Deployable mobile transporters for easy plant reconfiguration

US12012320B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Ford Global Technologies, LLC · US

Inventors

• Kenneth Yesh · Dearborn, US
• Anthony Mario D'Amato · Canton, US
• Shankar Narayan Mohan · Ann Arbor, US
• Mario Anthony Santillo · Canton, US
• Gregory P. Linkowski · Dearborn, US
• Meghna Menon · Rochester Hills, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 28, 2022
• Grant date: Jun 18, 2024
• Expiry date: Oct 20, 2042

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02P90/02
• WIPO field: Handling
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A system for reconfiguring a factory having equipment at different workstations throughout the factory and a plurality of sensors disposed throughout the factory includes a factory configuration module configured to store a plurality of predetermined factory configurations and a plurality of mobile transporters configured to engage and transport the equipment to the different workstations throughout the factory based on the predetermined factory configurations and dynamic inputs, where the dynamic inputs include a status of the equipment, a status of the plurality of mobile transporters, sensor data output by the plurality of sensors, or a combination thereof.