Patent ID: 9522686
Filing Date: 2016-12-20
CPC Classification: B61L,G05B,G05D,G06K,Y02P

Claim Text:
1. A method for controlling movement of rail-based automated transport vehicles in a multi-branch rail system the method comprising: storing a representation of the multi-branch rail system in a control system of an automated transport vehicle, the representation of the rail- based system including switches, lifts and integrated rail-based units represented by nodes and edges as defined in graph theory; determining current positions of the rail-based automated transport vehicles; determining a destination of the automated transport vehicle; determining path-specific costs for a plurality of paths along the multi-branch rail system between a current position of the automated transport vehicle and the destination using costs associated with the nodes and the edges, wherein a cost associated with a node is a function of a storage level of the node, wherein a cost associated with an edge is a function of a storage level of the edge and wherein a highest cost is assigned to a node that requires changing storage levels for the automated transport vehicle and selecting a path of the plurality of paths that has the lowest non-zero cost to control movement of the rail-based automated transport vehicle.