System, especially an installation, having a vehicle which is maneuverable on a floor

• US 10,114,380 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2012
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sew-Eurodrive GmbH & Company KG (BV Beteiligung GmbH & Company KG)
• Original Assignee: Sew-Eurodrive GmbH & Company KG (BV Beteiligung GmbH & Company KG)
• Inventors: Hua, Zhidong, Schmidt, Josef, Meyrowitz, Gunnar, Wanjek, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Barnie, Rexford
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mourad, Rasem
• Application Number:
  US14/007,776
• Publication Number:
  US 20140015339A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,406 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0259 using magnetic or electromagnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0261 using magnetic plots
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/028 using a RF signal

Abstract

A system, especially an installation, having a vehicle which is maneuverable on a floor is described. The vehicle has an RFID reading device which is connected to an antenna SL, and when the antenna SL enters the coupling region of a floor-installed antenna connected to a stationary RFID transponder, especially an RFID tag, then data stored in the transponder are able to be read out by the reading device. One or more permanent magnet(s) is/are situated on the floor, in particular fixedly joined in the floor, and the vehicle includes a sensor for detecting the direction of the magnetic field.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a vehicle which is maneuverable on a floor, the vehicle including an RFID reading device, which is connected to an antenna SL, the antenna SL adapted to enter a coupling region of a floor-installed antenna, which is connected to a stationary RFID transponder, and data stored in the transponder being readable by the reading device;

wherein the data stored in the transponder includes information transmitted from at least one of the vehicle and another vehicle,

wherein at least one permanent magnet is situated on the floor or fixedly joined in the floor,

wherein the vehicle includes a sensor for detecting a direction of a magnetic field of the at least one permanent magnet.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of RFID transponders, with a connected antenna in each case, are situated in stationary manner at the floor or installed in the floor, so that the antenna SL, connected to the reading device, of the vehicle inductively couples to the plurality of transponders at a plurality of coupling regions of the respective plurality of transponders.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein a plurality of permanent magnets is situated so that the magnetic field generated by the plurality of permanent magnet has a same direction in the plurality of coupling regions, the coupling regions being lined up next to each other.

4. The system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a further transponder including an antenna S0, whose coupling region includes, or at least partially includes, the plurality of coupling regions of the plurality of transponders.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein at least one of (i) the plurality of permanent magnets are situated such that the magnetic field generated by the plurality of permanent magnets always has the same direction in the plurality of coupling regions and (ii) information about a position and a magnetic field orientation associated with the coupling region of the antenna of each of the plurality of transponders is stored in each of the plurality of transponders and is readable by the reading device.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein information that does not relate to a position of the plurality of transponders is stored, able to be stored and read out in the further transponder, the information including instructions for following vehicles.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor includes at least one of a Hall-effect sensor and a Wiegand sensor, such that the direction of the magnetic field crossing a sensitive region of the sensor is detectable.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the antenna SL is implemented as planar winding in a plane aligned at least one of in parallel with and at a distance from a plane that encompasses the antenna of the floor-installed transponder.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the RFID reading device is an RFID write/read device adapted for at least one of transmitting and receiving data.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the coupling region is a region of inductive coupling, in which the antenna SL inductively couples to the antenna of the transponder when the vehicle enters the coupling region.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the magnetic field generated by the at least one permanent magnet in the coupling region is at least ten times or at least one hundred times stronger than a remaining background field or earth'"'"'s magnetic field.

12. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a primary conductor installed in the floor, to which a secondary winding of the vehicle is inductively coupled for inductive supply of the vehicle,

wherein the antenna of the transponder includes a first and an additional partial winding, the first and additional partial windings having a wound surface, a winding direction, and a winding number such that voltages in the first and additional partial windings induced by the primary conductor are of equal amount and cancel each other out,

wherein the primary conductor is set apart from the coupling region of the floor-installed antenna such that a magnetic field generated by the primary conductor is essentially homogeneous.