1
Read the destination
A scanner or manifest identifies where each individual package should go and selects a destination vehicle.
U.S. patent pending
What if the road itself became the sorting network?
Worm Cargo is a patent-pending logistics architecture in which cargo vehicles connect into a live chain and automatically route destination-addressed packages from one vehicle to another—including through an intermediate vehicle—without first unloading at a fixed sorting hub.
StatusU.S. Patent Pending
The opportunity
Packages move. Sorting still makes them stop.
Conventional logistics repeatedly sends vehicles to fixed facilities, unloads their cargo, sorts it, and reloads it for the next leg. Every stop adds dwell time, handling, infrastructure, and another opportunity for delay or damage.
Worm Cargo changes the unit of organization. The vehicles temporarily become one connected moving system, with an aligned route inside the chain that can carry each package toward the vehicle serving its destination.
The Moving Hub: sort inside a live vehicle chain, then let the vehicles separate with the right cargo already aboard.
The cargo-routing loop
Connect. Route. Separate.
Five stages turn several vehicles into a temporary mobile sorting network, while preserving a package-level destination for every unit.
2
Form the chain
Compatible vehicles align and releasably couple, creating a protected transfer path between their cargo areas.
3
Transfer across vehicles
Automated conveyors, robots, or other transfer mechanisms move the package through one or more connected vehicles.
4
Pass, divert, or merge
A switchable transfer spine can send a unit straight through, divert it into local storage, or merge it back into the flow.
5
Release and continue
After sorting, vehicles decouple and diverge, each carrying the packages for the route or destination it serves.
The inventive focus
More than vehicles traveling together
The concept centers on physical package routing across a persistent, releasably coupled chain—not merely platooning, pairing, or meeting at a dock.
Multi-hop through-routing
A package can enter an intermediate vehicle that is neither its origin nor its destination, pass through it, and continue to a non-adjacent vehicle in the same coupled chain.
Hubless mobile sorting
The chain can route cargo while moving or while parked without unloading that package at a fixed sorting facility between coupling and decoupling.
Coupling-agnostic architecture
The transfer path is not tied to one connector. Implementations may use mechanical, magnetic, vacuum, inductive, bridge, or protected gangway arrangements.
Dynamic chain reordering
Vehicle membership and position can be changed to shorten a package's path, consolidate cargo, or send a vehicle toward a different destination after sorting.
Verified custody and rescue
Coupling handshakes, continuity sensing, transfer-complete interlocks, and condition-aware rerouting can help protect both custody and temperature-sensitive cargo.
Street-to-sidewalk delivery
A vehicle can load a roadside locker from the street side while a recipient later retrieves from the sidewalk side, separating delivery timing from pickup.
From transport to continuous flow
Where Worm Cargo takes connected logistics further
Other approaches may coordinate a formation, transfer between one pair of vehicles, or sort at a stationary site. The disclosed architecture combines a persistent vehicle chain with package-level, multi-hop routing.
Fixed sortation cycle
Vehicles stop at a hub, unload, wait for sorting, and reload for the next leg.
Sorting inside the chain
Packages can be routed between connected vehicles before the vehicles separate.
Direct neighbor handoff
A two-vehicle exchange ends when cargo reaches the immediately connected vehicle.
Non-adjacent destination
One addressed unit can pass across an intervening vehicle to a farther vehicle in the same chain.
Vehicle platooning
Connected vehicles may coordinate speed and spacing while their cargo remains isolated.
Physical cargo continuity
The coupling creates a transfer path that lets packages move among vehicle cargo areas.
One required connector
A transfer design may depend on one rigid geometry or narrowly defined coupling mechanism.
Modality-agnostic connection
The disclosed transfer architecture can be implemented through multiple coupling and bridge technologies.
Delivery and pickup together
A vehicle may wait at the curb while a recipient receives the package.
Separated last-mile timing
Street-side loading and sidewalk-side retrieval can occur independently through a secure receptacle.
Designed as a flexible platform
One routing principle, many embodiments
The disclosed system supports different vehicle domains, transfer equipment, operating modes, and safeguards without making one mechanism essential to the entire concept.
Possible system components
- Powered conveyors, roller beds, robotic arms, AMRs, or sorters
- Optical codes, RFID, NFC, labels, or manifest records
- Cameras, lidar, radar, and relative-pose sensing
- Mechanical, magnetic, vacuum, inductive, bridge, or gangway couplings
- Road vehicles, trailers, rail cars, yard vehicles, marine, or aerial modules
Operating safeguards
- Coupling identity and integrity can be verified before transfer.
- Mechanical continuity and transfer completion can gate release.
- Relative position can be monitored during coupling and travel.
- Temperature-sensitive cargo can be rerouted after a conditioning fault.
- The system can operate in motion or in a parked mode.
Intellectual property
Patent pending in the United States
Worm Cargo is patent pending in the United States.
The application describes systems and methods for releasably coupling cargo vehicles, automatically routing destination-addressed package units across the resulting transfer path, carrying a package through an intermediate vehicle to a non-adjacent vehicle, and completing the process without unloading that package at a fixed sorting facility between coupling and decoupling.
Inventor: Benny Goldstein
Benny Labs Foundation initiative
Help move Worm Cargo from patent to prototype.
Benny Labs Foundation is working to develop, model, and validate Worm Cargo further. We welcome people and organizations that can help with vehicle architecture, transfer mechanisms, controls, freight operations, safety validation, simulation, or a practical pilot environment.
Participate in the project →Partnerships & research
Interested in mobile sortation, prototyping, or licensing?
Benny Labs Foundation welcomes conversations with logistics researchers, autonomous-vehicle teams, material-handling companies, fleet operators, infrastructure partners, prospective licensees, and anyone prepared to help test the concept responsibly.
Start a conversation →