Method for determining an absolute position of a moving travel unit of a stationary transport system

A method for determining an absolute position of a moving travel unit of a stationary transport system, the travel unit being driven by at least one linear synchronous motor along a travel path inside the transport system, the linear motor including:

• a plurality of stator units installed along the travel path and configured to provide a magnetic field traveling along the travel path, and
• at least one rotor unit attached to the travel unit and configured to be driven along the travel path by the traveling magnetic field,
• the method comprising:
• storing in a database an absolute position of at least some of the plurality of stator units disposed along the travel path inside the transport system;
• analyzing regulating parameters of a vector regulation of the linear motor to:
• determine which of the plurality of stator units is active and providing the magnetic field that is driving the rotor unit, and
• compute a relative position of the rotor unit in relation to the active stator unit;
• querying from the database an absolute position of the active stator unit;
• calculating the absolute position of the travel unit by adding the absolute position of the active stator unit to the computed relative position of the rotor unit.