Branch Track Carrier Control to Avoid Junction Waiting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional transport systems experience efficiency decreases when transport vehicles need to stop at junction points, leading to delays and reduced load conveyance efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A transport system with a controller that coordinates transport vehicles on multiple tracks, allowing simultaneous or earlier starts on downstream tracks compared to upstream tracks, and ensuring vehicles stop at designated delivery ports at the same or staggered times to optimize travel and reduce waiting times, thereby improving load conveyance efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If transport vehicles stop at junction points to wait for other vehicles to pass, then collision avoidance is ensured, but load conveyance efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The track is segmented into multiple branch tracks with separate stop positions, allowing vehicles to be distributed across different segments. This segmentation enables parallel operations where vehicles on different branch tracks can load/unload simultaneously without blocking each other, maintaining collision avoidance while improving efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
Vehicles are controlled to arrive at stop positions on branch tracks before reaching the main track junction points. This preliminary positioning allows loading and unloading operations to be completed in advance, so vehicles can merge back onto the main track without causing or experiencing delays, thus avoiding collisions while maintaining high conveyance efficiency
2Loss of time
If transport vehicles are distributed on multiple branch tracks, then waiting times are reduced, but control complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The controller operates on a periodic cycle, sequentially managing vehicle distribution to different branch tracks. By repeating this periodic distribution pattern, the system maintains simple control logic while achieving effective vehicle dispersion across multiple tracks, reducing waiting times without requiring complex real-time coordination
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary that coordinates between vehicles and branch tracks using a standardized control protocol. This intermediary approach simplifies the control architecture by centralizing decision-making logic, allowing vehicles to be distributed efficiently across multiple tracks through uniform control rules rather than complex vehicle-to-vehicle negotiations
Data Source
AI summary
A transport system includes transport vehicles, and a controller to control traveling of the transport vehicles. The track includes a first main track, junction points on the first main track and spaced apart from each other, and branch tracks each connected to the first main track via the junction points different from one another. The junction points are spaced apart from each other on the first main track. On each of the branch tracks, a stop position corresponding to a delivery port for each transport vehicle to deliver and receive a load is provided. The controller controls the respective transport vehicles stopping at the stop positions of the branch tracks to control a transport vehicle on a downstream branch track to start simultaneously with or before a transport vehicle on an upstream branch track.