Automated independent cart system and method of controlling operation of a plurality of movers of the automated independent cart system

A method of controlling operation of a plurality of movers traveling along a path of an automated independent cart system, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a status flag at a system controller for the automated independent cart system corresponding to desired motion of a lead mover located within a first queue zone along the path;
• determining whether one of the first queue zone and a second queue zone has a vacant space for the lead mover,
• responsive to receiving the status flag and when the vacant space for the lead mover is present, reading an absolute position for the vacant position as a function of a circular pointer for the corresponding queue zone in which the vacant position is located;
• generating a move command with the system controller for the lead mover to travel along the path to the vacant position;
• when the lead mover exits the first queue zone, updating a target position for each additional mover located within the first queue zone;
• and
• generating an additional mover command with the system controller for each additional mover located within the first queue zone to move to the updated target position.

An automated independent cart system comprising:

• a plurality of movers, each including at least one drive magnet;
• a track including a plurality of track segments, each track segment of the plurality of track segments having, respectively, a plurality of drive coils and a drive coupled to the plurality of drive coils;
• and
• a controller coupled to the track, the controller including a non-transitory storage medium configured to store a plurality of instructions and a processor in communication with the non-transitory storage medium, the processor being operative to execute the plurality of instruction to:
• define a queue zone for the track, the queue zone having one or more target positions, wherein one of the one or more target positions is a lead position;
• define a circular pointer for the queue zone;
• associate the circular pointer with the one or more target positions of the queue zone;
• associate at least one of the plurality of movers with the one or more target positions in the circular pointer;
• associate one of the plurality of movers with the lead position in the circular pointer, wherein the associated mover is a lead mover;
• circulate the plurality of movers associated with the one or more target positions within the circular pointer when the lead mover leaves the queue zone;
• and
• control the drive coils to move the plurality of movers through the queue zone based on the circular pointer.