A materials handling vehicle comprises an operator compartment, a compartment tower, a multi-field scanning tool, and mechanisms that facilitate movement along a travel plane in a warehouse. The tool establishes a scan field, and, within scan field bounds, an occupancy detection field and an obstacle detection field. Tool scanning hardware is configured to generate the scan field from a point of origin that is elevated relative to the operator compartment and to expand the scan field such that it intersects the operator compartment and extends laterally beyond lateral edges of the operator compartment such that the occupancy detection field falls within the operator compartment, the obstacle detection field falls outside of the operator compartment, and the multi-field scanning tool is configured to indicate the presence of an occupant in the occupancy detection field and obstacles in the obstacle detection field.

Systems and methods for a materials handling vehicle configured to navigate along a warehouse environment inventory transit surface, the vehicle including control architecture in communication with a drive mechanism, a materials handling mechanism, a speed zone sensing subsystem configured to provide an indication of whether the vehicle is in a speed zone, and a speed control processor configured to prompt the operator to reduce a vehicle speed of the vehicle to under a speed zone limit when the vehicle speed is approaching or in the speed zone, determine whether the vehicle speed is under the speed zone limit in the speed zone, and apply a speed cap to limit a maximum vehicle speed of the vehicle to a magnitude that is at or below the speed zone limit when the speed control processor has determined that the vehicle speed is under the speed zone limit in the speed zone.

The present invention describes an anti-collision system (1) for ground vehicles, comprising a first transceiver device (4), associated with an obstacle (B), configured to generate and transmit one or more wireless signals (SG_B_i), at pre-established time intervals, the first wireless signal (SG_B_1) carrying an obstacle identification code (ID_1); a second transceiver device (3), associated with a ground vehicle (A), configured to transmit one or more wireless signals (SG_A_i) and to receive said one or more wireless signals (SG_B_i) comprising said first wireless signal (SG_B_1) carrying the obstacle identification code (ID_1); a processing unit (20) configured to process collision data of said vehicle (A) comprising: a first calculation module (21) configured to determine the trajectory (D_TRJ) of the ground vehicle (A) and the obstacle (B) as a function of said wireless signals (SG_B_i) and said wireless signals (SG_A_i); a second calculation module (23) configured to determine on the basis of said trajectory (D_TRJ) the probability of collision between the ground vehicle (A) and the obstacle (B); an alerting module (24) configured to generate and send a signal of probability of collision (S_COLL) between the ground vehicle (A) and the obstacle (B) as a function of a high probability of collision between said ground vehicle (A) and the obstacle (B). The invention further describes a corresponding method and computer program.

A controller for use with a machine includes a machine body, and a load handling apparatus coupled to the machine body and moveable by an actuator, wherein the controller is configured to receive a signal representative of the orientation of the load handling apparatus with respect to a reference orientation and a signal representative of a moment of tilt of the machine, wherein the controller is further configured to issue a signal for use by an element of the machine including the movement actuator, which in response to the signal issued by the controller, is configured to restrict or substantially prevent a movement of the load handling apparatus when a value of the signal representative of the moment of tilt reaches a threshold value, the threshold value being dependent on the signal representative of the orientation of the load handling apparatus with respect to the reference orientation.

A method for determining stability of a vehicle having a load suspended from the vehicle is provided. The method can include obtaining measurements from a plurality of sensors positioned on the vehicle, obtaining a measurement from a vehicle accelerometer operative to determine an inclination of the vehicle, determining a position of the load suspended from the vehicle, determining a slung load of the load suspended from the vehicle, using the determined slung load and the determined position of the load suspended from the vehicle, determining tipping moments acting on the vehicle, determining righting moments acting on the vehicle and determining a tipping stability based on the determined tipping moments and determined righting moments.

An industrial truck comprising a vehicle body and a pair of fork prongs. Each of the fork prongs extends from the vehicle body towards a corresponding fork end in a longitudinal direction. The industrial truck comprises a plurality of wheels with which the industrial truck stands and moves on a driving surface in a driven and steered manner. At least one of the wheels is assigned to each of the fork prongs. The industrial truck comprises a lifting mechanism to adjust a height of the fork prongs above the driving surface. The industrial truck comprises at least one detection unit to detect objects located in surroundings of the truck within a detection region and to output corresponding data and a control unit operatively coupled to the at least one detection unit to receive and process the data output by the at least one detection unit.

A vehicle includes a vehicle controller communicating over a first communication system with actuators for changing the state of vehicle systems. A signal module communicates with the vehicle controller via the first communication system. One or more signal sources communicate with the signal module via a second communication system, and transmit signals to the signal module. Based on one or more signals and one or more user inputs, the signal module generates and transmits control signals to the vehicle controller. The vehicle controller actuates the actuator based on the control signal.

A materials handling vehicle comprising a path validation tool and a drive unit, steering unit, localization module, and navigation module that cooperate to navigate the vehicle along a warehouse travel path. The tool comprises warehouse layout data, a proposed travel path, vehicle kinematics, and a dynamic vehicle boundary that approximates the vehicle physical periphery. The tool executes path validation logic to determine vehicle pose along the proposed travel path, update the dynamic vehicle boundary to account for changes in vehicle speed and steering angle, determine whether the dynamic vehicle boundary is likely to intersect obstacles represented in the layout data based on the determined vehicle pose at candidate positions along the proposed travel path, determine a degree of potential impingement at the candidate positions by referring to the dynamic vehicle boundary and obstacle data, and modify the proposed travel path to mitigate the degree of potential impingement.

The invention relates to a control method for controlling an actuating device (8) in a handling machine (1) comprising a main movable body (2) and a handling arm (6) intended to receive a load that is to be moved, the actuating device being configured to perform a movement of the handling arm in relation to the main body, the method comprising: measuring a parameter indicative of a tilting force applied to the main body in relation to a tilting axis, and stopping or hindering a movement of the handling arm performed or requested when a stopping condition is met, the stopping condition being dependent on the parameter indicative of the measured tilting force, and, in which, when a reinforced operating mode is selected, the stopping condition is also dependent on a parameter representative of the speed of the movement of the handling arm.

The present disclosure relates to a fork movement control device. A fork movement control device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may control and simultaneously move two forks by manipulating a single lever.