ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,486,117, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to Daifuku Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan).
"Article transport facility" was invented by Toshihito Ueda (Hinocho, Japan), Shota Inden (Hinocho, Japan), Yoshitaka Tanaka (Hinocho, Japan), Akira Suzuki (Hinocho, Japan), Ayaka Kawanami (Hinocho, Japan) and Daisuke Ogawa (Hinocho, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In the case where a transport vehicle has received both a first passage permission and a second passage permission and is to pass through a second passing point, when the travel distance of the transport vehicle from a first stopping point reaches a first set distance, the transport vehicle issues,...