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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 18, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 03, 1997
Cornell W Alofs, Petoskey, MI (US);
Ronald R Drenth, Petoskey, MI (US);
Justin R Drenth, Glen Burnie, MD (US);
Jervis B. Webb Company, Farmington Hills, MI (US);
Abstract
A method and system for controlling the movement of one or more automatic guided vehicles includes a system controller, a number of non-wire automatic guided vehicles (AGV's) and location markers positioned on a floor. The system controller serves as a dispatcher and traffic controller for the system, providing, in one embodiment, two way wireless communication to each AGV in the system. Each AGV is equipped with a navigation and guidance system for controlling the AGV's movement along a predefined guidepath. Differential X, Y-coordinates from a path point database stored in the system controller are communicated to a given AGV which can then follow the predefined guidepath. Communicating just the differential X, Y-coordinates allows for improved control over systems utilizing a large number of AGV's.