Patent Application
20200198679
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2018-239070, filed Dec. 21, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a cart power supply equipment and a cart storage system with a wireless rechargeable power receiver.
In recent years, a shopping cart that has a display screen for displaying product information or the like has been widely used. Such a cart includes a battery as a power source used for the display unit . In addition, there is a cart power supply equipment that operates to charge a cart battery in a non-contact, wireless manner.
This cart power supply equipment includes a power transmitter within a frame in which the cart including a power receiver is to be parked, and when the cart is guided into position by a guide of the frame to a charging position, the battery in the cart is charged by electromagnetic induction. Accordingly, a user can charge the cart battery simply by storing the cart in the frame with the cart power supply equipment.
However, the cart may not necessarily be stored at an appropriate position, and as a result of being randomly placed by users, the cart may be left at a position away from the charging position . In such a case, charging may not be properly started or the battery charging efficiency may deteriorate.
Embodiments provide a cart power supply equipment capable of stopping a cart at a position where a power receiver of the cart and a power transmitter of the cart power supply equipment face each other.
In general, according to an embodiment, a cart power supply equipment includes a frame providing a cart storage region, a guide including an uphill slope having an uphill slope along a cart guide direction to the cart storage region and a downhill slope having a downhill slope in the cart guide direction, the downhill slope being downstream of the uphill slope along the cart guide direction, a first stopper configured to stop a cart at a stop position on the downhill slope of the guide, a detector configured to detect that the cart is at the stop position, a power transmitter configured to transmit power for charging in a non-contact manner, and a controller configured to control the power transmitter to start transmitting the power when the detector detects that the cart is at the stop position.
Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings.
The cart power supply equipment 100 is provided at a facility, such as a supermarket or a shopping mall, or in a parking lot. The cart power supply equipment 100 stores and charges the cart 200, which can be used for shopping and the like. The cart power supply equipment 100 includes a frame 102, a slope 104, a stopper 106, a detector 108, a power transmitter 110, and a controller 114. The cart 200 includes a carriage part 202, a display 204, a battery 206, a power receiver 208, and wheels 210. In the drawings, an arrow X indicates an advancing direction of the cart 200 when the cart 200 is stored in the cart power supply equipment 100. The advancing direction in these examples corresponds to the primarily forward direction of the cart 200 when pushed by a user/operator.
The frame 102 forms an outer frame of the cart power supply equipment 100. In other words, the frame 102 functions as a parking frame. The frame 102 has bottom side frame 102A. In
This particular frame 102 configuration is one example and frame 102 configurations are not limited to this example. For example, the arrangement of the bottom side frames 102A may be configured to have a C shape instead of a U shape and extend the middle frame 102E and the upper frame 102D in the same direction as the bottom side frame 102A. Further, the number of members that configure the frame 102 may be increased as appropriate.
The slope 104 is a guide for guiding the wheels 210 of the cart 200 stored in the frame 102.
As illustrated in
The stopper 106 is a stopper (e.g., bump) for stopping the cart 200 guided on the slope 104. The stopper 106 is a recess portion provided in the slope 104 as illustrated in
In addition, the configuration of the stopper 106 is not limited thereto. The stopper 106 may be a unit that can stop the advance of the cart 200, and for example, may be a projected stopper as illustrated to
The detector 108 is a sensor for detecting that the cart 200 is at the charging position. For example, as illustrated in
In addition, the configuration of the detector 108 is not limited thereto. For example, an optical sensor having a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit instead of the mechanical switch may be employed. When using the optical sensor, the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit are disposed so as to face each other at a position sandwiching the front wheel 210f via the slope 104. When the cart 200 stops at the charging position, the front wheel 210f enters between the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit, and the light emitted from the light emitting unit is not received by the light receiving unit. Accordingly, it is possible to detect that the cart 200 is at the charging position. In addition, as another aspect, the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit may be disposed on the same side with respect to the slope 104. In this case, the light emitted from the light emitting unit is reflected by the front wheel 210f of the cart 200 attached to the charging position, the reflected light is received by the light receiving unit, and accordingly, the cart 200 is detected. In addition, the position of the detector 108 is not limited to the description above. For example, when a mechanical switch is used, the rear wheel 210r may be detected, and when an optical sensor is used, the battery 206, the display 204, or other configurations of the cart 200 stopped at the charging position may be detected.
The power transmitter 110 performs non-contact charging with the power receiver 208 provided in the cart 200, which will be described further below. The position of the power transmitter 110 faces the power receiver 208 when the cart 200 stops at the charging position.
When the detector 108 detects that the cart 200 has stopped, the controller 114 executes processing of the non-contact charging. Details of charge control of the controller 114 will be described below.
The carrier part 202 is a storage part for a customer to store a product or the like or to place a shopping basket.
The display 204 includes a display screen, such as a liquid crystal display or an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display. The display 204 displays product information and the like, such as the price of a product placed on the carrier part 202 by the customer. The display 204 is supplied with electric power from the battery 206. In addition, a personal information terminal (e.g., a tablet computer) or the like in which an application is installed can be used as the display 204.
The battery 206 is a power source for supplying the electric power to the display 204. The battery 206 is charged by power supplied from the power receiver 208 which will be further described below. The battery 206 of this embodiment is provided separately from the power receiver 208, but may instead or in addition be provided in or otherwise integrated with the power receiver 208.
The power receiver 208 is a device that generates electric power from the non-contact power supplied by the power transmitter 110 of the cart power supply equipment 100, and charges the battery 206. The power receiver 208 is provided on the side surface of the cart 200 such that the power receiving side is disposed to face the power transmitter 110. Here, the power receiver 208 is provided on the face of the carriage part 202 side, but the installed height may be any position as long as the power receiver 208 can be disposed to face the power transmitter 110. The description of charging by the power receiver 208 will be described below.
The wheels 210 enable movement of the cart 200. The cart 200 has wheels 210, which include in this example a left front wheel, a right front wheel, a left rear wheel, and a right rear wheel. For convenience of description, the left front wheel and the right front wheel are referred to as front wheels 210f. Further, the left rear wheel and the right rear wheel are referred to as rear wheels 210r. In this example, each of the wheels 210 can be turned freely, and accordingly, the cart 200 can be moved in any direction. In the present embodiment, at least one wheel 210 is stopped by the stopper 106, the detector 108 detects a front wheel 210f, and accordingly, the charging is started.
Next, the hardware configuration of the cart power supply equipment 100 will be described with reference to
The controller 114 includes a processor 114X, which may be a central processing unit (CPU) or a micro processing unit (MPU), and a memory 114Y. For example, the memory 114Y is a semiconductor memory, and includes a read only memory (ROM) for storing various control programs, and a random access memory (RAM) for providing a temporary work region to the processor 114X. The controller 114 controls each unit of the cart power supply equipment 100 based on various control programs and the like stored in the ROM.
The communication interface 116 includes an interface that communicates with a communication interface 208d of the cart 200, which will be described below, by a wireless communication interface using radio waves or infrared rays, or a communication interface, such as load modulation of carrier waves used for power transmission. The communication interface 116 communicates with the communication interface 208d of the cart 200 to obtain the power value information received by the power receiver 208, information on the charging status, and the like, and transmit this information to the controller 114. For example, the controller 114 controls the electric power transmitted from the power transmitter circuit 110Z based on a request sent from the power receiver 208, which will be described below, via the communication interface 116. Furthermore, the controller 114 controls the power transmitter circuit 110Z to stop the power transmission when the electric power to be transmitted exceeds a threshold value Th stored in the memory 114B.
The power transmitter 110 includes a power transmission coil 110X, a power source 110Y, and the power transmitter circuit 1102. A high frequency magnetic flux is generated by making a high frequency current generated by the power transmitter circuit 1102 flow to the power transmission coil 110X. The electric power for charging is generated in a power receiving coil 208a using the magnetic flux. The power source 110Y is supplied with power from an AC adapter or the like from outside the power transmitter 110, and converts the power into a voltage appropriate for each unit in the power transmitter 110. The power transmitter circuit 110Z includes an oscillating unit that generates a high frequency signal and a power amplification unit (not separately illustrated) that amplifies the generated high frequency signal. In this manner, a DC voltage supplied from the power source 110Y is converted into an alternating current, high frequency power is generated, and the electric power is transmitted from the power transmission coil 110X.
Next, the hardware configuration of the cart 200 will be described with reference to
The power receiver 208 includes the power receiving coil 208a, a power receiving circuit 208b, a charger 208c, and the communication interface 208d.
The power receiving coil 208a receives the electric power by magnetic field coupling, such as electromagnetic induction by the magnetic flux generated from the power transmission coil 110X.
The power receiving circuit 208b includes a rectifying unit that rectifies the electric power (AC current) obtained by the power receiving coil 208a from the power transmission coil 110X into a direct current, and a DC/DC unit that converts voltage. The power receiving circuit 208b converts the DC voltage generated by the rectifying unit into a DC voltage appropriate for the operation of the charger 208c, and supplies the appropriate DC voltage to the charger 208c.
The charger 208c generates a voltage and current appropriate for charging the battery 206, and thus charges the battery 206. Hereinafter, the current supplied from the charger 208c to the battery 206 is referred to as a charging current.
The communication interface 208d includes an interface that communicates with the communication interface 116 of the power transmitter 110 by a wireless communication interface using radio waves or infrared rays, or a communication interface, such as load modulation of carrier waves used for power transmission.
The controller 212 includes a processor 212X, which is an arithmetic unit, and a memory 212Y, which is a storage device. For example, the controller 212 measures the voltage output from the power receiving circuit 208b, and requests the power transmitter 110 to adjust the transmitted power via the communication interface 116 such that the voltage value required by the charger 208c can be obtained. The controller 212 sets the current value of the charging current with respect to the charger 208c, and can detect the actual charging current value. Therefore, when there is a difference between the set charging current value and the actual charging current value, it is also possible to request the power transmitter 110 to adjust the transmitted power via the communication interface 116. Although the controller 212 sets the charging current so as to charge the battery 206, when it is detected that the charging current has become zero, it can be determined that the power transmitter 110 has stopped the power transmission.
First, the controller 114 is in a standby state (ACT 101), and the controller 114 stands by until receiving a signal indicating that the cart 200 is detected from the detector 108 (NO in ACT 102). When receiving the signal indicating that the cart 200 is detected from the detector 108 (YES in ACT 102), the controller 114 starts the non-contact power supply and charges the battery 206 (ACT 103). Thereafter, the controller 114 continues charging the battery 206, and when a signal indicating that the battery 206 is fully charged is received from the power receiver 208 (YES in ACT 104), the controller 114 stops the non-contact power supply and ends a series of charging processing.
When the battery 206 is not fully charged (NO in ACT 104), the controller 114 continues the power supply (ACT 105). When the detector 108 no longer detects the cart 200 (NO in ACT 106), the controller 114 determines that the cart 200 is away from the charging position, and ends of charging processing. When the detector 108 continues to detect the cart 200 (YES in ACT 106), the controller 114 repeats the processing of ACT 104 to ACT 106 until the battery 206 is fully charged.
Above, the cart power supply equipment 100 according to the embodiment can start charging the cart 200 by guiding the cart 200 to a position with excellent charging efficiency even when the user does not appropriately convey the cart 200 to the charging position in the cart power supply equipment 100.
Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.
A power transmitter 110 is provided corresponding to each stopper 106. For example, in
In the description above, the user may need to push an added cart 200 until a previously stored cart 200 is pushed out from the stopper 106, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some examples, when a front wheel 210f exceeds the vertex T, and the newly added cart 200 may advance by its own weight until it come into contact with the already stored cart(s) 200 to push out a front (already stored) cart 200 from its present position to the next available position.
In the example above, the carts 200 are stopped sequentially from the stopper 106a on the front side in the advancing direction X to the next stopper 106b, and then the next stopper 106c, but the embodiments are not limited to this configuration. For example, the first cart 2001 may stop at the stopper 106b depending on the force applied by the user. In addition, it is contemplated that the first cart 2001 could be stopped at lowest position (the stopper 106c) and the next cart 2002 would be stopped at a higher position (e.g., the stopper 106a). Even in this case, based on the detection result of the detector 108, the power transmitters 110C and 110A are driven to start the non-contact charging with the power receivers 208 of the two carts 200.
In this manner, a plurality of carts 200 stop at a charging position in the cart power supply equipment 100. As described above, the cart power supply equipment 100 is provided with the power transmitters 110 so as to correspond to the stoppers 106. Therefore, each of the carts 200 can charge via a power receiver 208 from a power transmitter 110 that corresponds to the stopper 106 which has stopped by itself.
By the above-described processing, when the battery 206 of each of the carts 200 is fully charged, or when the detector 108 does not detect the cart 200, the controller 114 stops the non-contact power supply and ends the series of charging processing.
The cart power supply equipment 100 according to an embodiment can more simply start charging since carts can be guided to a position with excellent charging efficiency even when the user does not exactly convey the cart 200 to the appropriate charging position in the cart power supply equipment 100. In addition, even when the carts 200 are stacked and stored, the non-contact charging is still possible, and thus, it is possible to charge the battery 206 of the multiple carts (e.g., carts 2001, 2002, and 2003) without additional labor and time.
In addition, although the configuration in which the numbers of the stoppers 106, the detectors 108, and the power transmitters 110 are equal to each other has been described as an example, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, only one stopper 106 may be provided, and two or more detectors 108 and two or more power transmitters 110 may be provided. In addition, the number of stoppers 106 and the number of power transmitters 110 can be varied in any manner.
For example, when the first cart 2001 advances on the slope 104, the first cart 2001 stops at the charging position by the stopper 106. When the second cart 2002 advances on the slope 104, a part of the second cart 2002 overlaps the first cart 2001 and stops. When the third cart 2003 advances on the slope 104, a part of the third cart 2003 overlaps the second cart 2002 and stops. In other words, the stop positions of the second cart 2002 and the third cart 2003 are necessarily determined by the first cart 2001. Accordingly, the detector 108 or the power transmitter 110 can be provided at the stop position of the second cart 2002 and/or the stop position of the third cart 2003 without need for additional stopper (s) 106.
An initial cart stored in the above-described configuration advances to a charging position under its own weight. In other words, since the initial or prior cart does not stop near the entrance of the cart power supply equipment 100, when another user stores another cart without pushing the already carts forward, the added cart is simply conveyed to the next available charging position and the charging is started.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-239070 | Dec 2018 | JP | national |
