Carriage and transport system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11370614-B2
Application number	US-202016733969-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 3, 2020
Priority date	Jan 10, 2019
Publication date	Jun 28, 2022
Grant date	Jun 28, 2022

Abstract

The carriage is coupled to the traveling device including a driving wheel and is towed and moved by the traveling device. The carriage includes: a traveling wheel provided in a bottom portion of the carriage; an accommodating part for accommodating the traveling device; and a passage which is provided on a side surface of the carriage and through which light emitted from a detector passes, the detector being provided in the traveling device to detect an obstacle around the traveling device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A carriage towed and moved by a traveling device including a driving wheel, the carriage comprising:
a traveling wheel provided on the carriage;
a coupling part coupled to the traveling device; and
a passage which is provided on a side surface of the carriage and through which light emitted from a detector passes, the detector being provided on the traveling device to detect an obstacle around the traveling device.

2. The carriage according to claim 1 , wherein
the passage is provided at a height where the passage is irradiated with the light.

3. The carriage according to claim 1 , wherein
the passage is a recess that is notched from an end of the side surface.

4. The carriage according to claim 3 , wherein
the side surface includes: an upper part above the recess; a lower part under the recess; and a vertical coupling part that is adjacent to the recess and couples the upper part and the lower part, and
at least a portion of the recess is arranged in an irradiation region of the light, and the vertical coupling part is arranged in a non-irradiation region of the light, when the carriage is viewed from above.

5. The carriage according to claim 4 , wherein
an end of the vertical coupling part includes an inclined surface that is inclined in an emission direction of the light.

6. The carriage according to claim 1 , wherein
at least a portion of the passage is formed from a light transmissive material.

7. A transport system comprising:
the carriage according to claim 3 ; and
the traveling device that travels while towing the carriage, wherein
the detector is arranged on an advancing direction side of the traveling device as a first detector, and on an opposite side of the advancing direction side as a second detector,
the first detector and the second detector are arranged at positions where heights of the first detector and the second detector from a floor surface differ from each other, and
on the side surface, the recess is provided at each of positions in different heights from each other so as to correspond to the first detector and the second detector, respectively.

8. The transport system according to claim 7 , wherein
the recess at one of the positions and the recess at another of the positions are provided on the side surface so as to overlap partially overlap each other when the carriage is viewed from above.

9. The transport system according to claim 7 , wherein
an entire region around the transport system is irradiated with the light from the first detector and the second detector.

Assignees

• Sharp Kk

Inventors

• Azumi Shinichi

Classifications

• B60W30/095

  Predicting travel path or likelihood of collision · CPC title

• B62D53/04 Primary

  comprising a vehicle carrying an essential part of the other vehicle's load by having supporting means for the front or rear part of the other vehicle · CPC title

• B60W30/09

  Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering · CPC title

• B66F9/0755 Primary

  Position control; Position detectors · CPC title

• B65G17/12

  comprising a series of individual load-carriers fixed, or normally fixed, relative to traction element · CPC title