subject: New Storage System Is A Big Help For Storage [print this page] The principal objects of the present invention are: to provide a mechanism and method for positioning a vehicle at a storage bin in an automatic storage and retrieval system; to provide such a positioning mechanism which includes an encodergenerating a signal having different values designating respective vehicle position zones; to provide such a positioning mechanism wherein said encoder has a member rotatable in response to movement of the vehicle; to provide such a positioning mechanismwherein the encoder member is rotatable in an arc less than a complete revolution; to provide such a positioning mechanism which is particularly well adapted for use with relatively long storage racks; to provide such a positioning mechanism which isparticularly well adapted for positioning a vehicle at a relatively large number of storage bins; to provide such a positioning mechanism and method which are particularly well adapted for use with storage racks having storage bins of different sizes; toprovide such a positioning mechanism which includes distance measuring means for rough positioning of a vehicle and photoelectric sensor means for fine positioning thereof; to provide such a positioning mechanism which includes horizontal and verticalencoders for rough positioning within horizontal and vertical zones; to provide such a positioning mechanism wherein a carriage is positioned vertically with respect to the vehicle by a vertical encoder and photoelectric sensor means;
Referring more in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 generally designates an automatic storage and retrieval system for warehousing material load units 11 which may comprise, for example, a plurality of palletized cases 12containing materials or products. Such material load units 11 may also comprise single items or a plurality of items otherwise suitably grouped or contained. In addition to the normal size material load unit 11, small material load units 13 and largematerial load units 14 may also be handled by the present invention.
Such an automatic storage and retrieval system 10 may be positioned adjacent to, for example, a manufacturing facility (not shown) for warehousing either parts and subassemblies used in the manufacturing process or finished products thereof orboth.
In setting up a control system for horizontal rough positioning, the vehicle 60 is positioned exactly at each desired stopping position thereof at the pickup and delivery stations 22 and the storage bin columns 33. The encoder 150 signal valueat each rough position zone relative to each station 22 and storage bin column 33 is then read and recorded in the memory of the automatic storage and retrieval system 10 controls. The horizontal encoder 150 signal values thus recorded compriseaddresses for respective pickup and delivery stations 22 and storage bin columns 33.
