Driverless Transport Vehicle Steering on Inclined Roadways
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Solution Overview
Problem
Driverless transport vehicles face challenges in moving on inclined roadways without over-dimensioning their drives, as existing measures such as reducing gradients or increasing power are impractical or economically unsustainable, and current systems struggle to maintain efficient operation on slopes due to idling and braking issues.
Innovation Solution
The method involves detecting the inclination of the transport roadway and using controllable steering drives to adjust the vehicle's direction relative to the inclination, allowing it to maintain movement by rotating the steering drives and applying torque to the wheels, thereby utilizing gravity as an acceleration component and reducing the need for increased drive power.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If the drive power is increased to ensure movement on inclined roadways, then the vehicle can overcome gradients, but the battery capacity is exceeded and economic sustainability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle performs preliminary actions on horizontal road sections by accelerating to high speeds and storing kinetic energy before approaching inclined sections. This preliminary acceleration allows the vehicle to utilize its own momentum and stored kinetic energy to overcome gradients without requiring proportionally higher drive power, thereby resolving the contradiction between needed power and battery capacity constraints
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle operates in periodic cycles of acceleration on horizontal sections followed by coasting or controlled deceleration on inclined sections. This periodic pattern of high-power input followed by low-power utilization allows the drive system to be sized for average rather than peak continuous demand, making the power-battery capacity trade-off economically sustainable
2Power
If the drive power is increased to ensure movement on inclined roadways, then the vehicle can overcome gradients, but economic sustainability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle performs preliminary actions on horizontal road sections by accelerating to high speeds and storing kinetic energy before approaching inclined sections. This preliminary acceleration allows the vehicle to utilize its own momentum and stored kinetic energy to overcome gradients without requiring proportionally higher drive power, thereby resolving the contradiction between needed power and battery capacity constraints
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle operates in periodic cycles of acceleration on horizontal sections followed by coasting or controlled deceleration on inclined sections. This periodic pattern of high-power input followed by low-power utilization allows the drive system to be sized for average rather than peak continuous demand, making the power-battery capacity trade-off economically sustainable
3Productivity
If the vehicle operates on inclined roadway sections, then transport function is maintained, but idling occurs and throughput decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle performs preliminary acceleration to high speeds on horizontal sections before reaching inclined sections, storing kinetic energy in advance. This allows continuous movement through gradients without stopping or idling, maintaining throughput while eliminating time loss during incline traversal
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle maintains continuous motion by leveraging kinetic energy stored during horizontal acceleration phases to power through inclined sections without interruption. This continuous action eliminates idle periods and maintains steady throughput, resolving the contradiction between maintaining transport function and avoiding time loss
4Reliability
If the drive is dimensioned to handle gradient situations, then stopping and restarting on inclines becomes possible, but the drive reaches its limits in individual situations
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle performs preliminary acceleration to high speeds on horizontal sections before reaching inclined sections, storing kinetic energy in advance. This allows continuous movement through gradients without stopping or idling, maintaining throughput while eliminating time loss during incline traversal
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle operates in periodic cycles of acceleration on horizontal sections followed by coasting or controlled deceleration on inclined sections. This periodic pattern of high-power input followed by low-power utilization allows the drive system to be sized for average rather than peak continuous demand, making the power-battery capacity trade-off economically sustainable
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables efficient movement on inclined roadways without the need for over-dimensioning the drive, ensuring continuous operation and reducing the risk of idling, while maintaining throughput and avoiding congestion by allowing synchronous movement of multiple vehicles.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing gravity as an acceleration component
Data Source
AI summary
A higher throughput is an increasingly necessary requirement for driverless transport systems with a plurality of driverless transport vehicles. In arrangements with inclined roadways, resuming a movement is problematic in that doing so has hitherto only been possible with a limited arrangement of the roadways and/or with highly dimensioned drives. The novel method provides for moving a driverless transport vehicle on an inclined transport roadway, wherein the steering drives are actuated on the basis of the detected inclination direction in order to move the vehicle such that the transport vehicle is moved transversely to the inclination direction. After a specified minimum speed of the transport vehicle transversely to the inclination direction is reached, the steering drives are adjusted such that the transport vehicle continues to move in the inclination direction.