Method and apparatus for using unique landmarks to locate industrial vehicles at start-up

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9580285-B2
Application number	US-201414254953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2014
Priority date	Aug 26, 2011
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

A method and apparatus for using unique landmarks to position industrial vehicles during start-up. In one embodiment, a method of using pre-positioned objects as landmarks to operate an industrial vehicle is provided. The method comprises identifying a start-up scenario from sensor data, wherein the start-up scenario comprises a unique marker start-up or a pre-positioned object start-up. in response to the identified start-up scenario, either a unique marker or pre-positioned object is identified within a physical environment, wherein the pre-positioned object or unique marker corresponds with a sub-area of the physical environment. The industrial vehicle pose is determined in response to the identity of the pre-positioned object or unique marker and the industrial vehicle is operated based on the determined industrial vehicle pose.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of correcting pose uncertainty when operating an industrial vehicle comprising one or more sensors, one or more lifting elements, and a mobile computer, wherein the method comprises using the industrial vehicle to:
receive measurement data from the one or more sensors of the industrial vehicle;
estimate a current pose of the industrial vehicle in an environment based on the measurement data;
navigate the industrial vehicle to a pallet or product load utilizing the current pose estimate and data from the one or more sensors of the industrial vehicle;
automatically pick-up the pallet or product load with the one or more lifting elements of the industrial vehicle;
retrieve a position of the automatically picked-up pallet or product load from placed object data associated with the automatically picked-up pallet or product load;
develop a new pose of the industrial vehicle using the retrieved position of the automatically picked-up pallet or product load; and
navigate the industrial vehicle through the environment utilizing the new pose and data from the one or more sensors of the industrial vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile computer is used to scan the pallet or product load for a unique identifier with the one or more sensors of the industrial vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the placed object data is associated with the unique identifier stored in a warehouse management system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the position of the pallet or product load is retrieved from a central computer.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the position of the pallet or product load comprises an object identity and an object pose.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the central computer is a warehouse management system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile computer is mounted to the industrial vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the industrial vehicle is an automated guided vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the environment is segmented into a plurality of sub-areas.

Assignees

• Crown Equipment Ltd
• Crown Equip Corp

Inventors

• Wong Lisa
• Graham Andrew Evan
• Goode Christopher W
• Waltz Lucas B

Classifications

• B66F9/063 Primary

  Automatically guided · CPC title

• G01S17/875

  for determining attitude · CPC title

• G01S17/08

  for measuring distance only (indirect measurement G01S17/46; active triangulation systems G01S17/48) · CPC title

• G06F17/00

  Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions (information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00) · CPC title

• G01S5/16

  using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves · CPC title