Horizontal Conveying Carriage with Optical Navigation and Scissors Lift
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing horizontal conveying carriages in the construction industry face instability and require excessive manpower for operation, as they often rely on electromagnetic tape for guidance, which is labor-intensive to maintain and inflexible, and cannot handle standard pallets or adapt to changing routes.
Innovation Solution
A horizontal conveying carriage with a carriage body, drive wheel, steering wheel, forklift, extending and shrinking mechanism, lifting and lowering mechanism, scissors link supporting mechanism, own position estimation unit, and control unit that allows autonomous operation and remote control, enabling flexible and stable material handling without the need for electromagnetic tape.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If electromagnetic tape is used for carriage track guidance, then the carriage can be guided along a fixed route, but the tape requires much manpower for sticking work and maintenance, and it peels off easily
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical electromagnetic tape guidance system with an optical recognition system. The carriage is equipped with a camera that captures images of the floor, and an image recognition unit processes these images to identify navigation markers and determine the carriage's position and orientation. This optical system eliminates the need for physical tape application and maintenance while providing reliable guidance.
2Reliability
If electromagnetic tape is used for carriage track, then a fixed route can be established, but it is impossible to flexibly respond to a change of conveyance route
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic routing system where the navigation markers can be repositioned or reconfigured on the floor without physical reinstallation of tape. The image recognition system continuously processes visual information to adapt to changed marker positions, enabling flexible route modifications. The control unit adjusts the carriage's navigation path in real-time based on the recognized marker positions, providing both reliability and adaptability.
3Weight of moving object
If a scissors lift system is used to reduce carriage weight, then the carriage and loaded material weight is reduced within floor withstand load, but the center of gravity is heightened and becomes unstable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a counterweight mechanism to balance the heightened center of gravity caused by the scissors lift system. The counterweight is positioned to offset the upward shift in the carriage's center of gravity, restoring stability. This allows the carriage to maintain low weight for floor compatibility while achieving the necessary stability for safe operation.
4Device complexity
If operators manually convey material on carriage, then simple equipment is used, but too much manpower is spent on horizontal conveyance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements an autonomous navigation system where the carriage serves itself by automatically navigating to destinations, identifying and picking up materials, and delivering them without human intervention. The image recognition unit detects navigation markers and material positions, the control unit processes this information, and the drive system executes autonomous movement. This eliminates the need for manual operation while maintaining relatively simple equipment architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
A horizontal conveying carriage includes: a carriage body including: a base part; a drive wheel; and a steering wheel; a forklift attached to the carriage body, and configured to pick up a conveyed object and unload the conveyed object; an extending and shrinking mechanism configured to extend and shrink the forklift in a front-and-rear direction; a lifting and lowering mechanism configured to lift and lower the forklift in a vertical direction; a supporting mechanism configured to support the forklift from a lower side; an own position estimation unit configured to estimate an own position of the carriage body; a positional relation recognition unit configured to recognize a positional relation between the own position and the conveyed object; and a control unit configured to control movement of the carriage body and to control an operation of the forklift based on the own position and the positional relation.