Conveyance control device and merging point passing method for carrying cart

A merging point passing method for a carrying cart, the method being performed by a conveyance control device that is installed in a carrying cart and controls the carrying cart to travel along a predetermined conveyance route based on an instruction from a system controller, the method comprising:

• a merging point adjacent area entering detection control step of detecting entering to a merging point adjacent area set on adjacent to each merging point on the conveyance route;
• an obstacle detection step of detecting whether there is an obstacle around the carrying cart;
• a wireless communication step of performing, when the entering to each merging point adjacent area is detected in the merging point adjacent area entering detection control step, local wireless communications with another carrying cart by using a common frequency band and a common identification code set to values different among merging points;
• and
• a merging point passing control step of starting the wireless communication step when the other carrying cart is detected in the merging point adjacent area in the obstacle detection step, and causing passing of a merging point in accordance with a priority set to each entering passage to the merging point, after a handshake with the other carrying cart is successfully performed in the wireless communication step.

A merging point passing method for a plurality of carrying carts autonomously traveling along a conveyance route comprising:

• causing one of the carrying carts entering a merging point adjacent area to stop or decelerate when another one of the carrying carts is detected;
• causing the one of the carrying carts to perform wireless communications with the other one of the carrying carts by using a common frequency band and identification code that are set to different values among merging points;
• and
• causing one of the carrying carts corresponding to a high priority to preferentially pass through the merging point when a handshake is successfully performed, and then causing another one of the carrying carts corresponding to a low priority to pass through the merging point when the handshake is not succeeded, the priority being set to each entering passage to the merging point.