to claim 1, The control after the formation of the fleet is configured to start transport by each of the aforementioned mobile units at the transport start time. A transport system that synchronizes the time information of each mobile unit once the fleet formation is complete, and then sets a transport start trigger that incorporates this time information.

9. A transport method in a transport system comprising a plurality of mobile bodies, each operating autonomously to transport objects to a destination, and a control device that controls the assignment of jobs, including fleet information, to the mobile bodies, The transported object has predetermined characteristic points, Each of the plurality of mobile bodies acquires transported object information indicating the relative distance between itself and the feature points of the transported object, and acquires mobile body information of other mobile bodies via a network between mobile bodies. Using the fleet information, multiple mobile bodies form a fleet while performing predetermined autonomous control, and using the transported object information and the mobile body information, each cooperates to maintain the fleet and configure a transport path for transporting the transported object. The control device has the function of maintaining a fleet pattern that includes the positional relationship between the characteristic points of the transported object and the moving body, and the positional relationship between the moving bodies within a predetermined fleet. The moving body has a function in its processing unit to calculate a first error between the relative distance between it and the transported object obtained by acquiring the transported object information and the distance constraint based on the positional relationship between the feature points of the transported object defined in the fleet pattern and the moving body. The processing unit has a function to calculate the transport path such that the first error is less than or equal to a predetermined tolerance value. Method of transport.

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