The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Oct. 10, 2023

Filed:

Aug. 13, 2021
Applicant:

Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc., Mayfield Heights, OH (US);

Inventors:

Yuhong Huang, Acton, MA (US);

Brian M. Perreault, Stow, MA (US);

Assignee:

Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc., Mayfield Heights, OH (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B60L 3/00 (2019.01); B60L 15/38 (2006.01); B60L 15/00 (2006.01); B60L 13/03 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B60L 3/0015 (2013.01); B60L 15/005 (2013.01); B60L 15/38 (2013.01); B60L 13/03 (2013.01);
Abstract

An improved system for preventing collisions between movers while improving throughput in a linear drive system utilizes a continually variable vehicle length for each mover. A vehicle length is assigned to each mover, where the vehicle length is a minimum track length required by the vehicle to avoid physically contacting a neighboring vehicle along the track. The vehicle length for each mover is then determined for each location along the track based on both the track geometry and the mover geometry. The vehicle length is continually variable along the length of the track allowing movers to be positioned as close together as possible for each location along the track based on both the track geometry and the mover geometry. The continually variable vehicle length provides collision prevention between movers while increasing throughput of movers along segments of the track that do not require the largest spacing between movers.


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