Commercial logistic facility, configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle, and method therefor

A method for transporting logistics units with a configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle, the method comprising:

• providing a robotic autonomous guided vehicle engine module, the robotic autonomous guided vehicle engine module including:
• motors, sensors, and a control system that are integrated with each other to provide autonomous navigation of the configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle freely throughout a travel area, the travel area forming a logistic space, wherein:
• the integrated motors, sensors, and control system of the robotic autonomous guided vehicle engine module are packaged within a module housing to form a module unit,
• the module unit has a module interface at one end of the module unit for modular coupling of the module unit with a selected one of multiple, different logistic or material handling accessory modules of the configurable modular autonomous guided vehicle,
• each of the multiple, different logistic or material handling accessory modules being configured with a corresponding different predetermined logistic or material handling characteristic, and each of the different logistic or material handling accessory modules being selectably interchangeable with each other and configured to selectably couple to the module unit via the module interface, and
• with the module unit of the modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle coupled to a selected one of the different logistic or material handling accessory modules, a type of logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle is defined;
• and
• configuring the configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle by selectably coupling one of the different logistic or material handling accessory modules to the module unit so as to change the logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle type from a first logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle type to a second logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle type different than the first logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle type.

A commercial logistic facility comprising:

• material handling stations;
• and
• at least one configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle configured for transporting logistics units from one material handling station to another material handling station, each of the at least one configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle including:
• a robotic autonomous guided vehicle engine module including:
• motors, sensors, and a control system, wherein the motors, sensors, and control system are integrated with each other to provide autonomous navigation of the at least one configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle freely throughout a travel area, the travel area forming a logistic space;
• wherein the integrated motors, sensors, and control system of the robotic autonomous guided vehicle engine module are packaged within a module housing to comprise a module unit;
• and
• the at least one configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle further comprising:
• multiple different logistic or material handling accessory modules, each logistic or material handling accessory module including a corresponding different predetermined logistic or material handling characteristic, wherein with the module unit is coupled to a selected one of the different logistic or material handling accessory modules, a type of logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle is defined;
• wherein, the module unit has a module interface at one end to provide modular coupling of the module unit with one of the different logistic or material handling accessory modules, each of the different logistic or material handling accessory modules being selectably interchangeable with each other, and the different logistic or material handling accessory modules are further configured to selectably couple to the module unit via the module interface;
• wherein by selectably coupling a selected one of the different logistic or material handling accessory modules to the module unit, a type of the configurable modular robotic autonomous guided vehicle is changed from a first logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle type to a second logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle type different than the first logistic or material handling autonomous guided vehicle type.