Method, distribution vehicle and system for autonomously delivering and/or collecting at least one shipment

• US 9,916,558 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2016
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deutsche Post AG
• Original Assignee: Deutsche Post AG
• Inventors: Wiechers, Ralph
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Peche, Jorge O
• Application Number:
  US15/215,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20170024688A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A method for autonomously delivering and/or collecting at least one shipment using at least one distribution vehicle is described, in which a distribution vehicle approaches a customer vehicle at least partially autonomously and at least partially via the public road traffic, in which the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously causes opening of a closure unit of the customer vehicle, in which, when the closure unit is open, the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously places a shipment into the customer vehicle and/or at least partially autonomously removes a shipment from the customer vehicle, which, after placing and/or removing the shipment, the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously causes closing of the closure unit of the customer vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for autonomously delivering and/or collecting at least one shipment using at least one distribution vehicle,

in which a distribution vehicle approaches a customer vehicle at least partially autonomously and at least partially via the public road traffic,

in which the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously causes opening of a closure unit of the customer vehicle,

in which, when the closure unit is open, the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously places a shipment into the customer vehicle and/or at least partially autonomously removes a shipment from the customer vehicle,

in which, after placing and/or removing the shipment, the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously causes closing of the closure unit of the customer vehicle.

2. The method according to claim 1,

in which, after closing of the closure unit, the distribution vehicle moves to a further customer vehicle at least partially autonomously and at least partially via the public road traffic, and

in which the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously places a shipment into the further customer vehicle and/or removes a shipment from the further customer vehicle.

3. The method according to claim 1,

in which, before opening of the closure unit of the customer vehicle, the distribution vehicle at least partially autonomously causes unlocking of the closure unit and/or, after closing of the closure unit of the customer vehicle, causes locking of the closure unit.

4. The method according to claim 1,

in which at least one shipment is placed into the customer vehicle and/or is removed from the customer vehicle with the aid of a transport unit, preferably in the form of a gripping arm, in particular comprising a gripping section for gripping at least one shipment.

5. The method according to claim 1,

in which the at least one customer vehicle is parked in a parking lot, preferably a public parking lot, a customer parking lot and/or a company parking lot, and preferably

in which the distribution vehicle has access authorization and an access effecting means for effecting access to the parking lot.

6. The method according to claim 1,

in which the distribution vehicle transmits at least one piece of control information to a control apparatus of the customer vehicle, and

in which the control apparatus of the customer vehicle causes unlocking, opening, closing and/or locking of the closure unit as a result of the at least one piece of control information being received and processed.

7. The method according to claim 1,

in which an operating unit for operating the closure unit is brought into contact with the closure unit of the customer vehicle, and

in which the operating unit causes unlocking, opening, closing and/or locking of the closure unit as a result of the contact with the closure unit, for example.

8. The method according to one of claim 1,

in which the distribution vehicle transmits at least one piece of remote control information to a remote control apparatus which preferably remotely controls the control apparatuses of a multiplicity of vehicles,

in which the remote control apparatus transmits at least one piece of remote activation information to the control apparatus of the customer vehicle as a result of the at least one piece of remote control information being received and processed, and

in which the control apparatus of the customer vehicle causes unlocking, opening, closing and/or locking of the closure unit as a result of the at least one piece of remote activation information being received and processed.

9. The method according to claim 8,

in which the remote control apparatus performs an authorization check using the remote control information and/or the control apparatus performs an authorization check using the control information and/or the remote activation information, and

in which the control apparatus of the customer vehicle causes unlocking, opening, closing and/or locking of the closure unit in the event of a successful authorization check.

10. The method according to claim 6,

in which the control apparatus and/or the remote control apparatus transmit(s) at least one piece of status information to the distribution vehicle, and

in which the at least one piece of status information enables and/or blocks unlocking, opening, closing and/or locking of the closure unit, and/or

in which the at least one piece of status information enables, initiates and/or blocks placing of the at least one shipment into the customer vehicle and/or removing of the at least one shipment from the customer vehicle.

11. The method according to claim 6,

in which the at least one piece of control information, the at least one piece of remote control information, the at least one piece of remote activation information, the at least one piece of status information and/or one piece of access authorization information is transmitted via Bluetooth, a wireless local area network (WLAN) and/or a mobile radio network, in particular the global system for mobile communication (GSM), the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) and/or long term evolution (LTE).

12. The method according to claim 1,

in which the distribution vehicle has means for detecting the position, the distance and/or the orientation of the customer vehicle and/or of the closure unit of the customer vehicle using at least one optical locating means capturable by the distribution vehicle, preferably a motor vehicle license plate number, a barcode, a computer-generated hologram, and/or using at least one electrical locating means which is readable by the distribution vehicle, preferably a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag and/or a near field communication (NFC) tag, and/or using at least one locating signal which is emitted by the customer vehicle and is receivable by the distribution vehicle and is preferably transmitted via a local radio network, for instance Bluetooth and/or a wireless local area network (WLAN), and/or a mobile radio network, in particular the global system for mobile communication (GSM), the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) and/or long term evolution (LTE).

13. The method according to claim 1,

in which the distribution vehicle determines the relative position of the distribution vehicle with respect to the customer vehicle and/or with respect to the closure unit of the customer vehicle with the aid of a distance sensor, preferably using the at least one locating means and/or the at least one locating signal, and preferably

in which the distribution vehicle is made to approach the customer vehicle and/or the closure unit of the customer vehicle in a predetermined manner by means of a distance control apparatus on the basis of the relative position of the distribution vehicle with respect to the customer vehicle and/or with respect to the closure unit of the customer vehicle.

14. The method according to claim 1,

in which the customer vehicle and/or the driver determine(s) position information, in particular GPS information, relating to the position of the customer vehicle and transmit(s) the position information to the distribution vehicle and/or to a guide unit for guiding the distribution vehicle at least into the vicinity of the customer vehicle, preferably via Bluetooth, a wireless local area network (WLAN) and/or a mobile radio network, in particular the global system for mobile communication (GSM), the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) and/or long term evolution (LTE).

15. A distribution vehicle for performing the method according to claim 1.

16. A distribution system for performing the method according to claim 1, comprising at least one distribution vehicle and at least one remote control apparatus and/or a guide unit.