Guide Rail Branch Return Control for Shorter Transport Vehicle Travel
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing transport facilities do not effectively minimize the travel distance of transport vehicles during return trips, leading to inefficiencies in route management and increased operational costs.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a guide rail system with a guide drive section that allows transport vehicles to switch directions efficiently by moving a guide section along the width direction, enabling shorter return travel distances through branch and merge control strategies, where the guide rail is provided only in specific segments and not in upstream or downstream segments of branch and merge portions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If return travel control is executed by controlling transport vehicles to return at a return position, then the transport vehicles can complete return trips, but the travel distance during return travel becomes long
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rail configuration is made dynamic by selectively providing guide rails only in branch portions and merge portions rather than throughout the entire travel route. This allows transport vehicles to dynamically switch between guided and unguided sections, enabling shorter return trips by reversing in unguided sections and switching branches through guided sections, thereby reducing overall travel distance while maintaining control capability where needed
2Reliability
If the guide rail is provided throughout the entire travel route, then the transport vehicles can be precisely controlled, but the system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rail system applies local quality by providing guide rails only in specific locations (branch portions and merge portions) rather than uniformly throughout the entire travel route. This localized approach maintains precise control capability at critical decision points while reducing overall system complexity and cost in sections where full guidance is not necessary
Solution Approach 2:
The travel route is segmented into different sections with different control requirements: guided sections (branch and merge portions) where precise control is needed, and unguided sections (upstream and downstream segments) where vehicles operate independently. This segmentation allows the system to achieve necessary control precision while minimizing the extent of the guided infrastructure
Data Source
AI summary
A transport facility includes at least one transport vehicle, a guide rail, and a control system, and the at least one transport vehicle includes a guide section that is guided by the guide rail. The control system, when controlling the at least one transport vehicle traveling on the first branch route to perform return travel for entering the second branch route after reversing, executes branch return control for (i) controlling the guide drive section to move the guide section located at a first position to a second position side while the at least one transport vehicle is reversing on the first branch route, and (ii) controlling at least one transport vehicle to move forward on condition that the guide section has moved to the second position.