Autonomous vehicle and vending system
AssigneeDVW Holdings, LLC
InventorDaniel A. Spurgeon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A package transfer system is configured to facilitate transfer of an autonomous vehicle into and/or out of a room in a vehicle station and associated with transfer of a package relative to the vehicle station and another room in a customer building. The package transfer system is operable to selectively provide a path into and/or out of the vehicle station room for vehicle transfer, and the autonomous vehicle is configured to be advanced into and/or out of the customer building room along another path to facilitate package transfer.
Claims19
A package transfer system configured to facilitate transfer of an autonomous vehicle into and/or out of a room in a vehicle station and associated with transfer of a package relative to the vehicle station and another room in a customer building, said package transfer system being operable to selectively provide a path into and/or out of the vehicle station room for vehicle transfer and said autonomous vehicle configured to be advanced into and/or out of the customer building room along another path to facilitate package transfer, said package transfer system comprising:
- a station panel assembly operable to be constructed as part of the vehicle station and including a station panel that is shiftable between open and closed positions to selectively provide access to the vehicle station room;
- a building panel assembly operable to be constructed as part of the customer building and including a building panel that is shiftable between open and closed positions to selectively provide access to the customer building room;
- and
- a control system configured to permit movement of the vehicle into and/or out of the rooms,
- said control system configured to control each of the panels to selectively provide the paths into and out of the respective rooms,
- said control system including—
- a location sensor configured to sense vehicle location data associated with the location of the vehicle relative to the panels;
- and
- a system processor configured to—
- receive vehicle location data associated with the vehicle,
- have the station panel opened to allow station room ingress and egress along the path based on the vehicle location data,
- move the autonomous vehicle to a location adjacent the station panel to facilitate vehicle transfer along the path, based on the vehicle location data,
- have the building panel opened to allow building room ingress and egress along the another path based on the vehicle location data, and
- move the autonomous vehicle to a location adjacent the building panel to facilitate vehicle transfer along the another path, based on the vehicle location data.
A method of using a system to transfer a package with an autonomous vehicle from a vehicle station to a customer building, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) having the autonomous vehicle and package presented to a shiftable panel assembly of the vehicle station for deployment to the customer building;
- (b) having the system open the shiftable panel assembly of the vehicle station and deploy the autonomous vehicle and the package from the vehicle station for transport to the customer building;
- (c) having the autonomous vehicle and package presented to a shiftable panel assembly of the customer building;
- and
- (d) having the system open the shiftable panel assembly of the customer building to permit ingress of the autonomous vehicle and the package relative to the customer building.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.