Warehouse Vehicle Routing With Node Permissions and Occupancy Grids
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for materials handling vehicles in warehouse environments require significant sensing hardware and computing capacity for navigation and collision avoidance, leading to increased costs and operational burdens, as well as positioning and navigational delays.
Innovation Solution
An automated warehouse environment with a dynamic localization engine and path planner that uses primary and secondary nodes to establish travel routes, and an occupancy grid generator to lock cells and prevent unauthorized travel, reducing the computational load on vehicles and enhancing navigation efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If materials handling vehicles are equipped with active navigation, localization, and collision avoidance systems, then navigation capability is improved, but vehicle cost and computational burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex navigation, localization, and collision avoidance functions from the vehicle itself and relocates them to a central server. The vehicle retains only minimal sensing components for basic obstacle detection, while the server handles path planning, dynamic localization, and collision avoidance computations, thereby reducing vehicle complexity while maintaining navigation capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a central server as an intermediary between the vehicle and the environment. This server acts as a mediator that receives sensor data from the vehicle, computes navigation paths, tracks vehicle position, and generates collision avoidance commands, thereby offloading computational burden from the vehicle while maintaining reliable navigation
2Reliability
If vehicles use onboard sensing components for collision avoidance, then collision detection capability is improved, but computational resources and processing time are excessively consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the computationally intensive collision avoidance and localization algorithms from the vehicle's onboard systems and relocates them to a central server. The vehicle uses minimal onboard sensors for basic obstacle detection, while the server performs dynamic localization and collision avoidance computations, reducing processing delays and computational burden on the vehicle
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the vehicle's onboard mechanical/computational sensing and processing system with a centralized server-based system. Instead of relying on the vehicle's own sensors and processors, the system uses the server's superior computational resources to perform localization and collision avoidance, thereby reducing positioning delays and improving response time
Data Source
AI summary
According to the subject matter of the present disclosure, an automated warehouse environment is provided where designated materials handling vehicles are programmed to initiate permission inquiries at primary and secondary nodes of a travel route in the warehouse environment. Alternatively, or additionally, the present disclosure also presents an automated warehouse environment where an asset manager comprises an occupancy grid generator, and a designated materials handling vehicle is programmed to avoid otherwise unpermitted travel along path segments that overlap the locked cells of the occupancy grid.