Navigation Array Layout for Smooth Bot Routing on Transfer Decks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional autonomous vehicles in storage and retrieval systems are restricted to travel along guide features, leading to increased travel times due to the need for continuous sensing and limited availability of travel paths, especially for non-holonomic vehicles making sharp turns, which slows them down and increases travel time.
Innovation Solution
The system enables non-holonomic autonomous vehicles to navigate more directly by using a navigation array with linearly distributed features that allow for high-speed traversal without continuous sensing, enabling them to travel across and along transfer decks at high speeds and make turns without being restricted to 90° turns at nodes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If autonomous vehicles travel along guide features using continuous sensing, then navigation accuracy is maintained, but travel time increases due to restricted paths and continuous sensing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-mapping the environment and creating a global map before navigation begins. The autonomous vehicle uses this pre-established map and path planning algorithms to determine optimal routes in advance, eliminating the need for continuous sensing during traversal and reducing travel time while maintaining navigation accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/continuous sensing system with an information-processing-based navigation system. Instead of relying on continuous sensor feedback during movement, the system uses computer vision, path planning algorithms, and pre-mapped environmental data to guide the vehicle, substituting continuous mechanical sensing with discrete computational navigation.
2Speed
If non-holonomic autonomous vehicles make sharp turns at 90° intersections of guide features, then they follow the guide network, but speed decreases and travel time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies curvature by allowing autonomous vehicles to follow curved paths rather than being restricted to sharp 90° turns at guide feature intersections. The path planning system generates smooth curved trajectories that accommodate the non-holonomic constraints of the vehicles while maintaining higher speeds and reducing travel time compared to rigid angular turns.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamics by adapting the vehicle paths to the dynamic constraints of non-holonomic vehicles. Rather than forcing vehicles into fixed angular turns, the path planning algorithm dynamically generates trajectories that respect the vehicles' turning capabilities while optimizing for speed and efficiency.
3Adaptability or versatility
If autonomous vehicles are restricted to travel only along guide features, then continuous sensing is enabled, but path availability is limited and travel efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends navigation from two-dimensional guide feature following to three-dimensional space utilization. The system allows vehicles to traverse across transfer decks and use vertical elevation changes, creating additional dimensional pathways beyond the flat guide feature network. This increases path availability and enables more direct routes, improving travel efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The transfer deck surface serves multiple functions: it acts as both a travel surface for autonomous vehicles and a structural element of the storage and retrieval system. This multi-functionality allows vehicles to use the entire deck area for navigation, not just designated guide feature paths, thereby increasing path availability and travel efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
A storage array system including an open undeterministic transport surface, a navigation array disposed in connection with the transport surface, the navigation array includes a distributed feature, a first waypoint at a first position of the distributed feature, a second waypoint displaced from the first waypoint along the distributed feature and offset with respect to the first waypoint in a direction angled to the distributed feature, and a guided bot, arranged to traverse the transport surface, with a non-holonomic steering system, the guided bot having a bot pose determination system employing sensor data detecting the distributed feature, wherein the guided bot includes a controller configured to generate a substantially smooth curved bot traverse path on the transport surface connecting the first and second waypoints with a predetermined optimal trajectory of the guided bot along the traverse path determined based on a bot dynamic model.