Fedex Corporate Services, Inc.

Other

Howard McKinney

Reuben F Burch, V

Andrew M LeClair

Matthew Bilson

Matthew Doude

Davis Donald Hesler

Greggory Alan Morris

Katherine A King

Aaron Prather

Kevin Frommelt

Shaq Khan

Michael S Mazzola

James R Gafford

John E Ball

Tyler J Hannis

Yucheng Liu

Sherif Abelwahed

William Meadows

Matt Doude

Ronald W Thomas

Charles W Hawk

Tasmia Reza

Jian Shi

Pan Wei

Dennison W Iacomini

Lucas D Cagle

Collin S Davenport

Gregory Alan Morris

Andrew R Hegman

Michelle Price

An improved auto-chocking enabled cargo dolly that is towable by ground support equipment. The dolly has a frame, wheels attached to the frame that support the frame and rotate to allow movement of the frame, a tow bar, a linkage in communication with the tow bar and that actuates when the tow bar is raised, and a wheel engagement chocking system fixed to the dolly frame and disposed to selectively engage at least one of the wheels attached to the dolly frame. The wheel engagement system is responsive to a position of the linkage, where the wheel engagement chocking system applies pressure directly to at least one of the wheels to hold the wheel(s) in place when the linkage is actuated by the tow bar.

Systems and methods for improved automatic chocking of a cargo dolly

An improved cargo dolly for transporting cargo is described having a mobile dolly frame, a main shaft on the frame, a lever proximate to a first part of the frame (where the lever is movable relative to the frame and in responsive communication with the main shaft), a first set of transfer sprockets mounted to the main shaft, a secondary shaft rotatably disposed at a second part of the frame (where the first part is remote from the second part), a second set of transfer sprockets mounted to the secondary shaft, a chain disposed about the first set of transfer sprockets and the second set of transfer sprockets, and a locking pin having a first end fixed to the secondary shaft and a second end configured as an angled latch. Rotation of the lever responsively causes the locking pin to remotely rotate at the second part of the frame.

Systems and methods for improved cargo dolly for remote cargo holding pins for a cargo dolly

An improved retrofit assembly for ground support equipment providing autonomous operation of the logistics ground support equipment (GSE). The assembly has a refit control system attached to the GSE (with a vehicle dynamics control processor and a data preprocessing control processor), retrofitted proprioceptive sensors coupled to the vehicle dynamics control processor monitoring operating parameters and characteristics of the GSE, retrofitted exteroceptive sensors coupled to the data preprocessing control processor that monitor an exterior environment of the GSE, and refit actuators for different control elements on the GSE and to autonomously alter motion of the GSE. The refit control system programmatically receives sensor data from the proprioceptive sensors and exteroceptive sensors; optimizes a path for the GSE based upon the different sensor data; and activates at least one of the actuators according to the optimized path for the GSE.

Enhanced systems, apparatus, and method for improved automated and autonomous operation of logistics ground support equipment

A replaceable charging panel is provided for a unit load device having a plurality of walls. The replaceable charging panel may have a base member that is configured to removably attach to a first wall of the plurality of walls of the unit load device; and an electrical charging device mounted to the base member. A unit load device is also provided that has a plurality of walls and a replaceable charging panel.

Unit load device and panel enhancements for a unit load device

Enhanced systems, apparatus, and methods for improved automated and autonomous operation of logistics ground support equipment

Enhanced systems and methods for collision avoidance of a high value asset with reflective beacons around it using multi-sensor data fusion on a mobile industrial vehicle. The system has a sensing processing system with a LiDAR and camera sensors, and a multi-processor module responsive to the different sensors. The sensing processing system fuses the different sensor data to locate the reflective beacons. A model predictive controller on the vehicle determines possible control solutions where each defines a threshold allowable speed for the vehicle at discrete moments based upon an estimated path to a breaching point projected from the reflective beacons, and then identifies an optimal one of the control solutions based upon a performance cost function and associated with an optimal threshold allowable speed. The system has a vehicle actuator configured to respond and alter vehicle movement to avoid a collision when the vehicle exceeds the optimal threshold allowable speed.

Systems and methods for enhanced collision avoidance on logistics ground support equipment using multi-sensor detection fusion

Growing community of inventors

Bartlett, TN, United States of America

Howard McKinney