US-12623840-B2 - Transport vehicle

US12623840B2US 12623840 B2US12623840 B2US 12623840B2US-12623840-B2

Abstract

An overturning prevention device includes a shaking occurrence information acquisition section configured to acquire shaking occurrence information indicating that shaking of a travel face where a moving body travels is equal to or more than a predetermined reference value; a support arm supported by the moving body; and an arm driving device configured to drive the support arm. The support arm is configured to be changeable between a projecting state where the support arm projects outwardly in a vehicle-body width direction from the moving body to be grounded on a travel face outside the moving body in the vehicle-body width direction and a retracted state where the support arm is retracted inside a width dimension of the moving body.

Inventors

Yuichi Ueda
Masashige Iwata
Kazunari Kimura
Satoshi Horie

Assignees

DAIFUKU CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230919
Priority Date: 20220920

Claims (7)

1 . A transport vehicle for transporting an article, the transport vehicle comprising: a moving body configured to travel along a travel path; a transfer device configured to transfer the article; and an overturning prevention device configured to prevent overturn, wherein: the transfer device comprises: a mast fixed to the moving body and disposed along an up-down direction; a raising-lowering body configured to be raised and lowered along the mast; and a transfer machine supported by the raising-lowering body; when a direction where the moving body travels is defined as a vehicle-body front-rear direction, a direction perpendicular to the vehicle-body front-rear direction in a top-bottom view is defined as a vehicle-body width direction, a dimension of the moving body in the vehicle-body front-rear direction is defined as a length dimension, a dimension of the moving body in the vehicle-body width direction is defined as a width dimension, and a height from a bottom end of the moving body to an upper end of the mast is defined as a height dimension, the length dimension and the height dimension are larger than the width dimension; the overturning prevention device comprises: a shaking occurrence information acquisition section configured to acquire shaking occurrence information indicating that shaking of a travel face where the moving body travels is equal to or more than a predetermined reference value; a support arm supported by the moving body; and an arm driving device configured to drive the support arm; the support arm is configured to be changeable between a projecting state where the support arm projects outwardly in the vehicle-body width direction from the moving body to be grounded on the travel face outside the moving body in the vehicle-body width direction and a retracted state where the support arm is retracted inside the width dimension of the moving body; and in a case where the shaking occurrence information acquisition section acquires the shaking occurrence information, the arm driving device executes an arm projecting operation to change the support arm from the retracted state to the projecting state.
2 . The transport vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein, in a state where the shaking occurrence information acquisition section acquires no shaking occurrence information, the arm driving device maintains the support arm in the retracted state.
3 . The transport vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein: the travel path comprises an inter-shelf region passing through between paired storage shelves disposed to face each other and each configured to store the article, and an outer region outside the inter-shelf region; and the arm driving device prohibits execution of the arm projecting operation in the inter-shelf region.
4 . The transport vehicle according to claim 3 , wherein: each of the paired storage shelves comprises a target beam member extending horizontally along a front surface of the each of the paired storage shelves, the front surface facing the travel path; and the mast comprises a guided member at a height corresponding to the target beam member such that the guided member projects outwardly in the vehicle-body width direction from the mast.
5 . The transport vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein: the moving body comprises driving wheels, a wheel drive source configured to rotationally drive the driving wheels, and driven wheels; the driven wheels are separately disposed on opposite sides across the driving wheels in the vehicle-body front-rear direction; the driven wheels comprise respective rotating shafts supported in a state where respective relative positions to a main body of the moving body in the up-down direction are fixed; the driving wheels comprise respective rotating shafts supported in a state where the respective rotating shafts have elasticity in the up-down direction via a suspension mechanism relative to the main body of the moving body; and the support arm is disposed at a position closer to the driving wheels than the driven wheels in the vehicle-body front-rear direction.
6 . The transport vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein: the support arm comprises an arm main body, and a support wheel disposed to be grounded on the travel face and supported by the arm body; and the support wheel comprises a rotating shaft supported rotatably relative to the arm main body around an axial center along the up-down direction.
7 . The transport vehicle according to claim 6 , wherein the support arm is supported by the moving body swingably around an axial center along the up-down direction.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-148970 filed Sep. 20, 2022, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transport vehicle for transporting an article. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, measures for earthquake have been taken in various fields. The same can be said about a facility such as an automated storage and retrieval unit in which articles are automatically stored, accommodated, and transported. As one of the measures for earthquake, in an automated storage and retrieval unit disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 6313087 (Patent Literature 1), for example, in a case where earthquake information is received, a boarding ramp (28) of a stacker crane (10) is moved to a retraction position set on the stairhead of a rack (4). Hereby, in the automated storage and retrieval unit disclosed in Patent Literature 1, it is possible to restrain the boarding ramp (28) from being damaged by a package (W) falling from the rack (4) at the time when an earthquake occurs. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the stacker crane (10), a lower wagon (26) and an upper wagon (32) are guided by respective rails (12, 36), so that the stacker crane (10) is less likely to overturn due to shaking of an earthquake or the like. However, even a transport vehicle for transporting an article in a transport facility provided with no rail for guiding an upper part of the transport vehicle may overturn due to shaking of an earthquake or the like in a case where the dimension of the transport vehicle in its up-down direction is large. In view of this, it is desired to create a transport vehicle that is hard to overturn due to shaking of an earthquake, or the like. A transport vehicle according to this disclosure is a transport vehicle for transporting an article and includes: a moving body configured to travel along a travel path; a transfer device configured to transfer the article; and an overturning prevention device configured to prevent overturn. The transfer device includes: a mast fixed to the moving body and disposed along an up-down direction; a raising-lowering body configured to be raised and lowered along the mast; and a transfer machine supported by the raising-lowering body. When a direction where the moving body travels is defined as a vehicle-body front-rear direction, a direction perpendicular to the vehicle-body front-rear direction in a top-bottom view is defined as a vehicle-body width direction, a dimension of the moving body in the vehicle-body front-rear direction is defined as a length dimension, a dimension of the moving body in the vehicle-body width direction is defined as a width dimension, and a height from a bottom end of the moving body to an upper end of the mast is defined as a height dimension, the length dimension and the height dimension are larger than the width dimension. The overturning prevention device includes: a shaking occurrence information acquisition section configured to acquire shaking occurrence information indicating that shaking of a travel face where the moving body travels is equal to or more than a predetermined reference value; a support arm supported by the moving body; and an arm driving device configured to drive the support arm. The support arm is configured to be changeable between a projecting state where the support arm projects outwardly in the vehicle-body width direction from the moving body to be grounded on the travel face outside the moving body in the vehicle-body width direction and a retracted state where the support arm is retracted inside the width dimension of the moving body. In a case where the shaking occurrence information acquisition section acquires the shaking occurrence information, the arm driving device executes an arm projecting operation to change the support arm from the retracted state to the projecting state. In a case where the length dimension and the height dimension of the transport vehicle are larger than the width dimension thereof, when shaking of the travel face occurs due to an earthquake or other factors, the transport vehicle easily inclines greatly in the vehicle-body width direction or overturns. However, with the above configuration, when shaking occurrence information is acquired, the support arm is brought into the projecting state such that the support arm can be grounded on the travel face outside the moving body. Accordingly, even in a case where shaking occurs on the travel face, it is possible to restrict the transport vehicle from greatly inclining in the vehicle-body width direction and eventually to prevent the transport vehicle from overturning. That is, with the above configuration, it is possible to achieve a transport vehicle that is hard to overturn by shaking of an earthquake or the like. Further features and advantages o