JPS6226513A - Unmanned trackless trolly car - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute exactly a branch control at a low cost by providing a ground marker for detecting a running position, on a branch point, etc., nd executing a steering control so that a branching direction side detector, in a pair of line guidance use detectors goes to a non-detection state at branching. CONSTITUTION:A trackless unmanned carrying car 41' is provided with a pair of guidance use detectors 11, 12 for detecting a reflecting tape 40 which is stuck onto a road surface, and running the car 41' along a running path, also provided with a pair of ground marker detectors 13, 13' for detecting a station, a position marker, and branch point markers 42, 42', and brought to steering and a running control. In case of such running control, at the time of a linear run, this car is brought to a steering control so that a pair of guidance use detectors 11, 12 always detect the reflecting tape 40. Also, as for a branch control in case the detectors 13, 13' have detected the branch point markers 42, 42', a wheel is brought to a steering angle control so that a sensor of a branching direction and that of the other side, in the guidance use detectors 11, 12 go to a non-detection state and a detection state, respectively. In such a way, the car can be made to follow the reflecting tape 40 exactly.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Technical Field of the Invention) The present invention relates to a trackless unmanned guided vehicle that travels on a predetermined guidance line, and particularly relates to a trackless unmanned guided vehicle that can perform branching control with high precision. It is related to.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

As trackless vehicles used for cargo handling and transportation within factories, electromagnetic induction type and optical tape guidance type are mainly put into practical use.

In the optical tape guidance type, a highly reflective tape is pasted on the road surface along the travel route, and the trackless guided vehicle travels along the tape while detecting this tape with a sensor, and measures the distance traveled. It grasps its current position, compares it with its own route map information, and runs on its own while controlling branches, etc. to follow a preset route and reach its destination. It is something. This method is widely used because it is relatively easy to change the layout by replacing the tape.

By the way, in order to deal with complicated routes within a factory, various efforts are made to control the branching of the trackless guided vehicles mentioned above, but since it is common to use a large number of trackless guided vehicles, the system can be realized at low cost. There is a need to. For this reason, trackless guided vehicles are generally equipped with encoders to measure the distance traveled, and the distance from the marker (reflective tape) before the junction is measured, and it is then determined whether it is necessary to turn right or left at the junction. Accordingly, a method has been adopted in which a steering pattern provided on the automatic guided vehicle is used to diverge by steering a certain distance, and then return to normal guidance.

However, in order to branch according to the pattern, an encoder etc. to measure the distance is required as mentioned above, and accordingly,
In addition to increasing the cost of the device, this system also has problems such as insufficient accuracy and the automatic guided vehicle easily deviating from the travel path while traveling.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an optical tape-guided trackless automatic guided vehicle using reflective tape at low cost and reliably without adding any sensors or the like. To provide a trackless unmanned vehicle capable of performing branching control and guiding the unmanned guided vehicle to a target position with high precision.

[Summary of the invention]

That is, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention travels along a guide zone installed on the driving road surface and has a different reflectance from the road surface, detects the traveling position, and compares this position information with the route map on the vehicle. , and obtain travel information such as speed and direction at the current position stored in advance in the route map, and in a trackless unmanned vehicle that automatically operates according to this travel information, set the travel position at a fixed position or a junction away from the above-mentioned guidance zone. A ground marker is provided for detection, and the trackless unmanned vehicle is provided with a ground marker detection sensor for detecting this ground marker to obtain current position information. A changeable wheel for both steering and driving, a driving means for driving the wheel, a steering means for steering the wheel, and the trackless unmanned vehicle is provided with a wheel that can be used for both steering and driving, and the distance between the wheels is set at the same distance as the guidance. At least one pair of line guidance sensors detects the guidance belt arranged narrower than the belt width, and when the traveling information given from the route map indicates straight travel, the pair of line guidance sensors always detect the guidance belt. Detect the band.

In addition, at the time of branching, the steering angle control output for the wheels is generated so that of the pair of line guidance sensors, the sensor on the branching direction side is in a non-detecting state and the other side is in a detecting state. and a command means for giving a speed command to the driving means in accordance with the speed information of the traveling information.

According to the present invention having such a configuration, position information is obtained by detecting ground markers placed apart from the guidance zone on the traveling road surface for detecting the traveling position, and the distance between the trackless unmanned vehicles is determined by the distance between the trackless unmanned vehicles. The guide belt is detected by at least one pair of line guidance sensors for detecting the guide belt arranged narrower than the belt width, and when the traveling information given from the route map by the command means is straight travel, the pair of line guidance sensors are arranged to be narrower than the belt width. so that the line guidance sensor always detects the above-mentioned guidance band, and when branching, the sensor on the side in the branching direction is in a non-detecting state, and the other side is in a detecting state. The steering angle and running speed of the vehicle are controlled by generating a steering angle control output for the wheels and giving it to the steering means, and also giving a speed command to the driving means according to the speed information of the traveling information. It is intended to do so. Then, when traveling in a straight line, the pair of line guidance sensors always control the steering so that they detect the guidance zone, thereby preventing the vehicle from deviating from the guidance zone.
In addition, by controlling the steering angle of the wheels so that out of the pair of line guidance sensors, the sensor on the branching direction side is in the non-detection state and the other side is in the detection state, even when branching, the branching direction sensor This is to ensure that the guide band is followed. Specifically, a reflective tape, for example, is laid on the road surface as a guidance band, and for guidance control during straight running, a pair of line guidance sensors (for example, a Furukawa sensor consisting of a light emitter and a light receiver, and a left guidance detection S> For example, in guidance control during right-branch travel, for example, the left guidance detector is always on (located on the reflective tape), and the Furukawa guidance detector is off (positioned on the reflective tape). In addition, when driving left-branching, the vehicle is controlled so that the left-hand guidance detector is always off and the Furukawa guidance detector is on. This makes it possible to reliably catch the guide band that indicates the driving route and steer the vehicle so as not to deviate from it.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The body structure of the trackless automatic guided vehicle (hereinafter simply referred to as a vehicle) of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Figure 2 is a view of the car from the front, and Figure 3 is a view of the car from above. In the figure, 1 is a vehicle body cover, 2 is a top plate, and 3 is a front wheel. In this embodiment, the front wheel 3 is single, and in order to enable steering, the front wheel support 7 maintains the direction of the wheel so that it can turn. 4 is a guidance sensor board, which includes a guidance sensor (for example, a photoelectric detector), a station, and a light reflector to make the car run along the road while detecting reflective tape pasted on the road surface. A ground marker detector (for example, a photoelectric detector) for detecting the configured position markers and branch point markers is mounted, and is attached to the lower end of the front wheel support 7 that holds the front wheel 3. A gear box 5 is connected to the axle of the front wheel 3 and contains a running gear, and includes a gear for reducing the rotation speed of the running motor 9 and transmitting it to the front wheel 3.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a steering gear box, and a gear housing 7 houses a gear for decelerating the rotation of the steering motor 9 and driving the front wheels 3 in a turning manner. It is something that makes you

Reference numerals 10 and 10- are rear wheels, which do not transmit power and have a structure that allows them to rotate freely in forward and reverse directions.

In this way, the vehicle is provided with a steering motor 9 and a running motor 6 so that the front wheels 3 can be steered and the running drive can be controlled. In addition, since the guidance sensor board 4 is attached to the lower end of the front wheel support 1 that supports the front wheel 3, the distance to the ground (
In other words, the distance variation from the reflective tape attached to the road surface)
is only the amount of deflection of the front wheel, which is very small, and
Since the sensor board also rotates according to the steering angle, the ability to follow the guideway is improved.

FIG. 1 shows a control block of the apparatus of the present invention.

In the figure, 11 and 12 are guidance detectors that detect reflective tape, which is a guidance tape pasted on the road surface, one of which is located on the right side of the front wheel 3, and the other on the left side of the front wheel 3.
Moreover, both are attached to the sensor board 4 with an interval that is much shorter than the width of the guide tape.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a ground marker detector, which is a sensor for detecting stations, branching, and merging point markers provided on both sides of the taxiway at a distance from the taxiway. □ is a sensor for detecting the current position used to determine where the vehicle is currently traveling and travel to the destination station.

14 is a microcomputer section, which has a running route map which is data indicating the own running route;
CPLJ (processor), which is the center of control necessary to travel to the destination station while controlling travel and steering, memory for storing data and control program, program counter, and exchange of data with the outside. It has a digital input section, digital output section, etc. 15 is a route table search pointer within the microcomputer 14; 16 is a route table placed on the memory within the microcomputer 14; the route table search pointer 15 is stored on the route table 16; The route map pointer is shifted each time a signal from the ground marker detector 13 provided on the guidance sensor board 4 is input, so that the current position of the vehicle on the travel route can be grasped. The route table 16 includes data on the direction of travel for each position (data on straight-line driving, right-hand or left-hand branching) and data on each position on the route indicating the driving state that the vehicle should take at that position (high-speed, It stores data for specifying speeds such as low speed, stop, etc., and can retrieve this information at the position indicated by the pointer.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a speed command generation section provided in the microcomputer 14, which generates a digital output for speed designation such as high speed, low speed, stop, etc. based on the data read from the route table 16. Reference numeral 24 denotes a speed control circuit, which controls the energization rate and controls the armature voltage of the motor in order to match the driving motor 6 to the vehicle speed according to the command from the speed command generating section 17, and moves the front wheels 3 in the forward direction. Rotate.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a guidance processing command generation section provided in the microcomputer 14, and when data on whether to run straight or turn to the right or left is given from the route table 16, the corresponding command is sent to the above-mentioned instruction within the microcomputer 14. It is output to the guidance processing section 19.

The guidance processing section 19 is comprised of a normal guidance processing section 20 for straight-line running control, a right-branch guidance processing section 21 for right-branching control, and a left-branching guidance processing section 22 for left-branching control. Then, the normal guidance processing section 20. Right branch guidance processing 1
! 1S21 and the left branch guidance processing section 22 have different guidance methods.

Specifically, in the guidance control when traveling in a straight line, the two sensors (guidance detectors 11 and 12) are always placed on the reflective tape, and in the guidance control when traveling to the right, the guidance detector 11 is always placed on the reflective tape. On (positioned on the reflective tape), the guidance detector 12 is turned off (positioned off the reflective tape) Detector 11
The driving of the car is controlled so that the guidance detector 12 is turned off and the guidance detector 12 is turned on.

23 is a timer processing section of the microcomputer 140,000, which monitors what is output as a speed command after the right or left branch processing command is issued, and also counts the time and processes this. Therefore, the timing for returning the branch command to normal guidance control is measured and given to the guidance processing command generation section 18.

Reference numeral 27 indicates a forward rotation switching circuit for switching forward rotation, and 2B indicates a reverse rotation switching circuit for switching reverse rotation, which operate in accordance with the output from the guidance processing section 19 to switch the rotation of the steering motor 9 between forward and reverse directions. It is. The output from the guidance processing unit 19 is a steering command for forward rotation or reverse rotation, and when switching to forward rotation, the vehicle is steered to the right, and when switching to reverse rotation, it is steered to the left.

:26 is a soft start circuit, which has the role of gradually starting up the N current so that an inrush current does not flow into the steering motor 9 immediately after switching, and excessive steering does not occur.

29 is a logic circuit which receives the outputs of the forward rotation switching circuit 27, reverse rotation switching circuit 28 and soft start circuit 26, and outputs the outputs of the forward rotation switching circuit 21 and reverse rotation switching circuit 28 so as not to overlap. be.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a power transistor for driving the steering motor, which controls the supplied current by inputting the output of the forward rotation switching circuit 27 or the reverse rotation switching circuit 28 and the output of the soft start circuit 26 received through the logic circuit 29, and controls the supply current. motor 9
It controls the rotation of.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing how a car is controlled and runs on a running road, where 40 is a reflective tape pasted on the ground to form a running road, 41, 41-, 41'' is a car ( 42.42' is a branch point marker.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for specifically explaining the control block diagram shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the guidance control method in straight running.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the positional relationship seen from the top of the travel path composed of the guidance detectors 11 and 12 and reflective tape.
It is a figure showing control so that two sensors are always present on a reflective tape. In addition, Fig. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the guidance control method for right-branch travel, and Fig. 9 shows the positional relationship seen from the top of the travel path consisting of the guidance detectors 11 and 12 and reflective tape. This figure shows that the guidance detector 11 is always on and the guidance detector 12 is always off. Fig. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the guidance method in left-branch travel, and Fig. 11 shows control so that the guidance detector 11 is always off and the guidance detector 12 is always on, contrary to Fig. 9. It shows that. Further, FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining the timer processing section 23.

゛ The operation of this device will be explained below with reference to these figures.

In this system, a car is placed on reflective tape, which is a guidance tape attached to the road surface.

On the vehicle side, the reflective tape is detected by the guidance detectors 11 and 12 provided on both sides of the front wheel 3, that is, one on each side. In other words, the guidance detectors 11 and 12 are attached to the sensor board 4 at intervals slightly shorter than the width of the guidance tape, so if the front wheel 3 is in the center of the reflective tape, the reflective tape can be placed on both the left and right sides of the front wheel 3. Each can be detected. Now, assume that the guidance detector 11 is located on the right side of the front wheel 3, and the guidance detector 12 is located on the left side of the front wheel 3, with the former being 81. The latter is written as 82. Therefore, the position of the front wheel 3 with respect to the reflective tape can be detected by the detection outputs of the induction detectors 11 and 12 of these Sl and S2. This Sl.

The detection outputs of the guidance detectors 11 and 12 of S2 are sent to the guidance processing section 19.
is input.

On the other hand, stations, branching, merging point markers, etc. installed on both sides of the taxiway at a distance from the taxiway are detected by the ground marker detector 13 mounted on the vehicle each time the vehicle reaches these installation positions, and the microcomputer 14 is input into the route table search pointer 15 of . Then, the root
The table search pointer 15 shifts the pointer of the route table 16 each time it receives this input. This causes the pointer to point to the current location where the vehicle is traveling.

The route table 16 above stores data on the direction of travel for each position (data on whether to drive straight or branch to the right or left) and data indicating the driving state that the car should take at each position on the route. and the information at the position indicated by the pointer (
Data for specifying speeds such as high speed, low speed, stop, etc.) is output. This output is given to the guidance processing command generation unit 1B and the speed command generation unit 17, and the guidance processing command generation unit 18 issues commands for straight running, right branching, and left branching to the guidance processing unit 19 according to the contents indicated by the traveling direction data. give to

Further, the speed command generation unit 17 gives a command to the speed control circuit 24 according to the contents such as high speed, low speed, stop, etc. indicated by the speed designation data, and the speed control circuit 24 controls the driving motor 6 according to this command. It controls the current applied to make the car run at high speeds, low speeds, or stop.

Further, the guidance processing unit 19 receives the command from the guidance processing command generation unit 18, and depending on the content of the command, the guidance processing unit 19 performs straight-line driving, right-turning, right-turning,
Controls left branch. That is, this guidance processing section 19 is composed of a normal guidance processing section 20 for straight-line running control, a right-branching guidance processing section 21 for right-branching running control, and a left-branching guidance processing section 22 for left-branching running control. When receiving a straight-line running command, the normal guidance processing unit 20 performs steering control, and when receiving a right-branching command, the right-branching guidance processing unit 2
1 performs steering control, and when a left branch driving command is received, a left branch guidance processing unit 22 performs steering control. The content of each guidance is as follows.

That is, in the guidance control by the normal guidance processing unit 20, the steering control output is always generated so that the two sensors (guidance detectors 11 and 12) are on the reflective tape, and the steering control output by the right branch guidance processing unit 21 is In guidance control, the guidance detector 11 of 81 is always on (positioned on the reflective tape),
A steering control output is generated so that the guidance detector 12 of $2 is turned off (a state in which it is off the reflective tape), and in the guidance control by the left branch guidance processing section 22, the guidance detector 11 of 81 is always turned off. A steering control output is generated so that the guidance detector 12 of OFF and S2 is ON, thereby controlling the running direction of the vehicle.

Then, by this control output, the forward rotation/reverse rotation switching circuit 27
．． 28 is controlled, and simultaneously with these activations, the soft start circuit 26 is driven and the power transistor 30 is activated.
As a result, the rotation of the steering motor 9 is controlled so that the vehicle is steered to the above-mentioned running state. Further, the timer processing 123 monitors the output command of the speed command generation section 17, and when the right or left branch processing command is output,
The elapsed time from the occurrence is counted, and when the value reaches a predetermined value, the guidance processing command unit 18 is notified that it is time to return to straight running. As a result, the guidance processing command unit 18 instructs normal running (straight line running), and the vehicle returns to straight running mode. This allows the car to branch to the left or right and travel along the desired route.

The details of the steering control will be explained in more detail.

Now, suppose that a car exists at position 41 in FIG. 4 and is traveling at high speed. In FIG. It is output to the processing section 20. Sl.

When both the induction detectors 11 and 12 of S2 (hereinafter referred to as induction detector S1°82) are on, as shown in FIG.
Because the car is driving in the center of the guidance tape, the right or
Without outputting a left steering command (that is, without outputting a forward rotation switching command for steering or a reverse gear switching command), it is determined whether a branching command is in progress or stopping, and the sequence returns to the normal guidance command, and this scan The state of the guidance detector 81°S2 is checked and a steering command is output.

In the next scanning, the inductive detector s1 is turned off,
When the guidance detector S2 is on, the vehicle is moving to the left, so a right steering command is output (a forward rotation switching command for steering is output). In the next scanning, if both guidance detectors 8132 are on, the currently output right steering command is reset.

Similarly, when the guidance detector S1 is on and the guidance detector S2 is off, the vehicle is moving to the right, so a right steering command is output (a reverse rotation switching command for steering is output).

In this way, the vehicle travels while outputting steering commands depending on whether the guidance detectors 81 and 82 are on or off.

In Figure 4, the car moves forward from position 41, and
, 42- ground marker branch marker) at 13.13", the marker point for the fixed position/corner on the flowchart in Figure 5 is read, and the marker information for detection is read from the route table. Now, if it is right branch data, it will be a corner in the type determination, and a right branch command will be output to the guidance processing section in one determination of left and right branch.

Therefore, in the flowchart of FIG. 6, a branch command has been received, and the normal guidance control routine is ended.

Next, in FIGS. 8 and 9, while moving the car to the right, the guidance detector S1 is controlled so that it is turned on and the guidance detector S2 is turned off when a right branch command is output.
is on and guidance detector S2 is off, no steering command is output, and when both guidance detectors 81 and 82 are on, the vehicle is moving to the left, so a right steering command is output.

Furthermore, when both the guidance detectors Sl and 82 are off, the vehicle is moving to the right, so a left steering command is output.

In this way, right steering is performed by outputting a right or left steering command depending on the state of the guidance detectors 81, 82 and causing the vehicle to run along the boundary of the guiding reflective tape.

The branch command is completed when the time is up in the flowchart explained with reference to FIG. 12, and becomes a normal branch command.

In addition, when branching to the left, the steering is controlled so that the guidance detector S1 is turned off and the guidance detector S2 is turned on, as shown in the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 10 and 11.

That is, in the route shown in FIG. 4, in order to ensure that the vehicle travels straight even when traveling straight, a left branch command is output and the vehicle travels along the boundary of the left guidance tape.

Next, when to cancel the branch command will be explained with reference to FIG.

When the branch marker is detected by the ground marker detector 13, 13', the timer processing section is triggered by the guidance processing command generation section. In the timer processing section, the timer value α corresponding to the branch distance is
is set, and if running at high speed at this time, the value of TSβ1 is counted, and by subtracting the value of Tsβ1 from the timer value α by the number of times of scanning, α−Tsβ11−
This scanning is repeated until it becomes 0. At this time, if the vehicle is running at low speed, the value TSβ2 is set to the timer value α.
It will be subtracted from.

β1 and β2 have a relationship of β1>β2, and when the vehicle speed is high, the timer value is counted quickly and the branch guidance command is canceled quickly.

Also, the count is not counted up when the car stops.

Although not shown in the figure, low-speed running during a branch is when an obstacle is detected and the vehicle is decelerated, and a stop occurs when the vehicle comes into contact with an obstacle such as a soft bumper of the vehicle and comes to a stop.

In this case, the running state M (states such as running at high speed, running at low speed, stopped, etc.) is determined based on the content of the high speed, low speed, or stop command output by the speed command generating section 17.

As mentioned above, the scanning period is 10 to 2
0 [l5ec], and the timer value α is subtracted according to the number of scanning times, and when it becomes zero, it is determined that the count is up, and a branch completion signal is returned to the guidance processing command unit to return to normal guidance control.

In this way, by specifying the on or off state of the two guidance sensors and controlling the steering to maintain that state, it is possible to reliably run along the taxiway when branching or traveling in a straight line. This makes it possible to guide the robot to the target position with high precision and reliability.

Also, if you have multiple guidance sensors, for example, 4
In the case of (2), by arranging two of each in a position shifted in the left-right direction so as to correspond to the inductive detectors S1 or S2 explained so far,
More stable guidance control can be achieved. Furthermore, since only the parts are placed on the sensor board, the cost increase can be kept to a small extent, such as for photoelectric elements.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings, and can be implemented with appropriate modifications within the scope of the gist thereof. For example, in the above embodiment, the method of knowing the completion of branching by counting up with a timer was explained, but if a distance measurement sensor is used for motor control (speed control), the method shown in FIG. After detecting the branch marker, the distance from the branch may be measured by counting the number of revolutions of the travel motor, and the branch command may be reset after checking that the vehicle has traveled a specified distance.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As detailed above, according to the present invention, it is possible to travel reliably without derailing an optical taxiway with branches or branches, and the guidance detection section of the vehicle can be configured with only the guidance sensors necessary for straight travel. It is possible to provide a trackless unmanned vehicle that has excellent features such as a detection system that is inexpensive and a system that can be constructed at a low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
3 and 3 are a front view and a plan view showing the structure of the trackless guided vehicle, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing how the vehicle is controlled and runs on the running path, and FIG. 5 is the device shown in FIG. 1. 6 is a flowchart showing the overall control contents of the device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the steering control contents of the device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. Figure 8 is a flowchart for explaining the guidance control method of the present invention device during right-branch travel, and Figure 9 is a running path constructed with reflective tape during right-branch guidance. Fig. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the guidance control method of the present invention device when the vehicle is left branching; FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining the action of the timer processing section, and FIG. 13 is for explaining another embodiment of distance measurement. This is a flowchart for 1...Vehicle cover, 2...Top plate, 3...Front wheel, 4
... Dedicated sensor board, 5. Gear box, 6.
... Traveling motor, 7... Front wheel support, 8... Steering gear box, 9... Traveling motor, 10.10-.
... Rear wheel, 11.12 ... Guidance detector, 13 ... Ground marker detector, 14 ... Microcomputer section,
15...Route table search pointer, 16...
Route table, 11... Speed command generation section, 18.
...Guidance processing command generation section, 19...Guidance processing section, 20
. . . Normal guidance processing section, 21 . . . Right branch guidance processing section,
22...Left branch guidance processing section, 23 River timer processing section, 2
4... Speed control circuit, 26... Soft start circuit, 27... Forward rotation switching circuit, 28... Reverse rotation switching circuit,
29... Logic circuit, 3°... Power transistor for steering mode drive, 40... Reflective tape for forming traveling path, 41.41", 41" 1 vehicle (trackless conveyance vehicle)
, 42.42-... branching point marker. Applicant's Representative Patent Attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 7 Figure 12 Figure 13

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) Drive along a guidance zone installed on the road surface that has a different reflectance from the road surface, detect the driving position, compare this position information with the route map on the vehicle, and store it in the route map in advance. In a trackless unmanned vehicle that obtains traveling information such as speed and direction at the current position and operates automatically according to this traveling information, a ground marker is provided at a fixed position or a branch point for detecting the traveling position at a distance from the guidance zone. In addition, the trackless unmanned vehicle is equipped with a ground marker detection sensor for detecting this ground marker, thereby obtaining current position information,
The trackless unmanned vehicle also includes wheels for both steering and driving, which are provided on the trolley constituting the trackless unmanned vehicle so as to be able to change direction, a driving means for driving the wheels, a steering means for steering the wheels, and a wheel that is provided on the trackless unmanned vehicle for both steering and driving purposes. and at least a pair of line guidance sensors for detecting the guide strip, which are arranged at intervals narrower than the guide strip width, and when the traveling information given from the route map is for straight travel. The above-mentioned pair of line guidance sensors always detect the above-mentioned guidance band, and at the time of branching, the sensor on the branching direction side of the above pair of line guidance sensors is in a non-detecting state, and the other side is in a detection state. The present invention is characterized in that it generates a steering angle control output for the wheels and applies it to the steering means, and also includes a command means for giving a speed command to the drive means in accordance with the speed information of the traveling information. A trackless unmanned vehicle. (2) When the command means receives a branch command, it switches the pair of sensors for line guidance such that the sensor on the side in the branch direction does not detect it and the sensor on the other side remains in the detection state until the product of the speed command and the output time of the speed command reaches a specified value. 2. The trackless unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the steering angle control output of the steered wheels is generated so that the steering angle control output of the steered wheels is controlled, and when the steering angle control output reaches a predetermined value, the control is returned to when the vehicle is traveling in a straight line. (3) Providing a rotation speed detection means for detecting the rotation speed of the wheel,
When the command means receives a branch command, the command means calculates the travel distance based on the detection output of the rotation speed detection means, and the sensor on the branch direction side of the pair of line guidance sensors is activated until the travel distance reaches a predetermined value. The trackless unmanned vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the trackless unmanned vehicle is configured to generate a steering angle control output for the wheels so that one side is in a non-detection state and the other side is in a detection state.