Patent ID: 7756615

Claim:
A traffic management system for one or more vehicles located in a passageway environment comprising: a) one or more vehicles, each equipped with one or more odometric sensors, one or more range-sensing devices, and a microprocessor including memory storage, said one or more odometric sensors and one or more range-sensing devices being connected to said microprocessor, said microprocessor being programmed to acquire data from said one or more odometric sensors and said one or more range-sensing devices, and based on said data, said microprocessor being programmed for estimating global position and orientation of the vehicle on which it is located in said passageway environment; and b) a central microprocessor that executes said route planning and vehicle monitoring, said central microprocessor being connected to said one or more vehicles by way of a wireless data communications system, and based on said estimated global position and orientation of each of said one or more vehicles, said central microprocessor being programmed for generating strategic route plans for said one or more vehicles located in said passageway environment; and monitoring the global position and orientation of said one or more vehicles in said passageway environment as said one or more vehicles progress along said strategic route plans.