ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,227,110, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Murata Machinery Ltd. (Kyoto, Japan).
"Track-guided cart system" was invented by Mitsuya Tokumoto (Inuyama, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A rail-guided vehicle system connecting between vertically-spaced floors includes a descending rail to enable a travel vehicle to move downward. The descending rail has a helical structure and includes a rail in a first section where energy is generated when a brake included in the travel vehicle works and a rail in a second section where energy that has been generated when a travel vehicle traveled in the first section is consumed."
The patent was fi...