Transponder-assisted positioning system

• US 20070143006A1
• Filed: 09/14/2004
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Indyon GmbH
• Original Assignee: Indyon GmbH
• Inventors: Plettner, Andreas
• Application Number:
  US10/572,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20070143006A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/02 Systems using reflection of radio waves, e.g. primary radar systems; Analogous systems

Abstract

System for the vehicle-assisted storing and removal of goods in a warehouse with automatic position determination of at least the stored goods, comprising a plurality of transponder devices that are placed in the floor of the warehouse in a distributed manner. Each transponder device stores information that represents, at least indirectly, the position of the corresponding transponder devices inside the warehouse. The inventive system also comprises a vehicle for transporting goods to be stored and removed, a reading device, which is mounted on the vehicle while automatically reading out information from transponders driven over by the vehicle, and a computer device, which receives the information read out from the transponders by the reading device, and which from this information, determines and stores at least the position at which the goods are stored inside the warehouse.

Claims

1. System for the vehicle-assisted storing and removal of goods in a warehouse with automatic position determination of at least the stored goods, with:

a large number of transponder devices fitted to the floor of the warehouse in a distributed manner, wherein each transponder device stores information, which at least represents indirectly the position of the corresponding transponder device within the warehouse,

a vehicle for transporting goods to be stored and removed,

a reading device fitted to the vehicle for the automatic reading out of information from transponders which the vehicle drives over,

a computer device, which receives the information read out from the transponders by the reading device and determines and saves from this at least the position at which the goods item is stored within the warehouse.

2. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the position determination of a goods item to be stored is carried out a number of times during transport by the vehicle through to the final storage position by driving over various transponder devices.

3. System according to claim 1, characterised in that some of the transponder devices contain no positional information, but rather are only detected by the reading device when driven over and thus an auxiliary position determination is facilitated until the next genuine position determination.

4. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the computer device comprises at least one first computer device installed on the vehicle, which is coupled to the reading device, and a second stationary computer device, which communicates with the first computer device by radio.

5. System according to claim 4, characterised in that the first computer device is a PC and the second computer device is a server.

6. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the vehicle is a fork-lift truck.

7. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the reading device comprises at least one aerial, which defines a predetermined aerial array, wherein the reading out of a transponder device by sweeping the transponder device with the aerial array occurs.

8. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the final position determination when storing is calculated via the momentary reference position of the vehicle and an offset distance, which corresponds to the distance of the goods item being stored from the reference position of the delivering vehicle.

9. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the final position determination during storing occurs in response to a signal which is given by the driver of the vehicle or is provided by a sensor which detects the deposition of the goods item.

10. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the goods item to be stored is automatically acquired on delivery by a reading device and these data describing the goods item are combined with the storage position by the computer device.

11. System according to claim 1, characterised in that a device is provided which also acquires a quantity at the time the goods item is stored which represents the distance of the goods item from the floor, so that a position determination in x′

, y′ and

z′

with respect to the axis is possible.

12. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the reading device comprises a plurality of aerials.

13. System according to claim 12, characterised in that the plurality of aerial arrays at least partially overlap.

14. System according to claim 1, characterised in that the aerial array sweeps more than one transponder simultaneously.

15. Method for the vehicle-assisted storing and removal of goods in a warehouse with automatic position determination of at least the stored goods, comprising the steps:

fitting of a large number of transponder devices to the floor of the warehouse in a distributed manner, wherein each transponder device stores information, which at least represents indirectly the position of the corresponding transponder device within the warehouse,

driving over the transponder devices with a vehicle containing a reading device, which reads out the information from transponder devices which the vehicle drives over,

saving all read-out data up to the point at which the goods item is deposited in the warehouse,

determination of the storage position of the goods item based on the information read out of the transponder devices, and

saving of the final storage position of the goods item in a computer device.

16. Vehicle for the storing and removal of goods in a warehouse with automatic position determination with regard to the stored goods, with:

a reading device for the automatic read-out of information from transponder devices which are distributed on the floor of the warehouse and which the vehicle drives over,

a computer device, which receives the information read out from the transponders by the reading device and determines and saves from this at least the position at which the goods item is stored within the warehouse.

17. Vehicle according to claim 16, characterised in that the vehicle has a transmitting device at its disposition, by means of which obtained positional data can be transmitted in a wireless manner to a server device.