A SYSTEM AND A METHOD OF TRANSPORTING LUGGAGE

Abstract

A system and a method of transporting luggage, such as in an airport, where luggage is stored in a central luggage storage facility from which a number of pieces of luggage is identified which will fit on a cart ordered to an outlet at which the identified luggage is output, so that the outlet is freed as soon as the luggage is loaded on to the cart. The cart may be autonomous.

Claims

1. A system for transporting luggage, the system comprising: a central luggage storage facility, a plurality of luggage outlets configured to receive pieces of luggage from the central luggage storage facility, a plurality of luggage carts configured to receive luggage from the outlets and deliver the luggage to an airplane, each luggage cart being configured to: move to any of the outlets and receive luggage from the outlet, a controller configured to: identify an outlet and a plurality of pieces of luggage in the central facility, control the central facility to feed the identified luggage to the identified outlet, output information to the effect that one of the plurality of carts should move to the identified outlet and receive the identified luggage and control the output to feed the received, identified luggage to the one of the plurality of carts.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein each luggage cart is configured to output a signal when able to receive luggage, and wherein the controller configured to receive the signal from one of the plurality of carts and then perform the identifying and controlling steps.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the carts are autonomous.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to output information to the cart having received the identified luggage, relating to an unloading position to move to.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to divide pieces of luggage in the central storage facility into fractions of luggage and identify pieces of luggage of a single fraction of luggage.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to have the identifying and controlling steps performed, before the one cart of the plurality of carts arrives at the identified outlet.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to have the identifying and controlling steps performed, so that the identified luggage arrives at the identified outlet no more than 180 seconds before the one cart of the plurality of carts arrives at the identified outlet.

8. A system according to claim 1, further comprising one or more airplanes, where the controller is configured to determine when the airplane is able to receive luggage, the processor being configured to subsequently perform the identifying and controlling steps.

9. A method of transporting luggage to an airplane, the method comprising: storing a plurality of pieces of luggage in a central luggage storage facility having a plurality of luggage outlets, providing a plurality of luggage carts each configured to receive luggage from the outlets and deliver the luggage to an airplane, each luggage cart being configured to: move to any of the outlets, and receive luggage from the outlet, identifying an outlet and a plurality of pieces of luggage in the central facility, controlling the central facility to feed the identified luggage to the identified outlet, and output information to the effect that one of the plurality of carts should move to the identified outlet and receive the identified luggage.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of a luggage cart outputting a signal when able to receive luggage, and wherein the identifying and controlling steps are performed subsequent to the outputting of a signal.

11. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of outputting information to the cart having received the identified luggage to move to a predetermined position.

12. A method according to claim 9, wherein the outputting step comprises instructing the cart to autonomously move to the predetermined position.

13. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of dividing luggage in the central storage facility into fractions of luggage, wherein the identifying step comprises identifying luggage of a single fraction of luggage.

14. A method according to claim 9, wherein the identifying and controlling steps are performed, before the one cart of the plurality of carts arrives at the identified outlet.

15. A method according to claim 9, wherein the identifying and controlling steps are performed, so that the identified luggage arrives at the identified outlet no more than 180 seconds before the one cart of the plurality of carts arrives at the identified outlet.

Description

[0101] In the following, preferred embodiments will be described with reference to the drawing, wherein:

[0102] FIG. 1 illustrates a system for handling luggage in an airport,

[0103] FIG. 2 illustrates a first embodiment of a cart for use in the system of FIG. 1,

[0104] FIG. 3 illustrates a second embodiment of a cart for use in the system of FIG. 1 and

[0105] FIG. 4 illustrates a third embodiment of a cart for use in the system of FIG. 1.

[0106] In FIG. 1, a system 10 is illustrated for handling luggage in an airport. The system comprises a central storage facility 20 capable of receiving and holding a plurality of pieces of luggage. The facility 20 may be based on any technology such as a revolving belt, a pater noster system, racks or the like holding the luggage in a matrix fashion or the like.

[0107] The facility 20 has a plurality of outlets 22 from to which luggage may be fed and loaded on to carts 30 for transporting the luggage to an airplane 40.

[0108] In the preferred embodiment, the carts 30 are autonomous in the sense that when provided with a destination, they will be able to navigate to the destination without human assistance. In another embodiment, the carts are self propelled and remotely navigated by a controller 90.

[0109] Different types of aircraft take the luggage in different manners. Smaller aircraft require the luggage provided as individual pieces of luggage whereas larger aircraft are configured to receive containers in which a number of pieces of luggage are provided.

[0110] A cart is configured to receive a predetermined number of pieces of luggage or a known volume of luggage. Clearly, a cart may be of the type of the legacy tractor pulling a sequence of trailers, but this is difficult especially when the carts are autonomous and/or remotely controlled, as the precise positioning of the trailers is not ensured so that automatic loading and unloading may be made impossible. The preferred cart has one or more loading surfaces fixed in relation to a chassis which is propelled and controlled. This is described further below.

[0111] A controller 90 is provided for controlling the operation of the storage facility 20, the outlets 22 and the carts 30, so that when a cart is ready to receive luggage, the storage facility 20 is controlled to deliver a volume or a number of pieces of luggage to an outlet 22 which is ready, so that the empty cart may go there and receive the luggage. When the amount of luggage delivered to the outlet may be received by the cart, the outlet is immediately ready to service another cart and another amount of luggage. The controller may determine the location of the cart and/or the time it will take for the cart to arrive at the outlet. Then, the controller may control the storage facility to deliver the luggage so that the luggage is ready at the outlet 22 when the cart arrives. In this manner, the cart is not required to wait for the luggage. When the cart is more or less in constant movement, less carts will be able to service more outlets, luggage and airplanes.

[0112] When the cart is configured to hold less luggage than is required on an airplane, the luggage for an airplane may be delivered by multiple carts. Then, the luggage may be divided into fractions, such as luggage for priority passengers, non-priority passengers and passengers which will be in transit at the destination airport. Then, the luggage with the lowest priority may be fed into the airplane first, so that the most urgent luggage may be the closest to the cargo hatch and thus be unloaded first at the destination. Thus, the controller may, when instructing the storage facility to feed luggage to an outlet, take this into account and select luggage with the same urgency or priority or luggage with an increasing urgency with the lowest urgency/priority first.

[0113] The agility of the system may depend on the time it may take for the luggage to move from the storage facility to the outlet. If this time is too long, the cart may have to wait, or the luggage may have to be ordered for the whole airplane, which could block one or more outlets until all the luggage therein has been picked up by carts. On the other hand, if the distance from the outlet to the airplane is too large, the carts will use a lot of time driving, so that each cart will be able to transport fewer pieces of luggage per hour. Thus, it may be desired to provide multiple storage facilities 20 so that these may be positioned strategically in larger airports, such as closer to the gates or the airplanes. Thus, the delivery time from the storage facility to the outlet may be smaller and the distance from the outlet to the airplane may be smaller.

[0114] Then, a remote storage facility 50 may be provided for receiving the luggage from the check-in counters 28 and forwarding the relevant luggage to the individual storage facility 20. Usually, luggage check-in must be completed so much in advance that there is ample time to transfer the luggage from the remote storage facility to the central storage facility.

[0115] If no remote storage facility 50 is provided, luggage from the check-in counters may be fed directly to the central storage facility 20.

[0116] Clearly, all other operations of airports, such as luggage security scanning, may be performed at any path along the path of the luggage, such as at the remote storage facility if provided.

[0117] The controller 90 may receive an instruction that an airplane 40 is ready for receiving luggage and may then select an empty or available outlet, select an empty cart, instruct the empty cart to navigate to the selected outlet and instruct the storage facility 20 to forward a first batch of luggage to the selected outlet. Automatic loading and unloading of the cart is preferred, such as seen in WO2016/107844.

[0118] Then, when the empty cart reaches the outlet, the luggage is ready and will fit in the cart, which then may without delay be redirected toward the relevant airplane. Thus, the outlet 22 will have a small buffer for the luggage. This buffer need not be larger than to be able to store the luggage for a single cart. Clearly, an outlet may have space for luggage for multiple carts, so that the luggage for one cart may be loaded on to the cart while the luggage for a next cart is being received.

[0119] The controller may additionally control the carts so that carts will not wait or not wait for extended periods of time at the airplane. It may be predicted how the carts will move and how fast they will be loaded and unloaded so that if a cart would wait for too long at one airplane, it would not be instructed to be loaded with luggage for that plane, and that luggage would then not be requested from the storage facility. That cart may then be used for other tasks, such as for transporting luggage to another plane or for transporting luggage from a plane.

[0120] Clearly, the airplanes should also be unloaded, and the carts may be used for that purpose also. An input 24 may be provided into the central storage facility 20 to which luggage unloaded from airplanes may be fed to the storage facility. Such luggage may be destined for this airport and thus fed to an output 28 to a baggage reclaim area of the airport. Alternatively, the luggage may be in transit to be loaded on to another airplane, whereby the luggage may be fed to and stored in the storage facility 20 or the remote storage facility 50 for later transport to the correct storage facility, outlet, cart and airplane.

[0121] The carts may be fully autonomous in the sense that they are provided with a destination, such as an outlet, inlet, airplane, loading ramp 42, GPS coordinate or other position in the airport, where after the cart may find its own way there. Naturally, corridors, paths, roads or the like may be defined in the airport along which the carts should or must move. Traffic rules may be defined for maximum velocity, minimum velocity, how to act at intersections (the right of way) and the like. Autonomous carts usually have one or more sensors for determining the position of the cart and/or obstacles in the vicinity of the cart. Such sensors may be based on GPS, Radar, Lidar, Sonar, stereo vision, vision using structured radiation, beacons, markings or signal emitters on/in the ground or the like. The carts may be in communication with each other or the central processor to inform if obstacles are detected, which could also be problematic to other carts, what a particular position of e.g. an airplane or its loading ramp is, if this is not standardized, and the like. Congestion at intersections or busy portions of the airport may be reported or determined so that some carts may decide to take an alternative route to avoid such congested spots. The carts may comprise sensors configured to ensure correct positioning of the cart vis-à-vis an outlet, inlet, airplane or the like to facilitate automatic loading and unloading of the luggage from/to the cart.

[0122] In particular, the autonomous cart may comprise a sensor for sensing that the cart is ready to accept luggage, such as that the cart is empty. This sensor may be embodied in many manners, such as a weight gauge sensing the weight of any luggage carried by the cart, optical sensors sensing the presence of any luggage, sensors determining movement of any rotating belts of the cart for sensing that the belts have moved so far that any luggage present would have been removed from the belt. Other sensor types are weight sensors, proximity sensors, or the like. Thus, in this manner, it may be ensured that carts are always operative. As soon as a cart is ready to receive luggage, it may be directed toward an airplane or an outlet to immediately become busy again. In this manner, the carts may be a scarce resource but the operation thereof may be optimized.

[0123] Alternatively, the carts may be controlled by the controller which may then determine not only the destination of a cart but also the route to take. Also, the output of any sensors of the cart may then be fed to the processor for handling centrally. This may be both for detecting, avoiding and/or reporting obstacles, for positioning the carts vis-à-vis outlet/inlet/airplane or the like. Thus, the processor may take over the above autonomy of the carts. Then, the processor may also control the loading and unloading of the cart and thus also know when the cart is empty and ready to receive luggage.

[0124] As mentioned, different cart types may be used. In FIG. 2, a cart 30 is illustrated which has a rack comprising a number of reception spaces 32, which may each comprise an endless belt so that each space may comprise a plurality of pieces of luggage 36 extending, in the drawing, along an axis perpendicular to the plane of the drawing. In FIG. 2, 9 reception spaces are used.

[0125] An alternative to the belt is rollers, such as freely rotating rollers or slanted shelfs allowing the luggage to move due to gravity. A luggage handling structure of this type is seen in FIG. 3, illustrating 3 vertically displaced shelfs, and may be seen in US2010/0129184, which is hereby incorporated by reference.

[0126] Clearly, other manners exist of transporting individual pieces of luggage in a manner so that automatic loading and unloading is facilitated.

[0127] In FIG. 4, a cart 30 is illustrated carrying a container 34 comprising therein luggage 36. This container is loaded at the outlet either before being loaded on to the cart or it is loaded while provided on the cart.

[0128] The luggage identified for a cart may be ordered or identified based on an amount of luggage or a number of pieces of luggage which the cart or container may be able to receive. The cart or container may not be completely empty when signalling for additional luggage.

[0129] Different carts may have different sizes or capabilities, so that the amount of luggage identified even for empty carts may differ. The cart may add such information to the signal, or the controller may know of the capability of the cart when identifying the luggage.

[0130] The amount of luggage may be a number of suitcases where the standard or maximum sizes of suitcases may be assumed. It may be estimated that a cart or a container may hold a predetermined number of pieces of luggage.

[0131] When the cart has one or more belts, the total length of the pieces of luggage may be known and the luggage may be identified on the basis thereof, so that if smaller pieces of luggage are selected, more pieces may fit into the same length.

[0132] Also, if the cart has a container, the volume and dimensions of the container may hold more pieces of luggage if these are of a smaller size.

[0133] Clearly, the identification of the luggage may be optimized in the sense that the luggage identified may be identified to have as many pieces of luggage, as much weight as possible or as large a volume of luggage as possible within the limits of the cart.

[0134] In general, the cart 30 comprises a drive unit 38 comprising e.g. means for creating propulsion of the cart, such as one or more batteries/accumulators/fuel cells or the like as well as one or more motors, such as electrical motors, for driving the cart. The drive unit 38 may also comprise sensors, positioning elements, actuators, or the like for allowing autonomous or automatic operation of the cart, such as navigation to a specified position, automatic loading/unloading of luggage/container or the like. The above sensor for determining whether the cart is able to receive luggage or not may form part of the drive unit 38. The drive unit may be configured to communicate in a wireless manner with the processor 90. The drive unit 38 may be configured to facilitate replenishment, charging or powering of the cart, such as by controlling the cart to move to a position at which an accumulator/battery may be recharged wirelessly or via a wire, or at which a fuel cell or fuel container may be replenished.

[0135] Clearly, dimensions of the pieces of luggage may be determined when feeding the luggage on to the central facility. Then, the identification of the luggage may be based not only on destination, airplane and/or priority but also the dimensions, volume or the like thereof. Thus, luggage may be identified which fit into a container 34 with as little waste volume or space as possible. Also, for storage or transport on shelves, luggage may be identified which takes up as much as possible of the shelves. Thus, luggage may be identified the complete length of which is as close to the maximum length supported by a shelf without exceeding that length.