Traveling Vehicle Intersection Priority at Branching and Merging Points
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing traveling vehicle systems in semiconductor manufacturing factories face challenges in ensuring priority passage through intersections, particularly at branching and merging points, due to complex route searching and cross-checking processes, which can lead to delays and hindered prioritization of priority vehicles.
Innovation Solution
A traveling vehicle system with a host controller that includes a memory storage for tracking passage permission requests, a priority selector, and derivers to identify the first traveling vehicle and its scheduled merging point, allowing priority passage by suspending permissions for other vehicles and prioritizing the first vehicle's path through intersections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a priority traveling vehicle is set to perform transportation in priority to other traveling vehicles, then the priority traveling vehicle can be granted passage permission for branching parts, but the priority traveling vehicle cannot pass through the merging part if there is a monitored traveling vehicle preceding it, causing the prioritized traveling to become impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of the first traveling vehicle that requested passage permission for the branching part when the priority traveling vehicle's request is received. By deriving this information in advance from stored passage permission requests, the system prepares the necessary data before the priority vehicle reaches the merging part, enabling smooth priority passage without conflicts.
2Measurement precision
If a search is performed for scheduled traveling routes of the priority traveling vehicle and preceding traveling vehicle and the routes are cross-checked, then it can be determined whether there is a monitored traveling vehicle preceding the priority traveling vehicle, but the processing becomes complicated, especially when there are multiple preceding traveling vehicles
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the necessary information - the passage permission request for the branching part - from the stored traveling vehicle information when the priority traveling vehicle's request is received. This extraction approach avoids the need for complex route searching and cross-checking, significantly simplifying the control processing while maintaining accurate identification of the first traveling vehicle.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the stored passage permission request information to automatically derive the first traveling vehicle's identity without requiring external route searching or complex cross-checking processes. The stored information serves the system's own needs for identification, eliminating the need for separate route analysis procedures.
3Reliability
If the processing is performed to determine whether there is a traveling vehicle preceding the priority traveling vehicle by searching and cross-checking routes, then the priority traveling can be ensured, but the processing time increases and delays occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs the identification of the first traveling vehicle in advance, when the priority traveling vehicle's passage permission request for the branching part is first received. By deriving the necessary information from already-stored passage permission requests at this early stage, the system eliminates time-consuming route searching and cross-checking that would otherwise occur later, reducing overall processing time while ensuring reliable priority passage.
Data Source
AI summary
A traveling vehicle system includes a plurality of traveling vehicles; and a host controller in which: a first deriver derives a first traveling vehicle scheduled to pass through a branching part through which a priority traveling vehicle selected by a priority traveling vehicle selector is scheduled to pass; a merging part deriver derives a merging part through which the first traveling vehicle is scheduled to pass after the branching part; and passage permission for the merging part is transmitted to the first traveling vehicle in priority to a second traveling vehicle scheduled to pass through the merging part from a direction different from a direction from which the first traveling vehicle is scheduled to pass through the merging part.