Material handling vehicle location system

• US 7,987,050 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Nichiyu Forklift Co., Ltd. (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
• Inventors: Tanaka, Masayuki, Chou, Tsai-Lin, Ota, Jun, Shinozaki, Akiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Kim T
• Application Number:
  US11/956,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20090082968A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,320 Days
• Field of Search: 701/19, 701/300
• US Class Current: 701/300
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/0421 with control for stacker crane operations
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/0755 Position control; Position detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/002 for measuring two or more coordinates

Abstract

A system for detecting actual position of a material handling vehicle in a warehouse in which a plurality of racks composed of upright frame members and lateral frame members connecting the upright members are installed so that material handling vehicles can travel along the passageway between the racks so that current position of the material handling vehicle in the warehouse can be detected with increased reliability even if some of the reflections fail to be received by the sensors. Reflector plates are attached to each of the upright frame members and the lateral frame members along longitudinal direction thereof, sensors are attached to the vehicle, and a controller is installed on the vehicle to estimate current location of the vehicle based on combination of the number of reflections actually received by the reflector plates and counted by the controller.

Claims

1. A material handling vehicle location system in a warehouse in which a plurality of racks composed of upright frame members and lateral frame members connecting the upright members are installed so that a material handling vehicle can travel along a passageway between the racks;

wherein a first reflector plate is attached to each of the upright frame members at a height position between adjacent lateral frame members or between the floor and is lowest lateral frame member so that the first reflector plates attached to the upright frame member face the passageway, and a plurality of second reflector plates are attached to the lateral frame member along longitudinal direction thereof;

wherein a first sensor which emits a light beam and receives its reflection from each of the first reflector plates and a second sensor which emits a light beam and receives its reflection from each of the second reflector plates are attached to the vehicle; and

wherein is controller which determine current location of the vehicle based on combination of the number of reflections actually received by the first sensor and counted by the controller and the number of reflections actually received by the second sensor and counted by the controller is installed on the vehicle.

2. A material handling vehicle location system according to claim 1, wherein said first and second reflector plates are located at equal spacing respectively, and said controller determines the current location of the material handling vehicle from a ratio of the number of reflections actually received by the first sensor and counted by the controller to total number of the first reflector plates and a ratio of the number of reflections actually received by the second sensor and counted by the controller to total number of the second reflector plates.

3. A material handling vehicle location system according to claim 1, wherein said controller calculates a probability that the material handling vehicle is present in front of a reflector plate corresponding to the counted number of reflections actually received by the first and second sensors.