Handling system with independent and coordinated shuttle, for industrial automation

Handling system with independent and coordinated shuttles, for industrial automation, being of the integrated and automated type with an electromagnetic drive linear motor wherein the shuttles are engaged to the same rail and run along it while carrying out their working mission, such as handling and/or positioning a semi-finished product or a product, according to a continuous production cycle;

• and wherein each shuttle incorporates advancing means for moving along said rail, with processing and control means as well, and is equipped according to the function, that is to say, it comprises own means for performing the planned mission;
• and wherein in said system there is the coordination of the activities of said shuttles there being included means for determining their position, means for sending and receiving information and centralized processing and control means;
• said handling system being characterised in that, for advancing, it uses a linear synchronous motor of the LSM moving coils type, wherein the permanent magnets are integrated in said rail to interact with the coils that are on each shuttle in such a way as to make the shuttles independent with respect to each other in their movement and in the function to be performed, and also to make them individually and arbitrarily removable from and/or addable to the system at any time of the production cycle or at any point of the path, synchronous and/or asynchronous, according to a logic of the modular type;
• and wherein each shuttle is connected in a wireless mode, for information transmission, whereas for power supply it can be connected by means of sliding contacts to a fixed power feeding bar or in a wireless mode by electromagnetic induction;
• and wherein said system includes automatic means for determining the position of each shuttle, of the type called encoder, with a fixed and integrated reference continuously along the entire path of the rail, and a reader of said reference which is mounted on each shuttle, and wherein said system comprises a centralized control and processing means, consisting of a central server which contributes to the general coordination of the system it being provided with control logic with executive programs intended to process the information received from the simultaneously active shuttles and from the sensor means;
• and wherein said shuttles are of the smart type and translate on the same rail in an independent but coordinated way, synchronous and/or asynchronous, each of them being made up of:
• a self-propelled sliding shoe or mover which acts as a slider constrained to said rail in a removable way and comprises all the active means for performing the advancing movements and enabling the secondary drives, according to the secondary working axes, also with the respective control and communication means;
• wherein each sliding shoe is autonomous and independent, including on board said coils selectively supplied and controlled for the purpose of electromagnetic drive, also with its logic control unit, sensors and means for receiving and transmitting information, each shuttle being connected wirelessly for the purpose of power supply and data transmission;
• an equipped means for actuating the secondary working drives, which is associated in a removable way with respect to said self-propelled sliding shoe being supported by it.