Autonomous Cart Handoff Logistics for Long-Range Cargo Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
The demand for efficient cargo transport systems has arisen with the development of autonomous vehicle technologies, as conventional methods require human-driven vehicles for delivery, leading to inefficiencies in time and cost.
Innovation Solution
A logistics transport system utilizing autonomous individual transport carts and vehicles that autonomously deliver cargo to delivery positions or intermediate base points, with a control unit managing their operation based on distance and path optimization, enabling efficient delivery through coordinated travel of carts and vehicles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If human-driven vehicles are used for cargo delivery, then delivery can be completed, but time and cost efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements autonomous transport carts that perform delivery operations independently without human intervention. The control unit enables the carts to autonomously navigate, transport cargo, and return to base points, allowing the system to serve itself and eliminating the need for human drivers, thereby improving delivery efficiency and reducing delivery time.
2Adaptability or versatility
If individual transport carts operate independently over long distances, then delivery flexibility is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces intermediate base points as intermediary locations between the central base and final delivery destinations. Transport carts can return to these intermediate base points to recharge or be collected by transport vehicles, allowing flexible delivery operations over extended areas while managing energy consumption through periodic recharging at distributed base points rather than requiring single long-distance trips.
3Productivity
If transport vehicles collect and transport multiple individual carts to intermediate base points, then resource utilization is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple individual transport carts onto a single transport vehicle for collective transport to intermediate base points. This merging approach improves resource utilization by enabling one transport vehicle to service multiple carts simultaneously, reducing the total number of vehicles needed while the standardized coupling and uncoupling mechanisms at base points keep operational complexity manageable.
4Extent of automation
If autonomous driving technology is implemented, then labor costs are reduced, but control system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous driving system is segmented into distinct functional units: individual transport carts with their own control units for navigation and operation, transport vehicles with control units for collecting and transporting carts, and a central control unit that coordinates overall system operations. This segmentation distributes computational complexity across multiple independent control units rather than requiring one highly complex centralized system, making the autonomous driving implementation more manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
A logistics transport system includes individual transport cart of traveling by first driving unit and transporting a cargo to a delivery position; a transport vehicle of traveling by second driving unit and driving to the delivery position in loading the individual transport cart thereon to deliver a cargo or driving to an intermediate base point and then separating the individual transport cart therefrom at the intermediate base point; and a control unit configured to, when the cargo is delivered from a terminal at which the cargo is loaded to the delivery position, control the individual transport cart to deliver the cargo from the terminal to the delivery position by the individual transport cart, or control the transport vehicle to deliver the individual transport cart to the intermediate base point and then control the individual transport cart to deliver the cargo from the intermediate base point to the delivery position.