Driverless transport system

• US 10,802,505 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2018
• Issued: 10/13/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sick AG (Sick)
• Original Assignee: Sick AG (Sick)
• Inventors: Dold, Franz
• Primary Examiner(s): Schneider, Paula L
• Application Number:
  US15/911,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20180259975A1
• Time in Patent Office: 953 Days
• Field of Search: 701 23
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0289 with means for avoiding collisions between vehicles vehicle fittings for automatically controlling speed including means for detecting potential obstacles B60K31/0008; avoiding obstacles by action on the steering system B62D; radar, sonar, lidar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 2201/0216 Vehicle for transporting goods in a warehouse, factory or similar
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• 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

The present invention relates to a driverless transport system for transporting goods and/or persons that comprises a plurality of driverless vehicles and at least one stationary monitoring device for monitoring a respective travel path zone, wherein the monitoring device comprises at least one sensor that is configured to detect the presence of objects in the travel path zone and to output a detection signal when an object is located in the travel path zone and a control unit that is connected to the sensor and that is configured to receive the detection signal from the sensor and to generate a control signal for the at least one driverless vehicle based at least on the detection signal.

Claims

1. A driverless transport system for transporting goods and/or persons, the driverless transport system comprising:

a plurality of driverless vehicles;

at least one stationary monitoring device for monitoring a respective travel path zone, wherein the at least one stationary monitoring device comprises at least one sensor that is configured to detect the presence of objects in the travel path zone and to output a detection signal when an object is located in the travel path zone; and

a control unit that is connected to the at least one sensor and that is configured to receive the detection signal from said at least one sensor and to generate a control signal for at least one of the driverless vehicles based at least on the detection signal,

wherein at least one of the driverless vehicles comprises an RFID transponder that is configured to transmit a transponder signal that comprises at least one vehicle-specific identifier;

wherein the at least one stationary monitoring device furthermore comprises at least one RFID reading device that is connected to the control unit and that is configured to receive a transponder signal transmitted by the RFID transponder, and

wherein the control unit is configured to furthermore generate the control signal on the basis of the received transponder signal, and the monitoring device responding to the presence of a detection signal of the sensor with a determination that the detected object is a vehicle if a transponder signal of the detected object is simultaneously received, and the monitoring device responding to the presence of a detection signal of the sensor with a determination that the detected object is a person if a transponder signal is not simultaneously received or the transponder signal is received from a zone which does not coincide with the zone in which the sensor detected the object.

2. The transport system in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the transmission range between the RFID transponder of a respective vehicle and the RFID reading device connected to the control unit is limited such that transponder signals are only received from vehicles that are located within the monitored travel path.

3. The transport system in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the at least one sensor is furthermore configured to determine a first piece of position information on a detected object and to transmit the first piece of position information to the control unit, with the control unit being configured to furthermore generate the control signal on the basis of the first piece of position information.

4. A transport system in accordance with claim 3,

wherein the control unit is configured to determine a second piece of position information on the vehicle whose associated RFID transponder has transmitted this transponder signal on the basis of a respective received transponder signal, with the control unit being configured to furthermore generate the control signal on the basis of the second piece of position information, and

wherein the control unit is configured to link the first and second pieces of position information with one another to determine further information on a detected object.

5. The transport system in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the control unit is configured to determine a second piece of position information on the vehicle whose associated RFID transponder has transmitted this transponder signal on the basis of a respective received transponder signal, with the control unit being configured to furthermore generate the control signal on the basis of the second piece of position information.

6. The transport system in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the at least one stationary monitoring device has at least one communication apparatus that is configured to transmit signals wirelessly to the driverless vehicles.

7. The transport system in accordance with claim 6,

wherein at least one of the at least one communication apparatus is configured for wireless communication in a local radio network.

8. The transport system in accordance with claim 6,

wherein at least one of the at least one communication apparatus comprises an RFID transponder.

9. The transport system in accordance with claim 6,

wherein the signals transmitted by the at least one communication apparatus comprise at least one of an identifier identifying the monitoring device and the control signal.