Turnable directioning apparatus in automatic carrying system

Claim 1

A turnable directioning apparatus For use in an automatic carrying system in which eight fixed rails each provided with a power supply line therealong to run an electromotive carrying apparatus on the rail are arranged so that their ends converge at a common location, such locating being provided with a turnable member on which one section of a rail having a power supply line therealong is mounted, the consecutive angular positions of said eight fixed rails being represented by corresponding binary codes from 000 to 111, respectively, said turnable member being connected with a turning device for turning the same and with a present position indicating means for generating a signal representing the present angular position of its rail, said turnable directioning apparatus comprising: means associated with said eight fixed rails and adapted to be actuated, when the electromotive carrying apparatus is running on one of said fixed rails, to generate a signal indicating on which rail the electromotive carrying apparatus is running; a direction finder connected between said present position indicating means and said means for generating a signal indicating on which rail the electromotive carrying apparatus is running, said direction finder being adapted to determine whether the most significant digit of a sum obtained by adding a binary code representing the present angular position of the rail of said turnable member to the complement of a binary code representing the angular position to which said rail is to be turned is 1 or 0, said direction finder being also adapted to cause said turning device to turn said turnable member in a forward or reverse direction, depending on whether the most significant digit of said sum is 1 or 0, respectively, until the rail of said turnable member is aligned with the fixed rail along which the electromotive carrying apparatus is approaching said turnable member; and a directioning instruction device for instructing an angular position to which the rail of said turnable member is to be directed, said directioning instruction device being adapted to be connected to said turning device after the electromotive carrying apparatus has entered into the rail of said turnable member for causing said turning device to turn the same to the direction so instructed.