US 11,851,095 B2
Driverless transport system
Dennis Chong, Bremen (DE); and Ralf Kleedörfer, Marktheidenfeld (DE)
Assigned to SSI Schäfer Automation GmbH (DE), Giebelstadt (DE)
Appl. No. 18/021,649
Filed by SSI Schäfer Automation GmbH (DE), Giebelstadt (DE)
PCT Filed Sep. 23, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/076144
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 16, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/063870, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 31, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 10 2020 125 118.1 (DE), filed on Sep. 25, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0347951 A1, Nov. 2, 2023
Int. Cl. B61L 27/10 (2022.01); B61L 15/00 (2006.01); B61L 3/02 (2006.01); B61L 3/00 (2006.01); B61L 21/10 (2006.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01); G05D 1/02 (2020.01)
CPC B61L 27/10 (2022.01) [B61L 3/002 (2013.01); B61L 3/02 (2013.01); B61L 15/0018 (2013.01); B61L 21/10 (2013.01); G05D 1/0022 (2013.01); G05D 1/021 (2013.01); G05D 1/0289 (2013.01); G05D 2201/0216 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A driverless transport system, DTS, comprising:
a travelling course formed of routes which are respectively defined by one track, and of markers;
a fleet of at least two driverless transport vehicles, DTVs, travelling along the tracks in a forcibly guided manner; and
at least one station defined by:
at least one of the tracks,
at least one of the markers, and
an individualizing assigned station identifier;
wherein each of the stations represents an area of the travelling course in which a new travelling destination can be allocated to the DTVs and/or in which the DTVs can be loaded, unloaded, energetically charged, and/or stopped;
wherein the markers include information, which is station-specific by associating the respective information with the respectively assigned station identifier;
wherein each of the DTVs comprises:
a communication unit for transmitting and receiving information;
a marker-detection unit for reading the information from the markers; and
a controlling unit for processing read and received information, wherein the controlling unit is configured to:
cause an interaction between the respective DTV and another one of the DTVs only if an information included in a marker read last by the respective DTV is associated with one of the station identifiers being identical to a station identifier which has been received last by the respective DIV from the other one of the DTVs; and
wherein communication between the DTVs is performed directly.