Vehicle distribution of low-speed autonomous vehicles
A method for vehicle distribution of a fleet of vehicles includes: receiving signals from a set of infrastructure sensors; receiving signals from one or more sensors on-board the vehicles; processing the signals from the set of infrastructure sensors and the signals from the one or more sensors on-board the vehicles; controlling autonomous queuing of the vehicles using the processed signals; and controlling autonomous loading and unloading of the vehicles onto a transportation vehicle according to the queuing of the vehicles.
1 . A method for vehicle distribution of a fleet of vehicles, the method comprising:
receiving signals from a set of infrastructure sensors arranged outside a transportation vehicle;
receiving signals from one or more sensors on-board the vehicles;
processing the signals from the set of infrastructure sensors and the signals from the one or more sensors on-board the vehicles;
controlling autonomous queuing of the vehicles using the processed signals; and
controlling autonomous loading and unloading of the vehicles onto the transportation vehicle according to the autonomous queuing of the vehicles by using a combination of the processed signals from the set of infrastructure sensors and the signals from the one or more sensors on-board the vehicles.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transportation vehicle is a trailer.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the vehicles are queued to load onto the trailer, loaded onto the trailer, and subsequently unloaded from the trailer.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicles are unloaded from a trailer at a train station and then re-queued for loading onto one or more train cars for transport to another train station where the vehicles are unloaded from the one or more train cars.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the vehicles are queued to load onto a subsequent trailer, loaded onto the subsequent trailer for transportation to a vehicle dealer, and then unloaded from the subsequent trailer.
6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein delivery of the vehicles at the train station is timed to reduce a wait time at the train station before loading the vehicles on the one or more train cars.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the combination of the processed signals from the set of infrastructure sensors and the signals from the one or more sensors on-board the vehicles enables autonomous movement of the vehicles.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising utilizing a fleet-management system that has knowledge of a movement of each vehicle to control the autonomous loading and unloading of the vehicles from the transportation vehicle.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein knowledge of the movement of each vehicle includes a location and a destination of each vehicle.
10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the fleet-management system queues the vehicles based on characteristics of the vehicles.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the characteristics of the vehicles include a distance to a destination for each vehicle and anticipated traffic along a transport route.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transportation vehicle is one or more train cars.
13 . A method for vehicle distribution of a fleet of vehicles, the method comprising:
identifying vehicles within a parking lot to be loaded onto a transportation vehicle;
determining current locations of the identified vehicles within the parking lot;
coordinating autonomous movement of the vehicles from the current locations to a loading location within the parking lot using signals received from one or more infrastructure sensors arranged outside a transportation vehicle and one or more on-board vehicle sensors, wherein the fleet of vehicles are positioned in a queue order at the loading location; and
controlling autonomous loading of the fleet of vehicles onto the transportation vehicle using a combination of signals received from the one or more infrastructure sensors and the one or more on-board vehicle sensors, and according to the queue order.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the transportation vehicle is a trailer.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the vehicles are unloaded from the trailer at a train station and then re-queued for loading onto one or more train cars for transport to another train station where the vehicles are unloaded from the one or more train cars.
16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the transportation vehicle is one or more train cars.
17 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the combination of the signals from the one or more infrastructure sensors and the signals from the one or more on-board vehicle sensors enable the autonomous movement of the vehicles.
18 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising utilizing a fleet-management system that has knowledge of a movement of each vehicle to control loading and unloading of the vehicles from the transportation vehicle.
19 . A system for vehicle distribution of a fleet of vehicles, the system comprising:
an infrastructure server with a set of infrastructure sensors;
one or more sensors on-board the vehicles; and
a fleet management system that processes signals from a combination of the set of infrastructure sensors and the signals from the one or more sensors on-board the vehicles to control autonomous queuing of the vehicles using the processed signals and to control loading and unloading of the vehicles onto a transportation vehicle according to the autonomous queuing of the vehicles,
wherein the set of infrastructure sensors is arranged outside the transportation vehicle.
20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the vehicles are queued to load onto a trailer, loaded onto the trailer, and subsequently unloaded from the trailer.