Automated carrier
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHiroto Murata, Kentaro Harada, Keigo Oishi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automated carrier includes a towing vehicle and a towed vehicle towed by the towing vehicle. The towed vehicle includes a marker associated with specification information of the towed vehicle stored in a computer mounted on the towing vehicle or in an external computer communicating with the towing vehicle. The towing vehicle includes a camera and a controller. The camera acquires a marker image by capturing an area comprising the marker on the towed vehicle. The controller acquires the specification information of the towed vehicle from the computer based on the marker image, and controls a drive unit of the towing vehicle based on the acquired specification information of the towed vehicle.
Claims4
An automated carrier comprising:
- a towing vehicle;
- a towed vehicle towed by the towing vehicle;
- and
- a coupling between the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle, the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle can rotate about the coupling with respect to each other,
- wherein the towed vehicle comprises a first marker associated with specification information of the towed vehicle stored in a computer mounted on the towing vehicle or in an external computer communicating with the towing vehicle,
- wherein the towing vehicle comprises a second marker,
- wherein the towing vehicle comprises a camera and a controller,
- wherein the camera acquires a marker image by capturing an area comprising the first marker on the towed vehicle and the second marker on the towing vehicle,
- wherein the controller acquires the specification information of the towed vehicle from the computer based on the marker image, and controls a drive unit of the towing vehicle based on the acquired specification information of the towed vehicle,
- wherein the controller acquires, based on a positional relationship between the first marker of the towed vehicle and the second marker of the towing vehicle in the marker image, a rotational direction and an angle of rotation between the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle in a rotation about the coupling, and
- wherein the controller controls the drive unit of the towing vehicle based on the acquired rotational direction and the acquired angle of rotation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.