A remotely operated vehicle includes an arrangement to provide a pre-alert and tracking of a position of the vehicle following a travelling route relative to tracks laid out on rails in x-, y-directions on a rail system. The vehicle has first and seconds sets of wheels connected to drives for moving the vehicle in corresponding x-, y-directions on the rail system. The arrangement includes at least one sensor module provided with at least four sensors. A first sensor is directed vertically downwards to detect the rails in the x-direction on the sensor module. A second sensor is directed vertically downwards to detect the rails in the y-direction on the sensor module. A third sensor is positioned on the sensor module to detect a corner of an intersection between the rails in the x-direction and y-direction. A fourth sensor is configured to detect a remaining distance to the arrival of the vehicle at a set position, by detecting the rails in the x direction when travelling in the y direction, and detecting the rail in the y direction when travelling in the x direction. The fourth sensor is placed at a predefined position on the sensor module. A controller is provided on the vehicle to receive the output from at least one of the sensors and to pre-alert the remaining distance of the arrival of the vehicle at the position.

An automated storage and retrieval system includes a rail system, a master control system, and a plurality of remotely operated vehicles. The rail system includes a first and second set of parallel tracks arranged orthogonally in a horizontal plane. The master control system is configured to keep track of any remotely operated vehicle operating on the rail system. The plurality of remotely operated vehicles handling storage containers, which operate on the rail system, each include first and second sets of wheels for transport on the rail system, and a fire detection device configured to transmit data from the fire detection device to the master control system. The master control system includes a processing device for processing the data from the fire detection devices so as to create a heat map of the automated storage and retrieval system.

A traveling vehicle system includes: a plurality of traveling vehicles; and a controller that is capable of communicating with the plurality of traveling vehicles and that controls the plurality of traveling vehicles, a traveling region of the traveling vehicles having designated therein a plurality of blocking sections each of which undergoes, when occupied by one of the plurality of traveling vehicles, exclusive control to prohibit another traveling vehicle from moving thereinto. The controller determines, where in a series of operations to be executed by the traveling vehicle, the operation of the traveling vehicle from the start of traveling to stopping before executing a predetermined operation included in the series of operations is demarcated, whether or not to grant the traveling vehicle an occupation permission for the blocking sections to be occupied for the traveling vehicle to execute operations.

Techniques are provided to manage routing of mobile objects in a given environment. For example, a method is performed by an object routing system. The object routing system receives a request for a given mobile object to traverse from a first location to a second location in a physical environment which is logically partitioned into a plurality of grid locations. The object routing system computes a route for the given mobile object to traverse from the first location to the second location. The computed route comprises a sequence of grid locations which are reserved at corresponding times, wherein each grid location of the computed route is reserved for the corresponding time that the given mobile object is expected to traverse through the grid location. The object routing system commands the given mobile object to traverse the computed route.

An automated overhead follower (AOF) system for a picking process includes an overhead rail, a motorized trolley configured to engage the rail and translate along its longitudinal axis in response to position control signals, a light projector connected to the trolley that emits a light beam in response to lighting control signals, and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter connectable to a tray. An electronic control unit (ECU) receives three-dimensional (3D) position signals from the transmitter as the tray moves along a bin aisle, identifies a bin zone in the aisle using the 3D position signals, and transmits the position control signals to a motor to command the trolley to move to the identified bin zone. The ECU also transmits the lighting control signals to the projector to illuminate one of more bins in the identified bin zone.

An overhead transport vehicle includes a traveling cart configured to move in a first direction by traveling on a pair of first rails adjacent to each other in a second direction, and move in the second direction by traveling on a pair of second rails adjacent to each other in the first direction, a body configured to swivel with respect to the traveling cart, a transfer device configured to swivel together with the body with respect to the traveling cart and to move an article, and a controller configured or programmed to swivel the body so that when the traveling cart starts traveling, an orientation of the article held by the transfer device is constant with respect to a travel direction of the traveling cart.

In an article transport facility, transport vehicles each include a speed detector that detects a current speed and a distance detector that detects an inter-vehicle distance index corresponding to a distance from another transport vehicle ahead in a travel direction. A control system performs a first target-speed determination process for determining a control target speed based on a distance-based target speed greater for a greater inter-vehicle distance index, the current speed, and the inter-vehicle distance index. The first target-speed determination process includes an acceleration determination process for determining whether to perform an acceleration process for setting the control target speed to the distance-based target speed higher than the current speed. In the acceleration determination process, the system performs the acceleration process when a relationship between the current speed and the distance-based target speed reaches a state satisfying an acceleration condition and the state continues for a determination duration or longer.