Driver-free transport vehicle for the transportation of heavy loads on carriages and method for operating the transport vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10077176-B2
Application number	US-201415036239-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2014
Priority date	Dec 12, 2013
Publication date	Sep 18, 2018
Grant date	Sep 18, 2018

Abstract

The invention relates to a device and method for operating a driver-free transport vehicle for transporting heavy loads which are in the form of loaded carriages which can be moved on four castors, comprising the following characteristics: a) a vehicle housing having a central lifting mandrel, a left lifting mandrel and a right lifting mandrel are used for receiving and transporting a carriage by means of a docking traverse integrated into the carriage, said vehicle housing being provided with two drive wheels mounted on both sides of the vehicle housing in the center thereof, and are driven individually by a drive system respectively on a separate rotational axis, b) the lowering of the vehicle housing to below a carriage, the determination of the openings of the docking traverse and the driving of the lifting mandrel, the left lifting mandrel and the right lifting mandrel, the orientation being determined by means of at least one laser scanner, c) the transport of the carriage, the release of the connection of the vehicle housing from the carriage.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A driverless transport vehicle for transporting heavy loads on a carriage that is movable on casters, the driverless transport vehicle comprising:
a) a vehicle housing ( 38 ) having a central lifting pin ( 10 ), a left lifting pin ( 15 ), and a right lifting pin ( 13 ) for receiving and transporting the carriage ( 1 ) by means of a docking cross beam ( 5 ) which is integrated in the carriage ( 1 ), having two drive wheels ( 8 ) which, each on a dedicated mounted rotation axle, are separately driven on either side of the center of the vehicle housing ( 38 ) by one drive ( 12 ) each, wherein a rotary encoder ( 37 ) is provided on each drive wheel ( 8 ), and wherein support wheels ( 7 ) in each case in pairs are provided on the front side and on the rear side of the vehicle housing;
b) a drive motor ( 32 ) for driving a lifting spindle ( 28 ) which by means of a pressure spring ( 14 ) presses the central lifting pin ( 10 ) into a central opening of the docking cross beam ( 5 ), and by means of a pressure plate ( 25 ) presses the left lifting pin ( 15 ) and the right lifting pin ( 13 ) into respective further openings of the docking cross beam ( 5 );
c) an induction current pick-up system ( 33 ) for supplying energy to the driverless transport vehicle;
d) at least one laser scanner ( 2 ) in an external region of the vehicle housing,
wherein the driverless transport vehicle is configured to transport the heavy loads on the carriage that is movable on the casters.

2. The driverless transport vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the pressure spring ( 14 ) concentrically encloses a further, internal pressure spring ( 26 ) which enables high contact pressure on the carriage ( 1 ).

3. The driverless transport vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the docking cross beam ( 5 ) has a docking cross brace ( 6 ) which enables receiving of the carriage ( 1 ) in a position of the driverless transport vehicle that is rotated about a right angle.

4. The driverless transport vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a sensor for measuring acceleration of the driverless transport vehicle.

5. The driverless transport vehicle as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the sensor is configured to measure the acceleration of the driverless transport vehicle after an expedient brief and temporally limited acceleration from standstill, and wherein a mass of the heavy load can be determined from the measured acceleration.

6. The driverless transport vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a camera ( 11 ) for detecting a floor structure.

7. The driverless transport vehicle as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the camera ( 11 ) is configured to determine a speed of the driverless transport vehicle, and wherein the camera ( 11 ) in conjunction with the rotary encoder ( 37 ) on each drive wheel ( 8 ) enables a calculation of slippage on each drive wheel ( 8 ).

8. The driverless transport vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the induction current pick-up ( 33 ) is configured to receive energy supplied by an inductive line installed in a floor.

Assignees

• Grenzebach Maschb Gmbh

Inventors

• Herre Erwin
• Mecklinger Sigfried
• Geiger Rüdiger
• Vogt Bernd

Classifications

• B66F9/063 Primary

  Automatically guided · CPC title

• G05D2201/0216

  Physics · mapped topic

• G05D1/0248

  in combination with a laser (lasers per se H01S) · CPC title

• B60L11/182

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60L53/12

  Inductive energy transfer · CPC title