Industrial vehicle for identifying malfunctioning sequenced tag and tag layout for use therewith

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9658622-B2
Application number	US-201615148202-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 6, 2016
Priority date	May 6, 2015
Publication date	May 23, 2017
Grant date	May 23, 2017

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, an industrial vehicle is provided comprising industrial vehicle hardware, tag reader, reader module, user interface, and vehicle controller. The tag reader and reader module cooperate to identify individual sequenced tags along an aisle path of a tag layout in accordance with a sequence list accessible to the reader module. The reader module compares a succession of sequenced tags with at least a portion of the accessible sequence list to determine if the succession of sequenced tags is in sequence along the aisle path in accordance with the sequence list and generates a missing tag signal for a malfunctioning sequenced tag when the comparison of the succession of sequenced tags with the sequence list indicates a sequence irregularity in the plurality of sequenced tags. The reader module then correlates vehicle functionality with the malfunctioning sequenced tag when a missing tag signal is generated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An industrial vehicle comprising industrial vehicle hardware, a tag reader, a reader module, a user interface, and a vehicle controller wherein:
the industrial vehicle hardware comprises storage and retrieval hardware and a vehicle drive mechanism;
the tag reader and the reader module cooperate to identify individual tags of a tag layout;
the individual tags of the tag layout comprise a plurality of sequenced tags;
the plurality of sequenced tags are sequenced along an aisle path in accordance with a sequence list that is accessible to the reader module;
the reader module
compares a succession of identified sequenced tags with at least a portion of the accessible sequence list to determine if the succession of sequenced tags is in sequence along the aisle path in accordance with the sequence list,
generates a missing tag signal for a malfunctioning sequenced tag when the comparison of the succession of sequenced tags with the sequence list indicates a sequence irregularity in the plurality of sequenced tags,
correlates vehicle functionality with the malfunctioning sequenced tag when a missing tag signal is generated, and
correlates vehicle functionality with an identified tag in the tag layout, tag-dependent positional data derived from the identified tag in the tag layout, or both; and

the vehicle controller controls operational functions of the industrial vehicle hardware in response to (i) the correlation of vehicle functionality with the malfunctioning sequenced tag when a missing tag signal is generated, (ii) the correlation of vehicle functionality with an identified tag in the tag layout, tag-dependent positional data, or both, (iii) user input at the user interface of the industrial vehicle, or (iv) combinations thereof.

2. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
the reader module comprises a reader memory coupled to a reader processor;
each individual tag of the tag layout corresponds to a unique identification code;
each unique identification code corresponds to a memory location in the reader memory;
each memory location comprises at least one of indexing data, operational data; and tag positional data;
the memory locations in the reader memory are stored in a known order corresponding to the sequence of the sequenced tags;
the reader module
advances or retards the reader memory one memory location from the memory location corresponding to the identified sequenced tag when comparison of the succession of the plurality of sequenced tags with the sequence list indicates a sequence irregularity in the plurality of sequenced tags, and
correlates vehicle functionality with a current location of the industrial vehicle; and

the advancement or retardation from the memory location corresponding to the identified sequenced tag is dependent on a travel direction of the industrial vehicle along the aisle path.

3. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
the reader module comprises a reader memory coupled to a reader processor;
each individual tag of the tag layout corresponds to a unique identification code;
each unique identification code corresponds to a memory location in the reader memory;
each memory location comprises at least one of indexing data, operational data; and tag positional data;
respective aisle paths comprise end points;
individual tags of the tag layout comprise programmable tags;
individual programmable tags are positioned at respective end points of the aisle paths;
the unique identification codes of the programmable tags comprise one or more bit locations;
the bit locations of each unique identification code comprises a diagnostic bit; and
the reader module generates the missing tag signal for the malfunctioning individual tag of the tag layout along the aisle path when the diagnostic bit is enabled.

4. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
the reader module comprises a reader memory coupled to a reader processor;
each individual tag of the tag layout corresponds to a unique identification code;
each unique identification code corresponds to a memory location in the reader memory;
each memory location comprises at least one of indexing data, operational data; and tag positional data;
individual tags of the tag layout comprise programmable tags;
the unique identification codes of the programmable tags comprise one or more bit locations;
the bit locations of each unique identification code comprises a zone bit;
the zone bit indicates a zone in the tag layout in which the individual programmable tag is positioned; and
the reader module records the zone from the zone bit of the last identified individual programmable tag of the tag layout when a missing tag signal is generated.

5. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein the plurality of sequenced tags comprises a plurality of zone tags sequenced along the aisle path.

6. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein in response to the missing tag signal, the vehicle controller reduces a traveling speed of the industrial vehicle to zero.

7. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
in response to the missing tag signal, the vehicle controller transitions the vehicle drive mechanism to neutral; and
the generation of the missing tag signal ceases when the vehicle drive mechanism is transitioned from neutral in response to user input at the user interface of the industrial vehicle.

8. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
the individual tags of the tag layout comprise a plurality of tag pairs;
the individual tags of the tag pair comprise a primary tag and a secondary tag;
the plurality of sequenced tags define a tag spacing that is greater than a tag spacing between the primary tag and the secondary tag of each tag pair;
the primary tag and the secondary tag are sequenced in the tag layout in accordance with a portion of the sequence list that is accessible to the reader module; and
the reader module
correlates vehicle functionality with an identified individual tag of the tag pair,
compares a succession of the identified primary tag and the identified secondary tag with at least a portion of the accessible sequence list to determine if the succession of the primary tag and the secondary tag are in sequence along the aisle path in accordance with the sequence list, and
generates a missing tag signal when the comparison of the succession of the primary tag and the secondary tag with the sequence list indicates a sequence irregularity in the plurality of tag pairs.

9. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein:
the primary tag is the first identified individual tag of the tag pair; and
the secondary tag is the second identified tag of the tag pair.

10. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein the reader module correlates vehicle functionality with an identified secondary tag.

11. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein select ones of the plurality of tag pairs comprise one or more aisle entry tag pairs, aisle extension tag pairs, aisle group tags pairs, peripheral tag pairs, or unrestricted peripheral tag pairs.

12. The industrial vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein:
the reader module comprises a reader memory coupled to a reader processor;
each individual tag of the tag layout corresponds to a unique identification code;
each unique identification code corresponds to a memory location in the reader memory;
each memory location comprises at least one of indexing data, operational data, and positional data;
the memory locations in the reader memory are stored in a known or

Assignees

• Crown Equip Corp

Inventors

• Walton Daniel D
• Sherman Nicholas J

Classifications

• G06K7/0095

  Testing the sensing arrangement, e.g. testing if a magnetic card reader, bar code reader, RFID interrogator or smart card reader functions properly (testing of electrical circuits G01R31/28) · CPC title

• B66F9/063 Primary

  Automatically guided · CPC title

• G06K7/10366

  the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications · CPC title

• E04H5/02

  Buildings or groups of buildings for industrial purposes, e.g. for power-plants or factories (buildings forming part of cooling plants E04H5/10) · CPC title

• G06K17/0029

  the arrangement being specially adapted for wireless interrogation of grouped or bundled articles tagged with wireless record carriers · CPC title