Rotatable Wheel Carrier Shuttle for Rail Switching Congestion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing shuttle vehicles face congestion issues when switching between horizontal and vertical shuttle rails, leading to inefficiencies in transport operations, especially during high demand periods in multi-layer rack structures.
Innovation Solution
The transport vehicle is equipped with a first traveling mechanism featuring crawling assemblies with rotatable wheel carriers and guide wheels, allowing it to navigate both horizontal and vertical rails, and a second traveling mechanism with universal and driving wheels for ground movement, enabling flexible switching between rail types.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If shuttle vehicles reciprocate along horizontal shuttle rails in multi-layer rack structures, then transport capacity is improved, but congestion occurs when switching between horizontal and vertical rails
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the wheel carrier rotatable about its central axis, allowing the crawling assembly to dynamically adjust its orientation. This enables the shuttle vehicle to switch between horizontal and vertical rails without requiring elevator transfers, as the wheel carrier can rotate to align with the desired rail direction, thereby eliminating congestion at fixed switching points.
Solution Approach 2:
The crawling assembly with rotatable wheel carrier serves multiple functions: it can travel along horizontal rails, switch to vertical rails, and navigate complex rail networks. This multi-functional design replaces the need for separate horizontal and vertical transport mechanisms, allowing a single shuttle vehicle to perform both functions and reduce congestion.
2Adaptability or versatility
If elevators are used to transfer shuttle vehicles between horizontal and vertical rails, then multi-layer rack access is enabled, but operational efficiency decreases due to congestion and transfer time
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable wheel carrier enables dynamic adaptation to different rail orientations. Instead of using elevators for vertical transfers, the shuttle vehicle can rotate its wheel carrier and travel directly along vertical rails, eliminating transfer time and improving operational efficiency while maintaining multi-layer rack access capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the elevator component from the system by enabling the shuttle vehicle to perform vertical rail traversal independently through its rotatable crawling assembly. This eliminates the bottleneck created by elevators and improves overall system productivity.
3Device complexity
If traditional crawling assemblies with fixed wheel orientations are used, then simple rail traversal is achieved, but flexibility in complex rail networks is limited
Solution Approach 1:
By making the wheel carrier rotatable rather than fixed, the crawling assembly gains the ability to adapt to complex rail networks. The rotation capability allows the assembly to orient wheels perpendicular to any rail segment, enabling navigation through intersections and switches while adding only one degree of freedom to the mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the functions of horizontal and vertical rail traversal into a single rotatable crawling assembly. This merged design eliminates the need for separate mechanisms for different rail orientations, achieving high flexibility without proportionally increasing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A transport vehicle includes: a vehicle body (31) and a first traveling mechanism (32) mounted on the vehicle body (31). The first traveling mechanism (32) includes a plurality of crawling assemblies (320) respectively provided on two opposite sides of the vehicle body (31). Each crawling assembly (320) includes: a wheel carrier (321) extending outwardly from a lateral side of the vehicle body (31); and a driving wheel (322) mounted on the wheel carrier (321), the driving wheel has an axis perpendicular to an extending direction of the wheel carrier (321). The wheel carrier (321) is rotatable about the central axis of the wheel carrier (321) in the extension direction.