초록 ▼

An unmanned, self-propelled vehicle in the nature of a mobile robot has an on-board computer that stores path and machine function instructions and activates the drive and steering systems so as to cause the machine to follow a desired path. A plurality of retroreflectve targets are mounted along th

An unmanned, self-propelled vehicle in the nature of a mobile robot has an on-board computer that stores path and machine function instructions and activates the drive and steering systems so as to cause the machine to follow a desired path. A plurality of retroreflectve targets are mounted along the desired path. They do not have to be mounted at a specific height or distance apart, nor need they be square to the path. An improved guidance system for keeping the vehicle on the prescribed path includes a laterally scanning laser transmitter-receiver mounted on the vehicle. An electromechanical tracking device controls the angle of elevation of the laser beam so as to keep it aimed at each target successively as the vehicle moves. The laser produces signals which steer the vehicle such that the laser transmitter and targets are kept aligned in a vertical plane. A positioning device can move the laser transmitter transversely on the vehicle so that the vehicle centerline may travel in the vertical plane of the laser or may travel in an offset line parallel to the vertical laser plane. Certain ones of the targets are bar coded and a target counter senses and counts them as the machine moves past them to keep track of where the vehicle is located along its desired path. A motion sensing system using reflective microwave sensors provides speed and distance information.

대표청구항 ▼

In an automated guided vehicle having a frame, drive means mounted on the frame for propelling the vehicle, and steering means associated with the frame for controlling the vehicle\s direction of travel, an improved guidance system for controlling the drive means and steering means so as to guide th

In an automated guided vehicle having a frame, drive means mounted on the frame for propelling the vehicle, and steering means associated with the frame for controlling the vehicle\s direction of travel, an improved guidance system for controlling the drive means and steering means so as to guide the vehicle along a desired predetermined path, the guidance system comprising: a plurality of spaced retroreflective targets mounted in a sequential manner along the desired path; sighting means mounted on the vehicle including transmitting means for emitting a light beam and receiving means for detecting said emitted light beam reflected from one of said targets and defining a target-in-view signal when such light is detected; tracking means on the vehicle for controlling the angle of elevation of the transmitted light beam, with reference to a horizontal plane, so as to maintain a target-in-view signal substantially continuously as the vehicle moves by automatically tracking said targets in a sequential manner; and control means responsive to the sighting means for activating the drive means or steering means so as to keep the vehicle on the desired path.