Target member for use in a positioning system
First Claim
1. A target member for use in a positioning system comprising:
- a support member; and
at least three reflector elements mounted on said support member, each of said reflector elements being so configured as to form an image of an identifying means located within a predetermined field of view with respect to said support member, said images defining a plane oriented other than normal to a line from the identifying means to said plane, said images also defining a circle that does not include the identifying means.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A target member mounted on a stationary object, such as a pallet, includes at least three reflector elements. An identifying means, such as a high intensity light source, and an imaging sensor are carried by another, movable object, such as a forklift truck. The reflector elements are so configured as to form images of the identifying means with said images defining a plane oriented other than normal to align from the identifying means to that plane, the images also defining a circle that does not include the identifying means. The target member may be in the form of a vertically oriented planar support member on which are mounted a pair of convex mirrors and a concave mirror. The images of the identifying means in the mirrors are detected by an imaging sensor, such as a television camera, and the directions of each of the images at the camera are used to determine all six degrees of positional information of the sensor with respect to the target. That information may be used to guide the forklift truck into position relative to a pallet. The target support member may also include retroreflector elements to aid in locating a pallet, and a bar code to distinguish one pallet from another.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A target member for use in a positioning system comprising:
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a support member; and at least three reflector elements mounted on said support member, each of said reflector elements being so configured as to form an image of an identifying means located within a predetermined field of view with respect to said support member, said images defining a plane oriented other than normal to a line from the identifying means to said plane, said images also defining a circle that does not include the identifying means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. For use in a docking system in which a moving vehicle is to be aligned with and closed to a dock position,
a target member to be mounted at the dock position, said target member including a flat base and at least three non-planar reflecting surfaces supported on said base in predetermined alignment, at least two of said reflecting surfaces both being either concave or convex and the third surface being opposite to the two, whereby reflections from a common radiation source are perceived at known spacing and same sense in the two surfaces and at known spacing and inverted sense with respect to the others in the third surface.
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7. A target member for use in a positioning system including:
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a generally flat support member; at least three reflector elements mounted on said support member in a predetermined alignment, said reflector elements together forming images of a remotely positioned identifying means in a plane oriented other than normal to the plane of the support member; retroreflector members mounted on said support member and surrounding said reflector elements; and coded means on said support member for uniquely identifying the target member. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. Apparatus for use in determining the location of a vehicle within a predetermined field of view with respect to an object, said apparatus comprising:
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identifying means carried by a vehicle; a target member mounted on said object, said target member including a support member and at least three reflector elements mounted on said support member in a predetermined alignment, said reflector elements together forming images of said identifying means in a plane oriented other than normal to a line from said identifying means to said plane when said identifying means is located within a predetermined field of view with respect to said support member; and sensing means carried by said vehicle for sensing the directions of the reflections of said identifying means from each of said reflecting elements. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for determining the relative position of a target member from a vehicle comprising the steps of
forming on the target member at least three images of an identifiying means associated with the vehicle, said images defining a plane oriented other than normal to a line between the identifying means and said plane, said images also defining a circle that does not include the identifying means, and determining the directions from the vehicle of each of the images of the identifying means.
Specification