Warehouse Transport Vehicle Zoning for Abnormality Collision Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing article transport facilities in distribution warehouses lack effective techniques to prevent collisions between transport vehicles, especially in response to sudden abnormalities.
Innovation Solution
The article transport facility employs a control system that divides the floor into subareas, manages vehicle travel by ensuring only one vehicle enters a subarea at a time, and implements an abnormality process where a subarea likely containing an abnormal vehicle is set as an entry prohibited area to prevent collisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple transport vehicles are allowed to travel freely on the floor to maximize transport efficiency, then productivity increases, but the risk of collision between vehicles increases
Solution Approach 1:
The floor is divided into multiple subareas, and each subarea is managed to allow only one transport vehicle at a time. This segmentation of the travel space prevents collisions while maintaining efficient transport operations by allowing multiple vehicles to operate simultaneously in different subareas.
2Reliability
If the system implements strict control to prevent collisions by limiting vehicle movement, then collision avoidance improves, but transport efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The control system dynamically adjusts vehicle routing and subarea allocation based on real-time conditions. When a vehicle experiences an abnormality, the system responds by setting the current subarea as an entry prohibited area and rerouting other vehicles, thereby maintaining collision prevention while minimizing impact on overall transport efficiency.
3Reliability
If the system responds to vehicle abnormalities by stopping all operations, then safety improves, but transport efficiency and system availability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Upon detecting an abnormality in a transport vehicle, the control system proactively sets the current subarea as an entry prohibited area before any potential collision can occur. This preliminary action prevents harmful effects while allowing other vehicles to continue operating in unaffected subareas, thereby maintaining system availability and transport efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
An article transport facility includes a plurality of transport vehicles and a control system that controls the transport vehicles. The control system performs, in response to an abnormality in any of the plurality of transport vehicles, an abnormality process of setting a subarea likely to contain an abnormal transport vehicle having the abnormality as an entry prohibited area prohibiting entry of other normal transport vehicles.