Patent GB-1014650-A (GB)
Title: Article handling and storage system
IPC: B65G1/04
Filed: 1962-11-23
Abstract: 1,014,650. Mechanical garaging. OTIS ELEVATOR CO. Nov. 23, 1962 [Nov. 29, 1961], No. 44450/62. Heading G4A. [Also in Division B8] A storage system, such as a garage, in which articles are conveyed to and from assigned storage locations by remote control, incorporates a digital computer in its control system. The computer governs the necessary movements of the conveying elements and may also be used to compute storage times and charges. Within the computer each storage location is represented by a corresponding digital code and for each item stored a correspondingly coded signal is fed to the computer. Such signals are derived from a single signal source with a plurality of selectable digital outputs. This signal source, as described below, takes the form of a plurality of lamps and means for selectively obscuring them, the signals being derived from an associated set of photo-cells. The invention is applied to a multi-storey mechanical garage which employs two mobile lift towers 89 and 90, Fig. 2, each of which serves two facing rows of parking stalls 75 on each storey except the ground storey (in which the stalls on one side of each tower face an exit and entry passageway). The exit and entry loading points, each lift car and each parking bay all comprise a plurality of tines, the tines in the lifts being aligned with the spaces between tines at the fixed sites to allow for automatic transfer of a vehicle by passage of the lift tines through the fixed site tines. Each lift has two oppositely extending sets of tines 142 and 143, Figs. 6 and 7, the former being at a fixed level with respect to the lift car and the latter being vertically movable with respect thereto to allow transfer between the two sets. Either set may be extended laterally, by means of respective crank drives 144 and 145, to cooperate with the entry tines 121 or with exit or parking stall tines (not shown). Each time a vehicle is parked or unparked the lift tower can, if necessary, be moved horizontally as its car is raised or lowered and the appropriate tines therein are extended and retracted at required points in each cycle of operations to take up or deposit a vehicle at the entrance, parking stall or exit. Each cycle of operations is effected automatically by the control system in response to the closure of an " unpark " or " park " switch and the insertion of a key corresponding to the appropriate stall in a slot. On entering the garage each vehicle, while still controlled by its driver, is directed toward the entry loading point by illuminated signs. These include " stop " and " go " signs which, together with suitable barriers, prevent access until the loading point is ready and also prevent passage of excessively tall vehicles. The vehicle height is detected by a photo-cell system which designates it as " normal," " tall " (in which case it must be subsequently directed to one of a set of special stalls) or " too tall " (in which case it is prevented from further entry to the system). Once at the loading point the vehicle orientation is checked by a further photo-cell system. When the vehicle is correctly positioned at the loading point the driver is instructed to leave it and is issued with the key used to initiate the parking action. The slot in which the key is inserted has lamps on one side and photo-cells on the other, the notches in each key allowing an unique combination of the cells to be illuminated and thereby identifying the stall to the computer. The computer, Figs. 114 and 115, first checks that the key is correctly inserted by means of a parity check of the photo-cell signal from the slot, which signal should consist of an odd number of individual photo-cell outputs. It also checks that the key signal does not, in the case of a tall car, correspond to a normal stall. Correct positioning of the vehicle is also checked and a halt control comes into operation should any of the checks have an unsatisfactory result. Normally, however, the identifying information supplied by the key and an instruction such as " park " are passed to a succession of relay circuits which control the appropriate operation of the transfer mechanisms and the lift tower. These circuits (not shown) are all described in detail in the Specification. Output W1, Fig. 114, is fed to a memory address control, Fig. 115, which selects a magnetic memory core associated with the stall being used and this core is then impressed with a record of the date and the time (in hours and tenths) of parking. Subsequently, when the vehicle is unparked this memory is interrogated and the time and date of parking compared with the present time and date in a subtractor which determines the total parking time. This time is converted into a fee by a unit which includes a plug board on which plugs may be inserted or removed in accordance with a scale of fees which varies with time and date. The fee due is indicated visually on a display board and a complete printed statement of account is also issued automatically to the driver. It is possible temporarily to retrieve a vehicle, e.g. to allow the owner to collect belongings therefrom, without bringing the time and fee computation into use and continuing to record the stall as occupied. This is done by temporarily extracting the record of the parking time from the memory while the vehicle is out of the stall and restoring this information to the memory when it returns. Should the driver decide not to return the vehicle, the temporarily extracted information can be passed on to the subtractor for computation of parking time and fee in the normal way. Each of the computer circuits (not shown) is described in detail in the Specification.