Conveyor System

Abstract

A conveyor system (10) includes two tracked or wheeled carriages (12); a continuous conveyor belt (16) supported on the carriages (12); an actuator (18) for controlling the relative orientation of the carriages (12); carriage measuring means for measuring either the position of the actuator (18) or the relative orientation of the carriages (12); steering means for steering each carriage (12) while driven forward; distance measuring means for measuring the initial position of a select point on the conveyor system (10) and displacement of the select point from the initial position as the conveyor system (10) is driven forward; recording means for recording the initial position, displacement measurements, and measurements of the carriage measuring means corresponding to each displacement measurement, such that when the conveyor system (10) is driven in reverse, the conveyor system (10) uses the information stored in the recording means to adjust the actuator (18) and cause the conveyor system (10) to follow a similar path it followed when driving forward.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.