Automatic vehicle control system

A system, comprising:

• a guided vehicle path;
• a plurality of guided vehicles operating along said path;
• a plurality of indicators positioned along said path for indicating to said vehicles position on said path;
• and
• a guided vehicle controller, comprising:
• means for communicating with said guided vehicles;
• a first computer system for exchanging information with said guided vehicles through said communicating means, said first computer system including a first memory section for storing information received from said vehicles including vehicle position information of each vehicle in relation to said indicators and including a second memory section for storing information to be transmitted to said vehicles including vehicle destination information;
• a second computer system for receiving vehicle movement requests from external sources and determining which vehicles are to respond to said requests, said second computer system including a third memory section for storing information relating to vehicle position in relation to said indicators and including a fourth memory section for storing information including vehicle destination information;
• first transfer means for copying said information in said first memory section to said third memory section so that said first memory section and said third memory section contain the same vehicle position information;
• and
• second transfer means for copying said information in said fourth memory section to said second memory section so that said fourth memory section and said second memory section contain the same vehicle destination information;
• wherein said first computer system polls said vehicles using a fast polling routine for vehicles within a first predetermined distance of a next position indicator and using a slow polling routine after the fast polling routine is completed, and wherein said fast polling routine includes requesting information from each vehicle as to its position, storing said requested fast polling position information in said first memory section and indicating to each fast polled vehicle whether it should stop or continue

A system, comprising:

• a plurality of vehicles traveling on predetermined paths;
• indicators on said paths for indicating to said vehicles the position of said vehicles along said paths;
• means for communicating with each of said vehicles;
• a controller for receiving position information from said vehicles through said communicating means and for transmitting control information to said vehicles through said communicating means, said controller including means for prioritizing said vehicles based on an expected distance to said indicators such that vehicles expected to be within a first predetermined distance of one of said indicators are given a high priority and vehicles expected to be within a second predetermined distance to one of said indicators are given a low priority, said control information including a first type of information to be sent to said vehicles and a second type of information to be sent to said vehicles, and means for polling said vehicles first in a high priority sequence and then in a low priority sequence such that, during said high priority sequence, said high priority vehicles are polled to obtain position information from each polled vehicle and said first type of information is transmitted to each polled vehicle, and such that, during said low priority sequence, low priority vehicles are polled to obtain position information and said first type of information is transmitted to said low priority vehicles and said second type of information is transmitted to said high priority vehicles and to said low priority vehicles.